Fifty Years In The Northwest
origin, but may be fixed as given sometime between 1680 and 1683. An
old map in my possession, one hundred and twenty-five years old, gives
the present name of the river and lake. The St. Croix valley embraces
an area of territory from 20 to 90 miles in width, and about 120 miles
in length. Its northern water, Upper Lake St. Croix, is about 20 miles
from Lake Superior. The southern portion is a rich prairie country,
interspersed with groves of hardwood timber. The more northern portion
is interspersed with groves of pine, tamarack, cedar, balsam and
hardwoods. The whole district, with a small exception, is a cereal
country. It abounds in wild meadows, and much of the swampy portion
will ultimately be utilized by ditching, which will transform it all
into a good stock raising country. About eight-tenths of this entire
valley is fitted by nature for agriculture.
Wheat, the leading cereal, averages ten to thirty bushels per acre;
the growth of tame grasses can not be excelled; vegetables grow to
wonderful size; native wild fruits abound; cultivated fruits are being
successfully introduced; cranberries are being cultivated in the
northern part. Wheat, stock, and pine lumber are the principal
articles of export. The southern portion is well watered by the St.
Croix and its tributaries--Kinnikinic, Willow, Apple, Sunrise, and
smaller streams, lakes and springs. The northern portion is abundantly
watered by the St. Croix and tributaries--Wolf, Trade, Wood, Clam,
Yellow, Namakagan, Rush, Kanabec and Kettle rivers. Small streams and
lakes are numerous, of which only the largest are named on the maps.
The valley is abundantly supplied with water power, capable of running
enough manufactories to work up all the products of the country. The
soil is, as a general thing, dry and arable. April and May are the
seeding months. Crops mature, and are seldom injured by frosts. The
whole country adjacent to this valley will answer to this general
description.
On the twenty-ninth day of July, 1837, our government purchased the
valley of the St. Croix of the Indians at a treaty held at Fort
Snelling, Gov. Henry Dodge and Gen. Wm. R. Smith acting as
commissioners. The purchase was ratified in Congress in the spring of
1838. Polk county, originally a part of Crawford, in 1840 became a
part of St. Croix, and in 1853 received its present organization and
name, the latter in honor of James K. Polk, eleventh president of the
United States. This country occupies the eastern part of the valley
of the St. Croix lying between Burnett and St. Croix counties on the
north and south, and Barron on the east, the St. Croix river forming
its western boundary. The surface is agreeably diversified with forest
and prairie land, and is supplied with excellent springs, rivers and
lakes. Most of the underlying rock is sandstone. This rock crops out
along the banks of the St. Croix and is extensively used for building
purposes. Lime rock is also found along the river banks, some of which
is of a superior grade, notably that below Osceola, which is
manufactured into lime and exported. The natural scenery can scarcely
be surpassed in the West. The towering, precipitous bluffs along the
St. Croix, the picturesque trap rocks of the Dalles, and the bright
clear lakes of the interior have long been an attraction to the
tourist. The lakes and smaller streams abound in fish, and the latter
are famous for their abundance of brook trout.
The county seat at the organization of the county was located at St.
Croix Falls. The first election held in the limits of the present
county of Polk, prior to its organization, was at St. Croix Falls,
then a voting precinct, known as Caw-caw-baw-kang, a Chippewa name,
meaning waterfall. The returns of this election were made to Prairie
du Chien. I was present at the canvassing of these returns. They were
found to be accurate. Annually since then elections were held at this
point and returns made, first to Prairie du Chien, Crawford county,
then to Stillwater, St. Croix county, to Hudson, St. Croix county, and
to Osceola Mills, Polk county. By an election held in Polk county just
after its organization the county seat was removed to Osceola Mills,
by a unanimous vote. The records of the first elections can not be
found, they having been stolen from the safe in 1864. The following
county officers were elected in 1853: Isaac Freeland, clerk of court
and register of deeds; E. C. Treadwell, sheriff; Oscar A. Clark,
surveyor; Wm. Kent, county treasurer; Harmon Crandall, coroner; Nelson
McCarty, district attorney; J. Freeland, clerk of board of
supervisors. The first meeting of the board of supervisors was held in
Osceola, in Isaac Freeland's building, where the offices were located
for many years. The first court was held in the school house, Wyram
Knowlton presiding. Both petit and grand juries were in attendance.
Isaac Freeland was the first attorney admitted to practice. Isaac W.
Hale was the first county judge. The first marriage was that of Lewis
Barlow to ---- ----, at St. Croix Falls. The first birth in the county
was that of Charles Northrup, son of Anson Northrup, at St. Croix
Falls (1844). The first death was that of John Kelly, by drowning
(1839), at St. Croix Falls. The first school in the county was
established at St. Croix Falls by Miss Tainter, from Prairie du Chien,
in 1848. The first school house was built in Osceola in 1852, the
second at St. Croix Falls in 1861. The first mail, established in
1840, was carried up the St. Croix river by batteaus in summer and by
sleds over the ice in winter. The mail was weekly; the carrier was Dr.
Philip Aldrich. The first land mail route was in 1847, from Willow
River to St. Croix Falls. The mail was carried by Dr. Aldrich through
the woods. The first stage route was established in 1855. The first
deed we find of Polk county property is recorded at Prairie du Chien
Sept. 2, 1845, from James Purinton to John Witherell, of St. Louis,
Missouri, for $4,933,--a deed of trust covering a saw mill at St.
Croix Falls. The second deed is from Benj. T. Otis to Edmond Johnson,
conveying an undivided interest in a pre-emption claim, known as the
Northrup or Jerusalem claim, about one mile east of St. Croix Falls,
for $200. The first deed recorded in the county of old St. Croix was
Sept. 29, 1845, from James Purinton, of St. Croix Falls, to John H.
Ferguson, of the city of St. Louis, Missouri,--consideration
$1,552,--of St. Croix Falls water power property. The first store was
built in St. Croix Falls in 1839 and stocked with goods by the St.
Croix Falls Company. The first blacksmith shop and the first hotel
were built at St. Croix Falls. The first grist mill was built at
Osceola in 1853. The first crops were raised at "Jerusalem," the first
farm in the county, in 1839. "Jerusalem" was the farm now owned by Wm.
Blanding, and was early noted as a resort for pleasure seekers, as a
place for picnics and base ball games. The first pre-emption and entry
of land was made in 1848, by Harmon Crandall, of Farmington. Settlers
came into the county slowly until about 1866, since which time the
population has more rapidly increased.
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
Undoubtedly the greatest curse to the pioneers of a new settlement,
and to the aborigines as well, is the liquor traffic. The Indians,
under the influence of whisky, became infuriated and were capable of
committing any atrocity; the effects upon the whites were not so
violent but just as surely demoralizing, and in time as fatal. Among
dealers in the vile fluid there was no one more persistent and
unscrupulous than Capt. M. M. Samuels. During the summers of 1848 and
1849 there was no other whisky selling house at the Falls. The
character of the whisky sold was vile beyond description. Mrs. H----
and son informed me that they were employed by Samuels during the
summer in compounding various roots with tobacco and boiling them, for
the manufacture of a strong drink that was sold for whisky. Many, both
whites and Indians, were poisoned by this compound. As an emphatic
evidence against the vileness of the liquor, I append some of the
blighting results:
A talented young lawyer, Hall by name, from Philadelphia, became
infatuated with the peculiar whisky furnished by Samuels, and when
insane from its effects ran from Barlow's boarding house to a high
rock overhanging the St. Croix river, just below the falls, plunged in
and was drowned.
Another, named Douglas, under the same influence, tried repeatedly to
drown himself, when his friends bound him securely with cords. He then
managed to stab himself.
Alexander Livingston, a man who in youth had had excellent advantages,
became himself a dealer in whisky, at the mouth of Wolf creek, in a
drunken melee in his own store was shot and killed by Robido, a
half-breed. Robido was arrested but managed to escape justice.
Livingston, once, when on his way from Wolf creek to Clam falls,
sought refuge in my camp, having with him two kegs of whisky. The
Indians soon collected at the camp in fighting trim and sung and
danced madly about the door of the cabin, and clamored for
scoot-a-wa-bo (whisky). I refused to allow any whisky to be issued.
The Indians were furious. Livingston cowered with fear. Foreseeing
trouble I ordered Nat Tibbetts and Jonathan Brawn to take the kegs and
follow me. The Indians stopped their gymnastic performances and gazed
intently. With an axe and with a single blow on each keg I knocked in
the heads, and the whisky was soon swallowed up in the snow. The
Indians sprang forward with demoniac yells and commenced licking up
the saturated snow, after which they danced around me, calling me
"Oge-ma" (captain). I gave them food and they went away sober and
apparently satisfied.
FRONTIER JUSTICE.
In the spring of 1848 there were two rival whisky sellers at or near
Balsam lake. Miles Tornell, a Norwegian, was located midway between
the lake and the Falls. Miller, a German, had his post at the lake.
Miller was an older trader, and claimed exclusive rights. A bitter
feeling sprang up between them, which resulted, as the testimony
afterward proved, in the murder of Tornell. His house was burned, and
his body found concealed in a coal pit. One McLaughlin, who was
stopping with Tornell, was also murdered. An investigation was set on
foot. Samuels and Fields acted as detectives, and fixed the crime upon
an Indian, whom they arrested on an island in Blake's lake, and
brought to the Falls for trial. H. H. Perkins acted as judge, a jury
of good men was impaneled, and the trial was held in Daniel Mears'
store. A prosecuting attorney and counsel for the accused were
appointed. The Indian frankly confessed the killing, and said that he
had been hired to do the bloody work by Miller. Another Indian
testified to being present on the occasion of the murder. After brief
remarks by the lawyers, the jury brought in a verdict of guilty. There
was no formal sentence. The Indian was kept under guard till next
morning, when, by the unanimous consent of all present, he was hanged
to a tree, since blighted, that stood near the old burying ground
(later Louisiana street), and was hanged, Samuels officiating as
sheriff. The Indians present were permitted to take the body, which
they buried with Indian rites. Toward Miller, who ought to have been
held as principal, the crowd were unexpectedly lenient. Instead of
being hanged upon the same tree, he was merely lashed to it, and
flogged, Pat Collins administering fifteen strokes on the bare back
with a beech withe. He was then placed on a steamboat and ordered to
leave the country, never to return. Of the more active participants in
the hanging, Pat Collins, who officiated as hangman, and who flogged