Fifty Years In The Northwest Part 87

YEAR. FEET.

1837-38 300,000 1838-39 700,000 1839-40 1,500,000 1840-41 2,500,000 1841-42 3,000,000 1842-43 3,500,000 1843-44 8,500,000 1844-45 14,000,000 1845-46 25,500,000 1846-47 26,000,000 1847-48 37,000,000 1848-49 50,000,000 1849-50 75,000,000 1850-51 87,000,000 1851-52 90,000,000 1852-53 110,000,000 1853-54 125,000,000 1854-55 165,000,000 1855-56 187,000,000 1856-57 200,000,000 1857-58 135,000,000 1858-59 156,000,000 1859-60 175,000,000 1860-61 160,000,000 1861-62 175,000,000 1862-63 150,000,000 1863-64 140,000,000 1864-65 144,000,000 1865-66 137,000,000 1866-67 174,000,000 1867-68 183,000,000 1868-69 194,000,000 1869-70 209,000,000 1870-71 170,000,000 1871-72 224,000,000 1872-73 108,000,000 1873-74 188,000,000 1874-75 178,000,000 1875-76 197,000,000 1876-77 183,000,000 1877-78 225,000,000 1878-79 242,000,000 1879-80 230,000,000 1880-81 247,000,000 1881-82 295,000,000 1882-83 302,000,000 1883-84 230,000,000 1884-85 235,000,000 1885-86 285,000,000 1886-87 350,000,000 1887-88 370,000,000

CHARTERED DAMS.

The Namakagon Totogatic Dam Company obtained a charter in 1869 from the Wisconsin legislature empowering them to construct two dams for sheering logs, one to be at the outlet of Namakagon lake, the other on Totogatic river, a stream tributary to Namakagon river, entering that stream about eight miles above its junction with the St. Croix. In 1870, by legislative act, the charter was amended by permission to erect sixteen dams, to be built severally on the waters of the Upper St. Croix, Moose, Eau Claire, Namakagon, Totogatic, Yellow, and Clam rivers. The name was changed to the "St. Croix Dam Company," and the capital stock was fixed at $50,000. The incorporators were A. M.

Chase, Joel Nason, Henry D. Barron, Wm. Kent, and S. B. Dresser. A. M.

Chase was the first president. The company had permission under the charter to hold the water during the seasons when it was not necessary to navigation on the St. Croix. These dams were usually shut down to gather a head during the months of March and April, with the exception of the dams on the Namakagon and Eau Claire, which have the privilege of gathering and retaining a head of water during any part of the year. The head of water above these dams varied from seven to ten feet, and the average cost of construction was $4,000. The tolls per 1,000 feet at these dams were as follows: Namakagon and Clam, 25 and 20 cents; at Totogatic, 20 and 15 cents; St. Croix, 20 and 15 cents; other dams, 3 to 10 cents.

A. M. Chase was the original mover in organizing the corporation and forwarding its interests. He was foreman in selecting sites and building the various dams. He was also owner and general agent until within the last few years, when he transferred his interests to other parties. The charter expires in 1893.

The dam on Clam river, built at a cost of $10,000, was, in 1886, blown up by dynamite and destroyed by Robert Davidson, who claimed that the flowage interfered with his meadow lands.

LUMBERING ON THE ST. CROIX IN 1845.

The progress of civilization involving the building of railways, the transformation of the wilderness into cultivated fields, the growth of villages and cities, the increased facilities for manufacturing and the bringing the forest domain under law, has created such changes in the business of lumbering as to justify the insertion of a chapter relating to the life and surroundings of the early lumberman. Let us go back to the year 1845. The country, save a few spa.r.s.e settlements on the navigable streams, is as yet an unbroken wilderness, and tenanted only by wild beasts and roving Indians. There are vast regions, densely wooded, in which the sound of the woodman's axe has never been heard, lying about the headwaters of the Chippewa, St.

Croix and other streams. These pineries can only be reached by stemming the currents of the minor streams in bateaux or birch bark canoes, or by traversing the country on foot or with teams. Parties operating must purchase their outfit, consisting of teams, supplies of flour, pork, etc., in Illinois or Missouri. Sometimes they drive their teams through unsettled country, without roads, swimming and fording streams, clearing away obstructions, and camping where night overtakes them. Sometimes they ship their supplies by steamer to Stillwater or St. Croix Falls. When landed at Stillwater the supplies are packed upon flatboats and poled to Taylor's Falls, where they are to be portaged to the head of the rapids, a distance of six miles, and transferred to bateaux. The portage is a difficult one. The goods are to be hoisted up over the rocks of the Dalles and placed upon sleds calculated to run upon the bare ground. Considering the inequalities of the surface from the Dalles to the head of the rapids, the portage is an immensely difficult one. They are then taken to their place of destination, the bateaux returning to the Falls for successive loads, the whole transfer requiring considerable time. Sometimes, if late in the season, part or whole of the fleet of bateaux may be caught in the ice, in which case a bushed road must be made, and the supplies transported by teams and men.

Arriving on the ground, the operators blaze trees on lines surrounding the region which they wish to work during the winter. These claims are generally respected by others. The first work to be done is making a camp, building stables, clearing streams of obstructions, and making roads. Incidentally the Indians, certain to be visitors at the camps, are to be propitiated with presents of flour, pork and tobacco. These pacified and out of the way, the lumberman may say with Alexander Selkirk--

"I am monarch of all I survey; My right there is none to dispute."

Trespa.s.sing is unknown. The lumberman is not conscious that he himself is a trespa.s.ser on the domain of Uncle Sam. Nor is he. Has he not the best t.i.tle in the world? Who is there to dispute it? No government agent ever troubles him, or questions his right to fell the royal trees and dispose of them as he may choose. He is earning by his strong right arm his t.i.tle to the trees. He endures much, accomplishes much and is the advance courier of civilization. He spends long months away from the common haunts of men. He is cut off from the mails and from home pleasure. He lives an industrious life. Cold is the day when the stroke of his axe is not heard. The snow deepens around him, the temperature sinks lower and lower, till it would not discredit Labrador; still he toils on unceasingly, and at night builds high his blazing fire, wraps himself up in his buffalo robe and blankets, and sleeps through the night the sleep of the tired and the just.

Meanwhile his appet.i.te is marvelous. The cooking (done by one of the crew) maybe of the rudest, and the provisions none of the daintiest, but exercise and the cold gives a relish to the food not often found in the fashionable restaurants. The members of the crew have each allotted duties. To one is intrusted the cooking department, to another the position of teamster, to another that of sled tender; some are choppers, some are swampers, some are sawyers. The records of the camp are kept by the foreman or some person detailed for that purpose.

The winter over, the teams are returned to the settlements. The log driving crew succeeds the choppers and other workers. The logs, having been hauled upon the ice of the driving streams, with the melting of snow are afloat on the swollen streams, and the drivers commence their work, following the logs in their downward course to the mills or booms, dislodging them when they are driven upon sh.o.r.e, and breaking jams when they occur. This work is difficult and attended by considerable exposure, as the driver is often obliged to go into the stream. It therefore commands higher wages than other work. The drivers are without tents, but a w.a.n.gan, or small flat boat, containing bedding, provisions and a cooking kit, is floated down the stream so as to be convenient at night. The w.a.n.gan is managed by the cook alone, and his work, when he ties up for the night, is to take ash.o.r.e the bedding, cooking material, etc., build a fire and provide a meal for the hungry crew. His cooking utensils are of the rudest kind, consisting of a tin reflector and a few iron pots and pans. The savory repast is scarce finished before the arrival of the crew, cold, wet, tired, and hungry. They are not particular about a table with its furniture, but are satisfied to eat from a tin plate, sitting or lying on the ground. Hunger satisfied, they spend their evenings by the blazing fire, drying their clothing, jesting, story telling, or recalling the events of the day, or scanning the open or clouded sky for indications of weather changes. When the sky is clear they trace the constellations, locate the princ.i.p.al stars and planets, or follow the devious windings of the milky way. Some of them have studied astronomy, and some have learned from others, and all are intent, though without books or teachers, on learning the wisdom that Nature teaches, and some are found who have learned to look "from Nature up to Nature's G.o.d."

Occasionally some rougher specimen mars the order and pleasantness of this wild-wood converse by an oath or coa.r.s.e remark, heard, perhaps, but unheeded by the more serious and thoughtful. Such men are found everywhere, in the streets, saloons, and even in the wilderness, men who pollute the air in which they move with profanity and obscenity.

These are not the men who succeed and build up great fortunes; these are not the true conquerors of the wilderness. The sober, thoughtful man is the man who succeeds. It is not necessary that he have the learning acquired from books, or a smattering of science from the schools. He may acquire great knowledge by close study of men, and observation of the phenomena of nature, and so make himself a peer of the book worm and scholar of the library and schools.

The acquaintances formed in these camp scenes and toils often result in life long friendships, and the scenes of camp, river and forest become cherished reminiscences to the actors, who are as fond of recalling them as veteran soldiers are of recounting the hairbreadth escapes and stirring incidents of campaign life.

The drive ends with the delivery of the logs at the booms and mills, the men are paid off and devote themselves for the remainder of the summer to other work.

LUMBERING ON THE ST. CROIX IN 1886.

The St. Croix lumberman, after the lapse of nearly fifty years, is still a picturesque figure, clad, as he is, in coa.r.s.e, strong woolen garments, these of brilliant red, yellow, blue and green, or in some cases as variegated as Joseph's coat of many colors. He is usually a man of stalwart frame, which is set off to advantage by his close fitting garments. His circ.u.mstances are, however, widely different from his old time predecessor.

The rough, hard work of the wilderness, including the building of dams, the construction of reservoirs and roads, and the improvement of the streams, has been accomplished chiefly by his predecessors. He is abundantly supplied with food, produced almost in the neighborhood of the scenes of his winter's work. He travels by rail almost to his destination or drives blooded teams over comparatively good roads, where his predecessors tediously blazed the way and cleared it of underbrush. His camp accommodations are far superior. He is housed in comfortable cabins, warmed with large stoves and heaters, whereas the cabin of the lumberman of 1845 had a fire built on the ground in the centre of the room. The modern camp is well furnished with tables and other conveniences. The cook has a separate room furnished with a cooking stove and modern appliances for cooking. He has his a.s.sistant, known as the "cookee" or second cook. The table is spread with a variety of food, and delicacies that would have astounded the lumberman of 1845. Each operator is limited to his own special work.

His bounds are set and he can go no further, except at the risk of the loss of his labor.

The work goes on with clock-like precision and is comparatively easy.

Everything is done on a larger scale and more economically. The crews are larger and the life is not near so solitary. The various crews employed for the spring drive combine and thereby greatly increase their efficiency. They are supplied with better and covered boats. The cook in the drive has in addition to his "cookee" a w.a.n.gan man to a.s.sist in managing the boat. The drives are larger and yet more easily handled, the conveniences are greater and the expenses less. The men are more independent, and owing to the number employed, and the nearness of settlements and villages, more sociable, and possibly more hilarious and less thoughtful. We shall nevertheless find among them men of character, thoughtful, industrious and earnest men, who would have shone in the a.s.sociations of the earlier camps and who will doubtless in the future be ranked among the successful and capable men, worthy successors of the veterans now leaving the stage of action.

Conjecture as to the future of the lumbering industry, and consequently as to the character of the men engaged in it, would be idle. Who can tell what a day or another fifty years may bring forth?

The pine woods will not last always; already the camps are being pushed further and further to the north and west, and whereever the denuded pine lands are arable the farmer is making his home. The lumbering industry is also pa.s.sing into the hands of corporations, and with their extensive means and the armies of men employed by them the forests are disappearing more rapidly than ever. It is possible that the present generation of lumbermen may be the last in the valley of the St. Croix, and that before another fifty years have pa.s.sed the last of the number may have shouldered his axe or peavy and pa.s.sed "over the divide."

THE LOG JAMS OF THE ST. CROIX.

The St. Croix river in its pa.s.sage through the Dalles is compressed into a comparatively narrow channel, by which means the logs driven down the stream are crowded closely together, so closely as to sometimes become firmly wedged or jammed together. The jam generally occurs at a point known as Angle Rock, a huge promontory of ma.s.sive trap rock extending into the middle of the channel from the Minnesota side, and opposite to the St. Croix landing. The river makes a bend around this rock nearly at a right angle with the channel above. At this point jams are, under certain conditions, almost inevitable.

Sometimes they are of small dimensions and are easily broken.

Sometimes the logs gather in such quant.i.ty and become so tightly wedged that it is a labor of weeks to break them.

The first jam worthy of note occurred in 1865, during the prevalence of high water. It is, in fact, only during high water that jams can occur, the current being at such time swift and strong, and the logs apt to acc.u.mulate in greater number than in the regular drives, from the fact that logs that have been stranded in former seasons or at low water are floated off, and the river is thus filled with logs from bank to bank. These are crowded into the narrow channel of the Dalles faster than they can be discharged, and a jam results. An obstruction once formed, the logs continuing to come in from above fill the channel. The tide of logs arrested, crowd downward until they rest upon the bottom of the river, and are heaped upward sometimes to a height of twenty or thirty feet above the surface. The river thus checked in its course rises, wedging the logs more closely and heaping them higher.

In the jam of 1865 the river channel was filled nearly to the St.

Croix dam, a distance of a mile and a quarter above Angle Rock. This being the first of the great jams excited unusual attention.

Excursionists came up daily in the boats to look upon it. It was indeed a wonderful sight. The logs were heaped together in the wildest confusion, and wedged in at all angles. Men and horses were employed to break the jam, which at that time, owing to the inexperience of the workers, was no light task. The _modus operandi_ of jam breaking is to remove logs from the lower part of the jam till some log which serves as a key to the jam is reached. This being removed the logs above commence moving, and, if the haul be a long one, in a short time the movement is extended to the head of the jam. Perhaps the logs are so heaped above that no water is visible. It matters not; the tremendous current beneath sweeps downward, carrying the logs along, and the spectator beholds a wonderful scene, a river of logs, the current swiftest in the centre of the stream, the logs rolling, tumbling, crashing, grinding, sometimes snapped in sunder like pipestems. The jam breakers are in the wildest excitement, cheering and hurrahing, and some may be seen out in the current of logs, jumping from one to another, or making their escape to the sh.o.r.e. Others on the lower part of the jam at the moment of breaking are carried down the river.

Though apparently a scene of great danger, comparatively few accidents occur. The workers are cool, experienced men with steady nerves and stalwart arms, a race of men not surpa.s.sed for muscular development.

In 1877 another jam took place nearly as large as that of 1865. This jam came near destroying the beautiful bridge that spanned the river at the head of the Dalles. Many of the logs carried high in air by the pressure of the logs below struck the bridge, and at times its destruction seemed inevitable. This bridge has since been replaced by an iron structure, much higher than the first, but even this occasionally received a blow from some log carried along by the current at a "present arms."

In 1883 another jam of considerable dimensions occurred, but it was removed with less labor and expense than its predecessors, and steamboats anch.o.r.ed below were used to aid in breaking it. It cost from $5,000 to $10,000 to break these jams.

By far the greatest of the jams occurred in June, 1886. The water was high, the current strong and the river above so full of logs that a log driver might have crossed upon them. This abundance was owing to other causes than those mentioned in the account of the jam of 1865.

The dams at Snake, Kettle and other rivers had been simultaneously opened, and the logs in these streams all set free at once in the current of the St. Croix. On they came in long procession with but little obstruction till they reached Angle Rock, where they were suddenly arrested, and, owing to the force of the current, wedged more tightly and heaped higher than on any previous occasion, and the river channel was filled with logs to a point two miles above the St. Croix falls formerly known as the dam. To break this jam, two steamers, two engines, several teams of horses and over two hundred men were employed, and during the six weeks that occurred before it was broken, thousands of visitors came by rail and steamboat to look upon it. This jam was estimated to hold during its continuance 150,000,000 feet of logs.

POPULATION OF WISCONSIN.

The first census of the Northwest Territory, taken in 1790, does not show the population of the region now known as Wisconsin. The census of 1800 gave the following figures: Ohio, 45,363; Indiana Territory, 5,641; Green Bay, 50; Prairie du Chien, 65. According to the census of 1880, the original Northwest Territory contained a population of 12,989,571, or more than one-quarter of the population of the United States. The population of Crawford county in 1820 was 492; in 1830, 692; in 1834, 810; in 1836, 1,220; in 1838, 850; in 1841, 1,503; in 1847, 1,409.

In 1836, when Wisconsin Territory was organized, the population of the Territory was, 11,883. The whole number of votes cast at the election in 1836 was 2,462. The population, according to the census taken at the close of every five years, was as follows: In 1840, 30,945; in 1845, 155,275; in 1850, 305,301; in 1855, 552,109; in 1860, 775,881; in 1865, 868,325; in 1870, 1,054,670; in 1875, 1,236,729; in 1880, 1,315,480; in 1885, 1,563,423.

The official compilation of the census of Wisconsin gives the following details: Total population, 1,563,423; white, males, 806,342; females, 748,810; negroes, in full, 5,576; Indians, 2,695. The nativities are divided as follows: United States, 1,064,943; Germany, 265,756; Scandinavia, 90,057; Ireland, 36,371; Great Britain, 32,731; British America, 21,887; Bohemia, 15,838; Holland, 7,357; France, 3,963; all other countries, 20,030; subject to military duty, 286,289; soldiers of the late war, 29,686.

POPULATION OF ST. CROIX, PIERCE, POLK, BURNETT, AND SAWYER COUNTIES.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |1840.|1845.|1850.| 1855.| 1860.| 1865.| 1870.| 1875.| 1880.| 1885.| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ St. Croix | 618 | 809 |624 | 2,040| 5,392 |6,255 |11,039|14,957|18,838|22,389| Pierce | | | | 1,720| 4,672 |6,824 |10,004|15,101|17,685|19,760| Polk | | | | 547| 1,400 |1,677 | 3,422| 6,736|10,095|12,884| Burnett | | | | | 12 | 238 | 705| 1,436| 2,980| 4,607| Sawyer | | | | | | | | | | 2,481| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

POPULATION OF MINNESOTA.

In 1849 the Territory had a population of 4,680. The census taken at periods of every five years shows the following population: In 1850, 6,077; in 1855, ----; in 1860, 172,073; in 1865, 250,099; in 1870, 439,706; in 1875, 597,403; in 1880, 780,773; in 1885, 1,117,798.

The following table gives the population of the counties on the St.

Croix waters.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | 1850. | 1855. | 1860. | 1865. | 1870. | 1875. | 1880. | 1885.| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Washington | 1,066 | ---- | 6,123 | 6,780 | 11,809 | 9,994 | 19,562 | 29,763| Chisago | ---- | ---- | 1,743 | 2,175 | 4,378 | 6,046 | 7,982 | 9,765| Pine | ---- | ---- | 92 | 64 | 648 | 795 | 1,365 | 2,177| Kanabec | ---- | ---- | 30 | 31 | 93 | 311 | 605 | 1,119| Isanti | ---- | ---- | 281 | 453 | 2,035 | 3,901 | 5,063 | 7,032| Carlton | ---- | ---- | 51 | 28 | 286 | 495 | 1,230 | 3,189| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MINNESOTA STATE CAPITOL.

By the organic act of Minnesota Territory, $20,000 were appropriated for a capitol building. At the time the Territory was organized, however (June 1, 1849), the _permanent_ seat of government had not been determined on, and the money was therefore not available. The Central House in St. Paul, a log tavern weather-boarded, situated at the corner of Bench and Minnesota streets, where the rear of the Mannheimer block now is, was rented for the public offices and legislative a.s.sembly. It was for some months known as "The Capitol."

On the lower floor was the secretary of state's office, and the house of representatives chamber. On the second floor was the council chamber and the territorial library. Neither of these legislative halls was over sixteen or eighteen feet square. The rest of the building was used as an inn. The Union colors, floating from a flag staff on the bank in front of the building, was the only mark of its rank. During his entire term of office, Gov. Ramsey kept the executive office in his private residence, and the supreme court met in rented chambers here and there.