Fifty Years In The Northwest
native of New Hampshire, and while he was yet young returned to that
state, removing subsequently to Maine. Mr. Folsom came West in 1839,
settled in Prairie du Chien, and not long after engaged as clerk to
Henry M. Rice at Fort Atkinson. In 1841 he returned to Prairie du
Chien and for two years acted as deputy sheriff, one year as surveyor
of public lands, and two years as surveyor of county lands. In 1846 he
volunteered as a soldier in the Mexican War, but the company was sent
instead to garrison Fort Crawford, where he remained one year. On July
25, 1847, he landed in St. Paul, and has been engaged most of the time
since in the surveying and real estate business. He was city surveyor
of St. Paul in 1854, member of the school board in 1858-59 and 60, and
served three years as a soldier in the Seventh Minnesota during the
Civil War. He has one son, Simeon Pearl, Jr., and one daughter, wife
of J. B. Pugsley.
JACOB W. BASS was born in Vermont in 1815; came West in 1840 and made
his home at Prairie du Chien, where he kept a hotel and ferry and
engaged in general business. While a resident of Prairie du Chien he
was married to Martha D., daughter of Rev. Alfred Brunson. In 1844 he
purchased an interest in the Chippewa Falls mills, but in 1847 sold
out, and removed to St. Paul, where he engaged in hotel keeping in a
building made of tamarack poles, on the site of the present Merchants
Hotel, and known as the St. Paul House. In July, 1849, he was
commissioned postmaster, as the successor of Henry Jackson, the first
postmaster in St. Paul. He held the office four years. He left the
hotel in 1852. He has since resided in St. Paul, where he has been
engaged at different times in the real estate and commission business
and at farming. He has two sons. The oldest, a graduate of West Point,
holds a commission in the United States Army; the youngest is in
business at St. Paul.
BENJAMIN W. BRUNSON, son of Rev. Alfred Brunson, of Prairie du Chien,
was born in Detroit, Michigan, May 6, 1823. He came with his parents
to Prairie du Chien in 1835. He purchased an interest in the Chippewa
Falls mills in 1844, and in 1847 came to St. Paul and assisted in
surveying the first town plat. He laid out what was known as
"Brunson's addition." He was a representative in the first and second
territorial legislatures. He served three years during the Civil War
as a member of Company K, Eighth Minnesota Infantry, first as a
private, then as an orderly sergeant, and later as second lieutenant.
He has followed surveying many years, and has held several responsible
positions. He was married at St. Paul and has two sons and one
daughter.
CHARLES D. AND ABRAM S. ELFELT.--The parents of the Elfelt brothers
came from San Domingo to the United States in 1801, on the
establishment of a negro republic on that island, and settled in
Pennsylvania, where Abram S. was born in 1827 and Charles D. in 1828.
In 1849 the brothers removed to St. Paul and established the first
exclusively dry goods store in Minnesota, their building standing near
the upper levee at the foot of Eagle street. They also built the hall
in which the first theatrical performances in St. Paul were held. This
was the building now standing on Third and Exchange streets, which was
erected in 1851. At that time it was the largest building in the city,
and many of the old residents remember the ceremonies attendant upon
the raising of the frame. The dramatic hall was in one of the upper
stories, being known as Mazourka Hall. The materials used in its
construction were brought from long distances, coming up the river by
boat, and the laborers employed on the building were paid five dollars
a day for their services. Into this building the Elfelt brothers
transferred their store, stocking it at first with both dry goods and
groceries, but afterward limiting their trade to dry goods
exclusively.
Mr. Abram Elfelt originated the first Board of Trade, in 1864, and
when that body was merged into the Chamber of Commerce became one of
its directors. The brothers were public spirited and enterprising, and
always took a great interest in the welfare of the city. Abram S.
Elfelt died in St. Paul in February, 1888.
D. A. J. BAKER was born in Farmington, Maine, in 1825; attended school
at New Hampton, New Hampshire; studied law and was admitted to the bar
in Kennebec county, Maine, in 1847; came to St. Paul in 1848, and in
1851 made his home in the locality now known as Merriam Park. It is on
record that Judge Baker taught one of the first public schools in the
territory of Minnesota. He, with others, pre-empted the land and
located what is now Superior City, Wisconsin, but sold his interests
in that city. He was appointed to a judgeship in Douglas county,
Wisconsin, in 1854, and served three years; was county superintendent
of schools in Ramsey county for twelve years, and was a member of the
Democratic wing of the constitutional convention in 1857. He has been
a dealer in real estate. He was married to Miss Cornelia C. Kneeland,
a sister of Mrs. Dr. T. T. Mann, and late widow of James M. Goodhue,
in 1853. Mrs. Baker died in 1875. Maj. Newson, in his "Pen Portraits,"
says of her: "She was an affectionate wife and a devoted mother, and
amid all the trials and vicissitudes incident to the ups and downs of
an old settler's career, she never murmured, never complained, never
fretted, never chided; always cheerful, always hopeful, casting
sunshine into the home and weaving about all those she loved golden
chains of unbroken affection."
B. F. HOYT.--Rev. B. F. Hoyt, a local minister of the Methodist
church, and a prominent pioneer of 1848, was born at Norwalk,
Connecticut, Jan. 8, 1800. He removed to New York State, and later to
Ohio, where he married and resided until 1834, when he removed to
Illinois, and in 1848 to St. Paul. He purchased the property bounded
now by Jackson, Broadway, Eighth and the bluff for three hundred
dollars. The following spring he laid it out as "Hoyt's addition." He
dealt largely in real estate and at various times held property, now
worth millions. He was instrumental in the erection of the Jackson
Street Methodist church, and aided in, the endowment of Hamline
University. He died Sept. 3, 1875.
JOHN FLETCHER WILLIAMS, secretary of the Minnesota State Historical
Society, is of Welsh descent, John Williams, a paternal ancestor of
the seventh remove, having come to this country from Glamorganshire,
Wales. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 25, 1834. He was
educated at Woodward College and Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating
from the latter institution in 1852. He came to St. Paul in 1855 and
engaged in journalism and reporting for about twelve years, during
which time he acquired a thorough knowledge of city and state affairs
and an acquaintance with the pioneers of the State, which knowledge he
utilized in writing biographical and historical, sketches, his
principal work in this line being the "History of St. Paul," published
in 1876.
In 1867 he was elected secretary of the State Historical Society. Upon
him devolved the duty of arranging its volumes and collections and
editing its publications. Most of the memoirs, and historical sketches
are from his pen. He has gathered manuscripts and material for a
history of the State which will ultimately be of great value. He is
the honorary corresponding secretary of the Old Settlers Association,
not being eligible to active membership in that body, which requires a
residence dating back to 1850. Various diplomas have been conferred
upon him by the historical societies of other cities and states.
In 1871 he was appointed by President Grant a member of the United
States Centennial commission from Minnesota, and served as such to the
close of the International Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in
1876.
JOHN HENRY MURPHY was the first medical practitioner in St. Anthony
Falls, he having made that city his home in 1849. Mr. Murphy was born
Jan. 22, 1826, at New Brunswick, New Jersey. His father, James Murphy,
a shipbuilder, was a native of Ireland; his mother, Sarah (Allen),
belonged to an old New Jersey family. His parents removed to Quincy,
Illinois, in 1834, where John Henry obtained a good high school
education. He studied medicine and graduated from the Rush Medical
College in Chicago in 1850, and returned to St. Anthony Falls, which
he had made his home the year before. In this place he lived and
practiced his profession till near the close of the war, when he
removed to St. Paul.
In the summer of 1861, when Dr. Stewart, surgeon of the First
Minnesota Infantry, was captured at Bull Run, Dr. Murphy took his
place and served for six months, and afterward as surgeon of the
Fourth and Eighth Minnesota Infantry. Dr. Murphy was a representative
in the territorial legislature of 1852, and a member of the
constitutional convention, Republican wing, in 1857. As a man and a
physician Dr. Murphy has an enviable reputation. He was married to
Mary A. Hoyt, of Fulton county, Illinois, June 28, 1848. They have
five children.
W. H. TINKER was born at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1813; was married
to Elisabeth Barnum, at Rockford, Illinois, in 1840; came to Prairie
du Chien in 1843, and to St. Paul in 1849. He engaged for awhile in
tailoring, then in selling groceries, then clerked for S. P. Folsom &
Co., and also in the recorder's and marshal's offices. At one time he
owned eight acres in the heart of St. Paul, for which he paid two
hundred and eighty-four dollars, which is now worth a quarter of a
million.
GEORGE P. JACOBS was born in Virginia in 1832; was educated at the
Virginia Military Institute; came to Pierce county, Wisconsin, and
engaged in lumbering, afterward in farming and lumbering. He has
resided in St. Paul since 1870.
LYMAN DAYTON was born Aug. 25, 1809, in Southington, Connecticut, and
was early thrown upon his own resources. He commenced as a clerk in a
store in Providence, Rhode Island, and by faithfulness and industry
became in time a wholesale dry goods merchant. His health failing, he
sought the West in 1849, and selected for his home a high bluff, to
which his name has been affixed, near the city of St. Paul. He
purchased over 5,000 acres of land in the vicinity. The bluff is now
covered with palatial residences, business, church and school
buildings.
Mr. Dayton lived much of his time at a village founded by himself at
the junction of Crow river with the Mississippi. The village bears his
name. He was one of the proprietors and first president of the Lake
Superior & Mississippi Railway Company, and gave much of his time and
means to promote its interests. He died in 1865, leaving a widow
(formerly Miss Maria Bates) and one son, Lyman C., a heavy dealer in
real estate.
HENRY L. MOSS.--Mr. Moss is of English descent. His ancestors came
over prior to the Revolution, in which later members of the family
took a prominent part in behalf of the colonies. He was born in
Augusta, New York, and graduated at Hamilton College, New York, in
1840; studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1842 at Sandusky,
Ohio, where he practiced until 1845, when he removed to Platteville,
Wisconsin, where he became an associate with Benj. C. Eastman until
1848, when he removed to Stillwater. He was the second lawyer in this
place. In 1850 he moved to St. Paul. He served as the first United
States district attorney for Minnesota Territory, holding the office
from 1849 until 1853. He was reappointed to this office under the
state government in 1862, and served four years. Mr. Moss is a worthy
member of the Presbyterian church. His moral character and natural
abilities have commended him for the positions he has so
satisfactorily filled. Mr. Moss was married to Amanda Hosford, Sept.
20, 1849.