Jane Gibbs: 'Little Bird That Was Caught
RAMSEY COUNTY Digging Into the Past The Gibbs
A Publication o f the Ramsey County Historical Society Claim Shanty Page 17 Spring, 1996 V olum e 3 1, N um ber l Childhood Among the Dakota Jane Gibbs: ‘Little Bird That Was Caught
Jane DeBow Gibbs (Zitkadan UsawinJ, an undated portrait by C. A. DeLong, Sunbeam Gallery, St. Anthony, Minnesota, dating from the 1880s. Ramsey County Historical Society archives. See article beginning on page 4. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Famham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz
RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 31, Number 1 Spring, 1996 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Joanne A. Englund Chairman of the Board John M. Lindley CONTENTS President Laurie Zenner 3 Letters First Vice President Judge Margaret M. Marrinan 4 ‘Little Bird That Was Caught’ and Her Dakota Friends Second Vice President Deanne Zibell Weber Richard A. Wilhoit Secretary James Russell 17 Digging Into the Past: The Excavating of Treasurer The Claim Shanty of Heman and Jane Gibbs Arthur Baumeister, Jr., Alexandra Bjorklund, ThomondR. O’Brien Mary Bigelow McMillan, Andrew Boss, Thomas Boyd, Mark Eisenschenk, Howard Guthmann, John Harens, Marshall Hatfield, 21 Growing Up in St. Paul Liz Johnson, George A. Mairs, Mary Bigelow Sam’s Cash-and-Carry, the Tiger Store— McMillan, Laurie Murphy, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Thomond O’Brien, Robert Olsen, Vicenta Payne Avenue and the 1930s Depression Scarlett, Evangeline Schroeder, Charles Ray Barton Williams, Jr., Anne Cowie Wilson.
EDITORIAL BOARD 2 4 Books, Etc. John M. Lindley, chairman; Thomas H. A Painted Herbarium: The Life and Art of Emily Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Pat Hart, Laurie M. Murphy, Dr. Thomas B. Mega. Hitchcock Terry (1838-1921) Reviewed by Betty Cowie HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Dillinger Slept Here Charlton Dietz, William Finney, Clarence Frame, Otis Godfrey, Jr., Ronald Hachey, Reviewed by Charlton Dietz Robert S. Hess, Ronald M. Hubbs, Fred T. Lanners, Jr., Don Larson, George Latimer, 2 6 1995 Donor Recognition David Marsden, Robert B. Mirick, Samuel H. Morgan, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Plunkett, James Reagan, Solly Robins. Ros alie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak.
RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISIONERS A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner Hal Norgard, chairman Commissioner Susan Haigh his issue of Ramsey County History features the remarkable story of Jane Commissioner John Finley DeBow Gibbs and her family on the Minnesota frontier. Deanne Weber’s Commissioner Rafael Ortega T Commissioner Richard O’Connor research on Jane Gibbs and her struggle to make a life for her family, along with Commissioner Brenda Thomas Commissioner Richard Wedell Thomond O’Brien’s report on the archeological dig for the Gibbs’s sod shanty that the Ramsey County Historical Society undertook at the Gibbs Farm Mu Terry Schutten, manager, Ramsey County seum last summer, have awakened new interest in Jane Gibbs, an otherwise or Ramsey County History is published quarterly dinary woman of her times who displayed extraordinary strength of character in by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 the face of substantial hardships. For the Society, this new research has Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (612-222-0706). Printed in prompted a total re-examination and reinterpretation of the Gibbs Farm Mu U.S.A. Copyright, 1996, Ramsey County His seum. For members of the Society and friends of Ramsey County history, we torical Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All hope this issue of our magazine will be the beginning of their own reassessment rights reserved. No p a rt o f this publication m ay be rep rin ted o r otherw ise reproduced of what life was like for Minnesotans in the middle of the nineteenth century. without written permission from the pub lisher. The Society assumes no responsibility John M. Lindley, chairman, Editorial Board for statements made by contributors.
2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY A Pioneer Child on Minnesota ’s Frontier Jane Gibbs, the ‘Little Bird That Was Caught,’ and Her
Deanne Zibell Weber
n May 31,1910, the front page of the St. Paul Pioneer Press sadly an of view, so a white bias in the secondary sources may be evident. nounced that “Mrs. Jane DeBow Gibbs... the oldest white settler in Jane DeBow was bom on November the State of Minnesota, died yesterday afternoon at the family home 20, 1828, in Batavia, New York, the Ostead, Rose Town.”1 Though her family may not have realized it, Jane marked fourth child of Peter and Jane Bartholf an important personal anniversary on the day she died: exactly seventy-five DeBow.3 Peter DeBow was a carpenter, years earlier, in 1835, she had disembarked from a boat at Fort Snelling as a an occupation which provided a steady, if six-year-old child. In fact, as one of the earliest white residents of the Lakes seasonal, income in western New York. To fill the gaps, he also helped mn the area of Minneapolis, as well as one of the original settlers in Rose Township, nearby Checkered Tavern. Lillie Gibbs she was a pioneer in each of the Twin Cities—something few other people LeVesconte depicted her mother as a typ could claim. ical little girl, too young to keep up with her older brother and sisters, but too rest The house at the comer of Cleveland their governing organization in Boston. less to stay home with the younger mem and Larpenteur avenues in present-day Unfortunately, historical inaccuracies bers of the family. Falcon Heights where she lived almost and discrepancies have emerged in all of However, soon after her fifth birthday, all of her later, married life is familiar to these major sources, and none of them Jane was to meet a family whose many people since it serves as the Ram can be considered definitive. In gleaning serendipitous arrival would alter the sey County Historical Society’s Gibbs the facts, care has been taken to cross- course of her life. Jane’s mother, still Farm Museum. What many people do not verify the dates and events of what are weak from the birth of her sixth child, realize is that Jane’s early years with a otherwise vividly detailed memories. collapsed that winter and suffered a se missionary family at Lake Harriet also Furthermore, there are no extant sources vere head injury. In order for Peter had a profound effect on her life. Taken written from the Native American point DeBow to stay with his wife at the hospi- as a whole, Jane DeBow Gibbs’s life story provides a fascinating viewpoint on the history of settlement in Minnesota, especially the evolving relationship be tween white settlers and the Native Americans from the 1830s to the Dakota Conflict of 1862. An in-depth look at Jane’s life is only possible because her experiences have been chronicled in a wealth of secondary sources, unusual for a woman in nine teenth century Minnesota. Chief among these sources is Little Bird That Was Caught, a fictionalized biography of Jane written by her daughter Lillie Belle Gibbs LeVesconte in 1944 and based on stories her mother had told her.2 Other sources include a detailed newspaper biography by Charlotte Whitcomb dated 1897; lengthy, front-page obituaries; The Checkered Tavern, which Jane Gibbs’s father, Peter DeBow, helped run in Batavia, New published and unpublished remem York. This was one several sketches Lillie Gibbs LeVesconte, a talented artist, made during a brances by two other children; and letters visit with her mother to Jane’s childhood home in 1890. Lillie’s sketch book is in the Ramsey from the missionaries at Lake Harriet to County Historical Society archives.
4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Dakota Friends
tal in nearby Rochester, New York, he arranged for the children to live else where until their mother recovered. Jane stayed with the Vedder family, neighbors who lived just across the meadow from the DeBows, while the rest of her sib lings went to stay with various aunts and uncles. LeVesconte’s story suggests that Jane was unhappy with the arrangement A scene from the Batavia, New York, region, as sketched by Lillie LeVesconte during her and was unable to understand why she 1890 visit. Lillie’s sketchbook, Ramsey County Historical Society archives. couldn’t go home, especially since it was so close by. Jane constantly ran away. Meanwhile, the Vedders also were “uncivilized” and “un-Christian.”4 tier was considered “foreign,” so Stevens hosts to Jedediah (J.D.) and Julia Stevens J.D. Stevens had embraced all of the was sent to Fort Mackinac, Michigan and their sons Dwight and Evert, a mis ideals of the Second Great Awakening, Territory, and then to Green Bay, Wis sionary family traveling west to the fron but he was especially attracted to mis consin, in 1829 to minister to the Stock- tier. Originally from Peterboro, New sionary work, a demanding and difficult bridge Indians on the Fox River.8 Nearly York (a small town southeast of Syra pursuit in the early nineteenth century. dismissed by the ABCFM in 1833 be cuse), J.D. Stevens had decided to be Many of the missionaries recruited for cause of a disagreement with another come a Presbyterian minister in the late the movement had personally experi missionary, and probably distraught over 1820s, during the peak of fervor sur enced a spiritual dedication to Christian the recent death of his baby daughter, rounding the Second Great Awakening. ity and saw their work as a wondrous, pa Stevens returned to New York later that This movement emerged as a largely triotic and spiritually fulfilling adventure. year for what the secretary to the Protestant response to a number of politi Others, like J.D. Stevens, were attracted ABCFM termed a “leave of absence.” He cal and social upheavals in the late eigh more by the autonomy and power a mis was also “licensed” (ordained) during teenth century. According to the move sionary position provided, and the ac this time.9 ment’s supporters, these watershed companying desire for acclaim from their In May, 1834, Stevens was leading re events, including the Revolutionary War, evangelical peers.5 Given the difficult vival meetings near his hometown of the French Revolution, and the rise of and often impossible conditions accom Peterboro when the ABCFM assigned Deism, had fostered feelings of indiffer panying the work, missionaries were al him to minister to the Mdewakanton ence and hostility toward American reli most automatically elevated to a position Dakota near Fort Snelling in the frontier gion. Moreover, many believed that the of respect within their denominations and wilderness that became Minnesota. migrations westward to the frontier were praised as true religious crusaders Stevens welcomed the idea of returning would dissipate church influence. To and models of dedication to the faith. to the Northwest Territory, since the combat all of these “dangerous” develop Stevens, who was described as a self- Board’s choice of location was partially ments, leaders of the Second Great Awak opinionated, overbearing, and dictatorial based on Stevens’s six-month reconnais ening relied heavily on revivalistic man, no doubt welcomed the recognition sance trip to the Fort Snelling area in preaching, a method of arousing religious that a missionary’s life provided.6 1829-1830.10 He left Peterboro in June, interest which had proven its usefulness In 1827, after leading revival meetings 1834, accompanied by his wife, his two in the original Great Awakening in the for a number of years, Stevens accepted a sons, and his parents, whom he was mov mid-eighteenth century. The Second position with the Boston-based American ing to a brother’s house near Monroe in Great Awakening also began an attempt Board of Commissioners for Foreign Michigan Territory. Even with the detour to Christianize every aspect of American Missions (ABCFM), one of many Protes to Monroe, Stevens was hoping to reach life by advocating mass conversions at re tant missionary societies which sprang Fort Snelling by the end of the summer.11 vival meetings, Bible education at all lev up during this period.7 At that time, work It was at this point in their journey els, and missionary work among the among the Native Americans on the fron that the Stevens family stayed with the
RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 Vedders in Batavia. According to Lillie Fort Mackinac instead of trying to travel Stevens party arrived was much different LeVesconte’s account, the Stevenses to Fort Snelling.13 from the “Historical Fort Snelling” were still mourning the death of their Jane, though mistakenly remembering known today. Since it was the only north own daughter, and discussed “adopting” in LeVesconte’s story that she was at ern military outpost in the Mississippi Jane with the Vedders after hearing of Mackinac all summer, did recall living in valley for the first three decades of its ex the illness of Jane’s mother. LeVesconte the island’s Mission House, located close istence, Fort Snelling served as the area’s wrote that, “Janie wanted to go”; the to the Presbyterian Chapel. She attended center for trading, negotiating, and so Vedders, believing that Jane’s mother school in a log schoolhouse with Dwight cializing.17 The children were awed by would not recover and that the minister’s and Evert Stevens and with other chil the long stone buildings, the watch tower, family would provide a better life for dren of the frontier settlement. Fort and the cannons peeking out from the her, helped Jane pack her few, meager Mackinac also provided Jane’s first sub holes in the fort’s walls.18 belongings. So, without her parents’ per stantial contact with Native Americans. Jane apparently loved the fort’s mission or knowledge, five-year-old Jane A story in Little Bird, in which she was bustling, city-like life. She recalled some DeBow was headed for the western fron nearly “kidnapped” on her way home sixty years later that it was “almost as tier in a covered wagon crowded with from school by a tall Indian, while per good as a circus with its daily drill and strange people and baggage. haps exaggerated, illustrates her growing parade, the gayly uniformed officers, and When Peter DeBow learned of the curiosity about the native people.14 sights of painted, feathered Indians.”19 “adoption,” he was understandably furi On April 24, 1835, when Lake Michi Because she was a child, Jane’s presence ous, and set off with two of his wife’s gan was finally free of ice, the Stevens was a rarity at the fort; in 1835, the entire brothers to catch up with the Stevenses party boarded a boat for Green Bay. They area the fort protected probably held and bring Jane home. For two days, the visited friends at the old Mission House fewer than one hundred white families, New Yorkers followed the wagon trails in in Stotesbury for two weeks before ar including those of traders and discharged pursuit of the young child. They had al ranging for a boat to take them west to soldiers, and approximately 1,000 Mde- most caught up to the wagon when J.D. Prairie du Chien. In a letter to the wakanton Dakota spread among five Stevens, at an Ohio boarding house where ABCFM, Stevens later described the bands, or groups.20 the Stevens party had stopped for the scene: At Fort Snelling, the Stevenses were night, overheard a fellow traveler. The met by other missionaries who had ar Our family & Boatmen now numbered traveler was discussing three men whom rived two weeks earlier. Dr. Thomas eleven. Myself & Wife & niece, our Two lit he had met the previous night at a tavern Williamson and his family, natives of tle children, a Boy 17 or 18 years old from east of the boarding house, and whom he Ohio, also had been commissioned by the the mission at Mack[inaw], part Sioux, a lit said were searching for a young girl. ABCFM and their landing at Fort tle girl 8 or 9 years old, one coloured man, Stevens evidently did not need to hear Snelling was similarly delayed by low two Stockbridge Indians & one white Boy any more; he became so frightened that water. Williamson, arriving first, had de about 15, these men were employed to go as he packed up his family in the middle of cided to build his mission at Lake Cal far as we wished to go with our Boat.15 the night and left. According to Karen houn in present-day south Minneapolis, Bluhm, Jane’s great great-granddaughter, Jane’s presence (and her incorrect age; one of three locations that he had scouted Jane remembered this part of the trip she was only six at this point) seems to be the previous year and judged receptive to clearly.12 Unknown to Stevens, Peter only an afterthought for Stevens, who missionary activity.21 After seeing the DeBow was willing to push ahead further never mentioned to the ABCFM the cir beautiful Lake Calhoun surroundings, but his brothers-in-law convinced him to cumstances surrounding Jane’s “adop however, Stevens decided that he wanted turn back and the men returned to New tion.” In fact, this is the only direct refer to be assigned to Lake Calhoun, not York empty-handed. Jane’s mother died ence to Jane in any of Stevens’s letters Williamson, and insisted that the unor- in late 1834 without ever knowing about written between 1834 and 1839. her daughter’s extraordinary adventure. The group traveled up the Fox and After leaving Ohio, Jane and the Wisconsin river route to Prairie du Chien, The region Jane Gibbs entered as a child in Stevenses traveled north to Monroe arriving May 22. There, Stevens dis 1835 was mapped that year by Lawrence where they helped J.D. Stevens’s parents missed his boatmen and sold his boat. Taliaferro, Indian agent at Fort Snelling. Tal They left Prairie du Chien on May 28 on a iaferro wasn’t a cartographer, but his draw get settled. The rest of the family contin ing clearly shows Lake Calhoun, Lake Har ued north to Detroit, then west to Chicago steamboat named “The Otter” that made riet, Fort Snelling, the American Fur and Green Bay. From August until Octo the upstream journey on the Mississippi Company post at Mendota, across from Pike ber, 1834, Jane and the Stevenses waited River only twice a year. The party finally Island, and the Native American villages that in Green Bay for water levels to rise high arrived at Fort Snelling on May 30,1835, dotted the area. He indicates with squares Cloud Man’s Village at the southeast corner enough for them to complete their jour some seven weeks after leaving Fort of Lake Calhoun, and he has drawn in the ney. But the dry spell did not end. With Mackinac, and nearly a year after depart projected “Sioux Mission” at Lake Harriet little time before the winter ice and chill, ing from Batavia, New York.16 where Jane would live. From the map collec Stevens decided to spend the winter at The military outpost at which the tion of the Minnesota Historical Society.
6 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY ^■0~Á/>/í
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At the urging of swimming in the lakes, capturing and According to Jane’s offspring, the Dakota the ABCFM and Major Taliaferro, J.D. cooking the plentiful turtles, and playing children were fascinated by her story of Stevens actually started two schools: a charade-like games, all the while subcon how she came to Minnesota, and gave her day school for Dakota children who lived sciously learning to speak the Dakota a Dakota name, “Little Bird that Was at Eatonville, and a boarding school for language. In a description that might Caught,” probably “Zitkadan Usawin,”* the half-white, half-Native American make the modem reader wince, one biog to reflect their feelings toward her un children fathered by Taliaferro, explorer rapher noted: usual “adoption.” As the story was re Philander Prescott, and Henry H. Sibley, peated throughout the community, the [Jane] early became familiar with the skin the American Fur Company agent at Dakota became very protective of Jane. lodge, or tepee, the sound of the paddle on Mendota, among others.31 Both endeav In fact, Jane learned later that this protec the lake, the orgies of the feast on the return ors were fraught with difficulties. In Little tion extended to her adoptive mother’s of the hunters from the chase, the death Bird, Jane recalls bribing the Dakota chil discipline; apparently, Mrs. Stevens dren with turnips, hoping that the gift song, the war whoop, and the sight of the feared retribution from the Dakota half naked warrior and his preparations for would encourage better school atten women if she was too harsh with Jane. the war path. Being of the suppressed sex, it dance. Moreover, Stevens’s letters seem was not permitted her to witness the antics to continually request supplies, including of the medicine man, but, having an inquir translation into the Dakota language by schoolbooks, teaching assistants, and ing mind, she lingered near, heard the incan Gary Cavender. money.32 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 9 While Stevens was progressing slowly Dakota were afraid of moving to in educating and converting the Native Eatonville because of its proximity to Americans, his relationship with the their ancient enemies. The simmering Pond brothers was faring even worse. tensions ultimately culminated in 1839 Stevens’s arrogant decision to build his with an incident which Jane remembered Mission House at Lake Harriet, when the vividly. (Her reminiscences were Ponds already had built a house on the recorded in the language used then and eastern shore of Lake Calhoun, eventu inevitably reflected the prejudices and in ally forced the Ponds to move to Lake sensitivities of that time.) Harriet to be closer to the center of activ On a mid-June morning, her friend ity. And because Stevens believed that Waa-bec had left the Dakota village to go ordination was necessary in order to in hunting with his uncle, Beaver, a son-in- terpret the faith correctly, he treated the law of Cloud Man.37 Some Chippewa Ponds merely as the “helpers” he men ambushed the warrior, killing and scalp tioned in one of his early letters, expect ing him, possibly in retaliation for the ing them to serve as manual laborers shooting of some of their own near the while he studied the language. This fort the previous August. But Waa-bec, caused unbearable tension for the obvi who was hidden in the tall grass, returned ously talented and gifted brothers.33 to the village unharmed and reported the Samuel Pond (top) and Gideon Pond. murder. According to biographer Whit At the end of 1836, Gideon Pond left Minnesota Historical Society photographs. for Lac qui Parle and Samuel Pond re comb, “[Jane] remembers Mr. [Gideon] turned to Connecticut to study theology Pond drawing her from the mission door in preparation for ordination. These de to his knee and preventing her from see partures left Stevens without laborers, ing the mourning squaws tearing out their but more importantly, without his “most hair and gashing their flesh.. .”38 skilled translators” and interpreters of the The Dakota warriors, some 100 Dakota language. By all accounts, strong, then went on the warpath to Stevens had no gift for languages what avenge Beaver’s death, and returned with soever. He might also have refused to seventy Chippewa scalps, mostly women learn the language because it was, in his and children, from Hole-in-the-Day’s eyes, a language of “heathens.” He had band.39 After revenge was exacted, Jane, made little, if any, progress in gaining a Dwight and Evert imitated the scalp basic understanding of conversational dance with their Indian playmates. Abbie Dakota words, although, as Thomas Gibbs Fischer remembered that “My Williamson observed, mother learned the dance. She taught me the Sioux words to this scalp dance and I think the Dakota language is uncommonly often sang them to us.”40 difficult to learn. Men who have lived with The mounting tensions with fellow the Ojibways and now live with the Sioux missionaries, the absence of any Dakota tell me that they learned more of the Ojib- language skills, and a dispute with a way language in living among that people newly-hired laborer all seemed to doom one or two years than they have learned of They wrote that children were the most Stevens’s tenure at Lake Harriet soon the Dakota in living among the Sioux from able in learning the difficult language, an after the 1839 battle. The secretary of the ten to twenty years though they have Dakota observation which they may have drawn ABCFM was about to ask for Stevens’s wives.34 by watching Jane and the Stevens chil resignation when Stevens persuaded a re Lacking any further support from the dren at Lake Harriet.35 In Little Bird Jane luctant Taliaferro to assign him as gov ABCFM, Stevens probably turned to the recalls serving in the important role of in ernment farmer (ironically, the same post only interpreters he knew—his children. terpreter for numerous councils with the the Ponds held at Lake Harriet) to Though it is never mentioned in any of Native American chiefs, including Red Wabasha’s band of Mdewakanton Dakota his letters to the ABCFM, it is likely that Bird and Wabasha.36 It is hard to believe near present-day Winona. Stevens was Stevens employed Jane, Dwight, and that Jane was still only a child of eight or dismissed from the ABCFM on August Evert to communicate with the Dakota. nine at this time. 14, 1839, and left for Winona with Jane That the children could know the lan The councils for which Jane translated and the rest of his family on November guage so well was noted by the Ponds in were held mainly to try to mollify the al- 7.41 This was probably a fortuitous deci their seminal book The Dakota or Sioux ways-tense Dakota-Ojibway [Chippewa] sion, because the community at Lake in Minnesota As They Were in 1834. relationship. In fact, some Mdewakanton Harriet soon moved to the Minnesota 1« RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY River valley near present day Blooming beth, Illinois, about fifteen miles south lustrate how quickly the immigration was ton and Shakopee to stay far away from east of Galena. Elizabeth was not a large occurring, in early 1848, the entire white the Chippewa raids. town in the mid-1840s, though it boasted population of the area was not more than The time spent with Wabasha’s band a platted village, a grist mill, a saw mill, 1,000; this number quadrupled only four proved difficult for the Stevens family and a school.44 There, on March 2, 1845, months later.51 since this band was not as friendly to Julia Stevens died, ten days after giving The Gibbses were not without friends whites, nor as receptive to the idea of birth to a baby girl. Stevens remarried in in their new land. After arriving, they vis learning farming as a new way of life. November of that year and apparently ited Lott Moffet, a hotelkeeper who had Wabasha (who was actually Wabasha II) moved to Waterford, Illinois, with his owned the boarding house in Illinois and the other tribal elders thought it might family. Jane decided to remain in Eliza where Heman had lived. That summer, be a good idea, but the younger members beth, and moved in with her blind neigh while Heman secured land in Rose Town of the tribe would not obey them. Instead, bor, Mrs. Davis, for whom she worked as ship, northwest of the fledgling capital, the younger Dakota wished to continue a housemaid and companion.45 Jane worked at “Moffet’s Castle” (also their ancient ways of hunting, trapping, Living just down the street from Jane known as the Temperance House hotel and fishing, and seemed intent on causing and Mrs. Davis were the town physician, because no liquor was served.). Almost trouble for the Stevenses, at one point “Doc” Little, and his wife, the former immediately, Jane renewed her acquain stealing and slaughtering nine of the fam Charlotte Gibbs, who had been the town tance with the Mdewakanton. One morn ily’s ten oxen. schoolteacher until her marriage. While ing, she had been doing some cleaning Moreover, the living conditions were entertaining her brother, Heman Gibbs, when she heard yelling downstairs in the harsh, even for pioneer standards. Be Charlotte introduced him to Jane, and ro kitchen. Apparently, the cook had set a cause the family had left Lake Harriet so mance soon blossomed. As Lillie Gibbs pie to cool on the open windowsill and a hurriedly and so late in the year, they LeVesconte wrote in Little Bird, “Heman Native American man had tried to steal it. lived in two tents until a drafty log house Gibbs seemed to find Mrs. Davis’ home With her language skills, Jane persuaded was built on Latsch Island, in the middle far more attractive than the boarding the man that the pie was not his to take, of the Mississippi River. Food was also a house.”46 and saved the dessert for the evening.52 problem. In Little Bird, Jane remembers Heman Gibbs was bom March 16, Heman Gibbs purchased the land in detail the day she found a frozen 1815, near Jericho, Vermont. He left Ver rights of Mexican War veteran Henry potato at the bottom of an empty box. mont in 1837 after attending common Cosmitz of the First Pennsylvania Regi Cooking it over the fire and hiding it school and a few terms of academy, and ment, whose payment for volunteering from the rest of the family, Jane savored went to northern Indiana where he for service in the war was 160 acres of every last bite. worked as a schoolteacher and farmer. public land or $100 in script at 6 percent Then, there were frightening nights About six years later, he traveled west to interest. The Native American treaties of when they nailed their doors shut for fear take part in the lead-mining boom in the 1837, which ceded the land between the of wolves and Indians “crazed” from the mines of the Wisconsin-Illinois border.47 Mississippi and the St. Croix rivers, en traders’ liquor.42 The next spring, after Heman and Jane were married in abled men to purchase property for $1.25 surviving all of these calamities, they November, 1848, and moved to a house per acre. Heman probably purchased awoke to a prairie fire raging all around in Fairplay, Wisconsin, for the winter.48 Cosmitz’ transferable warrant for the them. They were spared by a quickly-set Though Heman wanted to travel to Cali going rate and chose the southeast eighth backfire and a hastily-dug moat around fornia to test his mining skills in the Gold of section 17 and the northeast eighth of the house. Rush, Jane apparently persuaded him that section 20, Rose Township. Because it Despite moving their house, log by life in Minnesota would be much more was originally a war payment, the certifi log, to the western bank of Mississippi stable. Soon after the Mississippi River cate was reportedly the only land claim in the following summer to be closer to the was clear of ice in the spring of 1849, the Ramsey County which had been signed tribe, Stevens made little progress teach Gibbses traveled to St. Paul from Galena by President Millard Fillmore.53 ing Wabasha’s band to farm. He was in on the steamer “War Eagle.” Family tra That fall, Heman and Jane moved into danger of losing his contract as govern dition holds that Heman had to borrow a log-walled and sod-roofed half-under- ment farmer when he decided to move money for the ship tickets.49 ground dugout shanty near the eastern his family to the lead mining country of For her second trip up the river, Jane edge of their 160-acre parcel. Gibbs had extreme southwestern Wisconsin terri did not land at Fort Snelling, but at St. learned this type of dugout construction tory in early 1841. For “three long and Paul, which had become the capital of the in Wisconsin when he was employed as a trying years,” as they are described in Lit newly established territory of Minnesota, lead miner. Because of these dugouts, tle Bird, sources variously place Jane and and had begun to attract settlers from the miners were known as “badgers” in the the Stevens family in Prairie du Chien, south and east. In fact, that spring a local slang and probably served as the in Plattville, Hazel Green, and Mineral Galena newspaper reported that “there is spiration for the state’s collegiate mas Point.43 a prospect of a heavy immigration to cot.54 The shanty, which was their home The family eventually settled in Eliza Minnesota the present season.”50 To il for nearly five years, originally had a RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 wood chimney; when the chimney Jane had lost at least one, and possibly her mother made out of yellow dock, burned, family tradition holds that two children in infancy. Soon afterward, black root, cherrybark, dandelion root Heman walked to Stillwater to purchase a Jane and Heman adopted Ida Winona and parched com, a folk “medicine” to stovepipe joint to replace it.55 This home Smith,, whose mother was a friend of give the body a “cleaning out,” often in was certainly not a pioneer’s “log cabin”; Jane’s and was unable to keep the child. the spring of the year.61 as a biographer noted, “Here, with a camp Many later accounts never mention the Along with many other settlers in stove, some rudely constructed stools, a adopted child as a family member, an mral St. Paul in the second half of the table and couch, with plenty of food, omission which must have hurt Jane nineteenth century, the Gibbses were good health and a stout heart, [Jane] deeply. It is hard to believe that during market gardeners, known more com began housekeeping.”56 According to the the next ten years, while still in the one- monly today as truck farmers. According Gibbs children, this original log shanty, room house, Jane bore four more chil to a biographer, “Mr. Gibbs found a or “soddy,” could still be identified by the dren: Abigail Jane, bom on March 10, ready market at Fort Snelling and St. depression in the ground near the front 1855; Willie Wallace, bom April 25, Paul for all the vegetables he could raise, porch of the new house.57 An archaeolog 1858; Frank Henry, bom December 14, and he carried them there by the wag ical dig during the summer of 1995 con 1862; and Lillie Belle (author of Little onload, and would frequently be gone all firmed the children’s recollections when Bird), bom December 25, 1865. Ida, day.”62 Heman also apparently had a it located what was left of the 10 x 12 foot Abbie, Frank, and Lillie Belle grew to “vegetable route,” because his account dwelling. The excavation revealed that adulthood and all but Ida married; eight- book regularly lists payments from the the Gibbses were an average, lower mid year-old Willie died in 1867 as a result of same people in the same order each dle-class, agricultural family whose pos smoke inhalation which occurred while week. These farms, characterized in an sessions (coins, a watch, ceramics, well- fighting a prairie fire. historical study as “urban fringe farms,” crafted metal goods) showed the region’s That same year after the fire and were popular with settlers in such connections to a significant worldwide Willie’s tragic death, Heman enlarged outlying areas as Rose Township because trading network. the house. He attached a small guest vegetable crops did not require large The land was divided approximately room and parlor to the first floor, and re plots of land to be profitable. Heman in half by the east-west running St. Paul- moved the roof of the existing building to Gibbs’s 1876 account book lists that St. Anthony road (now Larpenteur add a second story. This gave the family year’s crops as strawberries, apples, Avenue). Also running through the prop space for four bedrooms upstairs. Report potatoes, tomatoes, beans, and carrots.63 erty was a Dakota trail which ran from the edly, the Gibbs farmhouse was built to In the early years at the homestead, Minnesota River to Forest Lake. It is un look like those in Galena and the Gibbs the end of the busy summer growing sea known whether the Gibbses deliberately family home in Vermont.59 But actually, son was usually marked by the yearly decided to locate near such a trail, but it it was like any number of rural ell- and journey of Jane’s Dakota friends to the brought many familiar visitors to their tee-shaped, balloon-frame rural farm rice fields. The Indians, often numbering home, especially in the early years. Some houses built in Minnesota in the 1860s more than 100, would sometimes camp of the members of Cloud Man’s band rec and 1870s. A back wing, including a on the Gibbses’ farm property for three ognized their childhood friend and re summer kitchen and hired-man’s quar weeks at a time.64 Abbie Gibbs Fischer sumed their protective behavior toward ters, was added in 1873. remembered that her mother also enter Jane with an offer of a quarter-section of Like many nineteenth-century pioneer tained the Dakota as houseguests; they land near her old home at Lake Harriet. women, Jane Gibbs was chiefly con willingly surrendered their firearms upon They teased Jane about her choice of cerned with raising children and keeping entering the house and ate “as she did,” Heman, a man more than thirteen years house. She made all of the clothes for her seated at the table and using a plate, her senior, as a husband. Apparently, family, later owning one of the first knife, and fork. “The kitchen floor would Heman was starting to lose his hair, and sewing machines in the area. She cooked be covered with sleeping warriors,” the Mdewakanton jokingly named him the meals: “Fish were so easily obtained Abbie remembered. “Mother knew all “Prairie on Top of his Head.”58 Since the that it might have been fish first, last and their superstitions. One was that if a Gibbses were the only white settlers in always,” a biographer wrote. According woman jumped over their feet they could the western part of Rose Township for a to family tradition, Jane also was an ac never run fast again. I can well remember few years, the Indians’ visits probably curate shot (which her husband was not), my gay, lighthearted mother running and provided much-needed social interaction and provided the dinner table with some jumping over all their feet in succession for Jane, who soon regained her fluency of the plentiful prairie chickens, quail, as they lay asleep in her kitchen and the in the Dakota language. ducks, and geese from the area. Wild way her eyes danced with mi[s]chief as In 1854 and 1855, Gibbs built a one- fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, she stood jollying them in Sioux.” Abbie room frame house with a half-loft, cut dewberries, plums, and grapes, were remembered these visits fondly, referring ting the beams, plates, sills, and studs for gathered from the surrounding woods to the tribe as “our Indians” and “these the house from logs gathered at the and fields.60 Lillie Gibbs LeVesconte re good friends.”65 nearby tamarack swamps. By this time, membered drinking the bitter root beer Sometimes, though, the visits were 12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Tí r ic e la ke* m arta, of Foirfest Lakfc,Mi»ntS“tj ( jDakotfa fr4<¿ THROUGH PRESENT S t -A h t h o r y TVs r k a r e a AS TRACET> By Mr s . E . S t e w a r t formt*1 hirfot-iaR. flRMStY Couhty K is te rich. Society The Indian Trail that led from Fort Snelling to the rice lakes near Forest Lake, as traced by Mrs. Ethel Stewart, former historian of the Ramsey County Historical Society. Encircled is the portion of the trail that passed near the present Town and Country Club and continued on to the Gibbs Farm Home on today’s Larpenteur Avenue. Ramsey County Historical Society archives. more trying than joyous. As the years pro things, but always dealt fairly with them against the whites. That, so far, his counsel gressed, the group arrived after drinking and on the principle that the exchange had prevailed, but every time they had a progressively larger amounts of liquor; should be no robbery.”67 council it was harder to control them. That when they were sober, Jane would try to The United States government, how their hunting and fishing grounds were gone, exchange Bible stories for the Indian tra ever, did not seem to follow the same prin the buffalo disappearing and there was no ditions about the Great Spirit. Many years ciples of fairness. The Dakota made their food for the squaws and papooses. The later, a former neighbor recalled, “The In last visit to the Gibbs farmstead in May, Great White Father had forgotten them, he dians were always hungry and many a 1862, just before the beginning of the knew, for their rations were long overdue time Mrs. Gibbs took her baking of bread Dakota Conflict. “They were sullen and and there was hunger in the camp.... I can from the oven to feed them.” Jane was a despondent,” Abbie Gibbs Fischer said: still see the sad look on my mother’s face as confidante and counselor, the neighbor she went from one to the other giving each a Well do I remember the dramatic gestures of said, “one of the understanding whites big, hot breakfast and trying to cheer them. their chief as he eloquently related their who exerted a fine and wise influence She could see how they had been wronged. over the unhappy Indians.”66 She also grievances. My mother followed every word She stood and watched them sadly as they was intent on trading food fairly with her he said for she knew how differently they mounted their ponies and vanished down the friends. A biographer noted, “When they were situated from their former condition... old trail.68 were persistent in their demands for mel Her heart bled for them, her childhood’s ons and vegetables, [Jane] exchanged companions. [The chief] said his warriors During the Dakota Conflict, biogra with them for rice, cranberries, and other could hardly be kept from the warpath pher Charlotte Whitcomb wrote, “The RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 Gibbs family remained on their place dur ing the insurrection, though their neigh bors all fled to the cities. [Jane] had never hitherto felt afraid of the [Dakota], but now she feared greatly that they would descend upon her family.”69 While it is possible their friendship with the Dakota might have saved the family, the Gibbses were never truly in danger, since the fighting did not approach St. Paul. Rose Township had begun to grow rapidly in the years after the conflict; in 1860, the township had 499 citizens; in 1875, the number jumped to 710. The The Gibbs family on the front lawn of their farm home as it looked around 1890. Left to right: burgeoning population resulted in a third Abbie (seated), Lillie, Frank, Jane (seated on a bench that still can be seen in the farm house) school district for the county, No. 17, and Heman. Ramsey County Historical Society archives. which opened in 1871 in the parlor of the Gibbs farmhouse. Two years later, Heman Gibbs donated some of his origi but that some of her siblings still lived in World’s Fair. Lillie wrote, “If mother nal land south of the house to the school the area and “had given her up as lost.” don’t go . . . it means that she can never district. A schoolhouse, costing $1,000, When she arrived, Jane “was looked upon again see all the sights and scenes that was built there and remains to this day. as one who had come back from the she saw in her youth . . . There is a Sioux Though his teaching days ended in Indi dead.”73 After that visit, Jane and daugh Village there and lots and lots of Bucks ana, Heman obviously remained inter ters Lillie and Abbie began to correspond and Sqaws [s/c].” But there was some ested in education, since he became direc with the family. Jane’s second homecom concern about Jane’s health: “I don’t tor of the school board in 1881.70 He also ing to Batavia was at the urging of her sis think she is taking any risk about getting emphasized learning to his family. Karen ter, Mary DeBow DePowers.74 During sick. She was cooking for a crowd last remembers hearing stories about how this trip, Lillie, a talented artist, made summer and the trip to the [Niagara] Heman would take the entire family to many sketches of the scenes around Falls [in 1890] didn’t use her up.”77 hear lectures at the nearby St. Paul cam Batavia. Jane’s relationship with the Indians pus of the University of Minnesota.71 In the years following her final trip to continued to have a profound influence By 1880 the original 160-acre home New York, Jane’s life is chronicled only on her and fascinated everyone she knew stead had dwindled to fifty-nine acres.72 by what is mentioned briefly in the letters or met, as letters from friends and rela Their neighbors had changed greatly between Lillie and Abbie, now in posses tives indicated. One of Abbie’s friends over the years and they saw much less sion of the Ramsey County Historical So wrote: “I suppose your mother still sings open space around them as population ciety. Heman’s death in 1891 at the age those Indian songs as an evening past continued to grow. Looking across the of seventy-six was probably not a sur time [sic]. I have told of them more than street, the family could see the University prise, since he had been in failing health once and of the early and prosperous life of Minnesota’s Agricultural School and since a stroke in 1873. Because Jane con lived so near the growth of such a city.”78 its test plots. Son Frank Gibbs continued tinued to live at the farmhouse, very little Lillie’s daughter Lillian loved visiting to farm the family property and became about her day-to-day life changed after her grandmother, partly because no one famous for growing onions. He also her husband’s death. The farmhouse, of teased her there, but also because “she started a nursery across the street from course, remained without electricity and had good times, listening to gramma’s the farmhouse, one of many nurseries on indoor running water; Jane continued to stories,” Lillie wrote.79 Larpenteur Avenue, known for years as pump water, sew, cook, and make what Moreover, this influence is reflected in the “Avenue of Flowers.” she needed.75 She continued to attend the daughters’ casual use of undefined With her family raised and her services at the nearby St. Anthony Park Dakota terms like “Squaw winter” and thoughts probably turning to her family Congregational Church, though she was “wa-kan” in their letters, which suggest back east, Jane and Lillie traveled to New still a member of St. Andrew Presbyter that these terms were used frequently York in 1890 to visit DeBow relatives. ian Church in Minneapolis.76 around the Gibbs household.80 It seems This was actually her second return visit; Interestingly, the letters between Lil that Jane used Dakota terms much as in 1856, Jane, Heman, and baby Abbie lie and Abbie reveal much about the Na other immigrant families used their na had journeyed to New York after Jane tive American influence upon Jane’s life. tive European languages to describe had written to the Batavia postmaster for Several letters mention Lillie’s attempts things which could not be sufficiently de information about her family. Jane dis to persuade her mother to travel to St. scribed in English. covered that her parents both had died, Louis by steamboat to attend the 1904 Still, despite Jane’s friendship with 14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY the Native Americans and her sympathy titled “A Story of The Early Years of Jane toward them, her daughters displayed BeBow [.sic] Gibbs by her daughter Lillie some stereotypical and condescending Belle Gibbs LeVesconte” and has a preface behavior. In one letter Lillie wrote that written by Lillie’s son, Lester LeVesconte. “Our Indian was here today. Hank had 3. The exact date of Jane’s birth remains given him a dog skin to tan—paid him in doubt. Birth certificates in Genessee $ 1.00 for the job—and he did a good job County, New York, were not recorded until too.”81 It is unclear what she meant by the early 1880s; a search of the local Protes “our Indian.” More disturbing is the gos tant churches’ extensive baptismal records sip Lillie related about her “half-breed also proved fruitless. Moreover, the 1830 Sioux” neighbors who reportedly dug up federal census for the area revealed only that and ate animals which had been buried Peter DeBow had one female child under five for a week. She wrote, “Tell mother that I years of age. am so mortified that she belonged to such Most o f the secondary sources agree that a tribe, that I haven’t told any body about Jane was bom on November 20. However, it.”82 Despite the harsh tone, this may be the year of birth in these sources ranges from evidence that Jane felt that the tribe was 1826 to 1829. Little Bird never gives a defi more of a family to her than the Stevens nite date, but either an 1827 or 1828 birth family was. year could be supported depending on how Jane’s health had begun to deteriorate certain passages are interpreted. The question after 1905. Her eyes began to fail first; in is further confused by the fact that both news one letter, Lillie asked Abbie to “read paper obituaries list Jane’s age at death as 82, aloud to mother” and later commented, “I giving her an 1827 birth year; and Jane’s hope mother feels better now. If she will Heman Gibbs, charcoal portrait by Lillie gravestone reads “Jane DeBow Gibbs only keep away from that cook stove her Gibbs LeVesconte, in the parlor of the Gibbs 1829-1910”. The date of 1828 seems the eyes would soon be well—that’s the Farm Museum. Ramsey County Historical most likely because of three sources: Jane’s Society photograph of the original portrait. hottest comer in ten counties and she age in, the federal census of 1870 (Census, don’t have to cook.. .”83 After months of Rose Town, 22 June 1870, roll #9, p. 898); a declining health, she died in her farm letter from Lester LeVesconte to Virginia home on May 30, 1910, surrounded by Brainard Kunz, 16 July 1985, to which he at family. She was buried next to her hus tached a family tree; and Minnesota Territor band in Hillside Cemetery, St. Anthony. ial Pioneers, Souvenir No. 2, vol. 2, no. l(St. Few of us can imagine living a life like Paul: Pioneer Press Company, 1901), 17. Jane DeBow Gibbs’s. She had a pioneer 4. Edwin Scott Gaustad, A Religious His ing spirit from birth, bravely venturing tory of America, 3rd ed. (New York: Harper- westward at the age of five with people Collins, 1990), 128-29; Michael C. Coleman, she barely knew. During the next fifteen Presbyterian Missionary Attitudes toward years, she lived and traveled throughout American Indians 1837-1893 (Jackson, MS: the Midwest before settling with husband University of Mississippi Press, 1985), 10. Heman Gibbs on the land on which she 5. Coleman, 23-25. would live for the rest of her life. Among Karen Bluhm with a portrait of her great 6. David Greene to J.D. Stevens, 4 July the extraordinary events Jane experi great grandmother Jane Gibbs. The char 1833, American Board of Commissioners for enced, her life is most strongly defined by coal portrait was drawn, probably from a Foreign Missions Papers and Correspon photograph, by Lillie LeVesconte when Jane her continuing relationship with the dence, Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota was around sixty. It hangs beside a similar Dakota. Though her years with them were portrait of Heman Gibbs in the parlor of the Historical Society, St. Paul. The Minnesota brief compared to her long life span, she Gibbs Farm Museum. Historical Society’s collection pertaining to continued to use their language and tell Indian missions in the Upper Midwest was stories of her life with them long after her transcribed from the original letters at friends’ last visit in 1862. We will never Houghton Library, Harvard University, really know, but it seems evident that End N o te s Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Hereinafter, the Jane believed her true family was Cloud 1. “Oldest Settler Dies From Old Age,” St. collection will be referred to as ABCFM Pa Man’s tribe and her true home was the Paul Pioneer Press, 31 May 1910. pers.) The collection contains both mailed Minnesota “wilderness.” 2. Lillie Belle Gibbs LeVesconte, Little and unmailed letters, as the note at the bot Bird That Was Caught (St. Paul: Ramsey tom o f this rather critical letter proves: “The County Historical Society, reprinted, 1968.). foregoing letter was not shown to The pamphlet, published first in 1954, is sub Mr. S ... .” RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 15 7. Theodore Blegen, Minnesota: A His W. Pond’s book The Dakota or Sioux in Min a granddaughter of Cloud Man bom in 1831, tory of the State (Minneapolis: University of nesota As They Were in 1834, (1908; reprint, also attended this school. See Rena New- Minnesota Press), 144. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, mann Coen, “Preface: Mary Henderson East 8. James H. Baker, et al., eds., Minnesota 1986); and Theodore Blegen, “The Pond man, A Biographical Essay,” in Mary Hen in Three Centuries 1655-1908, vol. 2 (St. Brothers,” Minnesota History 15 (September derson Eastman, ed. Coen, Dahcotah: Life Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1908), 1934): 273-281. and Legends of the Sioux (Afton, MN: Afton 219,237. 24. Baker, et al., 242-43. Historical Society Press, 1995), xiv-xv. 9. David Greene to J.D. Stevens, 15 May 25. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 10. 32. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 10; J.D. 1834, ABCFM Papers 26. The Mdewakanton Dakota are from Stevens to David Greene, 1 March 1836, 10. David Greene to J.D. Stevens, 20 July one of four tribes of the Santee (eastern) ABCFM Papers. 1830, ABCFM Papers. Dakota. They were called “Naudowessie” or 33. S.R. Riggs to David Greene, 24 Octo 11. J.D. Stevens to David Greene, 24 May “Nadowaysioux” by their Ojibway [Chip ber 1838; Thomas S. Williamson to David 1834; David Greene to Thomas S. pewa] enemies and also by the earliest French Greene, 8 November 1838; J.D. Stevens to Williamson, 4 March 1834, ABCFM Papers. traders, who shortened this name to Sioux. David Greene, 20 November 1838, all 12. Interview with Karen Bluhm, St. Paul, The Mdewakanton preferred the name ABCFM Papers. Minnesota, 4 October 1995. Dakota, which means “alliance of friends.” 34. Thomas S. Williamson to David 13. J.D. Stevens to David Greene, 16 The center of their world was Lake Mille Greene, 4 May 1836, ABCFM Papers. October 1834, ABCFM Papers. Lacs, known to them as Mdewakan, or “mys 35. Pond, 77. 14. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 4 -5. tery lake” (also, “spirit lake”). Thus, they are 36. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 13,16-17. 15. J.D. Stevens to David Greene 15 June the Mdewakanton Dakota, or people of the 37. Ibid., 15-16; Baker, et al., 164, 1835, ABCFM Papers. mystery lake. Five villages of Mdewakanton 167-169. 16. Ibid. had been established near the conjunction of 38. By this time, Gideon Pond had re 17. Blegen, 99-101. the St. Peter’s [Minnesota] and Mississippi turned to Lake Harriet from Lac qui Parle. 18. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 10. rivers by the 1830s: Cloud Man’s Village, Whitcomb. 19. Charlotte Whitcomb, “A Pioneer near Lake Harriet; Kaposia, near present-day 39. Hole-in-the-Day was chief of the Woman. Romantic Career o f a Suburban South St. Paul; and proceeding west along the Mille Lacs band of Chippewa. See William Resident o f St. Paul....,” St. Paul Dispatch, Minnesota River from today’s Long Meadow Watts Folwell, A History of Minnesota, vol. 1 26 June 1897. The article appeared the same Lake in eastern Bloomington, the Black Dog, (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, day in the Minneapolis Journal with the title Good Road, and Shakopee bands. See Letter 1921), 157. “A Woman Pioneer. Her Story of the Early mann, 11-15, 53; and Virginia Brainard 40. Morris, 107-108. Days in Minnesota. Mrs. H.R. Gibbs’ Remi Kunz, Saint Paul: The First 150 Years (St. 41. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 16-22; niscences of Life at the Old Indian Missions Paul: The Saint Paul Foundation, 1991), 4-6. Meyer, 63; David Greene to Samuel W. of Lake Harriet and Elsewhere.” 27. Lettermann, 57. Pond, 14 August 1839 and Samuel W. Pond 20. Many of these non-military residents 28. J.D. Stevens to David Greene, 15 June to David Greene, 14 November 1839, both were refugees from Lord Selkirk’s settlement 1835, ABCFM Papers; Meyer, 48; David A. ABCFM Papers. at what is now Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Lanegran and Ernest R. Sandeen, The Lake 42. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 20. By 1835, 489 people, had migrated to Fort District of Minneapolis: A History of the 43. Ibid., 22; S. Riggs to ABCFM, [March Snelling to escape the colony’s dreadful con Calhoun-Isles Neighborhood (St. Paul: Liv 1869], ABCFM Papers. A chronologically ditions. Many of them continued south to ing Historical Museum, 1979), 5-6. different account of the family’s tenure in other parts of the Mississippi River valley. 29. Lucy Leavenworth Wilder Morris, Winona is provided in “White Family Lived See Marcus L. Hansen, Old Fort Snelling Old Rail Fence Comers: Frontier Tales Told on Latsch Island 10 Years Before First Settler 1819-1858 (Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, by Minnesota Pioneers (1914; reprint, St. Came to Winona in 1848,” Winona Republi 1958), 188-89. For estimates of the Dakota Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, can-Herald, 25 June 1927,5. This article as population, see Edward J. Lettermann, From 1976), 107. serts that the family first lived in a hut on Whole Log to No Log (Minneapolis: Dillon 30. Whitcomb. Latsch Island, opposite Winona; then moved Press, 1970), i, 53. 31. J.D. Stevens to David Greene, 15 June to a log cabin on the “mainland” to be closer 21. Thomas S. Williamson to David 1835, 1 March 1836, ABCFM Papers; Whit to the tribe; and then moved to Holmes Land Greene, 18 June 1835, ABCFM Papers. comb. Though Stevens doesn’t mention any ing (Fountain City) in Wisconsin Territory. 22. Roy W. Meyer, History of the Santee of these men by name, Taliaferro’s daughter The article has many inaccurate statements, Sioux: United States Indian Policy on Trial Mary, bom in 1828, was sent to the “Lake and the ultimate source of its information is (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Harriet Mission School,” according to his not indicated. However, this is the only 1967), 52. papers. See Helen McCann White, Guide to a source which refers to Jane as “Matilda 23. J. D. Stevens to David Greene, 15 June Microfilm Edition o f the Lawrence Taliaferro Jane”; great-great-granddaughter Karen 1835, ABCFM Papers. For more information Papers (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Soci Bluhm remembered hearing that and indi- about Samuel and Gideon Pond, see Gary ety, 1966), 6. It is also possible that Seth Clayton Anderson’s introduction to Samuel Eastman’s daughter Mary Nancy (Wenona), Jane Gibbs to page 27. 16 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY McGough Construction Company* Warren Foundation Minnesota Fabrics Merrill Lynch Private Client Group* Zero-Max Minnesota Zoo Midwest Sign & Screen Printing Supply Co.* Robert & Margaret Nelson Minnesota Historical Society Donations-ln-Kind Mr. Myron Nickerson Minnesota Street Associates* North Heights Hardware Hank B&J Midway Floral Minnesota Wire & Cable* Northwest Fabrics Barr’s Flowers Murphy Warehouse Company* Park Square Theatre Cedar Street Cafe National Mower Company* Payne’s Wedding Flowers Children’s Theatre Company Norwest Bank Rainbow Foods Crocus Hill Flower Market Alice M. O’Brien Foundation Rosemark Bakery Dale Street Greenhouse Casey A.T. O’Neil Foundation Schroeder Milk Company Fleur De Lis Pentair, Inc. Science Museum of Minnesota Flowers of the World Piper Jaffrey Companies Foundation The Saint Paul Hotel 4th Generation Plumbing Premier Bank* Simek’s Great American History Theatre St. Anthony Park State Bank Theatre in the Round Players Guthrie Theater Saint Croix Foundation Twin Cities Flowers Hermes Floral The Saint Paul Foundation Historic Murphy’s Landing The St. Paul Companies Memorials Johnson Brothers Wholesale Liquors Schroeder Milk Company KSTP-TV Given by Mrs. Henry Cowie Jr. Sexton Printing, Inc.* Lebens Flowers In Memory of Summit Brewing Company* Leitners Garden Center Tapemark Company* Dr. Swift Black Lexington Floral Target - Roseville* Phyllis Dingle Lund & Lange Twin City Model Railroad Club Gerald Platz Mr. Richard Menk US West Minnesota Children’s Museum Jane Gibbs from page 16. tory Magazine 1 (Spring 1964). Family,” n.d., RCHS. 54. Leichtle. 76. Whitcomb. cated that it was family tradition to refer to 55. Frank Gibbs interview. 77. Lillie LeVesconte to Abbie Fischer, people by their middle names. Nonetheless, 56. Whitcomb. 20 May 1904, RCHS. Jane DeBow Gibbs apparently never referred 57. “Historical Society to Dedicate Farm 78. Ray Pook to Abbie Fischer, 18 April to herself as anything other than “Jane.” Home Museum,” Rose Tribune, 3 December 1905, RCHS. 44. William V. Pooley, The Settlement of 1954,4. 79. Lillie LeVesconte to Abbie Fischer, 2 Illinois from 1830-1850, Bulletin of the Uni 58. Whitcomb. March 1909, RCHS. versity of Wisconsin, No. 63 (Madison: Uni 59. “Historical Society to Dedicate Farm 80. Lillie LeVesconte to Abbie Fischer, 4 versity of Wisconsin, 1908), 467. Home Museum.” March 1906 and 19 August 1908, RCHS. 45. S. Riggs to ABCFM, [March 1869], 60. Whitcomb. 81. Lillie LeVesconte to Abbie Fischer, ABCFM Papers; LeVesconte, Little Bird, 23. 61. LeVesconte, “Childhood Days,” 22 March 1910, RCHS. 46. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 23. 1870, RCHS. 82. Lillie LeVesconte to Abbie Gibbs, 29 47. Edward D. Neill, History o f Ramsey 62. Whitcomb. October 1896, RCHS. County and the City of St. Paul (Minneapolis: 63. Kendra Dillard, “Urban Fringe Farm 83. Lillie LeVesconte to Abbie Fischer, 2 North Star Publishing Company, 1881), 268; ing,” Ramsey County History Magazine 20 July 1909, RCHS. Kurt E. Leichtle, “The Gibbs Family and (1985). Farm in Perspective,” March 1982, Ramsey 64. Whitcomb. Deanne Zibell Weber, a St. Paul resi County Historical Society, St. Paul, 3. (Here 65. Morris, 108-109. dent, earned a master’s degree in Me inafter, Ramsey County Historical Society 66. “Gibbs House-Historical Interest of dieval and Renaissance history from will be referenced as RCHS.) Site,” n.d., RCHS. Duke University. As a child, she had 48. LeVesconte, Little Bird, 24. 67. Whitcomb. first-hand experience in modem market 49. Frank Gibbs, interview by Ethel Stew 68. Morris, 109-110. gardening, helping her grandparents sell art, 23 May 1946, RCHS. 69. Whitcomb. produce at their vegetable stand on the 50. J. Fletcher Williams, History of St. 70. Neill, 260; Roseville MN: The Story northwest comer of County Road B and Paul to 1875, (1876; reprint, St. Paul: Min of its Growth (Roseville, MN: Roseville His Snelling Avenue in Roseville. Her grand nesota Historical Society, 1983), 213. This torical Society, 1988), 23. father also served as the custodian at the book was originally published as A History of 71. Interview with Karen Bluhm Gibbs School for a short time. The Ram the City o f St. Paul. 72. David A. Lanegran, St. Anthony Park: sey County Historical Society wishes to 51. Williams, 207 Portrait of a Community (St. Paul: St. An thank the Patrick and Aimée Butler Fam 52. Interview with Karen Bluhm. thony Park Foundation, 1987), 34. ily Foundation for its support in the re 53. For more information on the Indian 73. Whitcomb; Frank Gibbs interview. search and writing o f this article. treaties, see Baker, et al., 278. The land war 74. Mary DePowers to Abbie Gibbs, n.d., rant is described in William L. Cavert, “Story RCHS. of a Pioneer Farmer,” Ramsey County His 75. “Chronology of the Gibbs Farm & RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 27 Payne Avenue, as it looked in 1931. This view looks south on Payne from its intersection with Jessamine. See “Growing Up in St. Paul” on page 21. Minnesota Historical Society photograph. NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION RAM SEY • COUNTY • HISTORICAL • SOCIETY U.S. Postage PAID Published by the Ramsey County Historical Society St. Paul, MN 323 Landmark Center Permit #3989 75 West Fifth Street Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102 k