Fifty Years In The Northwest
the lake to be the natural terminus of European trade and a centre of
American commerce. He is an engineer, surveyor, real estate dealer,
and is interested in some of the converging lines of railroad at
Superior City.
SOLON H. CLOUGH.--Mr. Clough was born in Madison county, New York,
Aug. 31, 1828; was educated at Fulton Academy, since known as Falley
Seminary, Oswego county, New York. He attended for a short time
Hamilton College, New York, studied law, and was admitted to the bar
at Syracuse in 1851. He came to Hudson, Wisconsin, in the fall of
1857; in 1861 was elected mayor of Hudson; in 1864, judge of the
Eleventh circuit, and removed to Osceola. In 1869 he removed to
Superior City; in 1876 returned to Hudson, but removed again to
Superior in 1881, where he still resides. He was re-elected circuit
judge in 1870, and in 1882 was appointed by Gov. Rusk to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of Judge Barron. At the conclusion of his
term he was re-elected for the ensuing term. Judge Clough was married
in 1851 to Kate Taylor, of New York.
VINCENT ROY, a brother of Peter Roy, well known among the pioneers of
the Northwest, was born in Fort Francis in 1825; came to La Pointe in
1839; attended school a few terms, and engaged in the fur trade. In
1854 he came to Superior, where he still resides, and is an active,
enterprising merchant.
D. GEORGE MORRISON, a son of William Morrison, the discoverer of the
source of the Mississippi, resides at Superior City, where he has
served as register of deeds for Douglas county since 1856, a period of
thirty-one years. He came to Superior an 1854.
AUGUST ZACHAU came to Superior in 1852, from Chicago, where he had
been for three years, working at the carpenter's trade. He was then
twenty-seven years of age, and a Prussian by birth. He was engaged by
the Superior Town Site Company to superintend the building
improvements going on at what is now the East End. When he came up, no
Ste. Marie canal had been dug, and a portage was necessary between
Lakes Superior and Huron, involving a change in the line of vessels.
He built the first hotel in Superior, the old Pioneer House, which
burned in 1857, and also the present Nicollet House, which was built
of logs, cut on what is now Tower Slip. He also built the Quebec pier,
the first dock ever built at the head of Lake Superior. He also
assisted in cutting the old government trail through to the St. Croix
river. He was an active participant in the defense of the town site
people in their battles with the claim jumping pre-emptioners, who had
settled on the lands adjoining, and who filed contests on much of the
town site as soon as the plats were returned to the land office at
Willow River, now known as Hudson. In cutting the sixty miles of trail
to the St. Croix, every able-bodied man turned out, except enough to
guard the homes and cut kindling wood. The axemen ground their axes at
Fond du Lac, the only trading station of importance at that time on
the St. Louis river. He pre-empted, in the interest of his fellow
sufferers on the town site, eighty acres of land, now part of
Superior. He has always led a quiet, laborious life; now runs a small
general store at the East End, and does a little general contracting
for ties and bridge timbers and dock piling. He has a family of five
boys and one girl now living, all in Superior.
Among the first settlers were Judge Hiram Hayes, ---- Ritchie and ----
Gates.
CHAPTER X.
PINE COUNTY.
Prior to the organization of Minnesota Territory, in 1849, Pine county
was included within the limits of St. Croix county, Wisconsin. Until
the organization of Chisago county, in 1852, it was within the limits
of Ramsey, and from thence until 1854, within the limits of Chisago,
when it was organized under its present name. Until 1858 it included
the territory of the present counties of Kanabec and Carlton. It is
bounded on the north by Carlton county, on the east by the St. Croix
river and the state line, and on the west by Aitkin and Kanabec
counties. It is well watered by the St. Croix, Kettle and Kanabec
rivers with their numerous tributaries. There are many fine lakes
within its borders. The finest of these are Cross, Pokegama, Pine and
Sturgeon lakes. This county was originally heavily timbered with pine,
from which fact it derived its name. Though immense quantities have
been removed, the supply is still great enough to make this region a
lumberman's paradise for years to come.
The facilities for floating logs to the St. Croix are scarce equaled
elsewhere. Since 1837 the Kanabec river has been a principal feeder to
the lumber trade of the St. Croix valley. In some of the forests a new
growth has succeeded the old, and should the land be not otherwise
used, the lumberman may yet reap successive harvests in periods
ranging from eight to fifteen years. Much of the land in this county
is well adapted for agriculture. The soil is chiefly a sandy loam with
clay subsoil. Much of the county will eventually become a good grazing
and cereal growing region. The southern townships are heavily timbered
with hardwood and are rapidly being converted into good wheat farms. A
large quantity of cordwood, piles and ties is annually marketed by
means of the railroad. Kanabec river is navigable from Chengwatana and
Pine City to Brunswick, in Kanabec county. The same steamboat that
since 1881 has navigated the Kanabec, also makes trips, six miles up
the Rice and Pokegama rivers. The first crops raised in the county,
except those raised by traders and missionaries, were raised on the
Greeley farm, Kanabec river, near the western limits of the county, by
Royal C. Gray.
At the organization of the county, Herman Trott, George W. Staples and
Royal C. Gray were appointed commissioners. The county was attached
for judicial purposes to Chisago until 1872, at which date the county
seat, located at Chengwatana by legislative enactment, was changed by
a popular vote to Pine City. The first district court was held in
October, 1872, Judge Crosby, presiding; John D. Wilcox, clerk; Edward
Jackson, sheriff.
The first marriage license, issued in 1872, was to John Kelsey and
Mary Hoffman. The first board of county officers, after the removal of
the county seat, were: Commissioners, Hiram Brackett, George Goodwin
and Edward Jackson; auditor, Adolph Munch; register of deeds, Don
Willard; county attorney, treasurer and superintendent of schools,
John D. Wilcox. The first article recorded by the register of Pine
county was a military land warrant, No. 12702, in the name of Prudence
Rockwell, located by William Orrin Baker upon the southeast quarter of
section 32, township 38, range 20, subject to forty days' pre-emption,
dated Stillwater, June 19, 1855; T. M. Fullerton, register. Assigned,
June 14, 1856, to Enos Jones. The second record is of a warranty deed
from John F. Bradford to W. A. Van Slyke, of Ramsey county, of the
west half of the northwest quarter of section 30, township 39, range
19, and the west half of the northwest quarter of the same section.
The finances of the county were in good condition until 1872, from
which time, owing to heavy expenditures for new roads, with possibly
injudicious management, and two defalcations of county auditors,
considerable embarrassment ensued. In 1876 the state legislature
bonded the county indebtedness of $10,000, in ten year bonds, at ten
per cent interest. These bonds were readily received by the creditors,
and the county is now free from debt. During the last year a bridge
800 feet long was built across the Kanabec river near Pine City, at a
cost of $3,350, for which the State appropriated $1,500 and the county
$1,850.
The Lake Superior & Mississippi railroad was completed to Kanabec
river in 1868, and in 1869 extended northwest to the county line. The
building of this road was speedily followed by the erection of
numerous mills along its line, a list of which is appended, with the
very remarkable statistics of the losses by fire, from which but four
of these mills were exempt:
North Branch, Swenson & Co., flour mill; burned; loss,
$8,000.
Rush City, Taylor & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $3,000.
Rock Creek, Edgerton & Co., capacity 2,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $8,000; rebuilt.
Rock Creek, Strong & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $1,500; rebuilt.
Rock Creek, Long & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly;
removed.
Pine City, Ferson & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $50,000; rebuilt.
Pine City, Ferson & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $25,000; rebuilt.
Pine City, Munch & Burrows, stave mill; burned; loss,
$10,000.
Pine City, Brackett & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly.
Mission Creek, Taylor & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $12,500; rebuilt.
Mission Creek, Taylor & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $12,500.
Hinckley, Grant & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $3,000.
Hinckley, McKean & Butler, capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $7,000; rebuilt.
Miller Station, Robie & Co., shingle mill; burned; loss,
$3,000.
Kettle River, S. S. Griggs & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet
yearly; never operated; loss, $5,000.
Moose Lake, McArthur & Co., capacity 2,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $30,000.
Barnum, Cooley & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly;
burned; loss, $5,000.
Barnum, Bliss & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly.
Northern Pacific Junction, Payne & Co., two mills burned;
loss, $50,000; rebuilt the third time.
POKEGAMA LAKE.
This beautiful lake lies in township 39, range 22. It is about five
miles in length by one in breadth and finds an outlet in Kanabec
river. It is celebrated for its historical associations. Thomas
Conner, an old trader, informed the writer of these sketches, in 1847,
that he had had a trading post on the banks of this lake thirty years
before, or about the year 1816. This was before Fort Snelling was
built. Mr. Conner said that there was a French trading post at
Pokegama long before he went there. It was in the spring of 1847,
after a wearisome day's tramp, that I made his acquaintance and shared
his unstinted hospitality. His post, at that time, was located at the
mouth of Goose creek, Chisago county, on the banks of the St. Croix.
His rude, portable house was built of bark, subdivided with mats and
skins into different apartments. Although at an advanced period in
life, his mind was clear and he conversed with a degree of
intelligence which caused me to ask him why he lived thus secluded,
away from all the privileges of a civilized life. His reasons, some of
them, were forcible; he liked the quiet of the wilderness, away from
the turmoils of the envious white race. I learned from him many
interesting facts connected with travelers, traders and explorers of
our St. Croix valley. This was the last season he spent on the river.
In 1847, when I visited Pokegama, Jeremiah Russell, an Indian farmer,
had a very pretty farm on a point of land on the southwest side of the
lake, and between the lake and the river. A Frenchman, Jarvis, lived a
short distance from Russell. Across the lake from Russell's were the
neat and tasteful log buildings and gardens of the Presbyterian
mission. The mission was established in the spring of 1836, by Rev.
Frederic Ayer and his associates, under the auspicies of the American
Board of Foreign Missions. Mr. Ayer had been laboring at Yellow Lake
mission, but, owing to the growing unfriendliness of the Indians, had