Special 150Th Anniversary Issue Ramsey County and Its Territorial Years —Page 8
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RAMSEY COUNTY In the Beginning: The Geological Forces A Publication o f the Ramsey County Historical Society That Shaped Ramsey County Page 4 Spring, 1999 Volume 34, Number 1 Special 150th Anniversary Issue Ramsey County And Its Territorial Years —Page 8 “St. Paul in Minnesotta, ” watercolor, 1851, by Johann Baptist Wengler. Oberösterreichisches Landes Museum, Linz, Austria. Photo: F. GangI. Reproduced by permission of the museum. Two years after the establishment of Minnesota Territory, St. Paul as its capital was a boom town, “... its situation is as remarkable for beauty as healthiness as it is advantageous for trade, ” Fredrika Bremer wrote in 1853, and the rush to settlement was on. See “A Short History of Ramsey County” and its Territorial Years, beginning on page 8. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Famham An Exciting New Book Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz for Young Readers RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 34, Number 1 Spring, 1999 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Laurie A. Zenner CONTENTS Chair Howard M. Guthmann President James Russell 3 Message from the President First Vice President Anne Cowie Wilson 4 In the Beginning Second Vice President The Geological Forces that Shaped Ramsey Richard A. Wilhoit Secretary County and the People Who Followed Ronald J. Zweber Scott F. Anfinson Treasurer W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Charlotte H. 8 A Short History of Ramsey County— Drake, Mark G. Eisenschenk, Joanne A. Eng- lund, Robert F. Garland, Judith Frost Lewis, Its Territorial Years and the Rush to Settlement John M. Lindley, George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Bob Olsen, 2 2 Ramsey County’s Heritage Trees Linda Owen, Fred Perez, Marvin J. Pertzik, Vicenta D. Scarlett, Glenn Wiessner, Charles H. 2 3 The Dakota Perspective Wilhams, Jr.. ‘We Have Been Cheated So Often’ EDITORIAL BOARD John M. Lindley, chair; Thomas H. Boyd, M ark D iedrich Thomas C. Buckley, Pat Hart, Virginia Brainard Kunz, Thomas J. Kelley, Tom Mega, Laurie 2 8 - 3 8 More About the County and Its People Murphy, Vicenta Scarlett, G. Richard Slade, Laurie Zenner. from the pages of Ramsey County History. HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Ramsey County History Preserved in Its Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Survey Office, page 27; Hardship and Struggle— Dietz, William Finney, Otis Godfrey, Jr., Robert S. Hess, Fred T. Lanners, Jr., D. W. The Pioneer Years of White Bear Lake and the “Don” Larson, George Latimer, Frank Township That Bears Its Name, page 28; Marzitelli, Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Mirick, Samuel Morgan, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Little Canada—Heritage from the French Plunkett, James Reagan, Solly Robins, Ros alie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. Canadians, page 30; Handy With the Pistols— RAMSEY COUNTY COMM1SIONERS Ramsey County’s Territorial Editors, page 32; Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chairman A Pioneer’s Memories—Farming with Flail and Commissioner Susan Haigh Commissioner Tony Bennett Cradle, page 33; Wolves and Bitter Cold— Commissioner Dino Guerin Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt A Fur Trader’s Perilous Journey, page 34; Commissioner Janice Rettman Cattlemen and Capitalists—The Founding of Commissioner Jan Wiessner Terry Schütten, manager, Ramsey County New Brighton, page 35; The Great Horse-Market Ramsey County History is published quar Years at Prior and University, page 36; In North terly by the Ramsey County Historical St. Paul—Boom, Boom, Bust, Come-back, page 37. Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222- 0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 1999, 3 9 Book Review: Jane Gibbs— “Little Bird That Was Caught’ Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted Based on a true story about real people or otherwise reproduced without written permission from the publisher. The Soci Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from and events that happened. ety assumes no responsibility for statements Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H.Cowie, Jr. made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; e-mail address [email protected].; web site and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Hannon address www.rchs.com P ublished by T h e Ramsey C ounty 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY H istorical So ciety A Short History of Ramsey County The Territorial Years and the Rush to Settlement he ninth of April in 1849 was a signed a treaty with the Mdewakanton halting place for their war and hunting pleasant Monday, David Lambert bands of the Dakota nation, led by Little parties, a great “pantry” teeming with recalled for the Minnesota Pioneer Crow, who ceded 155,520 acres of land game and fish, a place to establish their T along the Mississippi and Minnesota summer villages. Their presence still some weeks later. Toward evening, how ever, clouds gathered and by dark a vio (then known as St. Peter’s River) to the marks the region around modem Ramsey lent storm swept into the small settlement United States government as a site for County. Mendota at the confluence of the perched on the bluffs above the Missis military posts. Minnesota and the Mississippi, and the sippi. Suddenly, during a lull in the wind, For the next forty and more years, the mysterious Red Rock at Newport, down a steamboat engine could be heard. A history of Ramsey County would go the Mississippi from St. Paul, are still flash of lightning illuminated the Dr. hand-in-hand with the history of St. Paul, known today as sacred gathering places Franklin No. 2 just rounding the bend of its county seat. Not until after the territo where the Dakotas held ceremonies and the river a mile below St. Paul. It was the rial years would the history of county and councils. They established five villages first boat of the season and it bore the city move along separate, even though in the region: Cloud Man’s village at news that the bill for the organization of similar, paths. Lake Calhoun, the Black Dog, Good Minnesota Territory had passed the Sen Pike knew he had not entered a unin Road and Shakopee communities along ate on March 3 and had become law. habited wilderness. Before he arrived, the Minnesota, and Kaposia, located first It had been a long wait, and the region the flags of other nations had flown over on the east bank of the Mississippi below that became Minnesota had a long history the region that became Ramsey County: Dayton’s Bluff and later on the west bank as part of both the Old Northwest Terri the Spanish, the French, the British each at today’s South St. Paul. tory and the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. had claimed the land through exploration An interesting picture has been left of Now the rush to explore and eventually or conquest. It was the Dakotas who for Kaposia as it was when Pike visited. The to settle it was on. centuries had lived in the region and had village numbered about 200 men, women, In 1805 Lieutenant Zebulon Pike had joined, first with the French, then with and children, including some seventy been sent north from St. Louis to explore the British, in the rich fur trade. As was warriors. Their homes were comfortable, the headwaters of the Mississippi. Late in their custom, the Dakota bands did not with palisaded walls of tamarack poles September of that year, he landed on the establish permanent settlements. The ter and roofs of brush covered with bark, its island at the mouth of the Minnesota ritory that included Ramsey County was lodges set up against the bluffs for protec River that is named for him. Here he for them a vast trading area, a frequent tion. Their chief, Little Crow, one of sev- 1803: Louisiana Purchase negotiated between the Dakota to farm using a plow They work with Chief Cloud 1840: After another survey of the military reserva United States and France under Napoleon, freeing land Man’s band at Lake Calhoun and develop a dictionary of tion, the settlers are expelled again. They take up claims west of the Mississippi to eventual settlement. the Dakota language. in present-day downtown Paul. Parrant opens another 1805: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike is sent to explore the 1835: Henry Hastings Sibley takes over the Ameri saloon at the Lower Landing at the foot of Jackson Street. headwaters of the Mississippi. He signs a treaty with the can Fur Company’s post at Mendota. The hamlet becomes known as Pig's Eye. Dakota ceding to the United States government 155,520 1836: Dred Scott is brought to Fort Snelling, free 1841: Father Lucien Galtier builds a small chapel acres of land surrounding the confluence of the St. Peter territory, from Missouri, a slave state. Wisconsin be on the bluff above the Lower Landing, names it for St. [Minnesota] and Mississippi rivers as a site for military comes a territory. Paul, and asks that the community be named for the posts. 1837: A treaty with the Dakota opens to settlement chapel. Pig’s Eye becomes St. Paul. 1819-1820: Fort Snelling is built on a bluff above lands in the triangle between the St. Croix and Missis 1843: Stephen Desnoyer claims land, establishes the meeting of the two rivers. sippi rivers. Halfway House on site today of Town and Country Club. 1823: Scottish, French, and Swiss settlers, forced 1839: The Selkirk refugees and other squatters Isaac Rose takes up adjacent land. Rose Township will by floods to leave the Selkirk Coloney in present-day around Fort Snelling are expelled from the military reser be named for him.