Fifty Years In The Northwest
there when a cyclone struck the grounds and swept away all the
improvements. The society again effected an arrangement by which their
fairs were held on the grounds near Stillwater.
MINNESOTA STATE PRISON.
At the organization of Minnesota Territory Congress appropriated
$5,000 for a territorial prison. The legislature expended the money
thus appropriated in building a prison at Stillwater. The site was
located by a commission appointed by the legislature in 1849,
consisting of John McKusick, E. A. C. Hatch and Lewis Robert. The
commission was also authorized to locate the Territorial University
and select a site in St. Paul for the capitol. Their task was not
completed until the ensuing year. Their selection of a location for
the university and of a site for the capitol were satisfactory, but it
was generally conceded that the site for the prison was badly chosen.
The ground, nine acres, was mostly quagmire, and was, moreover,
crowded in a ravine between high bluffs. However, it was convenient to
the lake and steamboat landing, and was well watered with pure spring
water.
In 1851 Jesse Taylor, F. R. Delano, Martin Mower, J. E. McKusick, and
Jacob Fisher entered into contract with the commissioners, under the
firm name of Jesse Taylor & Co., to build one stone wing of the prison
building, to be inclosed with a stone wall. The dimensions of the wing
were 30 × 40 feet and three stories high. In 1853 an addition was
built, and Francis R. Delano was appointed warden. Until 1858 the
expenditure of the public money used in building and other expenses
was under the control of the warden. Under state rule the warden was
relieved of this burden of responsibility. The legislature had
provided that prisoners might be received in the penitentiary not yet
convicted of crime, on condition that their board should be defrayed
by the counties from which they were sent. When this expense was not
promptly met by the counties the prisoners thus held were set at
liberty. The Washington county grand jury investigated the matter and
memorialized the ensuing legislature, which effected a change in the
laws regarding such commitments. Wings were added to the prison, walls
were built, shops and other accessories added from year to year, and
appropriations were made from time to time. In 1870 an appropriation
of $74,000 was made for extending the building. Outside companies were
permitted to build shops and manufactories within the prison limits
that they might avail themselves of convict labor.
The following are the wardens who have served since the prison was
built: Territorial, F. R. Delano; state government: Francis O. J.
Smith, appointed March 4, 1858; Henry N. Setzer, Aug. 4, 1858; John S.
Proctor, Jan. 1, 1860; Joshua L. Taylor, Feb. 16, 1868; A. C. Webber,
March 16, 1870; Henry A. Jackman, Oct. 10, 1870; John A. Reid, Aug. 3,
1874; H. G. Stordock, 1887.
The following table shows the number of convicts each year up to the
present time:
1853 0
1854 2
1855 8
1856 1
1857 0
1858 2
1839 5
1860 16
1861 12
1862 7
1963 8
1864 7
1865 11
1866 29
1867 36
1868 31
1869 47
1870 39
1871 60
1872 59
1873 64
1875 93
1876 90
1877 145
1878 218
1879 254
1880 254
1881 247
1882 279
1883 301
1884 356
1885 395
1886, Mar. 31 416
The prison on the whole has been well and humanely managed. There have
been occasional outbreaks, easily suppressed, or cases of individual
insubordination, two or three with fatal results to the
insubordinates.
The prison buildings have been several times visited by damaging and
disastrous fires. The most serious were in 1884. The first occurred
January 8th, by which the large workshop and machinery owned by the
State and the Northwestern Car Company were destroyed. The second
occurred January 26th, and destroyed the main prison buildings,
including the cells, from which the prisoners were rescued with the
greatest difficulty. One perished of suffocation. On this occasion
guards, prison officials and some of the convicts displayed heroism
worthy of the highest commendation. The convicts on the whole behaved
well. Mr. Reid, the warden of the prison, behaved with great coolness
and decision, and so averted what might have been a fearful disaster.
FIRES.
Stillwater has suffered occasionally from fires. The first house
burned was the McKusick boarding house, in 1846. The Northrup hotel
was burned in 1847. In 1866 a fire occurred on the west side of Main
street, between Myrtle and Chestnut, in which twelve buildings were
burned, principally frame structures. In 1872 the Lake House and four
adjacent buildings were burned. The Schulenburg mill was burned in
1878. Two great fires occurred in the penitentiary in 1884. The
Episcopal church building and the mills of Hersey & Bean were burned
in 1887. Numerous smaller fires occurred at intervals, but owing to
the efficiency of the fire companies they were easily suppressed.
BONDS AND INDEBTEDNESS.
Up to 1886 the bonded indebtedness of the city has aggregated the sum
of $345,000. The bonds were issued at various times for railway and
levee improvements, city bridge, city buildings, water works and
current funds. The interest on these bonds has always been promptly
met, and the expenditures for improvements have been more than repaid
to the taxpayers by the increased valuation of property within the
city limits.
ISSAC STAPLES, son of Rev. Winslow Staples, was born in Topsham,
Maine, Sept. 25, 1816. At eighteen years of age he bought his time of
his father for three hundred and sixty dollars. He found employment on
the Penobscot river at lumbering for two years, when he engaged in
selling goods at Old Town, but soon after went into the lumbering
business with S.F. Hersey. In 1849 Mr. Staples was appointed agent for
the Penobscot Indians living at Old Town, twelve miles above Bangor,
on the Penobscot. In October, 1853, Mr. Staples came to Minnesota for
the purpose of purchasing pine lands, and located at Stillwater,
moving his family here in 1854. Mr. Staples represented a wealthy
company, composed of himself, S. F. Hersey and some Massachusetts men,
who furnished all the money needed to buy pine land or make any other
investments deemed advisable. They, through the agency of Mr. Staples,
purchased immense quantities of pine timber. They built a large saw
mill in Stillwater, and dealt in any and all branches of business
considered remunerative. The advent of Isaac Staples in Stillwater
gave to the city new life. Mr. Staples was indefatigable in his
labors, full of vigor and in prime health. His ambition was unlimited,
his judgment good. Backed up by a successful lumbering experience in
Maine, and with money sufficient to meet all necessary calls, he was
financially progressive and prosperous. In after years Messrs. Staples
& Hersey purchased the entire interest of the firm of Hersey, Staples
& Co. Subsequently the firm changed to Hersey & Staples and Hersey,
Staples & Bean, and finally a division of property was agreed upon.
Since the division Mr. Staples has been just as extensively engaged in
the name of Isaac Staples in doing business as at any period in his
past life.
In 1887 Mr. Staples purchased the property of the Cushing Company,
located at St. Croix and Taylor's Falls, for $50,000. This property
has long been in litigation and consequently has been unimproved. The
advent of Mr. Staples, as proprietor, opens a new era in the history
of the two villages at the head of navigation on the St. Croix.
In addition to his lumbering and real estate interests, Mr. Staples
has also engaged in farming and stock raising on an extensive scale.
He owns one farm of six hundred and forty acres within the limits of
Stillwater. This farm is well stocked and supplied with stores, barns,
shops and other buildings. It is used as a stork farm, and as a
headquarters for supplying his lumbering camps.
Mr. Staples has another farm located on the line of the Minneapolis,
Soo & Atlantic railway, eleven miles northwest of Stillwater, known as
the Maple Island farm, which contains 1,400 acres of land, inclosed
and supplied with barns, farm houses and other buildings. There are
fine wells and lakes and some well stocked fish ponds. He owns a
flouring mill on this farm.
Mr. Staples has a third farm at Bronson, Kanabec county, containing
2,000 acres of land, well under cultivation. Ann river flows through
this farm, and is supplied with a dam to facilitate the driving of
logs into Fish lake. The farm is also made a fitting-out place for the
lumbering camps. These three farms are valued at $250,000.
Mr. Staples has lived an unusually busy life, and has been unusually
successful. Though past the ordinary limit of human life, he is still
active, and will probably continue to plan and work as long as he
lives. He is happiest when most busily employed. His mind is of the
active type. He is restless, alert, far-seeing, systematic, and
persistent. Without these qualities he never could have achieved the
success that has crowned his career. He has been twice married; first
in 1839, to Miss Caroline B. Rogers, of Old Town, Maine, by whom he
had one child, who is still living. Mrs. Staples died in 1810. He was
again married, Jan, 31, 1841, to Miss Olivia J. Pettengill, of Old
Town, Maine, by whom he has had eight children,--four sons and four
daughters,--four of whom are living.
SAMUEL F. HERSEY, of the late firm of Hersey, Staples & Co., was born
in Sumner, Maine, in 1812. At an early day he became a citizen of
Bangor, Maine, and wisely invested in pine timber lands on the
Penobscot waters, when lands were cheap. Their true value was not
appreciated by many. The business interests of the county had not been
developed and lumber dealing was not profitable. The increase in value
on his investments made him a wealthy man. He was a banker, merchant
and lumberman. His investments always yielded a rich return. His
associates and townsmen often elected him to posts of honor and trust.
In 1842-57-65-67 and 69 he was in the Maine state legislature. When he
died, Feb. 3. 1875, he was serving his second term (four years) as
representative in Congress, from the Bangor or Fourth district of
Maine. He died at his home in Bangor. Both houses of Congress paid
fitting tributes to his high business, social and christian standing,
and his worth as a legislator and statesman.
Mr. Hersey was not a citizen of Minnesota, but as early as 1851 became
a member of the firm of Hersey, Staples & Co., of Stillwater, and
interested himself greatly in Minnesota and Stillwater enterprises.
Amongst other things he aided in building two railroads, and gave
liberally for the erection of the Universalist church and to its
library. He was thrice married, and left a family of four sons, the
children of his second wife.
ROSCOE F. HERSEY, the oldest son, was born July 18, 1841, in Milford,
Maine; was educated at the graded school in Bangor, and clerked in his
father's store until 1862, when he volunteered as a soldier in Company
A, Eighteenth Maine Infantry. He was appointed second lieutenant and
rose to the rank of captain in 1863, but on May 19, 1864, was severely