Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the People Who Once Lived There

See article on page 20 Spring, 2004 Volume 39, Number 1 ‘High and Dry on a Sandstone Cliff’ St. Paul and the Year of the Chicago and

Rock Island’s Great Railroad }Excursion —Page 4

This postcard dated 1909 shows St. Paul’s Lower Landing where the Great Railroad Excursion came ashore 150 years ago. From historian Robert J. Stumm’s collection and used with his permission. See articles beginning on page 4 and page 20. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Farnham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz

RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 39, Number 1 Spring, 2004 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS James A. Russell THE MISSION STATEMENT OF THE RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Chair ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS IN JULY 2OO3: Marlene Marschall The Ramsey County Historical Society shall discover, collect, President George A. Mairs preserve and interpret the history of the county for the general public, First Vice President recreate the historical context in which we live and work, and make W. Andrew Boss available the historical resources of the county. The Society’s major Second Vice President Judith Frost Lewis responsibility is its stewardship over this history. Secretary J. Scott Hutton Treasurer CONTENTS Duke Addicks, Charles L. Bathke, W. An­ drew Boss, Norlin Boyum, Joseph Camp­ 3 Letters bell, Norbert Conzemius, Anne Cowie, Charlton Dietz, Charlotte H. Drake, Joanne 4 ‘High and Dry on a Sandstone Cliff’ A. Englund, Robert F. Garland, Howard St. Paul and the Year of the Great Railroad Excursion Guthmann, Joan Higinbotham, Scott Hut­ ton, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lindley, Steve Trimble George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Laurie Murphy, Richard Nicholson, Marla Ordway, 20 Irvine Park in 1854: Its Homes and the Marvin J. Pertzik, Penny Harris Reynen, People Who Lived There 150 Years Ago David Thune, Glenn Wiessner, Richard Wil- hoit, Laurie Zenner, Ronald J. Zweber. Robert J. Stumm

Richard T. Murphy, Sr. 24 A Quilt and a Diary: The Story of the Little Girl Director Emeritus Who Rode an Orphan Train to a New Home EDITORIAL BOARD A nn Zem ke John M. Lindley, chair, James B. Bell, Thomas 27 Growing Up in St. Paul H. Boyd, Mark Eisenschenk, Tom Kelley, Laurie Murphy, Richard H. Nicholson, Paul D. Nelson, Mechanic Arts—An Imposing ‘Melting Pot’ David Riehle, C. Richard Slade, Steve Trimble, High School that Drew Minorities Together Mary Lethert Wingerd. Bernice Fisher HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD 30 Books Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Finney, William Fallon, Robert S. Hess, D. W. “Don” Larson, Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from George Latimer, Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. Mirick, Marvin J. Pertzik, James Reagan, and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak.

RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS A M essage from the Editorial Board Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, chairman Commissioner Susan Haigh amsey Country Historical Society is celebrating two major events this spring. The first Commissioner Tony Bennett Ris the sesquicentennial of the Great Railroad Excursion in June of 1854 that heralded the Commissioner Rafael Ortega completion of the railroad to the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois, and the opening up of Commissioner Janice Rettman the trans-Mississippi west to settlement. In the lead article in this issue, historian Steve Trimble Commissioner Jan Wiessner deftly reports what the historical record tells us about St. Paul in 1854. Then Robert Stumm, an David Twa, manager, Ramsey County avid collector of historic postcards, takes us on a tour of present-day homes in Irvine Park that Ramsey County History is published quarterly have their origins in the era of the Grand Excursion and explains what those buildings tell us by the Ramsey County Historical Society, about the people who lived in them. 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. This issue of Ramsey County History completes forty years of unbroken publication. Begun Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in in 1964 under the editorship of its founder, Virginia Brainard Kunz, our magazine has won two U.S.A. Copyright, 2004, Ramsey County His­ awards for excellence from the American Association for State and Local History. Ramsey torical Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. A ll County History has also demonstrated that local history, especially when it concerns the history rights reserved. No part of this publication of Ramsey County and St. Paul, can be a rich source of materials for authors, historians, and read­ may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced ers. Given the pleasure and enlightenment that this magazine has provided to all who have read without written permission from the pub­ it over the years, we thank the many authors who have contributed the fruits of their research and lish e r. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Fax 651- writing to RCHS. In addition Virginia Kunz deserves special thanks for her sterling editorship of 223-8539; e-mail address [email protected].; this history magazine for the past forty years. web site address www.rchs.com John Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY ‘High and Dry on a Sandstone St. Paul and the Year of the Chicago and Rock Island’s Great Railroad Excursion

Steve Trimble

s the new year dawned in January, 1854, Minnesota was still a territory in the Northwest. Many had considerable on the northern reaches of the great Mississippi, St. Paul was its capital, financial resources to start businesses, Aand its citizens greeted the passage of the old year with all the fervor of a including dealing in real estate. They community that would be ice-bound until April. As the Minnesotian noted in its brought a vision of how a city should January 7 edition: look, how it should be run, and they passed on their practical knowledge of New Year’s Eve was generally celebrated by the ladies and gentlemen of St. Paul in the usual how older metropolitan areas had dealt way. We have never known “calling” more general or receptions more cordial and well pro­ with their problems. vided for. All appeared to enjoy themselves to their heart’s content. The following accounts, based on the Little did they know that the following moved westward and chose to build their words of journalists, travelers, and ordi­ spring would bring them the “most no­ cities first, rather than till the soil. As his­ nary citizens who lived there, document table event” of that new year. Although torian Richard Wade wrote in The Urban twelve months in the life of St. Paul as it the event commemorating it in this year Frontier, cities rather than open land were was 150 years ago. of 2004 is called the Grand Excursion, it “the spearheads of the frontier,” develop­ ‘How Changed the Scene!’ was known in its own time as the “Great ing “in advance of the line of settlement.” Railroad Excursion” because it cele­ St. Paul’s 1854 population of around Five years ago the present location was a brated the completion of the Chicago and 5,000 was quite large, considering that wilderness, where civilized man seldom or Rock Island Railroad’s first line in the the total number of European-American never trod, where nought but nature in her Northwest to reach the Mississippi. In the residents in the territory was estimated as most rugged state met the eye, and where .the meantime, the about-to-be incorporated just over 30,000. untutored Savage roamed in pursuit of food, or city’s Yankee settlers went about intro­ St. Paul, as the territory’s center of loitered lazily beneath the shade of the forest ducing into their young community some commerce, communication, and culture, trees. How changed the scene! The trees have of the graces they had carried in from held an importance to the region that fallen beneath the axe of the pioneer [and] the back East. One of them was the handing went beyond the size of its population. soil has been made subservient to the wants of out of calling cards as they progressed With its two steamboat landings or le­ civilization. from home to home that New Year’s Day. vees—one at the foot of Jackson Street —J. W. Bond, Minnesota and Its Resources While calling cards might seem out-of- in Lowertown and the other at the foot “Bringing civilization to the wilderness” place on the frontier, they nevertheless of Chestnut Street in the Seven Comers was a frequent theme of discussion in represented a touch of formality that neighborhood of Upper Town—the city early St. Paul. It was written into the was exactly what the influential New also was head of navigation on the Mis­ 1854 newspapers, preached from the Englanders hoped to introduce into their sissippi. All water-borne products and pulpit, spoken at public gatherings, and new home. people had to be loaded or unloaded at echoed in letters and travel journals. Although the Yankees were in the its levees and both time and money were Ironically, the same issue of the Pioneer minority among St. Paul’s citizens in spent in town before new arrivals moved that published J. W. Bond’s statement, 1854, they already possessed much of on. As the territorial capital and the seat also reported a fatal assault on two men the money, power, and influence that of Ramsey County’s government, the whose skulls were fractured in several was alive in the city, and they were de­ community drew visitors and shoppers. places with “a slug shot.” It was the first termined to bring their vision of reality to Its population supported four daily news­ case of premeditated murder in the city, what they saw as “The New England of papers. the newspaper said, “and the wanton the West.” For them, St. Paul was “a city Those early settlers arrived from barbarity of the act shows that we have in the wilderness,” and a settlement that Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Cin­ among us some of the most depraved of would bring “civilization” to Minnne- cinnati, St. Louis, and the cities of New our race.” sota. England. Used to the faster pace of urban There were meetings at which leaders They were caught in the national life, knowing how cities worked, they encouraged “moral outrage,” residents transmigration movement as settlers came to build an urban mercantile center asked for a special investigator to be ap-

4 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA

St. Paul from Cherokee Park. This undated lithograph shows the city as it might have looked in the mid- to late- 1850s. The now-vanished Upper Landing at the foot of Chestnut Street is on the left; City Hall, flying a flag, stands on the bluff near the Lower Landing at right. From the author’s collection. Unless otherwise noted, all oher photographs with this article are from the Minnesota Historical Society.

pointed, ministers denounced the crime Said to have been almost seven feet tall, ment. There was a store break-in where from their pulpits the following Sunday. he was a formidable presence on the money, guns, knives and some clothing Temperance leader Nathaniel McLean streets. “He not only had physical power were taken; a case of bigamy with the reminded people that alcohol always had but he looked [like] power,” one writer accused released on $300 bond; the arrest been “a fruitful source of immorality and said later, “and overawed small men by of a drunken man, “driving at a furious vice” in the territory and usually was the the very largeness of his proportions.” rate” who ran into another buggy and se­ cause of “street rowdyism.” Although a Even so, it was hard for one man to effec­ riously injured its driver. There also were sizeable reward was offered, the crime tively patrol an entire city. The Pioneer assaults, a few stabbings, a suicide with was never solved. suggested that citizens help him “so St. morphine, and a case of infanticide. Like other quickly growing urban Paul might continue to hold the good Certain parts of the city were con­ areas, St. Paul was concerned with pub­ name for peace and quiet she so enjoys.” sidered areas of frequent unrest. “Our lic safety issues in 1854. There was a The most frequently reported prob­ levee has again been disgraced with a constant influx of newcomers: residents, lem was disturbance of the peace. In set of itinerant, pugnacious individuals,” visitors, and people just passing through. September, for instance, the Democrat the Pioneer stated in August. A group Growing steamboat traffic—over 250 mentioned trouble caused by drunks in of card-playing deck hands in the upper boats arriving in 1854— meant the area Upper Town. They noted that Marshall story of Tanner’s Saloon had a fight and often was filled with roustabouts and Miller was doing his best, but he needed one of them was stabbed four times. The dock workers. The rapidly increasing deputies “to assist him in keeping the attacker was arrested, but the victim left population and its fluid nature put pres­ peace of the city.” Even while saying that the next day without filing charges. Since sure on the city’s sparse law enforcement “fights on Sunday are becoming entirely there were no other witnesses, the man apparatus, and made it difficult to main­ of too frequent occurrence,” the Pioneer was released after being fined for unruly tain social control. insisted the city was safe. behavior. The policing was done by William R. The notices in newspapers of ille­ “Popcorn” Johnson’s Wabasha Street Miller—“Marshall” Miller, as he was gal activities were short, but reveal the store had been burglarized in Febru­ called—who was the only peace officer. problems facing frontier law enforce­ ary. That summer, Popcorn himself was

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 5 behind bars for taking someone’s money playing “picayune poker.” He refused to pay a fine and was jailed. “His apples and melons now rot upon his stall,” one paper commented. Under the headline “A Rogue in Petticoats,” the Times made the only report of criminal activity by a woman. While leaving employment at the Win­ slow House in December, she filled her trunks with stolen property. “It is sad at any time to record the weakness of human nature,” the paper said, “but more particu­ larly when a female is the actress.”

A Vital Role The New Englanders, pretty numerous in St. Paul, have imported from their former home their narrow eastern prejudices against liberty of conscience and the freedom of education. In the name o f liberty, as understood by them, they disregarded last year numerous petitions on that subject and defeated a bill claiming A steel engraving of the bustling Lower Landing as it looked around 1854, the year of the Great Railroad Excursion. that each denomination should be authorized to have schools of their own supported by the public funds. —Bishop Cretin, 1854 Catholic Directory told its readers that Christ Church was to the sick, doing their work silently and making such plans and advised that “per­ without ostentation,” it said. “We are no Religion played a vital role in St. Paul life sons in want of pews should by all means believers in the Catholic Religion, but are and by the end of 1854 there were seven avail themselves of this opportunity.” willing to do them justice.” churches a person could attend. The Sometimes early St. Paul congregations At another time the Pioneer was Catholic Church, whose log chapel had operated without a permanent home. This happy to announce that the sons of been built in 1841, was the oldest. Led was the case for the Second Presbyterian, John O’Gorman and Richard Ireland by Bishop Joseph Cretin, its members which had been meeting at the territorial were in school in Europe, preparing for had been French Canadians and Irish, Capitol and other locations since 1852. the priesthood. One of them, Thomas but there also was a growing number of They finally constructed their own build­ O’Gorman, later became Bishop of Sioux Germans. The first Protestant house of ing in 1854. That same year First Lutheran Falls, South Dakota. The other, of course, worship in the territory was the Market Church was officially organized. Often was John Ireland, who later would play Street Methodist Church, built in 1848 called the Scandinavian Church, it was the a prominent role in city affairs as Arch­ and facing today’s Rice Park. first Lutheran congregation in Minnesota, bishop of St. Paul. Both were at the top of There had been a boom in church con­ but they would not have a building of their their classes academically. “This demon­ struction in 1850. The First Presbyterian own until later. strating,” the paper said, “that Minnesota congregation had built a church in 1848, Though the newspaper editors tended is not only the climate for fruits and vege­ but it burned down and a new church to be Protestant, they usually printed tables, but also for brains.” was being erected at the comer of Third positive items about others. When the and St. Peter. The First Baptist Church, Pioneer reported on the completion of Hotels: Get Ready! organized a year earlier, was putting up Bishop Cretin’s new hospital in October, St. Paul Mutual Insurance Company: We take a structure on what came to be called the newspaper called it a “magnificent pleasure in referring to the advertisement o f this “Baptist Hill.” When the church ran into monument to the benevolence and Chris­ Company, in another column. We understand financial trouble, the women organized tianity of our fellow Catholic citizens,” that its prospects are very flattering, the receipts the St. Paul Baptist Sewing Society and and said the effort “deserves and will having been more in one month than was antici­ sold items to pay off the mortgage. receive warm wishes of every right think­ pated for one year. The gentlemen who compose The Episcopalians began services in ing man in the community.” this Company, are well known to the community, their new church in December, 1850. The Democrat expressed similar and we cannot but believe that our citizens will They took a different approach when they thoughts about the work of the St. Joseph give them preference to all other associations of needed money in 1854; they relied on the nuns. “Many a man has cause to bless a like character. old custom of selling space. The Pioneer these Sisters of Charity, for ministering —Minnesota Pioneer, March 2,1854

6 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY St. Paul Fire and Marine had been in­ corporated in 1853, opened its doors in February, 1854 and soon sold its first policy. It was not the only company to do well in this era of booming business. The older frontier economy, if waning, was still strong, and a new urban mercantile economy based on transportation, com­ merce, wholesaling, and light industry was developing to take its place. Tourism also was an important re­ source for the city. The newspapers fre­ quently spoke of the need for more lodg­ ing in the city. With the coming of spring, 200 or so wealthy families soon would leave the hot Southern climate and stay for the summer months, one newspaper said, urging that the hotels get ready. As late as October, the Pioneer reported that nearly half the passengers on six steam­ ers had to stay overnight on their boats because the hotels were full. “It is indis­ pensable to the well being of our city that strangers who are flowing hither, should have good accommodations.” Red River ox carts in front of Cheritree and Farwell’s Hardware Store on Third Street, just up Chicago visitors remarked at the the bluff from the Lower Landing, in 1857. This perhaps was a scene that greeted the thou­ sand orso participants in the Great Railroad Excursion in 1854. number of specialty shops, rather than the general stores expected in newly settled places. A New York writer also was surprised by the variety, by “a gaily Norwegian or German girl as a cook for in the territory, it was called a “Printers painted omnibus traveling the streets,” a private family,” a typical advertisement Festival,” and was an evening of food, and by “handsome well-filled stores” read. There was a job for a girl “to live drink, and speeches that went until mid­ of all kinds. “Substantial brick houses, with an officers family at Fort Snelling, night. It is uncertain whether the printers with imposing stoops, a Daguerreotype as good capable house servant, to whom were union members, but Judge Aaron gallery, soda-water fountains. . . large liberal wages will be paid.” In the fall, men Goodrich spoke and jokingly apologized stores of dressed and undressed furs . . . were sought to quarry stone from Dayton’s for not being “a member of the Printer’s are what principally surprised me in St. Bluff for construction of the Fuller House, Union;” later there was a toast to the Paul’s.” a hotel. Charles Mayo wanted “two com­ union. Among the specialty shops were sev­ petent tinners” and offered “constant em­ It is also unclear if the St. Paul jour­ eral offering women’s garments. Mrs. ployment and good wages.” neymen tailors belonged to a union, but M. L. Stokes came to St. Paul in 1849 There was an early labor exchange in they engaged in the territory’s first known and opened the first “full millinery es­ the city. Throughout the spring and sum­ strike in late October. In a short notice, tablishment.” By December, newspapers mer newspapers carried advertisements the Pioneer said the group had “been on included advertisements for four other from the “St. Paul Intelligence Office,” a strike for higher wages” for three days. millinery shops, all operated by women. which offered to connect employers with The men said that the cost of living had These businesses also were a source of cooks and “servants of every description, risen so much that the compensation they employment. When a Mrs. Dover opened both male and female for city or country” had been receiving for their labor was “not a shop, she advertised for two or three for a two dollar fee. In June, it “needed sufficient renumeration.” Local papers milliners and dressmakers, who would 100 men—teamsters, carpenters, cooks, never reported the outcome of the action. “find steady work and good salaries,” sawyers, choppers.” They also were seek­ While most of St. Paul’s business as well as two or three apprentices who ing “25 good housemaids immediately.” problems were similar to those faced wanted to learn the trade. News of city workers is limited, but by other cities, there were some situa­ Because the city’s economy was grow­ there were two notable events in 1854. tions unique to Minnesota. One was the ing so quickly, there was a chronic labor One was a celebration of the birth of Ben­ isolation when the river froze, making shortage and workers usually were able jamin Franklin, sponsored in late January it almost impossible to replenish inven­ to find work at decent wages. “Wanted. by the St. Paul printers. The first ever tory. The rapid increase of immigration

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 7 Downtown St. Paul, clustered on the bluff above the Lower Landing in 1857. Fourth Street, beginning in the righthand corner of this photo­ graph, runs diagonally toward Robert Street. Cedar Street, right center, resembles a stone quarry. The city looked much like this in 1854. Benjamin Franklin Upton photograph.

had furnished many new customers, the ‘Nasty Streets, cans were an integral part of St. Paul’s Times commented in November, “and al­ Nasty People’ landscape, but the treaty of 1851 had though our merchants have laid in a very We landed in St. Paul on a dark, rainy April removed the Dakota to reservations large winter stock, still they are fearful it day. Brother David... met us at the foot of along the Minnesota River. They and will not last until spring.” Jackson Street with a carriage. . . The buildings the Ojibwe still came to trade in St. Paul, Another frontier problem was the on Third street, I remember—for there was no but far fewer came and they arrived less presence of a great deal of “wildcat other street properly speaking—were... Mr. often. In early May, Dakota leader Little currency,” issued by distant banks. The Neill’s brick church, then two cottages standing Crow, who used to live at nearby Kapo- need to trade it in at discounted prices together, painted white, with green blinds and sia, arrived in the city. He had been in could result in significant losses for enclosed with a fence-looking very civilized—I Washington to argue against the removal the merchants. “Considerable trouble think I recall them especially from the fact that of his people to the Missouri River. He is experienced here in consequence of there was a spotted fawn running loose in one of stayed overnight and then left for his the currency,” the Minnesotian stated the yards and an Indian standing nearby. Minnesota reservation. in December. “There is no bank in the —Abby Fuller Two weeks later the Minnesotian “had Territory, and financial [matters] here are the privilege of again seeing the familiar managed by private bankers.” Abby Fuller decided to come to the frontier faces of many of our old Sioux neigh­ Mostly because of this problem, the even though her family had received dis­ bors, including Little Crow, Little Six . . . St. Paul businesses community organized paraging letters from her brother George. alias Shakopee, and old Betsy.“ They had a Board of Trade near the end of the year. “I am afraid nothing could tempt me to arrived for unspecified business with the The currency issue, they announced, live here,” he told them. “Everything here, government. Betsy told the paper that would claim a large share of the group’s Lizzie, is half civilized or savage. You see she was now “living as white people,” attention. “It is rather a misfortune for nasty streets, nasty people in them, nasty and “trading as a white trader” with the the people of this country that we have looking houses.” She came anyway, arriv­ western bands. not some more secure system of banking ing in a community that must have seemed Abby Fuller left one of the best descrip­ amongst us.” The Board also hoped to only partly civilized. She was in time to tions of a frontier city hotel. “The Ameri­ settle disputes to aid “in the prevention observe the remaining fur trade culture, can House was the typical western hotel; of fraudulent practices among business and experience the area’s transition into a a long, white, wooden structure with a men” so that “the worthy may not suffer diversified urban economy. piazza across the front,” she wrote. The from the acts of the unprincipled.” A year or two earlier, Native Ameri­ office and the bar room were to the right

8 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY of the entrance. On the left was a long din­ ing room, “in which gathered as motley a crowd as ever graces the frontier—Indians and half-breeds, steamboat men, bankers and frontiersmen of every type.” The hotel was crudely but comfortably furnished. “The parlor was unique,” she wrote. “The walls [were] hung with paper of huge and garish patterns” and were “adorned with the family portraits of the proprietors.“ Some of the people Abby Fuller saw at the American House were likely involved with the fur trade. Even though declining, it still provided an important base for the local economy and the arrival of the Red River carts was still a major event. “The A huddle of log and frame structures at the corner of Third and Roberts streets In 1851. This caravan which annually visits this place is thought to be the earliest known image of pioneer St. Paul. from the far off plains of Pembina has again arrived,” the Democrat said in late July. The party consisted of around 200 years old. . . It was Sunday afternoon; we met a usually in a positive but often stereotyped people “who left with 187 carts loaded few of our countrymen at the boat landing.... manner. The Minnesotian complimented with 600 packs of furs and robes, besides They requested me to preach there in the eve­ the “Scandinavian population” on the various items of Indian manufacture, ning . . . The services were held in a primitive formation of their church. “Norway and curiosities. . . designed to exchange here schoolhouse on Jackson Street. This street had Sweden are already largely represented for goods.” at that time very few buildings above Seventh in this quarter,” the paper continued, New residents and visitors were fas­ Street. Quite a few people were present and “no population in the world is better cinated with the scene. “The trains from —Eric Norelius adapted to our climate, and none make Red River of Pembina have arrived at St. Norelius was on his way north to meet more moral, upright, industrious, and in Paul,” Benjamin Densmore wrote his with his rural countrymen, but stayed every way desirable citizens.” Discussing sister. “Their vehicles consist of carts long enough to help St. Paul Swedish the beginning of a new singing society, made entirely of wood—they are drawn residents establish the first Lutheran the Pioneer commented that “as a class, by one horse or an ox and look quite old- congregation in Minnesota. Churches there is no better musical talent than that fashioned.” Writer Ida Pfeiffer thought were among the earliest organizations of the Germans . . . we are gratified that “these people lead a curious life,” she immigrant groups created, but there they have selected this innocent amuse­ said, “closely associating and intermar­ were many others. People enjoyed asso­ ment to ‘drive dull care away.’” rying with the Indians.” They “wander far ciating with those who shared their own The 1850 census had listed only a up toward the north,” she told her read­ language and culture. What developed handful of Germans, including a few ers, “and endeavor to make acquaintance in St. Paul differed from the ethnic “is­ butchers, carpenters and cabinetmakers, with the tribes of natives, from whom land communities” found in the state’s two masons, a cigar maker and a few they get furs.” rural areas. Even though they clustered laborers, but their numbers grew quickly Laurence Oliphant, another author together, frontier city immigrants were from then on, and many began start­ who visited in August, wrote that the in frequent contact with other groups and ing businesses. Bavarian-bom Anthony Indian trade “is certainly diminishing, the interaction developed a unique social Yoerg came to the city in 1848, after but still forms a large share of the busi­ pluralism. stops in Pittsburg and Galena. He started ness done in St. Paul.” During his stay Visitors commented on the region’s out as a butcher, but in the fall of 1849 in August, he “frequented constantly the diversity. “The most confused Babel of established Minnesota’s first brewery. shops of some of the traders,” and looked languages greets our ears as we stroll There were a few others by 1854, for the at “moccasins embroidered with porcu­ along,” Laurence Oliphant wrote. “Of Democrat mentioned “there are a number pine quills; tobacco-pouches ornamented course, the Anglo-Saxon language, in its of German Beer Houses, where beer is with beads; tomahawks, pipes, and all the varied modifications of Yankee, English, brewed in this place... and is sold in appurtenances of Indian life which these Scotch, and Irish prevails; but there are large quantities.” men pick up . . . and sell as curiosities.” plenty of good French, and the voyageur As their numbers increased, institu­ patois, Chippeway or Sioux, German, tions developed. The German Educational First Among Many Dutch, and Norwegian.” and Reading Society was incorporated by High and dry, on a natural sandstone cliff lay The newspapers occasionally men­ the 1854 legislature. Its mission was to this lovely little city o f6,000 people, a city five tioned the growing ethnic communities, “spread culture, progress, enlightenment

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 9 and freedom of thought.” January saw the have been fifty or sixty colored people decks of our steamboats... as soon as he was first of what would be a series of German here,” Farr recalled in an interview many sufficiently recovered to be removed, he was pro­ balls. In December, the German Reading years later, “and they were all concerned vided with comfortable quarters. He is now very Society was preparing for a waltzing in getting the slaves out of the way of nearly w ell.. .An Irishman, in a dying condition party to raise money for a library. their pursuers.” when the board organized, was visited and after Irish immigration to St. Paul had He was talking about an informal hub death his remains had a decent sepulchre. begun in the late 1840s and continued of the underground railroad that existed —St. Paul Board of Health, June 11,1854 to be strong through the next decade. in St. Paul. African-American residents Newspapers, that spring of 1854, were While there were exceptions, most came would meet steamboats at the levee if discussing cholera in a guarded manner, with limited financial resources and an informant had let them know that a realizing that fear of an outbreak could usually were artisans or laborers. Their runaway slave was arriving. “When the hurt the local economy by deterring im­ population was large enough to create boat came into St. Paul my uncle or one migration or tourism. The Democrat in­ St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in 1851, of the others . . . would be at the wharf,” sisted an outbreak of the disease was un­ and soon after to establish a chapter of Farr said. “The fugitive would be brought likely, because of the “pure atmosphere the Hibernians. The Pioneer covered the to my uncle’s house,” hidden for a time, 1854 St. Patrick’s Day gathering: and helped to move on safely. of Minnesota.” It usually took the posi­ It is difficult to accurately determine tion that the disease was confined to the The sons o f Erin turned, out in goodly the racial attitudes of St. Paul’s residents boats. Benjamin Densmore disagreed, in numbers, on Thursday last, to celebrate the and how well different groups got along. a letter to his sister in late May: “Rumor memory of their patron Saint. Although the There was a report of a fight between two has several times reported cholera among day was windy, yet undaunted they threaded Irishmen and a German at the levee, but us but so far to little purpose,” he wrote, the streets in their neat regalia, with a band the paper never explained if ethnic ten­ adding that “there is no doubt but Saint of music, and so disported themselves as sions were its cause. Another paper did Paul will be as liable to be visited by to reflect credit upon the occasion as well report that Upper Town had experienced cholera during the season as any other as upon their native and adopted country. place.” In the evening, about sixty o f the company “recent disturbances between our foreign and native bom citizens” that ended up There was little understanding of partook o f a supper at the St. Paul House, with gun shots going through a window, cholera’s source. Blame often was laid where wit, songs and speeches, with a plen­ but provided no other information. on “miasmas” or bad air from stagnant tiful supply of good things fo r the inner man, water or garbage. Even after the disease ended the festivities of the day. While more racial incidents may have occurred during the year, only one hit the city in June, the Times declared There also was a sizeable African-Ameri­ was discussed at length. According to cholera was “not epidemical,” and that can population in St. Paul. They worked the Times, a carpenter employed by the victims had “indulged in the rich food in the hotels and restaurants, as carpenters hotel, Winslow House, had taken offense on the boat.” There was a report of a man and laborers; there was a church sexton that “a negro and a porter” named Bush dying soon after eating a street vendor’s and several men were barbers. Among sat down to eat at his table. They argued watermelon. “Don’t eat them unless you them was Joseph Farr, who first lived in in the hotel kitchen and almost came to wish to die with the cholera.” the paper Washington D. C., worked a few years on blows. Later that night, Bush received a warned. The Pioneer suggested that the Galena boats and came to St. Paul in message that he needed to go to the docks such diseases were usually caused by the early 1850s to work at his Uncle Wil­ to pick up some baggage. On the way, he change in diet, or “immoderate use of liam Taylor’s barber shop. “There must was assaulted by several men. stimulants.” They threatened Bush, forced a The St. Paul Common Council held a noose around his neck and implied they special meeting and established a Board were going to toss him off the bluff, hit of Health. It reported a few cases of the him with a rock, ripped his shirt apart, disease, but did not seem overly alarmed. whipped him, took all his money and The Board said the new Catholic hospital chased him into a store. Several people [St. Joseph’s Hospital] was not com­ were arrested for the assault and were pleted, so it had been difficult to find a bound over for trial in county court. place to house cholera victims. Shortly However, the case was dismissed for lack after the report, nine cases of cholera of witnesses. This so outraged Bush that “broke out with much violence.” After he moved to Chicago. that, the city finally was able to house victims in Father Galtier’s old log chapel Rumors of Cholera that was being used as a school by the The Board found a young man sick on Third Sisters of St Joseph. The Baldwin School, established by the Street with the disease which has been prevailing Friends and relatives were told to stay Reverend Edward D uffield N e ill in 1853. to a moderate extent among immigrants upon the away from the city. In late July, Abby

10 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY steamboats for the trip to St. Paul and the Falls of St. Anthony. The newspapers, which knew about the event in early May, saw it as a chance to impress eastern investors and railroad executives with the resources of the northwest, with hopes they would invest in the city. While Catharine Sedgwick later called the visit “an illustration and proof of the advancement of true civili­ zation,” the Pioneer was more interested in the excursion because of “the field which it presents for the investment of capital, and the prosecution of railroad enterprise.” Elaborate plans had been made to make as favorable an impression on the Eastern guests as possible. Preparations were made for transportation to scenic sites and for a gala evening event. But everything was thrown into chaos when the flotilla arrived on Thursday morning around 9:00, a day earlier than expected. T. M. Newson, gave his perspective on what happened in a book written many years later: “The first information the people had of their coming—they had Fuller wrote her sister that the “cholera alcohol, and then placed in a walnut come! Such a scene!” he wrote. People panic” was not over and while “they coffin, and both of these coffins placed rushed from the boats to the American make little stir as possible about it... in a large pine box” and loaded on a House and “hired every hack and every I advise our people to stay among those steamship. carriage they could find at enormous New England hills for the present.” She figures.” The hosts were overwhelmed hoped the disease was abating and that “a The Great Excursion by the huge crowd, and ’’the rush so ill- few weeks of cold weather will remove it, You should have seen that beautiful tower timed and inconsiderate . . . that it was a perhaps it will be safe to come.” o f St. Paul, sitting on its fresh hillside, like a mixed-up and hodge-podge affair, and as Eventually the cholera died down, young queen just emerging from her minority a consequence created ill feeling.” but it is unclear how many people died The newspapers at the time did not You should have seen the gay scrambling at from the disease. Either because of a de­ mention any hard feelings, insisting that our landing there, fo r carriages and wagons sire to cover things up, or a simple lack even with the mix-up the guests had posi­ and every species of locomotive, to take us to of knowledge, many probable cholera tive experiences. Most of the excursion­ cases were labeled dysentery. One man, our terminus at St. Anthony’s Falls. You should ists took the haphazard transportation to whose sister died of cholera in 1854, was have seen how, disdaining luxury or superfluity, St. Anthony Falls and Minnehaha Falls. interviewed many years after the fact w e... could drive merrily over the prairie in Others decided to take a steamboat trip by a medical historian. He distinctly re­ lumber-wagons, seated on rough boards. up river for a visit to Fort Snelling. That membered that at the Catholic cemetery —Catharine M. Sedgwick evening there was a huge event at the “they had a blackboard where the names The Great Railroad Excursion had to be state Capitol with food, dancing, and of those dying of cholera were writ­ speeches by prominent visitors and local the high point of 1854. The event was ten. I counted thirty-four names in two leaders. sponsored by the Chicago and Rock weeks.” Unfortunately the festivities had to be Island Railroad to celebrate the comple­ While most of the people who died cut short so the visitors could get back on were buried in St. Paul, at least one tion of its line to the eastern bank of the the boats for a midnight departure. One family wanted to send the remains back Mississippi River. Railroad officials and of the excursionists, the prominent rail­ home, not an easy matter in those days. investors, journalists and other prominent road contractor Henry Famam, recalled A newspaper report on a man who died in people, including former president Mil­ “the shrill whistles of the steamers” that June tells how it was done: “His remains lard Fillmore, took the train from Chi­ warned people to get back to the boats. were enclosed in a zinc coffin, filled with cago to Rock Island and boarded several “Hasty farewells are given. The people

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 Birthday of St. Paul An Ordinance of Miscellaneous Provisions in Criminal Cases before the City Justice. . . Section 1. All assaults, batteries or affrays committed within the city o f St. Paul, shall be prosecuted and determined in a summary man­ ner . . . and on conviction thereof the offender may be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars, nor more than one hundred dollars, ac­ cording to the nature o f the offence. —Common Council Proceedings, July 18,1854 The state legislature passed a bill incor­ porating the city of St. Paul on March 4, often considered the birthday of St. Paul. However, it already had been incorpo­ rated as a town on November 1, 1849. Joseph Farr, who helped in freeing slaves Residents considered the earlier date as Edward Duffield Neill, founder of the Baldwin who came to Minnesota. the city’s beginning, saying St. Paul was School. five years old. To them, the importance of the 1854 event was that it created a entreat us to stay longer; but the inexo­ new and hopefully more effective city opening stores in St. Paul and Long rable steamers demand the return of their charter. The Minnesotian saw “no cause Prairie. He had served in the territorial flocks,” he wrote. Finally, “the last car­ for boasting merely for the reason that legislature and owned the Democrat, but riage is at the river, and the last man leaps the term city sounds more elevated than sold it when he was elected. Olmstead’s breathless upon the plank. One boat after that of town,” but did think St. Paul now mayoral address in April was not a grand another drops down the stream. We are had “an act out of which we can shape the vision, but consisted of practical items he on our way back to Rock Island.” forms and practices of good and sound felt the city needed to become a legiti­ Millard Fillmore may have agreed to municipal government.” mate metropolis. join the Great Railroad Excursion because The first election under the new char­ A “permanent supply of water” was his brother Charles lived in St. Paul and it ter was on April 4. The dozen elected “imperatively demanded” for drinking as has been assumed that they met during the city-wide and in the three wards were well as fire fighting, he said. The Com­ festivities. Unfortunately, Charles shared mostly Democrats, but there also were mon Council should prohibit construc­ the belief that the group was arriving on some Whigs. It seems that in local tion of any new “wooden tenements” Friday and he was out-of-town. However, elections party affiliations were less on the principal streets by setting “fire the two were brought together through important than on the state level and limits.” Along the same lines, Olmstead fortunate circumstances. As former Presi­ the newspapers made little mention of urged the immediate organization of a dent Fillmore was heading downriver, his it. The victors were native bom, for the fire company. steamer was met by an upward bound boat most part, coming from New York, New The mayor thought the city needed carrying Charles. According to the Min- England, and other eastern states. “well-defined wharf regulations,” en­ nesotian, “the two boats rounded to, for There was one Mexican War veteran forcement to establish and repair side­ the purpose of allowing the two brothers from Little Rock, Arkansas, who settled walks, and increased efforts to remove to meet for a moment.” in St. Paul after serving at Fort Snelling. “unnecessary accumulations” of rubbish Charles Fillmore died soon afterward Only two winners were immigrants. and filth from the streets. Older cities had of what probaby was cholera. The news­ Richard Marvin, who ran a wholesale made sure they had adequate spaces “laid papers reported it as dysentery. He left business, was bom in England and lived out for public purposes,” he said and behind a wife and two children. After his for a time in Cincinnati, Ohio, before urged the Council to purchase at least funeral there was a “mournful accident” arriving in St. Paul in 1851. Montreal three tracts of land for “public health and that “shocked the community.” On the native Charles Bazille lived in Wisconsin comfort.” way to the cemetery, the hearse carry­ for several years and came to the city in The first ordinance passed by the new ing Fillmore’s coffin was “ascending a 1844 where he was a carpenter and brick­ Common Council was a wharf tax of small hill,” when “the back door of the yard owner. three to five dollars on steamboat land­ vehicle burst open and the coffin fell to The new mayor was David Olmstead, ings, based on size. The second regulated the ground, and of course the event threw a Vermont man who came to the state and licensed the sale of liquor and the a gloom over everybody.” in 1848 to engage in the “Indian trade,” keeping of billiard tables, bowling alleys

12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY and saloons. They could remain open And the Council did pass an “ordi­ also were a major source of money, most until midnight and had to close on Sun­ nance relative to disorderly houses and of which came from fees placed on sa­ day. In addition, it was illegal to sell “any houses of ill fame.” It provided that loons. Licenses were required for billiard person then being intoxicated, or who anyone who kept a place “for the resort tables, theater events and other shows, and shall be a habitual drunkard, or to any of persons of evil name or fame” or al­ canine ownership. The yearly “dog tax” minor or any person of unsound mind.” lowed any “immoral, indecent, or other required the animal to be registered and to “An ordinance to Prevent Hogs from improper conduct or behavior,” could have a collar containing the owner’s name. Running Large in the City,” was passed be fined up to $100. If there were re­ Other income came from a city property in June. The measure provided that any­ peated violations “calculated to disturb tax, court fines, and revenue from renting one who owned a “hog or any animal of the neighborhood, or annoy travelers,” market stalls and holding events at Market the hog kind” could no longer allow it a building could be tom down at the Hall. One month the city made $20.25 “to run at large in any street, lane, alley, owner’s expense. selling an unclaimed stray bull. public market space, public landing or City leaders believed that some regu­ The Office of the Comptroller also common, or public ground.” The fine for lation of commerce was necessary. They documented expenses. Larger 1854 items an infraction was up to ten dollars and responded to complaints that custom­ included money to cut and grade streets court costs. ers were being shorted on deliveries of and to complete a survey of the city. A look at early ordinances can suggest wood, an essential fuel in a northern city. There was a payment to the Sisters of hidden aspects of society. Prostitution The “wood ordinance” required all loads St. Joseph for attending the sick and for was surely present in the frontier com­ to be examined by an inspector whose the cost of buying lots and digging graves munity, but was never mentioned in any salary was paid for by a fee on the sellers. in Oakland Cemetery. Rental of the City of the 1854 papers. Suggestions that it was The Minnesotian hailed the measure as Market building from Vetal Guerin was present included a minister’s appeal to die “an act of simple justice to the pockets of a major item. While most of the city of­ young men in his congregation to “shun the citizens,” and declared that the coun­ ficials received salaries, the city treasurer the haunts of vice and dissipation,” includ­ cil had “done nothing since its existence received 4 percent of collected real estate ing “the house of ill fame.” It is also un­ of more importance to the citizens gener­ taxes and Marshall Miller got a share of likely elected officials would spend time ally than this.” certain fees and fines. oudawing activities that didn’t exist. Licenses were a way of regulating, but Citizens came to the Common Council

The Market House (the long low building top left, and the territorial Capitol (top, center). In 1857. Despite arriving a day early, excursionists partied at the Capitol in 1854. Photograph by Benjamin Franklin Upton.

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 reverberated through the long passages o f the grown products. “Three years ago we hotel,... Soon after people began to drop in were dependent upon Galena and the to breakfast, and eat hot rolls, soaked toast, towns below, for all we ate, vegetables buckwheat cakes, and hominy, and drink iced included,” and now there was an “excel­ milk; then they grouped round spittoons, lighted lent city market, crowded to repletion their cigars, corrected their cold potations with with the choicest vegetables, &c., of our ‘nippers’ of brandy, skimmed the papers, swore own growth.” at the contents, and finally strutted off to their One June day, “Mother Kessler” gave respective duties. the editor “a mess of well-grown new —Laurence Oliphant potatoes, taken from her garden. This is Feeding the population of a frontier city sooner in the season than any one has presented a challenge. In the early days, produced the article heretofore.” Kessler most goods were shipped up the river. was the first in a long line of fringe farm­ The newspapers were filled with adver­ ers to sell to city dwellers. She lived in tisements from retailers who announced Little Canada and “drove the first wagon new shipments of fresh, canned, salted, load of vegetables into the streets of St. pickled, dried, and otherwise preserved Paul” in 1849. Her wagon was pulled by food for sale. There were boxes of an ox. She also sold dairy products and cheese, barrels of pork, casks of dried pumpkins. beef, drums of codfish, kegs of pig’s feet, “Passing the flourishing garden of as well as sugar, soap, spices, tobacco, Mr. Selby,” the Minnesotian remarked in and liquor. Of course, many families had July, “we were surprised at the forward­ gardens and preserved their own food ness of vegetation, tomatoes, beans, com. Abby Fuller Abbe. Photographer: Charles Alfred Zimmerman. through canning, pickling and smoking, and salting. Until recently, food had been pur­ chased from the Dakota Indians in the with a variety of requests. In August, peti­ area. The changes brought by their re­ tions “for removal of a nuisance, namely moval to reservations were mentioned in a tannery” and a proposal to light the city the newspapers and one paper predicted with gas were read and tabled for later ac­ that there would not be as many cranber­ tion. In December, the Council agreed to ries available since the Indians had left. a request from the “Ladies of the Baptist However, hunting had benefited from the Church” to use the Market Hall free of Dakotas’ removal. In July, the Pioneer rent for a fundraiser. Later that month commented: “Now that the Indians have there was “a communication from Bishop vamoosed, deer will be more plenty and Cretin, asking to be relieved from taxation killed with less labor than heretofore.” on Hospital and Church property.” Hunting remained a source of food Under the new charter, St. Paul estab­ for city dwellers. Wild pigeons were lished a police department with expanded said to be numerous that summer. “We powers. The city had been empowered saw a sportsman the other evening, going to organize a fire department, but noth­ through the streets with a horse load of ing was done until a spectacular October them,” one newspaper noted. “Upwards fire destroyed a nearly completed hotel. of two hundred, [were] strung across Pioneer Hook and Ladder No. 1 was his saddle.” Another paper commented then launched in November. Its members that nearby farmers were taking pigeons agreed to turn out for all fire alarms. In “by hundreds and thousands in nets . . . exchange for their services, they were saving their grain crops from the vora­ excused from jury duty, poll tax, work on cious . . . destructive creatures,” and sell­ the roads, or state military service for the ing them in St. Paul. period of five years. As farmers began to occupy land on the fringes of the city, vegetables, fresh Fresh, Canned, Salted meat, and dairy products increasingly We were always roused. . . by a boisterous became available. A July issue of the going, which at six o ’clock in the morning Minnesotian boasted about the locally

14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY potatoes, and other garden produce,” 41 having arrived at “a degree of maturity scarcely credible in a country so far North as ours.” Outsiders needed to know that successful farming was possible in the state. A letter praising “the products of the country,” was sent to the Minneso- tian by a David Brooks. “Our farmers can raise oats, wheat, com and vegetables of all kinds,” he wrote, “ and plentifully as in any part of the union.” People competed to see what differ­ ent crops could be grown and how big they could get. The Democrat visited L. M. Ford, who ran a “horticultural gar­ den” just west of the city. “His pears, particularly, look remarkably well,” the paper reported, “and he is of the opinion that this fruit can be success­ fully grown in this vicinity.” Selby was growing his second crop of tobacco that summer. In the fall, Ford brought in a melon that weighed thirty-one-and-a- half pounds. Charles D. Elfelt’s store with Whitney’s Gallery behind it, at Third and Cedar Streets. From an 1852 daguerreotype by Joel Emmons Whitney. Depredations at Night We have had, in town, an abundance o f dust, which... has been wafted in clouds into every nook arid cranny of the town and has been Approaching the Pig’s Eye sandbar, he for railroads, first and foremost of every­ an almost intolerable nuisance nearly all the wrote, “we charged it.” The first attempt thing else; and in going for railroads we time. Another very great nuisance with which was unsuccessful “but we took another must not be too fastidious as to where the we have been afflicted. . . is the myriads of ran and went at it resolutely, then groaned money comes to build them.” and creaked severely upon the sand, while mosquitoes with which the country abounds.. . . Sorting Itself Out they have been for the last two months almost the old wheel behind worked and pushed away bravely, stirring up oceans of mud, intolerable... their depredations at night are St. Paul... has become, as by magic, a thriv­ until we scraped over and paddled away beyond description. ing city of 5,000 people.... There are also again with the rapid current.” —Horace Bigelow, September 10,1854 the public buildings, erected by the General Other vessels were not so lucky. In Government, a market-house, and a hospital. In 1854 St. Paul residents may have mid-July, the heavily-laden Admiral was The city contains 800 houses, and is growing talked about the weather even more riding low and got stuck on the Pig’s eye rapidly, many o f the present generation will live than they do today. Their lives and ac­ sandbar. According to the Minnesotian, to see St. Paul the eastern terminus o f a great tivities were more directly affected by it was “puffing and steaming away like Pacific railrdad stretching from Minnesota to the seasonal cycles. The intersection of Vesuvius—trying to get off.” Much of Puget Sound. weather and transportation was a prime the cargo had to be put into small boats —Debow’s Review, October, 1854 concern in the frontier city. When the before the Admiral could be freed. In river froze over, the community was vir­ late August, the Galena was stuck at the Even in 1854, the city was starting to sort tually isolated between November and Pig’s Eye bar and passengers walked to itself out into different functional zones. April. River transportation also could be the city from Kaposia (near present day The loading and unloading of supplies affected in hot dry summers when water South St. Paul), a distance of several was concentrated on the Lower (Jackson levels sank and the sandbars increased miles. Street) Landing, along with much of the in size. Occasionally conditions dictated Frigid weather and the need for better warehousing. The commercial area was that for weeks at a time only smaller, transportation were linked by the writer up on the bluff, with Third Street rec­ shallower craft could be sent from of a letter to the Minnesotian: “We are ognized as the core of retail shopping, downriver ports. as good as out of the world five months containing most of the largest stores. Laurence Oliphant described the ef­ in the year—might as well be living in Residences were starting to move farther forts sometimes needed to get downriver. Siberia,” he complained. “We must go out, and were being replaced with multi-

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 15 level structures, often made of brick. paper called it, “continued at the Lower convenience from bath-room to wood­ There were smaller stores and shops in Landing and ended up with one man going shed under his roof.” many outlying areas. into the river.” In July, the Minnesotian informed St. Paul in 1854 was a walking city, The newspapers often remarked on the people who might want to enjoy “the necessarily compact because people need for improved traffic control on the delights of a Suburban residence” that went on foot to and from their daily waterfront. “The arrival of a boat is the lots in a forty-acre addition on the activities. Only the prosperous could af­ signal for the dangerous convergence of bluff behind the Capitol were avail­ ford to keep horses and carriages, but as various carts, drays, stages, and people” able. They had a full view of the city the community spread, a transportation who combine to make a “motley mass” and river “and when the streets are put system began to develop. Two compet­ that the Democrat suggested was danger­ in proper order, the fartherest lots will ing coach lines picked up people at the ous. “Runners and drummers too, with not be over twenty minutes walk from Lower Landing and took them to hotels draymen and idlers occupy the move- the post office.” Throughout the sum­ and other locations. There were sched­ able space.” There were only two roads mer, newspapers carried short notices uled services between St. Paul and St. out, and they were filled with stones that and printed advertisements for suburban Anthony. One of the companies even needed to be removed. land, including “several splendid two- ran a “four horse omnibus” between the One of the characteristics of city de­ and five-acre lots only one mile from the Capitol and the major hotels during the velopment in the United States has been a corporation limits.” legislative session. constant spreading outward. It is remark­ A little farther out, Henry McKenty Competition for customers could be in­ able to see how early the St. Paul papers was offering four-acre lots he called tense. The Pioneer reported a fight between used the term “suburb” to describe this “Homes for the Homeless,” and portions the proprietors of the Red Line and Yellow movement. In August, the Pioneer com­ of a 150-acre tract “bordering on Phalen’s Coach lines. The trouble had started a few mented that “among other finer suburban Lake, around two miles from the city.” days earlier at the Upper (Chestnut Street) residences erecting now, that of the Hon. The Democrat reported in the fall that Landing “as consequence of some harsh M. Sherburne we regard as one of the Jeremiah W. Selby, whose residence al­ language.” The “Kilkennev fight,” as the finest, being roomy and built with every ways was said to be in the suburbs of the city, had “commenced operations upon his property, on Summit Avenue, for the erection of a large and elegant brick mansion . . . It will add another and most desirable feature to that attractive portion of our city.” In a December issue, the Times summed up the city’s growth during the year. Looking around from a vantage point, they could see that “a semi-circular belt of hills, their sloping sides already dotted with numerous tasteful residences, forms the picturesque environment of St. Paul. And stretching beyond these hills, speculation has spread a net-work of sub­ urban additions to the very verge of the corporate limits.”

French Lessons and Dancing Who does not love a Minnesota winter, with its clear bracing air-its blue sky and its life-giving atmosphere?. . . Here, it is true, we are shut put from our friends below, but there are friends within who beguile the hours pleasantly... the social parties, the sleigh-rides... Fear not then, the blast o f coming winter. Pile on the wood, let the cracking fire shed its heat while the Northwestern winds howl about our doors. Steamboats tied up at the Lower Landing, much as those bearing the Great Excursion travel­ —Minnesota Times, November 20,1854 ers would have appeared. Two of them, the Time and Tide and the Jeannette Roberts were ow ned by Louis Robert. Cities always have been cultural centers,

16 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY and frontier St. Paul was no exception. During the year, literary societies were formed, a group of women took French lessons at the Rice House three days a week, and a dancing academy was opened. Writers such as Jane Gay Fuller, who later gained a national reputation, frequently had poems printed in the pa­ pers. Among other things, St. Paul had five fraternal societies, a portrait artist, a photographer, three places to buy books, and a music store that sold New York pianos. The St. Paul Philharmonic Society gave its initial concert at City Hall in Jan­ uary in front of a large crowd. “In a city of five year’s growth, it is not expected that so great a proficiency in this delight­ ful art would be attained,” the Pioneer said proudly. “For the first appearance of the members, the Society has made a reputation highly credible to itself.” A Miss Crampton gave a Shakespear­ ean performance based on Richard III at Market Hall to “repeated manifestations of applause.” Noted author Mrs. E. F. Ellett was in town and would be giving dramatic for the elite of St. Paul. According to the There seems to have been unorganized readings from Shakespeare and other writ­ Pioneer, “the music was excellent, the celebrating as well. In addition to the ers. Two visiting shows made their way dancing continued till a late hour,” and “drinking of Cawtaba and Minnesota to Market Hall in June. People could see “the gray dawn was fast endeavoring to wine,” the Democrat said, “Sioux Indi­ Signor Vitor’s “Lilliputian Family” for shake off the sable mantle of night when ans played on jewsharps,” and there was twenty-five cents. The next night it cost we left.” “some little drunkenness, and a general fifty cents to attend a “soiree fantastique” When the river froze over, a regular given by a man calling himself “The Fakir rejoicing, to say nothing about the ball.” of Siva.” Later in the year, a touring troupe party season was held at the different While Thanksgiving was not yet of musicians called the Riley Family per­ hotels. “Monday evening we were all universally celebrated, Governor Willis formed at the courthouse. invited at Mr. Bakers at the American Gorman said it was becoming custom­ The city became a focal point for cul­ to spend the evening,” Abby Fuller ary to “set aside a day to give thanks tural events which drew large audiences wrote. “They were going to get up a little for blessings,” and he hoped people whether they were classical presentations dance, there was just enough ladies to would observe Thanksgiving. He is­ or popular entertainment. The need for make up three cotillions, and I enjoyed sued a proclamation that set December better accommodations prompted the it much.” The next evening found her at 21 as the date. The Pioneer linked the construction of two new facilities in the Winslow House. “It was a very fine holiday with a recurring theme of the St. 1854. When Elfelt built his dry goods dance.... six of the ladies were dressed Paul Yankees: “In our own territory-on store on Third Street, he included an finely, with their white satin skirts and the fartherest verge of civilization, the upper area that came to be known as Ma­ lace illusion over dresses. We girls did songs of Thanksgiving are heard almost zurka Hall. Irvine Hall was located in the not wear thin dresses.” mingling their tones with the howl of the attic of a new Upper Town warehouse. While events like fancy balls were wolf.” The 24-by-80-foot area was “high, airy, exclusive, national holidays like the The paper hoped that on Thanksgiving well-fitted,” its owner said, and, would Fourth of July probably served to further residents would “have a real sympathy be rented out for concerts, exhibits, balls, a general social cohesion. In 1854 there for the poor,” perhaps sharing “a joint and meetings. was a gathering at the Capitol, with the of meat,” a supply of vegetables or fuel During the summer, on-board parties ringing of bells, a prayer, and a reading or even a friendly visit. “There are not were hosted by different steamboat cap­ of the Declaration of Independence. After many poor,” the Pioneer quickly added, tains. While docked at the Lower Land­ a speech, there was a trout and venison “but those who are here could be helped ing, the Prairie State held a “fine supper” dinner and dance at the Winslow House. this day.”

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 17 holding classes at her residence on “Hazel Mound,” and offering to board pupils “on reasonable terms.” The Epis­ copal Mission School was an example of the small schools often sponsored by churches in 1854. The three-year-old school announced in the Pioneer that it had secured “the services of an able and experienced teacher” and promised “thorough and practical instruction in all the usual English branches.” The Sisters of St. Joseph had been teaching Catholics at various locations for some time, and Bishop Cretin ex­ pressed concerns in his letters about the schools. He felt the need to constantly struggle against New Englanders whom he considered “Protestants with great prejudice.” He thought “Protestant propaganda” in the local schools could “pervert many isolated Catholic families” by taking children in free or with tuition paid for by Bible societies who tried to convert them. Neill always was ready to counter Henry McKenty’s home (in the background) at Lake Como. As early as the 1850s, the neigh­ borhood around the lake was regarded as “suburban." such arguments. In notes for what ap­ pears to have been a talk or a sermon, he addressed “the hostility recently manifested by a large portion of the The women of First Presbyterian arrived in 1849 from Galena, Illinois. He Roman Catholic people of St. Paul, to the Church gave a Thanksgiving dinner that organized the First Presbyterian Church a principle of common school education” drew 200 people, and the attendees were year later, was active in civic affairs, and and the complaint “that their children drawn from beyond their own congrega­ served as state superintendent of educa­ are subject to Protestant influences in tion. The Times thought that “such special tion from 1851 to 1853. When his church our public schools.” In his view, “public gatherings are highly beneficial, for they had grown to the point it could support a education increases the wealth of every tend to harmonize and to socialize the full-time minister, he resigned to devote community,” was “essential to the preser­ incongruous elements of society.” The all his attention to schools. vation of our civil and religious liberties,” paper said it trusted that “many more will Baldwin School, his first major and should be supported by taxes. He take place during those months winter project, was incorporated in 1853 and concluded by saying “let the teachers be holds us within our ice-bound homes.” just before the new year had held a gala as independent of the Catholic priest as celebration for its new two-story brick of the Protestant minister.” Stumps in the Streets building next to the City Hall and across Neill also was a pioneer in higher The steamboats at the levee... give evidence from Rice Park. While it opened in 1854 education. After the Baldwin School was that “a city in the wilderness’’ has sprung up... as a girl’s school, it responded to demand underway, he raised money for a men’s The traveler, as he steps from the steamboat that and allowed boys under twelve years of school, St. Paul College, that was opened has brought him from below, and walks through age to attend. In that first year there were in 1854 with four major divisions. The the streets of this northwestern capital, is forc­ forty-three girls and twenty-eight boys at Scientific Department, usually called the ibly reminded by the many stumps standing in the institution. Practical Department, was a new concept. the middle o f the thoroughfares, and by the A common school system for Min­ “In a country so youthful, the demand is Indians stalking about with their blankets, pipes nesota was started in 1849, but was not for men rather than complete scholars,” fully implemented in St. Paul until 1854. and vermilioned faces, that he is some distance Neill wrote, and “this Department is Public schools were supplemented by a from the Atlantic coast. proposed to meet the felt deficiency.” The variety of private and parochial efforts. four-year course of study was open six Reverend Edward Duffield Neill was There were at least seven in 1854. Har­ months each year and gave instruction deeply committed to bringing education riet Bishop, considered the city’s first in topics such as engineering, chemistry, to the frontier. The Philadelphia native teacher, was running “Pioneer School,” mercantile law, and ethics.

18 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Bishop Cretin’s letters reveal that he U-Ha-zy who had been convicted of kill­ Graham’s Magazine, XLVI:1 (January, 1855), saw Neill’s institution as a threat. “The ing a woman and was sentenced to hang pp. 6-17. Presbyterians are building at a 1/4 of an on December 29. The Democrat urged Edward Neill and Family Papers, Minnesota His­ hour distance from St. Paul, a college,” he that the death sentence be commuted to torical Society wrote. ’’All this money comes from sub­ imprisonment so that “the barbarity of a Edward D. Neill Papers, Macalester College scriptions collected with the avowed pur­ public execution will be avoided.” Norelius, Eric, Early Life of Eric Norelius,1833- pose of stopping the progress of Papism The governor refused to issue the 1862 (Rock Island, II: Augsburg Book Concern), in the state of Minnesota.” The Catholic pardon requested by the “most respect­ 1934. Church needed to increase its efforts, he able ladies of St. Paul.” The night before Oliphant, Laurence, Minnesota and the Far West said, and “nothing therefore must be ne­ the execution, people continually fired (Edinburgh, Scotland: W. Blackwood & Sons), glected to found educational institutions.” guns outside the jail. Next morning the 1855. The debate over education was not a sheriff began to build the scaffold in one Pfeiffer, Ida, A Lady’s Second Journey Round the motivating factor for young St. Paul at­ of the most public places in the city, but World (New York: Harper & Brothers), 1856. torney Horace Bigelow. He was just try­ was pressured to remove the gallows to a Putnam’s Monthly Magazine, September, 1854, ing to make a living. Lack of legal work more remote location. pp. 320-325. prompted him to take a job in the boy’s Followed by the mob, the sheriff St. Paul Common Council Minutes and Journals, division of the public schools in March. headed west on St. Anthony Road and Minnesota Historical Society. Bigelow received a monthly salary and up the hill toward the Selby farm. The was supposed to be paid tuition, but condemned man was dressed in a white Secondary Sources rarely was. “I now have over fifty pupils,” shroud and taken by carriage to a site near Armstrong, John M. “The Asiatic Cholera in St. he penned in his diary, “a rough set of today’s Western and Dayton. U-Ha-zy Paul,” Minnesota Medicine, December, 1942 and boys, mostly small ones,” although one made a few remarks in Dakota, restated January, 1943. was over twenty-one years old. his innocence, and was hanged at 3:00. Hoffman, M. M., The Church Founders of the Bigelow generally found it to be “a The Pioneer summed up the general at­ Northwest (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing difficult, tiresome and tedious business titude of the local newspapers on the first Company), 1937. to get along with them, since they were execution ever held in the territory: Hurley, Sister Angela Helen, On Good Ground: less “accustomed to study or to any... The Story of the Sisters of St. Joseph in St. Paul, It was not enough for the fiends incarnate restraint or discipline at school than any (Mpls: University of Minnesota Press), 1951 collection of boys I ever saw before.” He who attended the execution, that the poor fellow should expiate his crime upon the Newson, T. M. Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Minne­ decided to abandon his educational voca­ sota, and Biographical Sketches of Old Settlers, scaffold, but his expiring moments were tion that May. Bigelow had not come to (St. Paul: published by the author), 1886. disturbed by the laughs and jeers of the de­ the territory to teach, he wrote, and “after Petersen, William J. “The Rock Island Railroad bauched in the crowd, and with words o f jest three months trial, I have become about Excursion of 1854,” Minnesota History, (Decem­ as sick of school teaching as I was of and scoffing, uttered in his own language... ber, 1934), pp. 405-420. those in attendance seemed much more like doing nothing.” Pig’s Eye Notepad: An Historical Encyclopedia of savages than he. St. Paul, www.lareau.org/pep.html A Public Execution “Rails West, The Rock Island Railroad Excur­ We question if any occasion of this kind... was Steve Trimble is an independent urban sion of 1854,” Minnesota History (Winter, 1954), characterized by such brutality on the part of historian and a former representative to pp. 133-143. those assembled, as the one o f today.... Liquor the state legislature. Wade, Richard, The Urban Frontier, (New York: was openly passed through the crowd, and the Oxford University Press), 1959. last moments of the poor Indian were disturbed Primary Sources Williams, J. Fletcher, A History of the City of St. by bacchanalian yells and cries, remarks... Abby Fuller Abbe and Family Papers, Minnesota Paul to 1875, (St. Paul, Minn: heartless and depraved... A half drunken fa ­ Historical Society Minnesota Historical Society Press), 1983. ther could be seen, holding in his arms a child, Benjamin Densmore and Family Papers, Minne­ eager to see well. sota Historical Society Newspapers Sources —Minnesota Democrat, December 29,1854 Horace Ransom Bigelow Diary, Minnesota His­ Minnesota Democrat torical Society St. Paul had come a long way during Minnesota Pioneer 1854, but a year-end event may have Bond, J. Wesley, Minnesota and Its Resources, Minnesota Times convinced leaders that their vision of (Chicago: Ken and Lee), 1856. The Minnesotian civilization had not fully taken hold in Debow’s Review, October, 1854 the city. It involved a Dakota man named Neill, Edward, “St. Paul and Its Environs,”

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 19 ss p

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Stock certificate for five shares at $100 par value, each issued in 1853 by the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Co., organizer of the 1854 Great Railroad Excursion. The certificate is signed by John B. Jervis, the railroad’s president, and its treasurer, A. C. Flagg. Both Jervis and Flagg were New York investors. The $100 that a share cost in 1853 would be equal to $2,244 in 2004. Also from Robert J. Stumm’s collection.

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