Minnesota and Dacotah Part 8

I have now a young man in my mind who came to a town ten miles this side of St. Paul, six months ago, with $500. He commenced trading, and has already, by good investments and the profits of his business, doubled his money. Everything that one can eat or wear brings a high price, or as high as it does in any part of the West. The number of visitors and emigrants is so large that the productions of the territory are utterly inadequate to supply the market. Therefore large quant.i.ties of provisions have to be brought up the river from the lower towns. At Swan River, 100 miles this side of St. Paul, pork is worth $85. Knowing that pork const.i.tutes a great part of the "victuals" up this way, though far from being partial to the article, I tried it when I dined at Swan River to see if it was good, and found it to be very excellent. Board for laboring men must be about four dollars a week. For transient guests at Crow Wing it is one dollar a day.

I have heard it said that money is scarce. It is possible. It certainly commands a high premium; but the reason is that there are such splendid opportunities to make fortunes by building and buying and selling city lots. A man intends that the rent of a house or store shall pay for its construction in three years. The profits of adventure justify a man in paying high interest. If a man has money enough to buy a pair of horses and a wagon, he can defy the world.

These are ill.u.s.trations to show why one is induced to pay interest. I do not think, however, money is "tight." I never saw people so free with their money, or appear to have it in so great abundance.

There is one drawback which this territory has in common with the greater part of the West, and in fact of the civilized world. It is not only a drawback, but a nuisance anywhere; I mean drinking or whiskey shops. The greater proportion of the settlers are temperate men, I am sure; but in almost every village there are places where the meanest kind of intoxicating liquor is sold. There are some who sell liquor to the Indians. But such business is universally considered as the most degraded that a mean man can be guilty of. It is filthy to see men staggering about under the influence of bad whiskey, or of any kind of whiskey. He who sends a young husband to his new cabin home intoxicated, to mortify and torment his family; or who sells liquor to the uneducated Indians, that they may fight and murder, must have his conscience-- if he has any at all-- cased over with sole leather. Mr.

Gough is needed in the West.

Minnesota is not behind in education. Ever since Governor Slade, of Vermont, brought some bright young school mistresses up to St. Paul (in 1849), common school education has been diffusing its precious influences. The government wisely sets apart two sections of land-- the 16th and 36th-- in every township for school purposes. A township is six miles square; and the two sections thus reserved in each township comprise 1280 acres. Other territories have the same provision. This affords a very good fund for educational uses, or rather it is a great aid to the exertions of the people. There are some nourishing inst.i.tutions of learning in the territory. But the greatest inst.i.tution after all in the country-- the surest protection of our liberties and our laws-- is the FREE SCHOOL.

LETTER XIII.

CROW WING TO ST. CLOUD.

Pleasant drive in the stage-- Scenery-- The past-- Fort Ripley Ferry-- Delay at the Post Office-- Belle Prairie-- A Catholic priest-- Dinner at Swan River-- Potatoes-- Arrival at Watab-- St. Cloud.

ST. CLOUD, October, 1856.

YESTERDAY morning at seven I took my departure, on the stage, from Crow Wing. It was a most delightful morning, the air not damp, but bracing; and the welcome rays of the sun shed a mellow l.u.s.tre upon a scene of "sylvan beauty." The first hour's ride was over a road I had pa.s.sed in the dark on my upward journey, and this was the first view I had of the country immediately below Crow Wing. No settlements were to be seen, because the regulations of military reservations preclude their being made except for some purpose connected with the public interests. A heavy shower the night before had effectually laid the dust, and we bounded along on the easy coach in high spirits. The view of the prairie stretching "in airy undulations far away," and of the eddying current of the Mississippi, there as everywhere deep and majestic, with its banks skirted with autumn-colored foliage, was enough to commend the old fashioned system of stages to more general use. Call it poetry or what you please, yet the man who can contemplate with indifference the wonderful profusion of nature, undeveloped by art-- inviting, yet never touched by the plough-- must lack some one of the senses. Indeed, this picture, so characteristic of the new lands of the West, seems to call into existence a new sense. The view takes in a broad expanse which has never produced a stock of grain; and which has been traversed for ages past by a race whose greatest and most frequent calamity was hunger. If we turn to its past there is no object to call back our thoughts. All is oblivion. There are no ruins to awaken curious images of former life-- no vestige of humanity-- nothing but the present generation of nature.

And yet there are traces of the past generations of nature to be seen.

The depressions of the soil here and there to be observed, covered with a thick meadow gra.s.s, are unmistakeable indications of lakes which have now "vanished into thin air." That these gentle hollows were once filled with water is the more certain from the appearance of the sh.o.r.es of the present lakes, where the low water mark seems to have grown lower and lower every year. But if the past is blank, these scenes are suggestive of happy reflections as to the future. The long perspective is radiant with busy life and cheerful husbandry. New forms spring into being. Villages and towns spring up as if by magic, along whose streets throngs of men are pa.s.sing. And thus, as "coming events cast their shadows before," does the mind wander from the real to the probable. An hour and a half of this sort of revery, and we had come to the Fort Ripley ferry, over which we were to go for the mail.

That ferry (and I have seen others on the river like it) is a marvellous invention. It is a flat-boat which is quickly propelled either way across the river by means of the resistance which it offers to the current. Its machinery is so simple I will try to describe it.

In the first place a rope is stretched across the river from elevated objects on either side. Each end of the boat is made fast to this line by pullies, which can be taken up or let out at the fastenings on the boat. All that is required to start the boat is to bring the bow, by means of the pully, to an acute angle with the current. The after part of the boat presents the princ.i.p.al resistance to the current by sliding a thick board into the water from the upper side. As the water strikes against this, the boat is constantly attempting to describe a circle, which it is of course prevented from doing by the current, and so keeps on-- for it must move somewhere-- in a direction where the obstruction is less. It certainly belongs to the science of hydraulics, for it is not such a boat as can be propelled by steam or wind. I had occasion recently to cross the Mississippi on a similar ferry, early in the morning, and before the ferryman was up. The proprietor of it was with me; yet neither of us knew much of its practical operation. I soon pulled the head of the boat towards the current, but left down the resistance board, or whatever it is called, at the bow as well as at the stern. This, of course, impeded our progress; but we got over in a few minutes; and I felt so much interested in this new kind of navigation, that I would have been glad to try the voyage over again.

On arriving within the square of the garrison, I expected to find the mail ready for delivery to the driver; but we had to wait half an hour. The mail is only weekly, and there was nothing of any consequence to change. We repaired to the post office, which was in a remote corner of a store-room, where the postmaster was busy making up his mail. Some of the officers had come in with doc.u.ments which they wished to have mailed. And while we stood waiting, corporals and privates, servants of other officers brought in letters which Lieutenant So-and-so "was particularly desirous of having mailed this morning." The driver was magnanimous enough to submit to me whether we should wait. We all felt accommodating-- the postmaster I saw was particularly so-- and we concluded to wait till everything was in, and perhaps we would have waited for some one to write a letter. I could not but think it would be a week before another mail day; and still I could not but think these unnecessary morning hindrances were throwing a part of our journey into the night hours. Returning again to the eastern bank of the river by our fine ferry, we soon pa.s.sed the s.p.a.cious residence of Mr. Olmsted, a prominent citizen of the territory. We made a formal halt at his door to see if there were any pa.s.sengers. Mr. Olmsted has a large farm under good cultivation, and several intelligent young men in his service. In that neighborhood are some other as handsome farms as I ever saw; but I think they are on the reservation, and are cultivated under the patronage of the war department. The winter grain was just up, and its fresh verdure afforded an agreeable contrast with the many emblems of decaying nature. It was in the middle of the forenoon that we reached Belle Prairie, along which are many good farm houses occupied by half-breeds. There is a church and a school-house. In the cemetery is a large cross painted black and white, and from its imposing appearance it cannot fail to make a solemn impression on minds which revere any tangible object that is consigned sacred. A very comfortable-looking house was pointed out to me as the residence of a Catholic priest, who has lived for many years in that section, spreading among the ignorant a knowledge of Christianity, and ministering to their wants in the hour of death. And though I am no Catholic, I could not but regard the superiority of that kind of preaching-- for visiting the sick, consoling the afflicted, and rebuking sin by daily admonitions, is the true preaching of the Gospel-- over the pompous declamation which now too often usurps the pulpit.

The dinner was smoking hot on the table when we drove up to the hotel at Swan River; and so charming a drive in the pure air had given me a keen appet.i.te. The dinner (and I speak of these matters because they are quite important to travellers) was in all respects worthy of the appet.i.te. The great staple article of Minnesota soil appears to be potatoes, for they were never known to be better anywhere else-- Eastport not excepted-- and at our table d'hote they were a grand collateral to the beef and pork. The dessert consisted of nice home made apple pies served with generosity, and we had tea or milk or water, as requested, for a beverage. After partaking of a dinner of this kind, the rest of the day's journey was looked forward to with no unpleasant emotions. The stage happened to be lightly loaded, and we rolled along with steady pace, and amidst jovial talk, till we reached the thriving, but to me not attractive, town of Watab. Three houses had been put up within the short time since I had stopped there. We got into Mr. Gilman's tavern at sundown. I was rejoiced to find a horse and carriage waiting for me, which had been kindly sent by a friend to bring me to St. Cloud. It is seven miles from Watab to this town. It was a charming moonlight evening, and I immediately started on with the faithful youth who had charge of the carriage, to enjoy my supper and lodging under the roof of my hospitable friend at St.

Cloud.

LETTER XIV.

ST. CLOUD.-- THE PACIFIC TRAIL.

Agreeable visit at St. Cloud-- Description of the place-- Causes of the rapid growth of towns-- Gen. Lowry-- The back country-- Gov.

Stevens's report-- Mr. Lambert's views-- Interesting account of Mr. A.

W. Tinkham's exploration.

ST. CLOUD, October, 1856.

IF I follow the injunction of that most impartial and worthy critic, Lord Jeffrey, which is, that tourists should describe those things which make the pleasantest impression on their own minds, I should begin with an account of the delightful entertainment which genuine hospitality and courtesy have here favored me with. I pa.s.sed Blannerha.s.set's Island once, and from a view of the scenery, sought something of that inspiration which, from reading Wirt's glowing description of it, I thought would be excited; but the reality was far below my antic.i.p.ation. If applied to the banks of the Mississippi River, however, at this place, where the Sauk Rapids terminate, that charming description would be no more than an adequate picture. The residence of my friend is a little above the limits of St. Cloud, midway on the gradual rise from the river to the prairie. It is a neat white two-story cottage, with a piazza in front. The yard extends to the water's edge, and in it is a grove of handsome shade trees. Now that the leaves have fallen, we can sit on the piazza and have a full view of the river through the branches of the trees. The river is here very clear and swift, with a hard bottom; and if it were unadorned with its cheerful foliage-covered banks, the view of it would still add a charm to a residence. There is a mild tranquillity, blended with the romance of the scene, admirably calculated to raise in the mind emotions the most agreeable and serene. For nature is a great instructor and purifier. As Talfourd says in that charming little volume of Vacation Rambles, "to commune with nature and grow familiar with all her aspects, surely softens the manners as much, at the least, as the study of the liberal arts."

St. Cloud is favorably located on the west bank of the river, seventy-five miles above St. Paul. It is just enough elevated to have good drainage facilities, should it become densely populous. For many years it was the seat of a trading post among the Winnebagoes. But the date of its start as a town is not more than six months ago; since when it has been advancing with unsurpa.s.sed thrift, on a scale of affluence and durability. Its main street is surely a street in other respects than in the name; for it has on either side several neatly built three-story blocks of stores, around which the gathering of teams and of people denotes such an activity of business as to dispel any idea that the place is got up under false pretences. The St. Cloud advertis.e.m.e.nts in the St. Paul daily papers contain the cards of about forty different firms or individuals, which is a sort of index to the business of the place. A printing press is already in the town, and a paper will in a few days be issued. There are now two hotels; one of which (the Stearns House), it is said, cost $9000. A flourishing saw-mill was destroyed by fire, and in a few weeks another one was built in its place. An Episcopal church is being erected. The steamer "H. M. Rice" runs between here and St. Anthony. It is sometimes said that this is the head of the Upper Mississippi navigation, but such is not the case. The Sauk Rapids which terminate here are an obstruction to continuous navigation between St. Anthony and Crow Wing, but after you get to the latter place (where the river is twenty feet deep) there is good navigation for two hundred miles. There are several roads laid out to intersect at St. Cloud, for the construction of which, I believe, the government has made some appropriation. Town lots are sold on reasonable terms to those who intend to make improvements on them, which is the true policy for any town, but the general market price ranges from $100 to $1000 a lot. The town is not in the hands of capitalists, though moneyed men are interested in it.

General Lowry is a large proprietor. He lives at Arcadia, just above the town limits, and has a farm consisting of three hundred acres of the most splendid land, which is well stocked with cattle and durably fenced. A better barn, or a neater farmyard than he has, cannot be found between Boston and Worcester. And while speaking of barns I would observe that the old New England custom of having good barns is better observed in Minnesota than anywhere else in the West. General Lowry has been engaged in mercantile business. He was formerly a member of the territorial council, and is a very useful and valuable citizen of the territory.

It would not be more surprising to have Eastern people doubt some of the statements concerning the growth of Western towns, than it was for the king of Siam to doubt that there was any part of the world where water changed from liquid to a hard substance. His majesty knew nothing about ice. Now, there are a good many handsome villages in the East which hardly support one store. Not that people in such a village do not consume as much or live in finer style; but the reason is that they are old settlers who produce very much that they live on, and who, by great travelling facilities, are able to scatter their trading custom into some commercial metropolis. Suppose, however, one of your large villages to be so newly settled that the people have had no chance to raise anything from their gardens or their fields, and are obliged to buy all they are to eat and all that is to furnish their dwellings, or equip their shops, or stock their farms; then you have a state of things which will support several stores, and a whole catalogue of trades. It is a state of affairs which corresponds with every new settlement in the West; or, indeed, which faintly compares with the demand for everything merchantable, peculiar in such places.

Then again, besides the actual residents in a new place, who have money enough in their pockets, but nothing in their cellars, there is generally a large population in the back country of farmers and no stores. Such people come to a place like this to trade, for fifteen or twenty miles back, perhaps; and it being a county seat they have other objects to bring them. At the same time there is an almost constant flow of settlers through the place into the unoccupied country to find preemption claims, who, of course, wish to take supplies with them.

The settler takes a day, perhaps, for his visit in town to trade. Time is precious with him, and he cannot come often. So he buys, perhaps, fifty or a hundred dollars worth of goods. These are circ.u.mstances which account for activity of business in these river towns, and which, though they are strikingly apparent here, are not peculiar to this town. At first, I confess, it was a mystery to me what could produce such startling and profitable trade in these new towns.

It was in the immediate vicinity of St. Cloud that Gov. Stevens left the Mississippi on his exploration, in 1853, of a railroad route to the Pacific. Several crossings of the river had been previously examined, and it was found that one of the favorable points for a railroad bridge over it was here. I might here say that the country directly west lies in the valley of Sauk River, and from my own observation I know it to be a good farming country; and I believe the land is taken up by settlers as far back as twelve miles. It is a little upwards of a hundred miles in a westerly direction from St.

Cloud to where the expedition first touched the Bois des Sioux (or Sioux Wood River). Gov. Stevens says in his report-- " The plateau of the Bois des Sioux will be a great centre of population and communication. It connects with the valley of the Red River of the North, navigable four hundred miles for steamers of three or four feet draught, with forty-five thousand square miles of arable and timber land; and with the valley of the Minnesota, also navigable at all seasons when not obstructed by ice, one hundred miles for steamers, and occasionally a hundred miles further. The head of navigation of the Red River of the North is within one hundred and ten miles of the navigable portion of the Mississippi, and is distant only forty miles from the Minnesota. Eastward from these valleys to the great lakes, the country on both sides of the Mississippi is rich, and much of it heavily timbered."

I will also add another remark which he makes, inasmuch as the character of the country in this lat.i.tude, as far as the Pacific sh.o.r.e, must have great influence on this locality; and it is this: "

Probably four thousand square miles of tillable land is to be found immediately on the eastern slopes of (the Rocky Mountains); and at the bottoms of the different streams, retaining their fertility for some distance after leaving the mountains, will considerably increase this amount." Mr. John Lambert, the topographer of the exploration, divides the country between the Mississippi and Columbia rivers, into three grand divisions. The first includes the vast prairies between the Mississippi and the base of the Rocky Mountains. The second is the mountain division, embracing about five degrees of longitude. The third division comprises the immense plains of the Columbia.

Of the first division-- from here to the foot of the Rocky Mountains-- let me quote what Mr. Lambert in his official report calls a "pa.s.sing glance." "Undulating and level prairies, skirted with woods of various growth, and clothed everywhere with a rich verdure; frequent and rapid streams, with innumerable small but limpid lakes, frequented by mult.i.tudes of waterfowl, most conspicuous among which appears the stately swan; these, in ever-recurring succession, make up the panorama of this extensive district, which may be said to be everywhere fertile, beautiful, and inviting. The most remarkable features of this region are the intervals of level prairie, especially that near the bend of Red River, where the horizon is as unbroken as that of a calm sea. Nor are other points of resemblance wanting-- the long gra.s.s, which in such places is unusually rank, bending gracefully to the pa.s.sing breeze as it sweeps along the plain, gives the idea of waves (as indeed they are); and the solitary horseman on the horizon is so indistinctly seen as to complete the picture by the suggestion of a sail, raising the first feeling of novelty to a character of wonder and delight. The following outlines of the rolling prairies are broken only by the small lakes and patches of timber which relieve them of monotony and enhance their beauty; and though marshes and sloughs occur, they are of too small extent and too infrequent to affect the generally attractive character of the country. The elevation of the rolling prairies is generally so uniform, that even the summits between streams flowing in opposite directions exhibit no peculiar features to distinguish them from the ordinary character of the valley slopes."

I think I cannot do a better service to the emigrant or settler than to quote a part of the report made by Mr. A. W. Tinkham, descriptive of his route from St. Paul to Fort Union. His exploration, under Gov.

Stevens, was made in the summer of 1853; and he has evidently given an impartial account of the country. I begin with it where he crosses the Mississippi in the vicinity of St. Cloud. The part quoted embraces the route for a distance of two hundred and ninety-five miles; the first seventy miles of which was due west-- the rest of the route being a little north of west.

"June 9. Ferried across the Mississippi River, here some six hundred to eight hundred feet wide-- boating the camp equipage, provisions, &c., and swimming the animals; through rich and fertile prairies, variegated with the wooded banks of Sauk River, a short distance on the left, with the wooded hills on either side, the cl.u.s.tered growth of elm, poplar, and oak, which the road occasionally touches; following the 'Red River trail,' we camp at Cold Spring Brook, with clear, cool water, good gra.s.s, and wood.

"June 10. Cold Spring Brook is a small brook about ten feet across, flowing through a miry slough, which is very soft and deep, and previous to the pa.s.sage of the wagons, had, for about two hundred feet distance, been bridged in advance by a causeway of round or split logs of the poplar growth near by; between this and the crossing of Sauk River are two other bad sloughs, over one of which are laid logs of poplar, and over the other the wagons were hauled by hand, after first removing the loads. Sauk River is crossed obliquely with a length of ford some three hundred feet-- depth of water four-and-a-half to five feet; goods must be boated or rafted over, the river woods affording the means of building a raft; camped immediately after crossing; wood, water, and gra.s.s good and abundant.

"June 11. Over rolling prairies, without wood on the trail, although generally in sight on the right or left, with occasional small ponds and several bad sloughs, across which the wagons were hauled over by hand to Lake Henry-- a handsome, wooded lake; good wood and gra.s.s; water from small pond; not very good.

"June 13. Pa.s.sing over rolling prairies to a branch of Crow River, the channel of which is only some twenty feet wide and four or five feet deep; but the water makes back into the gra.s.s one hundred feet or more from the channel as early in the season as when crossed by the train.

Goods boated over; wagons by hand and with ropes; no wood on the stream; several small lakes, not wooded, are on either side of the trail, with many ducks, geese, and plovers on them: encamp at Lightning Lake, a small and pretty lake, sufficiently well wooded on the borders for camping purposes; good water, wood, and gra.s.s, and abounding with fish.

"June 18. Over rolling prairie with small pools and marshes, to a swift running stream about twenty feet wide, three feet deep, a branch of Chippewa River; heavily rolling ground with stony knolls and granite boulders, to White Bear Lake, a large handsome lake, with mingled open and woodland.

"Broken rolling ground to camp, a mile off the Red River trail, and near a small wooded lake. Two small brooks have to be crossed in the interval, and being somewhat deep and with abrupt sides, are troublesome crossings.

"June 20. Rolling prairie country, with small marshes and ponds to a tributary of South Branch. Swift running stream, gravelly bottom, fifteen feet wide, three to four feet deep; with care in selection good crossing was obtained for the wagons; a wooded lake is a short distance to the right of trail.

"Small rivulet, whose banks are marshy and soft.

"Prairies, with small marshes and ponds to a swift running brook, six feet wide.

"Prairie to Pike Lake and camp of St. Grover; a handsome lake of about a mile in diameter, said to abound in pike; well wooded on its south border; gra.s.s, water, and wood, for camping, abundant and good.

"Rolling prairie with knolls; several ponds and marshes, with an intervening brook about six feet wide, and rather difficult of pa.s.sage, from the abruptness of its banks, to a small brook, the outlet of a small and partially wooded lake or pond.

"Rolling prairie, with gra.s.sy, swelling knolls, small ponds and marshes, to Chippeway River; camp of odometer wagon on edge of river; water and gra.s.s good; no wood.

"June 24. Crossed Chippeway River, one hundred and twenty-four feet wide, three to six feet deep; goods boated over, and the animals swimming; wagon hauled through the water by a rope attached to the tongue, and with the aid of the mules; camped on Elk Lake, a small and pretty lake, well wooded, and with luxuriant gra.s.s; good water.

"June 25. Trail pa.s.ses over prairies with a rich heavy gra.s.s (this is a hundred miles west of the Mississippi River), about eighteen inches high, winding between wooded lakes to a heavy ravine, with a small and sluggish rivulet in its bottom; sides steep, and laborious for the wagon train.

"Prairie sloping towards the western branch of the Chippeway River; a stream when crossed, about one hundred and forty feet wide, three or four feet deep, with a marked current and firm bottom; no wood.

"Camp on a small lake, fairly wooded, with luxuriant gra.s.s, and good water.

"June 27. Undulating prairie, rich soil, covered with a heavy growth of gra.s.s, with small ponds and marshes; woods continue in sight a short distance on the left of Elbow Lake, a well wooded lake, of form indicated by its name.

"Rolling prairie, with two bad sloughs, to Rabbit River, which is crossed with the wagon with but little difficulty, where it issues from a small lake. It is a small stream, but spreads out from one hundred to three hundred feet, with marshy borders; camp on the small lake, with good gra.s.s, wood, and water.

"June 28. Rolling ground, with small ponds and marshes, to a small brook twelve feet wide; the Bois des Sioux prairie, a smooth, flat prairie, without knoll or undulation-- an immense plain, apparently level, covered with a tall, coa.r.s.e, dark-colored gra.s.s, and unrelieved with the sight of a tree or shrub; firm bottom, but undoubtedly wet in spring; small brook, when the train made a noon halt.

"Same smooth prairie as above to Bois des Sioux River, sometimes soft and miry; camp on river bank; wood and gra.s.s good-- river water fair; many catfish caught in the river.