Fifty Years In The Northwest
their anecdotes and discussions." So it appears that the Indians
hereabout are not so glum and reticent as red men in general are
credited with being.
There are a great many people in St. Paul who remember Old Betz, and
the stories that were told in relation to her, quite well. She was
said to be one hundred and twenty years old when she died, and, as
there was no evidence to the contrary, and she certainly bore the mark
of great age, this estimate of her years was generally accepted. Mr.
Larpenteur has reason for thinking that her age has been very much
exaggerated. Old Betz told him one day, a short time before her death,
in a confidential way, that when soldiers first came to Fort Snelling
she was still in her teens. That was in 1819, and, therefore, Old Betz
could not have been over eighty-eight when she died.
FOOTNOTES:
[F] NOTE.--The Wah-tap--or Wa-tab--empties from the west into the
Mississippi just above Sauk Rapids--H. M. R.
[G] The rejection of Thomas P. Burnett as a member of the council, by
Gov. Dodge, created great excitement at the time, and the governor was
severely criticised for his action. In making the apportionment the
governor had made Crawford county a district, but had left it without
a representative in the council, although two had been assigned to the
house, the governor claiming that this was equivalent to one in the
senate and one in the house. His action, to say the least, was curious
and unprecedented.
[H] Jean Brunet was of French extraction. He made the first
manufacturing improvements at Chippewa Falls.
[I] Alexander McGregor, a Scotchman, built a large hotel in Prairie du
Chien, and located a claim on the western side of the Mississippi
rivers opposite which has become the site of the city of McGregor. In
the third session of the territorial legislature he was elected to
represent the Dubuque district, and charges were preferred against him
of accepting a bribe. Pending the investigation of the charges he
resigned, removed to the east side of the river and was elected to
represent the Crawford district. The ensuing session, the house, by
resolution, declared him unworthy of confidence.
[J] The loan amendment was approved by Gov. Medary, through his
private secretary, March 9, 1858. The amendment was adopted by the
people April 15, 1858, by a vote of 25,023 to 6,733. The amount of
bonds issued was $2,275,000. The expunging resolution was adopted Nov.
6, 1860, by a popular vote of 19,308 to 710.
[K] Rev Mr. Webber was born in the state of New York in 1821; was
educated for the ministry ordained and sent to Minnesota as a
missionary by the Calvinistic Baptist church. He came to Stillwater in
1850. He is now a resident of Fleming, Cayuga county, New York.
ADDENDA.
A history of the Northwest that would omit any mention of the war of
the Rebellion would be an unfinished work. It was the original
intention of the author of this work to add a military history in
which should be placed upon record not only some statistics as to the
number of troops contributed to the United States service from the
parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin lying along the Mississippi river,
but some account of incidents connected with the war, which the
citizens of the valley would take pride in perusing. The plan was
abandoned reluctantly on account of the want of space for such a
record. We are able to furnish a synopsis of the military history of
Minnesota taken from a recent address made by ex-Gov. Ramsey before
the Loyal Legion at St. Paul. It is doubly interesting, coming as it
does from the governor of the State during the earlier portion of the
war:
Ex-Gov. Alexander Ramsey was called upon to respond to the toast,
"Minnesota and the War; For God, Our Country and the Right." He said:
"Amid the many evidences of harmony and prosperity in all sections of
the great republic it is difficult to realize that the citizens of
Minnesota, within the memory of many still alive, were called upon to
preserve the integrity of the United States of America by the force of
arms.
"There has ever been a community of interest between our own State, in
whose midst are found the sources of the Mississippi, and the several
states on its borders toward the Gulf of Mexico; the wheat fields of
Minnesota, the cotton and sugar plantations of Mississippi and
Louisiana must be inseparable, yet it can not be disguised that a
short-sighted statesmanship made a vigorous attempt to separate those
whom an all-wise Providence had joined together.
"In the month of April, 1861, upon official business as governor of
Minnesota, I was called to the city of Washington. The knots of
earnest men and anxious faces in the corridors and reading rooms of
the hotels indicated a widespread belief that there was an impending
peril, a serious conspiracy upon the part of some in the cotton
producing and slave holding states to secede from the Union, although
the general government had never infringed upon their rights under the
constitution.
"On Saturday night, April 13th, the population of Washington was
deeply moved by the intelligence that Fort Sumter in the harbor of
Charleston had been attacked by insurgents, and that the garrison had
surrendered.
"Early Sunday morning, accompanied by two citizens of Minnesota, I
visited the war department, and found the secretary with his hat on
and papers in his hand about to leave his office. I said 'My business
is simply as governor of Minnesota to tender a thousand men to defend
the government.' 'Sit down immediately,' he replied, 'and write the
tender you have made, as I am now on my way to the president's
mansion.'
"This was quickly done, and thus Minnesota became the first to cheer
the president by offers of assistance in the crisis which had arrived.
"My action and the acceptance of this offer were dispatched to St.
Paul, and in a few days companies in the different towns in Minnesota
were being organized, and on the twenty-seventh of the month Adjt.
Gen. John B. Sanborn issued an order that more companies had been
organized than were necessary to complete the First regiment of
Minnesota, and on the third of May, having returned to St. Paul during
April, I sent a telegram to the president offering a second regiment.
"On the twenty-first of June the First regiment, under Col. Gorman,
left Fort Snelling, and in one month, on Sunday, the twenty-first of
July, distinguished itself as the advance of Heintzleman's division in
the battle of Bull Run, Virginia. The Second regiment, in command of
Col. H. P. Van Cleve, a graduate of West Point, left Fort Snelling in
October, and on the nineteenth of January was in close conflict with
the enemy near Mill Springs, Kentucky, Gen. Zollicoffer and other
insurgent officers having fallen under their fire. A third regiment,
under Col. H. C. Lester, left the State in November, 1861, and a
fourth regiment, under Col. John B. Sanborn, was soon organized, and
not long after a fifth, under Col. Borgersrode, was formed. In the
spring of 1862, within a few weeks of each other, the last two left
for the seat of war, and were assigned to the Army of the Mississippi,
and before the close of May were, with their comrades of the Second,
in the action at Corinth.
"But while Minnesota was thus rapidly sending forth her able bodied
men, she was called upon to endure a trial greater than any of her
sister states. On the nineteenth of August there rushed into the
governor's office at the capitol a dusty and exhausted messenger who
had been fifteen hours in the saddle with dispatches from Galbraith,
the Sioux agent, containing the startling intelligence that the Sioux
had risen and were murdering the settlers and plundering and burning
their houses. An hour or two later another messenger arrived from
Forest City with information that the Sioux had also killed many
whites at Acton. It was evident that there was a general uprising, and
that no time was to be lost.
"I immediately proceeded to Fort Snelling and consulted as to the best
measures to protect our people. Here were only raw recruits, without
arms or clothing, but at length four companies of the Sixth regiment
were organized, and that night sent up the Minnesota river to
Shakopee, and ex-Gov. H. H. Sibley, who had had a long acquaintance
with the Sioux, was placed in command.
"From that point they were directed to proceed by land. Telegrams were
sent to President Lincoln and the governors of Wisconsin, Iowa,
Illinois, and Michigan relative to the horrible outbreak and asking
for aid.
"When the troops reached St. Peter they were delayed in moulding balls
to fit their arms and in preparing canister shot. By September
portions of the Third regiment, which had returned to the State, and
the Sixth and Seventh regiments, which had been organized, were in the
field, and on the twenty-third of the month had a battle with the
Indians at Wood lake, Lieut. Col. Marshall, of the Seventh regiment,
your late commander of this legion, leading five companies of his own
and two of the Sixth in a successful charge, clearing a ravine of
hostile savages.
"Never before in the history of the republic had so many settlers
fallen from Indian barbarity. In ten days in August about eight
hundred white men, women and children were killed, and at least 15,000
persons fled from the scalping knife to St. Paul and other places of
security.
"During the summer of 1862 the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Minnesota
regiments of Volunteers were organized. In January, 1863, having been
elected to represent the State in the United States senate, Lieut.
Gov. Swift on and after the tenth of July acted as governor for the
unexpired term, who was succeeded by Gov. Stephen H. Miller, both of
whom, in every way possible, sustained the general government.
"Minnesota during the war had surely not more than 40,000 citizens
able to bear arms. She furnished eleven regiments of infantry, one of
heavy artillery, three batteries of light artillery, four cavalry
organizations and two companies of sharpshooters, and official returns
show that she contributed 25,000 soldiers in all."
Mention of George H. Hazzard, of St. Paul, unintentionally omitted
from the body of the work, is appended below.
George H. Hazzard is one of St. Paul's wide awake, energetic young
men. He is a native of the state of New York. He came to the West
when a youth and located in St. Paul in 1859. He has been engaged in
general agencies and real estate, and has served as county
commissioner of Ramsey county and filled other city positions in St.
Paul. He was a member of the Methodist General Conference in New York
City in 1888. He married a daughter of Rev. Benjamin F. Hoyt, of St.
Paul.
LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ST. CROIX VALLEY--WISCONSIN SIDE.
Thirty-eighth Session, 1885--Senators: Hans B. Warner, Joel F. Nason.
House: Thomas Porter, James Johnson, Charles S. Thayer, Frank M. Nye.
Thirty-ninth Session, 1887--First Biennial Session--Senate: Joel F.
Nason, William A. Rust. House: J. B. Thayer, John A. Murphy, H. L.
Humphrey, James N. McCourt, Charles S. Taylor.