Seeing may be knowing, but only the superficial mind can accept the “dead result” of our laws or institutions as knowledge of them. The leaven of “know thyself” must ever work through the individual to the conditions which are his opportunity of vivid, progressing life. So more and more we seek to understand the historical origin of institutions peculiar to us as a nation, whether they have sprung from necessity, the great mother of invention, or whether we brought the nucleus across the Atlantic, whether they are American or Americanized. Nothing, of our many valued possessions, has been more generally conceded our own, than our system of education. For the sake of a clear understanding of its growth and the laws protecting it, and that our appreciation of results may be the outcome of basic, historical information, not superficial observation, we will venture to trace the derivative and American elements in a system which by its form of support has become, before the world, our own.

While Frederick II. was warring for Jaffa and Jerusalem, and Edward I. was fighting for the Stone of Scone, the Dutch were establishing at Dordrecht, ten miles from Rotterdam, a Latin School, which was the beginning of State School systems (founded in 1290). This school became one of the most famous in northwestern Europe, having frequently six hundred pupils, coming from all parts of the continent. Of the first colonists landing in Massachusetts, one-thirtieth were graduates of Cambridge. Of this number those who had been voluntary exiles in Holland must have 0080 44 known the Dordrecht School and the laws controlling it. England had no provision for general education, for two hundred years after it was thoroughly established in Holland.

Martin Luther in 1524 wrote in a letter to magistrates:

If there were no soul, no heaven, no future after this life, and temporal affairs were to be administered solely with a view to the present, it would yet be sufficient reason for establishing in every place the best schools, both for boys and girls, that the world merely to maintain its outward prosperity has need of shrewd and accomplished men and women.

At this time, on this basis, the parochial schools of Germany were established. About the same time, John Calvin at Geneva gave a similar system to the Cantons of Switzerland. John Knox, learning from these men, introduced a system of schools in Scotland. This was in the last half of the sixteenth century, fully a hundred years before definite free schools had been established in the American Colonies, Virginia, New York and Massachusetts each claiming a priority in this.

In 1619, three years after the death of William Shakespeare, Sir Edwin Sandys, President of the Virginia Company in England, moved in Parliament the grant of 15,000 acres of land for the establishment of a University in Virginia, 10,000 of this to be set aside for an Indian College, the remainder “for the foundation of a seminary of learning for the English.” The same year the Bishops of England raised £1,500 for the education of the children of the barbarians in the colony of Virginia. Tenants were sent to occupy the lands, and Mr. George Thorpe, of His Majesty's Private Chamber, came over to be superintendent of the University. This was in 1621, and in 1622 came the Indian massacres. From that time, though efforts were constantly made, moneys raised, and lands granted, nothing was done for sixty years, except on paper, towards the public establishment of schools in Virginia. In 1688 £2,500 ($12,500) were subscribed, by wealthy gentlemen in the colony and their English friends, towards an institution of higher education. Rev. James Blair was sent to England in its interests, and appealed directly to Queen Mary. King William was interested, through her, in the aspiration of the Colony, and they allowed “£2,000 out of the quitrents of Virginia,” for building the college, 0081 45 which was to be called the College of William and Mary. The English government decided to give 20,000 acres of land and £2,000 in money, with a tax of one penny on every pound of tobacco exported from Maryland and Virginia. To this they added all fees and profits arising from the office of Surveyor General, these fees to be controlled by the president and faculty of the college, which gentlemen were to appoint “special surveyors for the counties whenever the Governor and his council thought it necessary.” These conditions dating from 1693 had a vivid influence on the development of the colony, placing the entire land system in the hands of a collegiate land office. After the Revolution and until 1819, one-sixth “of the fees of all public surveyors continued” to be paid into the college treasury.

Virginia had revenues established and lands granted for a State University in 1621, but in the years required for this Colony to rebound from the Indian massacres of 1622, the freemen of Massachusetts established a system of education, which has been unbroken in its course. In 1635 the people of Boston, in town meeting assembled, made provision for the employment of schoolmasters for the teaching and nurturing of children, and voted lands for their support. This was only five years after the founding of the town. In the same year the Public Latin School was established, and for it has been claimed the distinction of being the oldest existing school within the bounds of the United States. Other Massachusetts towns soon manifested a like liberal spirit for culture, Weymouth in 1643, Ipswich and Salem in 1641. By the Massachusetts Statute of 1642 the duty of establishing and maintaining schools was made general and obligatory. Five years later this law was amended, enlarged in its scope to make it more effective, and at this time, 1647, it is claimed the school system of Massachusetts had its birth.

While the initial spirit was that of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, other New England neighborhoods, adopting the essence of the Massachusetts law, soon followed in her footsteps. When people from the Boston community emigrated to Hartford, Windsor and Weathersfield, founding the Connecticut Colony, they were a unit in their determined interest for general education. New Hampshire inherited these institutions by virtue of being under 0082 46 Massachusetts law until 1680, and the spirit which made public education a part of her governmental administration spread into the Colonies of New Haven, Plymouth, and Rhode Island. It was during this time that Ezekiel Cheever, through seventy years of teaching, stamped his spirit and method upon the schools of New Haven, Ipswich, Charlestown, and Boston.

In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was organized, and nine years later received instructions from the States General in the founding of colonies, which of course included New Amsterdam, to exert themselves, “to find speedy means to maintain a clergyman and a schoolmaster, in order that divine service and zeal for religion may be planted in that country.” And to that end it was required that “each householder and inhabitant should bear such tax and public charge as should be considered proper for their maintenance.”

Under these provisions the educational policy of New Amsterdam was begun and continued unbroken. As early as 1633 the school of the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church was organized, and has had since then a continuous history. This would seem to give some color to “Brooklyn's claim to have had the first free public school in the United States.”

This triangular discussion regarding the homing of our American school system seems then to resolve itself into Virginia being its mother in 1621, but her effort made abortive by the Indian massacres of 1622, New Amsterdam twelve years later having the second claim, through her parochial school, while Massachusetts, though founding no free school until 1635, began then and has continuously conducted educational institutions supported by the State. Virginia, New York, and New England, thus became each in their characteristic way the nucleus of a continent's civilization.

The early action with reference to these schools depended largely upon the character of the majority of the settlers, their previous education (religious or otherwise), the purpose of their coming, and the controlling spirit of their leaders. It would seem safe to say that a large percentage of them were inspired by religious zeal and the hope of finding here the enjoyment of religious freedom. This was undoubtedly true in New England, and in certain portions of Virginia extension of the service of the Church of England was 0083 47 a controlling motive. In either event the main purpose of the colonial schools was to fit young men for the ministry. It was in this spirit that the Boston Latin School and the Dutch Reformed School in New Amsterdam were established. Cotton and Eliot, Davenport and Eaton, were among the aggressive pioneers in this work. “Lord, for schools everywhere among us,” was the universal prayer. The year after the Boston Latin School began, Harvard College was projected and founded. “The General Court voted £400 toward a school or college, and the next year twelve of the most trusted men of the colony were selected to execute the official mandate” for a college at New Town.

Inspired by the prevailing enthusiasm, John Harvard, styled a “godly gentleman then living in the Colony,” gave half of his estate of about £1,700 toward the erection of a college, and all his library was added to the gift. Others gave according to their ability and the state added the rest. Such was the early and small beginning of Harvard College, but it marked the spirit of the colonists.

The enthusiasm of its founders and the influence of its instruction were felt in the settlements clustered near the coast, and schools were established at Charlestown, Salem, Dorchester, Roxbury, Braintree, and so on as the settlements extended. The colleges and primary schools were supplemented by academies, until in 1770 thirty-four had already been established in New England.

In New York, at the time of the surrender of the Dutch in 1664, so general was the educational spirit, that almost every town in the Colony had its regular school; but after the occupation by the English little attention was given to education. The new government had no sympathy with schools under the control of a nonconforming church. It was not until 1732 that a school after the plan of the Boston Latin School was established, which became, as is claimed, the germ of King's College, now Columbia University.

During the colonial period the whole condition in New York was in sharp contrast to that of New England. In 1762 Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, President of King's College, writing to the English Archbishop, complained that while royal patents were granted for large tracts of colonial lands, no provision was made for religion and schools. It is also curious to note, that Lieut. Governor 0084 48 Colden, petitioning for aid for King's College, refers to the fact, “that dissenters from the Church of England had the sole education, not only in seminaries of learning in New England, but likewise in New Jersey and elsewhere;” and he argues it to be “highly requisite that a seminary founded on the principles of the Church of England be distinguished in America by particular privileges, not only on account of religion, but of good policy, to prevent the growth of republican principles which already too much prevail in the colonies.” This would seem to give some color of truth to the charge, “that the founding of Harvard College hastened the Revolution half a century.”

In New Jersey the first educational impulses came from several distinct sources. The first was the Dutch overflow from Manhattan Island, which settled near the Hudson; second, the immigration which came from New England and settled Passaic and westward; third, the English and Scotch, who spread over the central portions of the state; fourth, the Friends, who, following the fortunes of Penn, settled the southern and western portions. These each brought with them the customs and institutions of their earlier homes. Prominent among them were the Scotch, who inherited their love of learning from the days of the Reformation. They brought with them their Book of Discipline, which provided, among other things, “that it was imperatively necessary that there should be a school in every parish, for the instruction of youth in the principles of religion, grammar and the Latin tongue,” and it was further proposed that a college “should be erected in every notable town, in which logic and rhetoric should be taught, along with the learned languages.”

Richard S. Field, in an address printed in the collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, says: “There is no portion of our ancestors of whom we may feel more justly proud than of those who came hither from Scotland.” Graham, himself a Scotchman and the author of by far the best colonial history of the United States, observes that “a great many inhabitants of Scotland emigrated to East Jersey and enriched American society with a valuable accession of virtue refined by adversity, and of piety invigorated by patriotism. Many of them were men of property, of family, and of education. * * * * The same convictions about education 0085 49 were brought by the immigrants into the New World. Education was scarcely loss essential to these hardy immigrants than religion.” It was in such an atmosphere as this that Princeton College had its early beginnings and subsequent growth.

The settlements of the Friends in West Jersey and in Pennsylvania were not indifferent to education, but their schools were schools of the Society, some of them of a high order, as for instance the Penn Charter School of Philadelphia, established in 1698. Half a century later, urged by the interests of the large German population, Dr. Franklin and others were instrumental in organizing the “German Society” in Philadelphia, whose purpose was “to found and maintain schools for the numerous children of German settlers.”

Although the original Penn Charter required the Governor and Provincial Council to erect and order all public schools, and “reward the authors of the useful sciences and laudable inventions in said province,” and although the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 declared that “a school or schools shall be established in each county by the legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters paid by the public as may enable them to instruct youth at low prices, and all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities,” yet it is a singular fact that the establishing and support of free public schools, in Pennsylvania was postponed until the days of Thaddeus Stevens and the early life of Alexander Ramsey.

While as a matter of fact there was no defined public school system in any colony south of New England before the Revolution, nor any worthy of mention until well into the following century, yet in many places it was found in embryo.

North Carolina during the first sixty-five years of its colonial history had few schools and these were illy attended. But upon the arrival of the Scotch-Irish immigration which began in large numbers in 1736 and continued till the beginning of the Revolutionary War, there was a marked advancement in educational interest. Almost invariably as a neighborhood was settled, provision was made for preaching the Gospel. Wherever a pastor was located, in that congregation there was a classical school. These 0086 50 were under Presbyterian auspices, both church and schools being under the charge of missionaries, graduates of Princeton. For more than half a century Princeton influence was dominant in North Carolina. The most noted school for higher education in the colony was the classical school established at Charlotte in 1767 by Rev. Joseph Alexander, a graduate of Princeton. The community in which this school was located was noted for its intelligence. The school flourished, and to meet the demand of the growing and prosperous community it was decided to enlarge its scope. By an act of the Assembly it was chartered as Queen's College in 1770. It was in fact twice chartered, and the grant was twice repealed by royal proclamation. The principles of presbyterianism and democracy were not acceptable to George III. However, his disfavor had its natural results, for Charlotte came to be termed by Cornwallis “the hornets' nest of the Revolution.” Queen's College continued to thrive, and in its halls were held the significant and decisive debates ending in the adoption of the Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence of 1775.

Enough has been recited to show that the love of learning had taken deep root here and there, and was fast spreading among the colonists. Nearly a century before the Revolution, William and Mary's College had taken on new life. As early as 1660 the Virginia Assembly, moved by the growing spirit of the time, enacted that, “for the advance of learning, education of youth, supply of the ministry, and the promotion of piety, there be land taken for a college and free schools.” Subscriptions were also solicited, and they came from all classes in varying amounts. A quarter of a century later, certain wealthy planters subscribed £2,500. Royal aid and a charter were sought and obtained, with a grant of twenty thousand acres of land. The college became wealthy and prosperous. Jefferson and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence, three Randolphs, Monroe, and Chief Justice Marshall, were among its graduates.

In harmony with the spirit of the times, other colleges sprang into existence as the years went by: Yale, founded in 1701; the University of Pennsylvania in 1749; King's College, now Columbia, in 1754; Brown in 1764; Dartmouth in 1769; Queen's (Rutgers) in 1770. All these were pre-revolutionary, so that no less than 0087 51 nine colleges were in active work prior to 1775, and no doubt hastened the belief “that all men are born free and equal,” and established the determination to stand for that belief through sacrifice and suffering.

It is interesting to note the change in the American idea of education, its object and scope, as modified by time and events. In the early days the purpose was to educate men for the Christian ministry. As a natural result, of the nine colleges established prior to the Revolution, all but one, the University of Pennsylvania, were sectarian in their organization and management, and this one was upon a basis which embraced all denominations. But as time went on and the love of civil liberty, local self-government, and perhaps of independence, began to grow among the colonists, it became manifest to them that education must have a broader horizon in order to promote a growing fitness for self-government.

Men needed to become fitted for civil affairs as well as affairs ecclesiastical, for the service of the state as well as the church. So the friends of liberal education multiplied and were more aggressive. Not only the early New England statesmen, but in the more southerly localities such men as Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin, became its advocates. The eminent Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, voiced the spirit of the times, when in 1786 in a memorial to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, he maintained that a thorough system of popular instruction was “favorable to liberty, as freedom could only exist in the society of knowledge; that it favors just ideas of law and government; that learning in all countries promotes civilization and the pleasure of society; that it fosters agriculture, the basis of national wealth; that manufactures of all kinds owe their perfection chiefly to learning; that its beneficial influence is thus made co-extensive with the entire scope of man's being, mortal and immortal, individual and social.” And on a later occasion the same broad-minded man, addressing a member of Congress, said, “Let us establish schools in every township in the United States, and conform them to reason, humanity, and the state of society in America,” and then 0088 52 will “the generations which are to follow us realize the precious ideas of the dignity and excellence of republican forms of government.”

One of Washington's maxims was, “Promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

As one of the results of the tendencies of the times, it may be of interest to note that of the colleges established in the colonies before the Revolution, all but one were sectarian; of the four established during the Revolution, two were non-sectarian; and of the eleven established after that event and prior to the end of the century, eight were non-sectarian.

That education and sovereignty should be co-extensive is no new doctrine. It is the favorite maxim of aristrocracy the world ever, but aristocracy would have a restricted education, because it would have a restricted sovereignty. The fathers of the republic wished to clothe the people with education as well as sovereignty, and make them co-extensive by making both universal.

It will thus be seen that the American idea of education had expanded until it involved the welfare of the state as well as the welfare of the church. In fact the former would seem to be of primary importance in order to make possible the latter, securing to every man, through the state, the inestimable right to worship according to the dictates of his conscience.

Although we had at the date of our independence a liberal supply of colleges and preparatory schools, there was still a serious defect in our educational method. We were sadly lacking, except perhaps in New England, in schools for elementary instruction. The academies or grammar schools could fit advanced students for college, but we had no elementary schools to prepare them for this intermediate work. The theory of general education found no favor in the aristocratic social constitution of the mother country, and even in some of the colonies were to be found influences hostile to it. Planting the leaven of democracy among the people was followed by the natural development of its principles, especially in the direction of popular education, as essential to self-reliance and independent manhood.

After achieving our independence and before the adoption of the Constitution, the Continental Congress, in harmony with the growing spirit of equal privilege to all, seems to have assumed without question, that the government had the right and was vested with the power to meet the necessity of public education. So the question of the endowment of institutions of learning by the government, to aid the cause of education, met with no serious opposition in the Congress. The establishment of a common school system was first undertaken. In the ordinance of May 20, 1785, “for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory,” this specific provision is found: “There shall be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township for the maintenance of public schools within said township.” This endowment of 640 acres of land in each township six miles square, for the support of public schools within the township was the inception of the government policy to reserve certain sections of land for school purposes. This reservation for the support of schools was definitely provided for in the organization of each new State and Territory, until that of Oregon. In the act constituting the Territory of Oregon, August 14, 1848, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the Committee on Territories, inserted an additional grant for school purposes of the sixth section in each township, making the reservation for schools the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections, or 1,280 acres, in each township, in all public land states and territories, thereafter organized. The grant was to be confirmed in the act of admission to the Union. Under such conditions have all public land states coming into the Union since that date been admitted. Minnesota, admitted in 1858, received her two sections in each township or about three million acres in all, for public schools, confirmed to her by the enabling act of February 26, 1857.

Congress, two years after providing by law for common schools, undertook the endowment of universities. In the act for the government of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio River, passed July 13, 1787, this provision is found:

Art. 3. Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.

By the act of July 23, 1787, in the “Powers to the Board of Treasury to contract for the sale of Western Territory,” it is provided:

That not more than two complete townships be given perpetually for the purpose of an university, to be laid off by the purchaser or purchasers as near the center as may be, so that the same shall be of good land, to be applied to the intended object by the Legislature of the State.

This inaugurated the plan of taking for the support of a state university at least two townships in each of the states containing public lands. In the legislation admitting the public land states into the Union, from the admission of Ohio in 1802, to the admission of Minnesota in 1858, grants of two townships, or 46,080 acres, for university purposes, are made. Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin and Minnesota are exceptions, each having more than two townships, the quantity granted to Minnesota being 82,640 acres. This was secured under the enabling act of Congress of February 26, 1857, and the acts of March 2, 1861, and July 8, 1870. The newer States and Territories have had or will have the benefit of this provision upon their admission into the Union.

At a meeting of the Regents held in St. Anthony, May 31, 1851, the Board organized by electing Franklin Steele, president; Isaac Atwater, secretary; J. W. North, treasurer; and William R. Marshall, librarian. At this meeting the Board deemed it expedient to take steps for the immediate erection of a building for a preparatory department, and, being without funds, voted that offers of land for a site be solicited, and also that subscriptions be asked for the school's support. They began at this time the work of selecting lands granted by Congress for the support of a University.

At a meeting on June 14th following, the Regents, after viewing the several pieces of land, voted to accept that offered by Mr. Franklin Steele. The site so selected was nearly identical with the present Richard Chute square, between Second Street and University Avenue, and between Central Avenue and First Avenue Southeast.

Enough subscriptions were received to erect a frame building of 50 by 30 feet and two stories high with basement, which was completed in the fall of 1851, and a school was opened on the first of December, under the superintendence of Rev. E. W. Merrill, with an enrollment of about twenty-five students, which increased to forty during the year. The school, maintained by tuitions, existed three years in high repute, with an enrollment of about eighty-five the second year and one hundred and seventy the third year. Prof. Merrill being called to another field of work, it was then discontinued. From this time the building was used by D. S. B. Johnston and others for private schools until 1864, when it burned down. For more than a decade no further attempts were made to establish a University school.

Inquiry having been made as to the title of the ground upon which the University building had been erected, it was reported at a meeting of the Board held October 29th, 1852, that no deed for 0093 57 the same had ever been given. It was thereupon voted that a committee of three be appointed to inquire into the propriety of a new location. At a meeting of the Board October 24th, 1854, the committee reported negotiations pending with Arnold W. Taylor and Paul R. George for a new site. This consisted of about twenty-seven acres of the present campus, the price being $6,000, payable $1,000 cash, the remainder on mortgage in six, twelve and eighteen months, with interest at 12 per cent. These terms were accepted, and the President and Secretary were authorized to make out the necessary papers. Messrs. Taylor and George, being present, executed their deed of the property to the Regents, and the notes and mortgage of the Board were given to secure the payment of the remainder of the purchase money. The $1,000 paid down was raised by subscription. Mr. Steele proposed to pay into the Treasury the amount which had been expended in the erection of the preparatory building on the site donated by himself, in lieu of donating the land, and at a later day the sum of $2,500 was realized by the Board on this matter, in the liquidation of its debts. Up to this time the University had no income except gratuitous subscriptions.

At a meeting of the Board held January 12, 1855, a building committee of three was appointed to confer with an architect and procure suitable designs for University buildings. At a subsequent meeting the committee was increased to five. On the 28th of February, 1856, the Legislature passed an act authorizing the Regents to issue bonds in the name and under the seal of the University in the sum of $15,000, bearing interest at 12 per cent, $5,000 to be applied in liquidation of the debt incurred in the purchase of the site, and $10,000 to be expended by the Regents in erecting buildings for the University, and for no other purpose. The bonds were to be secured by mortgage on any lands belonging to the University. In view of the fact that the University had no lands outside the unselected lands granted by the congressional act of 1851, except the site they had just bought for $6,000, which was still under mortgage for the purchase money, the scheme seemed to be inspired by the spirit of thrifty frontier enterprise.

At a meeting of the Board held at the office of General Sibley in Mendota August 26, 1856, the building committee announced that they had advertised for proposals for the erection of University buildings, but since all bids received exceeded the sum which the committee understood the Regents were authorized to expend, they reported the whole subject back to the Board and asked to be discharged from its further consideration. The report was adopted, the committee was discharged, and a new building committee was appointed. At the same meeting Governor Ramsey offered the following resolution:

Resolved, That inasmuch as this Board has not adopted any plan for the conducting of the University, it is the opinion of this Board, the expenditure for University buildings at this time should not exceed $15,000.

Regent Fridley moved to strike out all after the word “Resolved” and insert the following:

That the building committee be instructed to accept the bid of Messrs. Alden, Cutter and Hull, and contract with them for the erection of the extension, and one wing, at the price for which they bid viz.: $49,600.

Upon this question the yeas and nays were called for, and were as follows: Yeas, Fridley, Meeker, Stevens, Atwater; nays, Ramsey, Sibley, Nelson, Black.

Mr. Steele, the president, broke the tie by giving the casting vote in the affirmative, and the resolution as amended was adopted by the same vote. With this action of the Board, carried by a bare majority against the strenuous opposition of the more conservative members, began trouble for the University which none can ever realize except those who were obliged to wrestle with it. The action was destined to cripple it in its work for a decade and a half, imperil its existence, and ultimately cost the Board $125,000. Looked at from the standpoint of after events, the step was extremely injudicious and unwise. It is said in justification of the Regents that they figured assets and liabilities thus:

But this was fallacious financiering. The campus was not an available asset for any sum. The stumpage notes, even if paid, would be a sacred fund, part of the permanent endowment, only the income from which could be used.

Then the crash of 1857 came, and the bottom dropped out of everything. The stumpage notes were not paid. The campus did not increase in value as expected, and no money could be realized by further incumbering it. However, the building went on, debts rapidly accrued, and interest began its riotous career. At a meeting of the Board January 20, 1858, Mr. Rice and Mr. Steele were appointed a committee to superintend and negotiate the issue and sale of $45,000 of bonds of the University, payable in ten years with interest at 12 per cent and not to be sold at less than par.

At this time the construction of the University building had been nearly completed, and the contractors were pressing the Regents for the money then due. In the meantime large payments had been made to them out of moneys borrowed by the Regents on temporary loans at interest of two and three per cent per month.

As a last resort, by an act of the Legislature approved March 8, 1858, the Regents were empowered to issue bonds in the name of the University, and under its corporate seal, to an amount not exceeding $40,000, with interest at 12 per cent per annum. To secure the payment of the same they were to execute a mortgage, in the name of the State, on any lands belonging to, or which might thereafter belong to, the University. This was evidently an attempt to mortgage the lands granted by Congress for a permanent endowment of the University, only the income from which might be used, 0096 60 and was of itself, if effective, an infraction of the grant and a violation of the trust reposed in the State, both by the terms of the grant and the acceptance thereof by the State.

In a meeting at the State Capitol, February 22, 1859, the Board by resolution authorized the building committee to make settlement with the contractors, Alden, Cutter and Hull, allowing twenty per cent interest on deferred payments, also they were to give the notes of the Board payable in three, four and six months for the amount of $16,000, with interest at 12 per cent. At the close of the year 1859 the Regents found the following outstanding indebtedness against the Board:

Bonds issued under the act of Feb. 28, 1856 $15,000

It may be interesting to mention that the report of the Treasurer of the Board submitted December 15, 1860, states the amount of interest expense to December 1st of that year to be $33,958.64, and that the “alleged liabilities” at the same date were $81,900.61. Aside from this there was some $12,000 indebtedness for accrued interest. It is also interesting to quote from the report of the Secretary submitted at the same time, as follows:

It would be improper, after the examination of the transactions which we have made, to conclude this report without a distinct expression of our belief that there was no design on the part of the Territorial Regents to injure the cause of learning or aggrandize themselves, but that, blinded by the glare of imaginary riches, so prevalent in 1856 and '57, they supposed that the University, like themselves, could never be embarrassed for the want of money.

With this the writer heartily agrees. It would be difficult, if not impossible, now, even for those who lived through the experience, to realize the height of speculative, balloon, prosperity existing in the Territory prior to the financial crash of 1857, or the depth of financial collapse and gloom that followed it. The action of the Board was simply the fruitage of the over-zealous and oversanguine temperament of some of its members. The contractors for the building were all men of good standing living among us. Mr. Alden was an architect of high rank, Mr. Cutter a far-sighted 0097 61 mechanic, Mr. Hull a practical stonemason; and the firm were the most prominent builders of the day. The rates of interest paid, large as they seem to us now, were simply the going rates in the market. The plan of building designed by Mr. Alden included two wings four stories high, with a main connecting part five stories high, and surmounted by an observatory, all facing to the north, nearly in the direction of the Falls and the growing town as it then was. In its day, it was a fine scheme and would have been an honor to an older state. The west wing reaching toward the river was completed in 1858. The writer, a young law student, teaching a part of the time, often visited the building during its construction.

At the time of the passage of the enabling act by Congress, February 26, 1857, it was generally understood that because of the existing debts, the grant made to the Territory for the support of a university had been dissipated, lost beyond redemption. Mr. Rice, our delegate in Congress and a Regent of the University, was familiar with the situation. He was also an intimate friend of Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, and succeeded in having a clause embraced in this act, making a second reservation, granting to the State seventy-two sections of land for the use and support of a State University. This was entirely independent of the former grant to the Territory. The Constitution of the State adopted in 1857 provides as follows:

Sec. 4 (Art. VIII). The location of the University of Minnesota, as established by existing laws, is hereby confirmed, and said institution is hereby declared to be the University of the State of Minnesota. All the rights, immunities, franchises and endowments, heretofore granted or conferred, are hereby perpetuated unto the said University, and all lands which may be granted hereafter by Congress, or other donations for said University purposes, shall vest in the institution referred to in this section.

Encouraged by these provisions of the enabling act and of the Constitution, the friends of the University in 1860 undertook to reclaim the institution and save it to the people of the state. Accordingly a bill was prepared, and was enacted by the Legislature, entitled, “An act to provide for the government and regulation of 0098 62 the University of Minnesota,” approved February 14, 1860. This was in fact a new charter for the University under the authority of the State, by the terms of which it was to be governed by a Board of Regents, consisting of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Chancellor, and five electors of the State appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. Under this act, in addition to the exofficio members, the following were made Regents by appointment, viz: John M. Berry, E. O. Hamlin, Uriah Thomas, Jared Benson and William M. Kimball. The new Board met and organized April 5th, as follows: Alexander Ramsey, president; Uriah Thomas, secretary; W. M. Kimball, treasurer; E. D. Neill, chancellor.

By this and subsequent acts, the Regents of the State University succeeded to all the rights and endowments of the Territorial University. The main portion of the lands granted to the Territorial University in 1851 having been selected by the former Board, the Regents provided for the selection of the unfilled portion of the grant. They also sold some stumpage, paid current bills, and made futile efforts to liquidate the old indebtedness, but were without funds to accomplish it.

This condition of things continuing, Governor Ramsey, in his message to the Legislature of 1862, recommended that a commission be appointed with full power and authority to dispose of all the lands and property of the University in payment of its indebtedness. In pursuance of this, the Legislature passed an act approved March 8, 1862, authorizing and empowering the Regents in their discretion to arrange or compromise any existing indebtedness contracted by the former regents, and to sell and convey to the holders of any such indebtedness, upon such terms as may be agreed upon, any or all of the lands granted by Congress for the support of the State or Territorial University. But it was carefully provided in the act, that nothing contained in it should be construed as an admission of the validity of the bonds and mortgages of the former Regents, or of any notes executed by them.

In spite of the best efforts of the Regents, nothing material was accomplished under this legislation, and the reports of the officers of the board for 1861 and 1862 show simply a continuing of former conditions. In the fourth annual report of the Board, to the Legislature 0099 63 of 1864, is found the report of Hon. Richard Chute, who had become a member of the Board and its Secretary. In this report Mr. Chute says:

The indebtedness of the institution remains the same as at the date of the last report, with the addition of accumulated interest.

Many have supposed that the endowment of two townships of land granted to the Territory of Minnesota would be lost to the State; we do not so believe. It is true that large liabilities hang over it, yet we think with prudent management an adjustment can be made of all proper demands which will leave the buildings and grounds at St. Anthony free of incumbrance, and leaving something over, with which to start the institution. Then with two townships clearly given to the State by the enabling act, a sufficient fund will in time be realized to secure the youth of our State who may desire it, a complete University education.

Continuing he says further:

The educational interests of our State demand that at an early day provision should be made for putting an University in operation, and we trust some efficient steps will be taken to secure this result.

Dear old time friend: if you had never done any thing more for the University than to speak forth these brave and inspiring words from amid the gloom of the situation, your name would be deserving of the enduring gratitude of the State.

It was at this point that friends of the University again rallied around the institution, perhaps inspired by arguments like those advanced by Mr. Chute. John S. Pillsbury had been appointed a Regent by Governor Swift in the fall of 1863, and, about the same time elected to the State Senate from the St. Anthony district, he was a member of the session of 1864. At his request the Hon. John M. Berry, also a member of the Senate, prepared a bill entitled, “An act relating to the University of Minnesota,” which passed both houses and was approved March 4, 1864. By this act O. C. Merriman, John S. Pillsbury, and John Nicols, were appointed Sole Regents for the term of two years; and the act of February 28, 1866, extended this term two years. Each was required to give a bond with sureties, in the sum of $25,000, for the faithful performance of duty. They were clothed with authority to adjust and pay all claims and demands of whatever nature against the University or Regents, and for that purpose to sell and convey any lands not 0100 64 exceeding 12,000 acres donated to the Territory for University purposes. This amount was increased to 14,000 acres by act of February 28, 1866. The act of 1864 also required the former Regents to turn over to the Regents thereby appointed,

all books, records, papers, claims, notes, bonds, stocks, and personal property of every description belonging to said University or the Regents thereof, and the care of all lands belonging to said University or the Regents thereof, and the care of all lands belonging to the University and the University buildings and grounds, and the collecting of all claims due the University.

The precautionary clause of the act was that nothing contained in it should be construed as an admission of the validity of any claims. Because of the doubtful value of the mortgage, the bonds had been selling in the market as low as fifteen and twenty cents on the dollar.

Clothed with complete authority, this triumvirate undertook the herculean task of freeing the University of its embarrassments, and such was the devotion applied to the task through the years 1864, '65 and '66, that they were enabled to report to the legislative session of 1867 the payment and discharge of every obligation against the University (except about $6,000) with the proceeds of 11,110 acres of land, leaving intact the campus, and buildings and some 32,000 acres of land of the Territorial grant.

The people of Minnesota can never sufficiently recognize or compensate the services of these three men of the state, nor acknowledge the toil they endured and the sacrifice they made in the accomplishment of this great work, but they will receive, as is most justly due them, the love and gratitude of the friends of education in this state, through all coming time. By their zeal and effective labors, instead of a total loss, as seemed probable, the prophecy of Mr. Chute was fulfilled and there was saved to the University, after paying all the debts, two-thirds of the original Territorial endowment, to which was added the endowment of two townships granted by the enabling act and confirmed to the State by act of Congress of July 8, 1870.

In the meantime, nothing worthy of mention had been done for the support of a school, and the building had been going to decay. But the University was again on its feet financially and the Legislature of 1867, at the request of the Regents, made an appropriation 0101 65 of $15,000 to cover repairs and the employment of teachers commencing the grammar and normal department. With this fund the building was repaired, and October 7, 1867, the preparatory department was opened with W. W. Washburn, B. A., as principal and instructor in Greek; Gabriel Campbell, B. A., instructor in Latin and grammar; and Ira Moore, Ph. B., instructor in mathematics. About seventy students were enrolled during the year, both girls and boys.

We now arrive at another epoch marking a period in the life of the University. July 2, 1862, Congress enlarged the national educational endowment system. Every state was to have a donation of 30,000 acres of public land for each senator and representative to which such state would be entitled under the apportionment of 1860. This endowment was for the support of colleges for the cultivation of agricultural and mechanical science and art. Under this act Minnesota became entitled to 120,000 acres, but, through some technicalities in the selection realized only about 96,000 acres.

The friends of the University were anxious to consolidate this grant with the University endowment, as the original charter of the University had provided for an Agricultural Department, and the union of the endowments would give a strong support to both. The Regents in their report of 1867 had recommended the consolidation. A bill modeled largely upon the charter of Michigan University was therefore prepared by Morris Lamprey, Esq., at the suggestion and by the aid of Senator Pillsbury. The bill was enacted by the Legislature and approved February 18, 1868. By this act the University was entirely reorganized. It provided for five or more colleges or departments, specifically naming a department of elementary instruction; a college of science, literature and the arts; a college of agriculture and the mechanic arts, including military tactics; a college or department of law; and a college or department of medicine. It placed the government of the University in a board of nine Regents, of whom the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction should be ex-officio members, and seven remaining members were to be appointed by the Governor and confirmed 0102 66 by the Senate. The act conferred on the new Board the rights, franchises, and endowments of the former Board, and, in addition, all the interest and income of the Agricultural College grant, and such gifts, grants and contributions to the endowments as might be derived from any sources.

The Board realized about 94,000 acres from the agricultural grant. By this act, in 1868, it was made a duty of the Board to secure suitable lands for an experimental farm and to improve and maintain the same for experimental purposes in connection with the course in the Agricultural College.

By an act of March 1, 1872, the Legislature provided for a Geological and Natural History Survey of the State and placed the same under the control of the University, appropriating $1,000 annually for expenses. The following year, in order to carry out such survey, the Legislature, by an amendatory act of March 10, 1873, increased the money appropriation to $2,000 annually, and transferred to the Board of Regents certain “salt spring lands,” so-called, which had been donated by the General Government to aid in the development of the brines in the State. These lands were to be sold by the Board and the proceeds held in trust and applied in carrying out such survey. Under this Salt Springs Grant and its transfer to them, the Regents realized some 34,114 acres of land, the proceeds of which were to be applied as stated above.

An act of Congress, approved March 2, 1887, granted $15,000 annually from the sale of public lands, for the support of an experiment station in each state in connection with the agricultural college. Another Congressional act of August 30, 1890, supplements the income from the permanent Agricultural College fund, with an additional grant of $15,000 to each state, and with an increase of $1,000 a year till it reaches a maximum of $25,000. This also is only payable out of the proceeds of public land sales, and of course is contingent upon there being such a fund from which it can be paid. These several grants complete the land endowment of the University.

Under the new charter of 1868, the Board was constituted as follows, the three Regents previously existing being made members of the new Board: William R. Marshall, governor (ex-officio); Hon. Mark H. Dunnell, superintendent of public instruction (ex-officio); General H. H. Sibley, St. Paul; Prof. E. J. Thompson, Rushford; Hon. O. C. Merriman, St. Anthony; Hon. John Nicols, St. Paul; Hon. John S. Pillsbury, St. Anthony; Col. R. S. Donaldson, Farmington; and Hon. A. A. Harwood, Owatonna.

Mr. Pillsbury was made president; Mr. Nicols, secretary; and Mr. Merriman, treasurer. The Board was increased to ten in 1872, and to twelve in 1889.

With the reorganization act of 1868, the protracted struggle to save the corporate existence of the institution and its properties was brought to a successful close, and the real life and history of the University began. As has been seen, a school had been opened with three professors in the fall of 1867. It was successfully conducted, and in 1868 the roll of instructors was increased to five and the attendance was 109.

Before the beginning of the school year of 1869–70, William W. Folwell was called to the presidency of the University. Dr. Folwell graduated from Hobart College in 1857; was a brilliant student and served for a time as assistant professor of mathematics in his Alma Mater, after which he studied and traveled abroad. The stirring events of 1861 found him in the Fiftieth New York Regiment of Engineers, with the rank of First Lieutenant. He served through the war in the Army of the Potomac, being promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war he was professor of mathematics in Kenyon College, from which position he was called to the presidency of the University, at the age of thirty-six. By a peculiar coincidence, Colonel Folwell and the writer met on a railroad train, as he was coming to the state to begin his work here. This was the commencement of an exceedingly pleasant acquaintance, which, I am happy to say, has continued ever since unbroken.

It was a serious problem that confronted the Regents, to select a man who in scholarship and executive ability would be able to erect a University out of chaos, and to successfully launch it in a 0104 68 new and untried sea. But after careful search they had chosen their man and shifted the responsibility to him. Colonel Folwell had not only a fine equipment in education, but an experience beyond his years in serious affairs. Having faith in the future, he assumed the task with an evident design of making it his life work.

The preparatory school, opened in September, 1867, under the principalship of Prof. Washburn, had brought a small company of young men and women to a point where they could be provisionally ranked as freshmen. Most of them, however, had no hope of completing a college course. The first college work in the University was begun September 15, 1869. The faculty for the year was composed of W. W. Folwell, president, and eight professors.

Then followed fifteen years of steady and inconspicuous work on the part of the faculty, laboring together to build up the college and carrying cheerfully the heavy load of preparatory teaching necessary under the circumstances. It was, in fact, founding upon a rock an intellectual and moral building, laying deep and broad the basic things on which the superstructure of the future institution could safely rest. How well their work was done has been fully attested by the experience of the years following. The preparatory school, conducted by the University professors, was so successful in its work and management that it was adopted as a model for the high schools of the state—then unsystematized and immature. There was, of course, no thought of any other ultimate work than the development of the academic departments.

In anticipation of the future growth and the addition of professional schools, the Regents adopted a general plan of organization, formulated by Dr. Folwell. By this plan, it was intended to merge the elementary instruction of all the departments which might later be created into one so-called “Collegiate” Department, which should carry the students up to the end of the sophomore year. From this point they would separate to the respective colleges from which they desired graduation. The plan was truly scientific, but it was novel in our country and met with opposition. The Regents, however, in 1872 after a full consideration, decided to continue this method, and did continue it in its formal shape for many years. Upon a change in the executive it was allowed to lapse. The University of Chicago, upon its reorganization, adopted a similar 0105 69 plan and has found it a successful basis of work for students of the first and second years, and in “Junior Colleges.” The plan made but slight innovations in the kind and range of studies. It affected the adjustment of departments, it reorganized secondary education and implied its ultimate relegation to the “Secondary Schools.” One object of this method seems to have been to bring the University into complete articulation with the general school system of the state, so that, as soon as practicable, the first two years of ordinary college work could be left to the high schools, and students of the University could begin work in the various colleges there with the usual junior year. This would have enabled the University, ultimately, to devote more of its time and strength to higher University work and original research.

Of the little band of freshmen setting out in 1869, but two reached the end of the four years' course, and were graduated in June, 1873. These were Henry Martyn Williamson, son of Thomas A. Williamson, the early and well-known missionary to the Dakotas; and Warren Clark Eustis, a member of a well-known St. Anthony family. Both are still living. The first commencement was celebrated with becoming ceremonies, at which many of the dignitaries of the state were present. It was in fact a more notable event to the University than any similar one in its further history.

During this period there were two colleges in the University, aside from the preparatory department, viz., the Academic, and the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The enrollment of students was variable, changing from 230 in 1869–70 to 308 in 1879–80 and 310 in 1884–85, those in the preparatory classes gradually growing less, while the college students were generally on the increase. The English course of the preparatory school was discontinued in 1871, and the others through the following years, until at the end of the decade but one sub-freshman class remained. This was finally dropped in 1891. In 1871 the faculty had increased to double its original number.

In 1869 the Regents, in pursuance of the plan of reorganization, secured a tract of 120 acres of land near the University for experimental work in agriculture. The cost of this tract was $8,500, and work was commenced under the supervision of suitable instructors, and was maintained continuously. But the quantity of land was deemed inadequate and the quality not suited for the best work. The growth of the city finally began to encroach upon the locality. The Regents, therefore, in view of these conditions, decided it was best to make a change. To that end in 1881 they procured the passage of an act by the Legislature, authorizing them, at their discretion, to make sale and conveyance of the experimental farm, and to reinvest the proceeds in other lands suitable in character and location. They were also permitted to survey and plat the old farm, if it was deemed best.

In December following, the Regents referred the matter to their executive committee, which in the month of June, 1882, reported a plan for the platting and sale of the experimental farm, and for the purchase of the Bass farm so-called. This land, 155 acres near Lake Como, had been examined by the professor of Agriculture and the Regents. They found it satisfactory, and had agreed provisionally to purchase it at $200 an acre, the amount to be paid as soon as funds could be realized from the sale of the experimental farm. The action of the executive committee was approved and they were authorized to buy the land. The plat was thereupon executed by the officers of the Board and recorded. They first had a careful appraisal of the lots made and a minimum price fixed, sufficient to bring at least $50,000. Then they proceeded to sell at public auction, and realized the remarkable sum of over $150,000.

The fortunate outcome of this venture enabled the Regents to pay at once for the Bass farm, and also to purchase from Mr. N. P. Langford an additional tract of 94 acres adjoining. This was bought for $300 an acre. With the remaining funds the Regents began to improve the lands and erect a farm house, a barn, and sheds. A plant house was built for the Horticultural Department. A school building with heating apparatus and laboratory was constructed; a water plant was installed by sinking wells and erecting wind mills and water tanks. All that seemed to them then necessary 0107 71 for a well equipped experimental farm was done. This land, to the great advantage of the students, was only about two miles from the University, and it adjoins now the grounds and plant of the State Agricultural Society.

By act of March 8, 1878, the Legislature provided for the purchase of 116 acres of land at Lake Minnetonka, known as the Gideon fruit farm, for experimental work in fruit culture. They placed the same under the supervision of the Regents, appropriating $2,000 for payment and $1,000 for support. ‘After ten years' experience the Legislature, upon the advice of the Regents, authorized the sale of the property and the use of the proceeds in experimental work on the farm bought in 1881, which was accordingly done.

We now come to a new epoch in the history of the University Dr. Folwell's fourteen years of quiet, persistent, and constant work had been eminently successful, but had also proven a severe strain upon him physically. In view of this, and as a solemn duty he owed to himself and his family, he resolved to free himself from the burden of the executive work of the institution. Therefore, in February, 1883, he sent to Gen. H. H. Sibley, president of the Board, his resignation as president of the University from the end of the current year. The resignation came before the Board at its next meeting, March 8, 1883, and was accepted provisionally, to take effect when a successor could be elected. At the same meeting it was considered and decided, in view of the need the University felt of his services, to tender to Dr. Folwell the chair of Political Science, and he was accordingly unanimously elected. Dr. Folwell kindly consented to act as president until his successor should be chosen. In 1884 he accepted the position tendered by the Regents, the chair of Political Science, which he has ever since continued to fill with eminent satisfaction to all concerned.

I cannot pass from the presidency of Mr. Folwell without a few words of approval and just praise for the work done by him in the dull and arduous years of his administration. At the beginning the task was especially difficult. A plan had to be created and work done according to a meager equipment, but always with the thought of possible future growth. The scheme of organization had to be 0108 72 wrought out in a school that as yet knew no regular lines of work. The instructors were required to be general utility men, ready for any employment that might come to them. But order and system was the result. Primary work was gradually dropped, and collegiate work advanced. A close relationship with the high schools of the state was established, and a consistent foundation was laid for future college and University work. The result is an educational system, combining the common school, the high school, college and University, that is the power and glory of the state. We cannot place too much honor upon those who have contributed to this noble work.

Upon the resignation of Dr. Folwell the Board appointed a committee consisting of its president, Governor J. S. Pillsbury, and Judge Greenleaf Clark, to visit the different colleges of the country with the view of finding a suitable man for the presidency. So great was the interest that in practice this committee was enlarged and embraced every member of the Board. The search, far and wide, was finally narrowed to the professor of English Literature in Yale University. Some members of the committee had visited the professor, seeking information, but not distinctly stating their purpose, and reported their conclusions. Another and larger representation of the Board paid him a subsequent visit, and after eliciting all the information possible, surprised the professor by offering him the position. The proffer was not received with much enthusiasm. After two hours of persuasion, with the use of every glowing picture for the future, within the capability of Northwesterners, all he would grant to us was a reluctant consent to come out and look over the University, the people and the country. Well, he came, he saw, and he was evidently conquered, for Cyrus Northrop, LL. D., became the new president of the University, commencing his work with the beginning of the college year of 1884–5.

The remaining story of the University must rest in its minutiae with the historian of the future. It is not yet enough in perspective to be historically told. We can only enumerate the facts of its wonderful development. It is too much a part of our active life and intense interest, to measure what these facts mean for the years to come.

President Northrop came to an institution with an enrollment of 310 students, nearly half of whom were in secondary school work. In 1890 the number had risen to 1,002; in 1895 to 2,171; in 1900 to 3,236; and in 1905 to 3,790. The degrees conferred during this period correspond with the enrollment. In 1885 there were 19; in 1890 there were 120; in 1895 there were 296; in 1900 there were 404; and in 1905 there were 547. Of these graduates some three thousand reside in the State. * The total attendance and degrees conferred year by year will appear in tabular form in the appendix.

This phenomenal growth is, with very few exceptions, unprecedented in the history of educational institutions in this country or any other. During this period the following colleges have been created: Medicine in 1884; Law in 1888; Mining in 1891; Pharmacy in 1892; Dentistry in 1893; and Chemistry in 1904. A separate department for graduate work is now being considered. The faculty and teaching force of the University now engaged in its work numbers about 230. The Libraries now contain about 100,000 bound volumes, and one-fourth as many pamphlets, magazines, and reports. The Museums, general and technical, compare favorably with those usually found in similar institutions.

With an appropriation of $50,000 by the Legislature in 1873, a main building was constructed, attached to the old wing, not according to the original design, but facing to the east instead of north. About the same time an agricultural building was erected on the campus. This was burned in 1888. In 1875 the sum of $25,000 was appropriated for finishing and furnishing the University buildings. Through appropriations by the Legislature of $18,000 in 1877, $20,000 in 1879, and $20,000 in 1881, the campus was enlarged and improved in form and accessibility to streets, and it now consists of about fifty acres of land.

The Legislature of 1881 appropriated $180,000, made available in six equal annual installments, for new buildings to be erected upon a plan devised by President Folwell, who wanted $300,000. This appropriation was not accomplished without much hard work by the friends of the University; but when the Legislature came to understand the situation, they gladly voted the sum required, and a brighter day dawned for the institution. The burning of the State Capitol and two state institutions soon after this appropriation. made an unusual demand upon the Treasury, so that the funds could not be realized until two or three years later.

Subsequent appropriations by the Legislature, for buildings. equipment, and support, on the campus and at the agricultural farm, amount, including the foregoing, to the sum of $1,846,000 for buildings, $2,703,600 for support, and $553,200 miscellaneous. as will appear fully in detail in the appendix to this article.

The permanent University fund arising from the sale of lands granted is $1,400,000, the income from which for the year 1904–5 was $54,100. 36,310 acres of the lands still remain unsold.

The main building of the University and the old wing were burned in September, 1904. The Legislature at its last session appropriated $450,000 towards the construction of a new main building and it is in process of erection. The University buildings now clustered upon the campus and at the experimental farm, with their cost values, are as follows:

The first donation, other than those on subscription lists, was made to the University in 1872 by friends who contributed $720 to purchase Ward's casts of fossils for the Museum.

In 1884 the University was in great need of a building for the natural sciences, which according to estimate would cost about $150,000. The funds appropriated by the Legislature were insufficient for this and other buildings imperatively needed. Hon. John S. Pillsbury came to the rescue at this time with the most generous offer to erect the building himself and present it to the state, providing the Legislature would put itself on record as “forever in 0112 76 favor of the integrity of the University” through making the Agricultural College one of its departments. This most gracious offer was accepted by the Regents with profound gratitude. The building was erected at a cost of $131,000 and paid for by Mr. Pillsbury. It was first called “Science Hall,” but by the action of the Regents the name was changed to “Pillsbury Hall,” by which it will ever be known.

In 1885, $12,000 was raised by subscription through the state for the erection of a Students' Christian Association building on the campus. The building was presented to the Regents at its dedication in 1887.

In 1892, the citizens of Minneapolis gave $5,000 for the erection of Ore Testing and Milling laboratories in connection with the School of Mines and Metallurgy. The same year the City Council did work amounting to $7,000, in sidewalks and curbing on the campus, which they presented to the University.

In the year 1893, the Regents desired to procure by purchase from Samuel H. Chute, Esq., fractional Block 1 of the Mill Company's Addition at the corner of University Avenue and Eleventh Avenue S. E., in order to bring the campus out to the street line, whereupon Mr. Chute generously tendered them a free gift of this tract, which greatly added to the beauty and symmetry of the campus. Its reasonable value was about $1,500.

In 1901, the Hon. John D. Ludden, of St. Paul, gave a trust of $5,000 to the Board of Regents, the income to be used for the assistance of students of either sex in the School of Agriculture.

The same year a trust of $50,000 known as “the Gilfillan Trust” was established. The interest from this sum was to be used for “youths of our state struggling for an education beyond their means of attaining.”

In 1902, Mr. Caleb D. Door, of Minneapolis, erected a beautiful drinking fountain on the campus, at a cost of several thousand dollars. The same year Mrs. E. C. Gale expressed to the Regents her wish to enclose the University Avenue side of the Campus, by building a stone and iron fence, which should be a memorial to her father, Gov. John S. Pillsbury. This was done at an expense of $8,000. The beautiful gateway and artistic construction are a great addition to the grounds.

In 1904, the heirs of Governor Pillsbury carried out his intention of giving to the University six lots, thus enlarging Northrop Field to a suitable size for military drill and physical training. This gift was valued at $15,000.

In 1904, the Hon. John D. John D. Ludden increased his gift $5,000, thus making a trust of $10,000, the interest from this amount to be used as he had previously requested.

In 1904, Mr. Alfred F. Pillsbury had that part of the campus known as Northrop Field enclosed by a substantial brick wall, making the athletic grounds of the University among the best in the country. This was done at a cost of $15,000.

The Alumni created a fellowship of $250 a year, in 1887, which they have maintained since by subscriptions. The class of 1889 contributed a fund of $500. The income from this yields an annual prize in history, known as “The '89 Memorial Prize.”

The Gillette Herzog Manufacturing Company have offered since 1891 two prizes a year, $50 and $30, to the College of Engineering, Metallurgy and Mechanic Arts, which is now being continued by Messrs. L. S. and G. M. Gillette.

The Prof. Moses Marston Scholarship in English, which is the interest on $1,000, was established in 1892.

The Albert Howard Scholarship was established in 1893. The amount, $4,500, was invested in government bonds, yielding $160 a year, and is at the discretion of the Executive Committee, who recommend its recipient to the Faculty.

In 1895 a college fellowship of $200 annually was announced in the College of Engineering, Metallurgy and Mechanic Arts.

Hon. J. T. Wyman since 1900 has contributed an annual prize of $25 for an essay on an economic subject in the department of Political Science.

A fund of $5,000, yielding a scholarship of $250 a year, was given in 1901 by Mrs. Mary H. Elliott, to be used as a “scholarship loan fund for assisting young men in the School of Mines.” This was done as a memorial to her husband, Dr. A. F. Elliott, in fulfillment of his wish.

In 1904, Mrs. Martha S. Cutts gave $500, known as the Rollin E. Cutts fund, to maintain a prize in the College of Medicine and Surgery.

The will of Mrs. A. F. Elliott left a bequest to the University from which the Regents expect to realize $125,000. The heirs have requested that this fund be used to erect a hospital in connection with the Medical Department. The decision relating to this use of the bequest is held in abeyance, at the suggestion of Governor Johnson, until it is known what action the Legislature will take relative to the support of the hospital.

The primary gift of the present year is that of Mr. Thomas H. Shevlin. He donates $60,000 for the erection of a woman's building on the campus. This building is to be known as the Alice Shevlin Hall.

Through the history of the University there have been many gifts of much value to the Library and Museum. The Hon. Frederick Weyerhacuser met for five years the expense of a professor of Semitie Languages, hoping that in this way a permanent chair might be established for this work.

Thus we arrive at the very interesting summary that $460,995 has been given in donations to the University in the last thirty three years.

Of this, $46,500 was to improve the campus; $323,000 was for buildings; $720 was for museums; $60,000 was in trust funds to help students; $11,500 was in trust funds for scholarships; $3,560 is interest on these scholarships; and $7,215 is the cumulated amount from annual scholarships.

This is more than one-fourth of the entire amount appropriated by the Legislature for buildings, both at the Agricultural College and on the campus, during the same time; which speaks well indeed for the comparative interests of the individual and the state in education in Minnesota.

The most devoted friend and generous giver the University has had was John S. Pillsbury, who from 1863 to the close of his life was tireless in his efforts to promote its interests. One potent cause of its great prosperity has been his skill and watchfulness in the management of its financial affairs. In recognition of the long and invaluable service of Mr. Pillsbury, in the interest of the University, the Legislature in 1895 made him Regent for life, an honor 0115 79 without precedent in the history of the state. His decease in 1901 was an irreparable loss to the University and to the community in which he lived so long.

This, then, is the story, imperfectly told, of the University of Minnesota, the work it has done, and the equipment it has for the work it is now undertaking to do. What is claimed for it, is, that it is doing good, substantial work in whatever it undertakes, work equal to that done in any similar institution in the country, especially in scientific lines.

The Agricultural Department, with its school of agriculture, experiment station, and sub-stations at Crookston and Grand Rappids, is probably superior to that of any other state. The school, opened in 1888 and maintained ever since, had an enrollment for the year 1902–3 of 638 students, 513 of whom were men, and 125 women, and in the year 1903–4 an enrollment of 705, 562 men and 143 women. The curriculum includes practical work in dairying, farming, stock breeding, horticulture, chemical analysis of soils, soil products, etc. All this work is of a high order and most practical kind.

The Geological and Natural History Survey of the state, inaugurated in 1872, has from that date to the present time cost about $278,000, which, excepting a few small sums appropriated by the state in the early years, has been paid from the proceeds of sales of salt lands, which have now become exhausted. This survey has proven of immense value both to the University and the state. Its reports, sent to every part of the world, have been published in twenty-four annual reports and seven final quarto volumes of the Geological Survey and eight volumes of the Botanical and Zoological Surveys. The explorations and reports of the geological work have been the means of opening up one of the richest and most extensive mineral regions in the world, some portion of which has been saved to the State before being entirely lost by sale to private parties. These mines have already yielded a revenue to the state of $900,000.

The past of the University is full of encouragement, and its future bright with promise. It was located by its organic act “at or near the Falls of St. Anthony,” and this location is confirmed by the constitution of the state. It occupies a place in the city of Minneapolis, beautiful for situation, upon a broad plateau on the high east bank of the Mississippi river, which sweeps in curving lines at its feet far below. The grounds, about fifty acres in extent, command a fine view of the falls, and a long vista of the river and gorge below, as well as of the city and region round about. But the institution is sufficiently remote from the business center, not to be disturbed by the buzz of machinery or the hum of traffic.

Its marvelous growth may be traced to several causes, among which are the rapid increase of the state in population and material wealth; the magnificent support it has received from the government, both state and national; the like generous aid given to the common schools and high schools of the state, and the development of them as part of an educational system equal if not superior to that of any other state; the sectarian and the other preparatory schools of a more private character; and the superior facilities afforded in the two cities for employment of students dependent more or less upon their own efforts in gaining an education. These are some of the conditions contributing to swell the column marching toward the University. But above all this and more than all this, has been the rare wisdom and skill of its President, Dr. Cyrus Northrop, possessing, as has been so truly written of him, the unusual “combination of statesman, scholar, man of affairs, and leader of men.” whereby this mass of applicants to the University has been received, arranged systematically in classes, and carried successfully through to graduation, free from clamor without or friction within.

One most fortunate circumstance in the life of the institution has been that only once in all the years of its active work has there been a change in the presidency. Then the incoming policy was in utmost harmony with the work which had preceded, each supplementing the other to the profound advantage of the University. Its 0117 81 administration stands a consistent unit, from its beginning until now, never working away from its original tenets, but developing and adding to them. Dr. Folwell deserves, as he most justly receives, the meed of all praise for his foundation work; and Dr. Northrop merits every encomium for the matchless manner in which he has met and controlled this unexpected and marvelous expansion, and builded it, upon the old foundations, into the splendid institution of learning which is the pride of the state today.

It was the fortune of the writer to come to the Territory in 1855, and he has been an interested spectator of the growth and development of the state and its educational institutions; he was elected to the State Senate in 1875, and for ten years, as a friend of the University, and as chairman of the joint committee of the Legislature, had to do with whatever legislation affected the institution; in 1881 he became a regent, and for eight years was active as one of the executive committee, in the management of its affairs. At the end of this time a protracted residence abroad made him feel the expediency of declining a re-appointment.

It is unnecessary for me to say that I have an unbridled ambition for our State University and its future, and the greatest hope in what it shall be able to do for the people. Minnesota, with its rich natural resources of field, forest, and mine, and with a fast growing, enterprising and aggressive population of varied origin, needs just such an educational system as we have, to mould and assimilate the different nationalities into one complete and homogeneous people, fit material for the upbuilding of a great state. In this work the University must have the culminating share.

When we look back to the years 1785 and 1787, we must indeed admire the prescience of the men, who in those now famous ordinances laid the foundation of commonwealths by providing for education in this vast empire. The ordinance of 1787, styled by Webster the Magna Charta of the Northwest, was the handiwork of a man born and bred in an atmosphere of learning, Nathan Dane. of Massachusetts.

During the last half century, and especially since the practical results of the grant of 1862 have begun to be seen, the great value of that beneficent ordinance has come to be more fully realized. Minnesota is one of the states that has been most highly favored in carrying out the provisions of the ordinance, and this places upon us a corresponding obligation. We as a people must so care for this trust that we can render to ourselves and our community an acceptable account of our stewardship. The state has made a good beginning. To use Huxley's figure, she now “has an educational ladder reaching from every home, however humble, within her borders, up through the common schools and high schools, ending at the University.” Every boy and girl who will, may climb. We must see to it that they find an institution at the top which yields them not only greater information, but nobler standards, giving to them, besides knowledge, wisdom in knowledge. To that end we must save it free, as it has thus far been, from the virus of political intrigue, supplement its already generous support with whatever else it may need, and make it all we would have it to be. It should be not only the center of learning, but the radius of culture for the commonwealth, standing to those who belong within its colleges as the “open sesame” to the best that life may know,—not an institution doing some good to great numbers, but the greatest good to each one who names it Alma Mater.

In our aspiration to accomplish this, it would be the part of wisdom to pause occasionally and determine whether we are pursuing altogether the best course, either for the individual or the state. Are we trying to carry too large a percentage of our youths up through the higher grades of learning? Might it not be better, both for the individual and the commonwealth, to scrutinize more carefully the masses seeking entrance to our higher schools and the University, and, by the formula of admittance, to select those for advanced courses of study who are by ability and temperament qualified and susceptible for them, diverting to careful study in the trades and more manual callings those who by taste and ingenuity are best suited to succeed in these lines? The problem is one for the best thinkers and statesmen to solve, the ultimate point to be gained being the development of a people composed of the two elements, 0119 83 the artistic artisan and the scholarly student. This seems to have been the spirit inspiring the land grant of 1862, in aid of agriculture and the mechanic arts. The question is, does our system of education give to every one taking advantage of it “that love of learning which is better than learning itself?” Has instruction improved our education? Facts massed do not represent knowledge. Assimilation is the mental process of growth, as well as the physical. “Education is the unfolding of the whole human nature, the growing up, in all things, to our highest possibility.” Its trinity is the cultivation of the mind, the morals, and the manners.

It will require time to reach the best solution of these things, but experience is a great teacher and will lead to the truth in due course. In all the states in the Union, striving, through their institutions of learning, to elevate their sons and daughters to a higher manhood and a truer culture, may our own beloved commonwealth and her great University ever be found, as now, among the foremost and the best.

The receipt of the steering-wheel of the United States steam frigate Minnesota, by this Society from the Secretary of the Navy, suggested that something concerning her history would be of interest to the members of the society and the citizens of the state for which she was named, and which she honored by her record.

The acquisition of the wheel by this society originated through correspondence by Mr. Edwin S. Chittenden, of this city, with Senator Moses E. Clapp, in which Mr. Chittenden suggested securing the figurehead, on learning that the old frigate was to be sold, or had been sold, to the highest bidder for old junk. Senator Clapp, in a letter to Mr. Chittenden, dated February 4, 1902, wrote as follows: “I find that it is going to be impossible to get the figurehead of the old ‘Minnesota,’ as the department has determined that it shall be a part of the Naval Archives. The best I can do is, possibly, to get the steering-wheel. If you think they [the society] would care for that, let me know.” To this Mr. Chittenden replied, “I have been assured that they [the society] would be pleased to obtain, through your efforts, any part of the old vessel; the wheel is surely a very important and interesting portion, and I should think it second in interest alone to the figurehead.”

On February 21, 1902, Senator Clapp again wrote: “The Secretary of the Navy is having the proper steps taken to provide for the sale of the wheel, which has to be done where 0124 86 authority of Congress is granted to donate it, and I have introduced a resolution authorizing the donation of the wheel.” On March 27, 1902, Senator Clapp wrote: “I think the ‘wheel’ matter will go through all right; I got it through the Senate without trouble.” June 19, 1902, he says, “In regard to the steering-wheel, it has gone to the House, and Stevens is looking after it.” The foregoing is but a small part of the correspondence, during the past two years, pertaining to the acquisition of the wheel; but it is sufficient to show the interest of the movement, and it is only necessary to add that the bill authorizing the donation of the wheel passed both branches of Congress, by which the Secretary of the Navy was given authority to send it to the Minnesota Historical Society. The wheel was received August 18, 1904.

On April 6, 1854, Congress passed the following act.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Navy be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause to be constructed for the United States Navy, at as early a day as practicable, consistently with a due regard for economy and efficiency, six first-class steam-frigates, to be provided with screw-propellers, and properly armed and equipped for service; said vessels and machinery to be built by contract, or in government navy yards, as the Secretary of the Navy may think most advisable for the public interest.

Section 2. And be it further enacted, That there be, and is hereby appropriated, to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, for the purpose above specified, and for altering, completing, and launching the frigates Santee, at Kittery, and Sabine, at New York, the sum of three millions of dollars, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

Approved April 6, 1854.

The six frigates constructed under this act were the Merrimac (later converted by the Confederates into an ironclad and called the Virginia), the Wabash, the Minnesota, the Roanoke, the Colorado, and the Niagara. The last named, however, was not properly a frigate, but a sloop of war. In these days, when the cost of a single battleship equals, or exceeds, the cost of the six, with the repairing of two, the amount appropriated seems insignificant.

The total cost of the Minnesota, including armament, was $691,408.14; her engines and boilers cost $169,786.34, nearly twenty-five per cent of the whole. Her keel must have been laid soon after the appropriation was made, as we find her reported on the stocks in the navy yard at Washington in December, 1854. The following is the official description of the vessel:

Builder, Government; material, wood; length from knightheads to taffrail, two hundred and eighty-five feet, five inches; length between perpendiculars, two hundred and sixty-four feet; breadth molded, fifty feet and two inches; breadth, extreme, fifty-one feet and two inches; depth of hold, twenty-six feet and two and one-half inches; propulsion, screw; rig, ship; the area of the ten principal sails, consisting of the courses, topsails, top jib sails, top gallant sails, jib and spanker, two thousand three hundred and ninety-eight feet; tonnage, three thousand two hundred.

The engines were built at the Washington Navy Yard from designs prepared by Engineer-in-Chief D. B. Martin, and were of the Penn trunk style, of two horizontal cylinders of seventy-nine and one-half inches diameter and three and one-half feet stroke, the trunks being thirty-three inches in diameter. There were four furnace Martin's vertical water tube boilers of iron, except the tubes which were brass; the grate surface of all boilers, three hundred and thirty-three and one-half square feet; and total heating surface, twelve thousand five hundred and thirty-seven square feet. The single smokestack was eight feet in diameter. Propeller was a two-bladed true screw of brass, seventeen feet in diameter, twenty-three feet pitch, made to disconnect and hoist up in a well in the stern. Speed, steam and sail, twelve and one-half knots per hour. Coal per hour, six hundred and twenty-eight pounds.

Battery: two ten-inch pivot guns on spar deck, bow and stern; fourteen eight-inch guns on spar deck; twenty-four nine-inch guns on gun deck; total weight of main battery, with side tackles, etc., one hundred and seventy-nine tons.

The Minnesota was launched on December 1, 1855, one year, seven months and twenty-four days after the act authorizing her construction. Under the conditions existing at that time, this can be considered rapid work. The Secretary of the Navy, Hon. James C. Dobbin, in his report for 1854, mentions the difficulty of obtaining seasoned timber, as there was but a small amount at the various navy yards.

Under date of December 15, 1855, the following brief notice of the launching appears in the Daily Minnesotian:

The United States Steam Frigate Minnesota was launched at Washington Navy Yard on the 1st. She passed off handsomely. Miss Mann, of Boston, had the honor of christening the noble ship, and breaking on her bow a bottle of Guy's best. She glided into the watery element freighted with human life.

This does not quite agree with the description of the event given in the Daily National Intelligencer, of December 3d, which follows:

It was on the cloudless, balmy day of Saturday that the most superb specimen of marine architecture ever attempted by the naval constructors and artisans of our city was launched into the broad and beautiful Anacostia. Before the appointed hour thousands of persons, of both sexes and of all classes of society, had assembled in the Navy Yard, and on house-tops and every eligible point of view in the neighborhood, to witness the first visit of the noble “Minnesota” to that element which is in future to be her home. Patiently the large crowd awaited the termination of the preliminary arrangements until about one o'clock, when music, cheers, and a salute of twenty-one guns, announced the arrival of the President. Shortly afterwards, the steamer “Engineer” received on board the President, his Cabinet, and a number of invited guests, and took his station in the stream in a favorable position for seeing the launch.

As the hour wore on and the sound of the removal of the props was heard over the water, the interest became more earnest, until at about half past two a signal gun boomed forth. Then all became silently attentive until the majestic ship glided slowly into the water, and, burying herself nearly to her stern ports as if in homage, rose as easily and gracefully as a swan upon the swell, and came to rest without a strain,—able to challenge the severest criticism, a very leviathan upon the waters. Just before the ship reached the water, a young lady of this city baptised her in the customary mode by the name of “Minnesota,” with water brought from that river by the Hon. Mr. Rice, of Minnesota Territory. Very few ladies sufficiently overcame their apprehensions to trust themselves on board, though any dread of danger must soon have been lost in pride at the unmarred success of the launch and the superb appearance of this latest triumph of our naval architecture and mechanical skill. Well may all connected with her construction be felicitated upon the successful issue of their labors; and we are sure that none of our citizens present at this beautiful spectacle will ever cease to follow the course of the splendid Minnesota with interest and pride.

The question, how, and by whom, the frigate was named “Minnesota” naturally arises; for at that time Minnesota was a territory, and only seven years old. It may be presumed, however, that Hon. Henry M. Rice, then a delegate in Congress from Minnesota, suggested the name, and the description just read appears to leave no doubt as to Mr. Rice being the sponsor.

Frank M. Bennett, in his history of “The Steam Navy of the United States,” has this to say of the “six first-class steam frigates, to be provided with screw propellers:”

These ships were all built by the Government at navy yards as follows: The Merrimac at Boston; the Wabash at Philadelphia; the Minnesota at Washington; the Roanoke and Colorado at Norfolk; and the Niagara at New York. The three first named were launched in 1855 and the three others in 1856, they being, when completed, the superiors of any war vessel then possessed by any nation in the world. When the first of them went abroad they became objects of admiration and envy to the naval architects of Europe, and their type was quickly copied into other navies, notably that of England, which imitated their construction in the Orlando, Mersey, and others of that class.

If it could have been foreseen that in seven years the utility of these model ships would be impaired, if not wholly destroyed, by a nondescript craft, a pygmy in comparison, called the Monitor, the creation of Captain John Ericsson, which revolutionized naval construction, their admiration and haste to imitate would have been qualified. But even now we must admit that, as things of beauty, they were more desirable to look upon than the fighting machines of today.

The first service of the Minnesota was on the East India station in 1857 and 1858, under command of Captain Samuel F. Du Pont, the Mississippi being the flagship of the squadron at the time. The East India squadron consisted of the steam frigates Powhatan, Captain George F. Pearson; Minnesota, Captain Samuel F. Du Pont; Mississippi, Captain William C. Nicholson; and a sloop of war, the Germantown, Commander 0128 90 Richard L. Page. The flag officer was Josiah Tatnall, who in 1862 succeeded Captain Franklin Buchanan in command of the Merrimac, after the latter was wounded.

In October, 1857, this squadron was present at the capture of the Chinese forts on the Pei-ho. I have been unable to find a report of the outward voyage of the squadron, but did find a detailed account of the return of the Minnesota, which I append, believing it will be of interest.

The “Minnesota,” returning to the United States, left Hong Kong with Mr. [William B.] Reed, late Minister to China, on board, and conveyed him to Bombay, where she arrived January 16, 1859. On her way she visited Singapore, in the Straits of Malacca, and Point de Galle and colombo, in the island of Ceylon, and received the marked attention of the authorities of those places. At Bombay she was visited by the Governor and by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of Western India.

February 20, 1859, she arrived at the coast of Muscat, and was immediately visited by the Sultan's chief secretary and interpreter, with offers of assistance. Captain Du Pont, with a suite of officers, waited on his highness' father, and expressed the hope and belief that the same friendly sentiments and uniform protection of American commerce would continue under his son and successor; and, as an evidence of the courteous and kind feelings entertained for the present Imaum, or Sultan, he said the President of the United States had sent the largest vessel-of-war that had yet been to the Eastern World to visit his domains.

The Sultan was much gratified, and expressed his warm friendship for the United States of America, and his desire, not alone to protect our present trade, but to do all in his power to foster and increase it. He asked Captain Du Pont to accept a present of an Arabian steed and a jeweled sword, which was declined. Captain Du Pont sent him a Sharps rifle and a Colt's revolver and their accoutrements.

From Muscat the Minnesota proceeded to Cape Town; thence to Boston, where she arrived May 29, 1859.

From the date of the arrival of the Minnesota at Boston, she appears to have been out of commission until April 4, 1861, when she was placed in commission by the following order of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, to Captain Silas H. Stringham.

Sir: You are relieved from duty as a member of the Naval Court-Martial now convened in this city, and also from special duty at Washington connected with the discipline of the service. You will 0129 91 proceed to Boston, Mass., and when the U. S. steam frigate Minnesota shall be put in commission you will hoist your flag on board that vessel and await the further instructions of this Department.

On April 11, 1861, Flag Officer Stringham announces his arrival at Boston, “and reports the ship in a rapid state of forwardness * * * * * with every probability of having her ready for the officers and crew in about fifteen days.” On April 30 (Tuesday) he again writes: “The ship will be ready for her crew by Thursday. If possible, we shall sail on Saturday; think by Monday at furthest.” He asks for a list of the vessels that will be ordered to report to him as attached to his command; the names will be given later on. May 1, 1861, the Secretary of the Navy sent the following order to Flag Officer Stringham.

Sir: Having been over fifty years in the service, and twenty as captain, you will hoist your flag at the fore instead of at the mizzen of the Minnesota. The Department in this instance suspends its general order of May 18, 1858, on the ground of your having seen nearly the requisite service as captain in the Navy, and as an honor to the Commander of the Coast Blockading Squadron.

May 6th, 1861, Flag Officer Stringham acknowledges the receipt of the order giving him the command, and thanks the Secretary. He writes:

The flattering terms contained in your communication ordering me to hoist my flag at the fore instead of at the mizzen of the Minnesota, where I had placed it, can only be returned by the assurance that I will endeavor to merit the high honor conferred, both this mark of confidence of the Department and the much greater one of being appointed at this important time, in our country's hour of trial, as Commander of the Coast Blockading Squadron.

On May 8, 1861, Flag Officer Stringham informs the Department, “We left the wharf at the Navy Yard at about half past 8 o'clock this morning, and are now leaving the harbor.”

May 13, 1861, 10 o'clock a. m., he informs the Department “that we have arrived and are now safely at anchor off Fortress Monroe after a moderate passage” (of five days). The vessels which at first composed the blockading squadron, as reported by Junior Flag Officer Garrett J. Pendergrast to Senior Flag Officer Stringham, were the Cumberland, Monticello, 0130 92 Quaker City, steam tug Yankee, Harriet Lane, and steam tug Young America, and later this number was increased by the Niagara, Massachusetts, and South Carolina. The squadron was in active service immediately, for, on May 14, Flag Officer Stringham reports the capture of three schooners. Others were captured, but were released as “no prizes.” The following were captured later, May 17 to July 10, 1861, and were condemned: Ship, North Carolina; schooners, Crenshaw and Sally Mears; barques, Hiawatha and Pioneer.

On May 17, the Secretary of the Navy writes to Flag Officer Stringham: “The name of your squadron will be the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and it will be composed of the following named vessels, viz: Minnesota [flagship], Cumberland, Perry, Harriet Lane, Dawn, Monticello, Union, Reliance, Daylight, Mount Vernon, Penguin, Albatross, Wabash, and Commander [James H.] Ward's flotilla.” This flotilla consisted of three improvised gunboats, the Freeborn, Anacostia, and Resolute.

May 30, 1861, Flag Officer Stringham reports the Minnesota off Charleston, S. C. Again on June 6, 1861, he reports the capture of the Savannah, a piratical schooner of about fifty tons, hailing from Charleston, S. C., with a commission from Jefferson Davis, dated Montgomery, May 13, 1861, commanded by T. Harrison Baker, with a crew of nineteen men. So far as can be learned, this was the first war vessel captured by the United States from the rebels. On July 10, the brig Amy Warwick was captured.

In August, 1861, the fleet under command of Flag Officer Stringham, attacking Forts Hatteras and Clark, comprised the following vessels: the flagship Minnesota, Captain Gershom J. Van Brunt; Wabash, Captain Samuel Mercer; Susquehanna, Captain John S. Chauncey; Pawnee, Commander Stephen C. Rowan; Monticello, Commander John P. Gillis; Harriet Lane, Captain John Faunce; and the Cumberland, a sailing ship, Captain John Martin. These seven armed vessels carried in all one hundred and forty-three guns. They 0131 93 were accompanied by three transports, the Adelaide, George Peabody, and the Fanny, on which were embarked detachments of infantry from the Ninth and Twentieth New York Volunteers,and a company of the Second U. S. Artillery. This fleet set sail from Hampton Roads, Va., for Hatteras Inlet, N. C., August 26th, and arrived on the afternoon of the same day.

On the 28th, at 6:45 a. m., the troops, under command of General B. F. Butler, were disembarked; and at 10 o'clock the attack on Forts Hatteras and Clark commenced. The Wabash and Cumberland fired the first shots, after which the Minnesota passed inside of the Wabash and Cumberland and opened fire, followed by the combined fleet. At 6:45 p. m. the fleet ceased firing and withdrew for the night.

On the 29th the engagement was renewed. The Minnesota again passed inside of the Wabash, anchoring between her and the Susquehanna, and opened fire. The enemy returned the fire throughout the engagement, but with no effect, their shot falling short. At 11 a. m. they displayed a white flag, and this ended the first engagement of importance in which the Minnesota took part. These forts were the first captured after the seceding of the Southern states.

In his official report of this engagement Flag Officer Stringham mentions this incident which happened on the Minnesota: “The Minnesotans yet talk of an incident which occurred on board this ship. J. D. Kraigbaum, in sponging a gun, unfortunately lost overboard his sponge; quick as thought he plunged overboard, grasped it, swam up to the port, and was helped in by his comrades. When asked by his officers why he did so rash an act, he replied he did not want his gun disgraced.”

On September 2, 1861, the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, “congratulated Flag Officer Stringham and his command; also the officers and soldiers of the Army, on the reduction of Forts Hatteras and Clark and the capture of the forces employed in this defense. * * * * * Accomplished without the loss of a man on his part, or injury to one in the Federal service, it has carried joy and gladness to the bosom of every friend of the Union.”

In an account of the affair at Forts Hatteras and Clark by Bvt. Gen. Rush C. Hawkins, who participated in the engagement with the land forces, he mentions the naval tactics practiced for the first time by Flag Officer Stringham, for which he received no credit, “but when adopted by Du Pont, in a more brilliant affair, its merits were duly recognized. While Du Pont rose to the highest point in public estimation, Stringham was relegated to an obscure official background and never after held a service command.” His old ship, the Minnesota, was but a few years later also “relegated to an obscure background,” having, like her old commander, survived her usefulness.

On September 1, 1861, Flag Officer Stringham reports from Hampton Roads, Va., the arrival of the Minnesota, twenty-six hours from New York. This shows that she must have sailed there immediately after the engagement of the 29th of August, although I find no account of it.

September 18, 1861, Flag Officer Stringham was ordered to transfer command of the Atlantic Blockading Squadron to Captain Louis M. Goldsborough; and on the 23d the latter announces his arrival at Hampton Roads, having assumed command and hoisted his flag on the Minnesota.

The most important affair in which the Minnesota took part, and one of the most important events in history, was that of March 8, 1862, at Hampton Roads, Va., when, on her way to the assistance of the Congress and the Cumberland, attacked by the Confederate ironclad Merrimac, the Minnesota ran aground. From 4 until 7 o'clock p. m., while lying aground, she engaged the Merrimac and the two steam gunboats, Patrick Henry and Jamestown. The Minnesota's broadsides, however, did no damage to the Merrimac. The Congress was captured and destroyed, and the Cumberland sunk; but the Minnesota was saved by the approaching darkness and the fear of the Merrimac's pilots to enter that channel. The Merrimac and her two consorts anchored off Sewall's Point, expecting to return in the morning and capture 0133 95 or destroy the Minnesota; and, without doubt, this would have happened but for the timely arrival of the Monitor, at 2 o'clock a. m. of the 9th. The day of her arrival dates the revolutionizing of naval architecture, the beginning of the end of wooden ships of war. The events of the 9th are so familiar to every one, it seems unnecessary to recite the details; the Minnesota was spared to take part in other conflicts, and the Merrimac was defeated.

The Merrimac came out again on April 11th and again on May 8th, which was her last appearance, as she was soon afterward destroyed to prevent her falling into the hands of the Union Navy.

This battle at Hampton Roads brought the Minnesota into greater prominence than the part she took in any previous or subsequent events; and her name will always be associated with those of the Monitor, Congress, Cumberland, and the Merrimac.

The Minnesota was the flagship of Admiral Samuel P. Lee, at the Navy Yard of Portsmouth, N. H., from October 30, 1862, until January 2, 1863; was blockading off Wilmington, N. C., in August, 1863; and later until January, 1864, was at Newport News, Va. On January 11, 1864, the Minnesota captured a blockade runner, the Ranger, off Folly Inlet, N. C.; and on February 1, 1864, took part in a disastrous joint expedition near Smithfield, Va.

On December 24 and 25, 1864, the Minnesota was present and took part in the first attack on Fort Fisher, N. C., which was unsuccessful. In the second assault on that fort, January 13–15, 1865, which resulted in its capture, followed by the fall of Wilmington, N. C., our good ship was, as at the capture of Forts Hatteras and Clark, in the advanced line. In a description of the bombardment, I find this account of the Minnesota: “The Ironsides was followed by the Minnesota, Colorado, and Wabash. The enemy replied briskly, but when these frigates found the range and commenced firing rapidly, nothing could withstand their broadsides 0134 96 of twenty-five 9-inch guns. It was a magnificent sight to see these frigates fairly engaged, and one never to be forgotten.”

A full narration of this event, as well as that of Hampton Roads, would require, as other writers have supplied, greater descriptive powers than I possess. I can say, however, that I regret that a storm off Cape Hatteras, delaying the transport on which my regiment, the Eighth Minnesota. had left Washington, prevented my presence, though it might not have counted for much, until four hours after the capture of the fort. I may mention, also, that the only time I saw the Minnesota was off Fort Fisher. A part of the Twenty-third Army Corps, including the Eighth Minnesota, arrived in time to take part in operations by land.

With the fall of Fort Fisher, the Minnesota ended her active career,—we may say that it was a well earned retirement.

On February 16, 1865, the Minnesota is reported out of commission at the Portsmouth Navy Yard: and from that date until 1876, excepting 1868, when she is reported as on special service, which is not specified, she was at New York and at New London, Conn., reported as under repairs.

From 1876 to 1879, the Minnesota was used as a trainingship; was in 1880 at New London, Conn., in the same service; and again at New York in 1881. On January 1, 1882, she was stricken from the Navy Register, which ended her official existence.

October 22, 1895, she was loaned to Massachusetts for a naval military training-ship, in accordance with an act passed by Congress on August 3, 1894. The Minnesota appears to have been used for the purpose specified until 1901, when, in the manner provided by an act of Congress in 1883, she was condemned and offered for sale by the Navy Department, July 17, 1901. The appraised value of the ship was fixed at $15,000 by a “Board of Survey.” She was sold to Thomas Butler and Company of Boston, Mass., for $25,738.38, much exceeding the appraised value.

Thus ends the history of as gallant a ship as ever sailed upon the seas. Although her timbers and equipment are, no doubt, resting in piecemeal in a junk shop, her name is emblazoned in the history of the United States which she so well served; and now we add it to that of the State whose name she honored by her achievements.

The following are the names of the officers who commanded the old frigate Minnesota during her naval service: Captain Samuel F. Du Pont, 1855 to 1859; Captain Gershom J. Van Brunt, May 2, 1861, to August 12, 1862; Lieutenant Commander Edward C. Grafton, August 12, 1862, to September 30, 1862; Commander Napoleon B. Harrison, September 30, 1862, to November 20, 1863; Lieutenant Commander Joseph P. Fyffe, November 20, 1863, to December 9, 1863; Lieutenant Commander John H. Upshur, December 9, 1863, to October 1, 1864; and Commodore Joseph Lanman, October 1, 1864, to February 16, 1865.

I do not flatter myself that the paper I read tonight will be deemed a statesmanlike paper, and it may be possible that matters and things have been written there that would be more appropriate elsewhere than in an address before the Historical Society, but I have only written of things which I have seen and of which I have been a part.

The present generation, as they gaze upon that magnificent structure, the new State Capitol, hardly realize what changes a little over fifty years have wrought in the development of our state. On the third day of March, 1849, when James K. Polk, then president, placed his signature to the bill to establish the Territorial government of Minnesota, no one even dreamed what Minnesota's future would be. The new territory was more remote from settlement and civilization than the most distant part of our country today.

It was little more than a wilderness, a vast waste of prairie and pine lands; its entire white population scarcely exceeded one thousand persons. When the census was taken four months later, after many immigrants had arrived, there were only four thousand six hundred and eighty. Three hundred and seventeen of these were connected with the army; and six hundred and thirty-seven were at Pembina, but only a small fraction of these latter were white. Nearly the entire white population was in the villages of St. Paul, St. Anthony Falls, Stillwater, and Mendota, and at Ft. Snelling. West of the Mississippi river the land belonged to the Indians, not having 0144 104 yet been ceded to the United States by treaty, and from the southern boundary of the territory to St. Paul there were not more than two or three habitations of white men. There were only a few acres of land under cultivation, and these in garden patches, around St. Paul, St. Anthony Falls, Stillwater, Marine, Mendota, and Fort Snelling; and at Cottage Grove some half a dozen farms had been opened up by pioneer farmers from Maine.

St. Paul had a population of some two hundred, a majority of whom were Indian traders, French, and half breeds; its buildings were nearly all of logs, the construction of the cheapest kind. St. Anthony Falls and Stillwater had each about the same population as St. Paul; the inhabitants of these villages were mostly from the lumber districts of Maine. It was said at the time, that to procure employment at the Falls you had to show a certificate signed by the pastor of the church that you attended, or by a justice of the peace, to the effect that you were born and grew up to manhood in Maine,—without this you need not have applied.

Everything in the way of food, except what few vegetables were raised in the Territory and wild game, was brought up the Mississippi river from Galena. Not a newspaper was published north of Dubuque; not a railroad had been built west of Chicago, which was not much more than a village then. The editor of the St. Paul Pioneer, in one of his editorials, said, “There are men now living who will see a railroad built from St. Paul to St. Louis, one to Lake Superior, and perhaps one to Winnipeg;” and this was from a man who predicted greater things for Minnesota than any other man. The pioneers would sit around on store boxes in corner groceries and in offices, smoking their clay pipes, and would swear that the editor was a great liar for predicting what would never come to pass; but he was apologized to, for such editorials brought immigration.

Wagon roads leading to the states south of Minnesota there were none. Mails were irregular, and sometimes, after the close of navigation and winter had set in, only at long intervals,—none until the ice was of sufficient thickness to 0145 105 carry a dog sledge or an Indian pony and sled. In the summer time the mail was carried by men on foot, and now and then on a tramp steamer. The news of the election of Zack Taylor as president did not reach St. Paul until the fifteenth of January; and of the passage of the organic act by Congress on the fifteenth of April.

In Minnesota everything looked dark and gloomy for any bright future. Quite a number of the leading newspapers of the East ridiculed the idea of ever making a state out of the Territory of Minnesota, that would amount to anything, either in population or wealth. It was the home of the buffalo and fur-bearing animals, and as such would ever remain. As late as when Governor Isaac Stevens of Washington Territory made his exploration as to the feasibility of constructing a railroad from the head of Lake Superior to the Pacific coast, all the newspapers under the control and influence of the Union Pacific and many others sent up a wail as to the absurdity of such a proposition. What! a railroad through arid lands that could never be cultivated, a land of blizzards that would never be settled, a land through which, even if a railroad was built, it could never be operated six months in the year on account of snow,—in fact, a country where no white man could live and prosper!

That little band of pioneers on that April night in 1849, as they stood upon the shore of the Mississippi river, in the pelting rain and raging storm, waited for the little steamer to land after they had heard its whistle. All was expectation. What would the tidings be? When the steamer landed and the word came ashore that Minnesota was an organized territory, a shout of joy went up that was heard to the village's most remote cabin. To them the agony was over, the future of Minnesota was assured.

A week prior to the receipt of the news of the organization of the Territory in St. Paul, “Old Rough and Ready,” the hero of Buena Vista, had commissioned Alexander Ramsey as governor of the new territory, and in all of his appointments 0146 106 he never made a better one. Late in May Governor Ramsey arrived in St. Paul. For a while he must have been disappointed, finding the capital of the new territory a small village of log houses and little frame shanties, with a population not much in excess of two hundred, and with no house where he could be entertained or stop. It was like the story of old, “The birds of the air have their nests, but the son of man knew not where to lay his head.” Afterwards and for nearly a month he was entertained at the home of Henry H. Sibley at Mendota.

A day or two after his arrival in Minnesota, Governor Ramsey succeeded in renting a one and one-half story frame building situated on the south side of Third street, between Jackson and Robert streets, which was in course of erection, but not ready for occupation until near the last of June. This building became the governor's home and office. A large room facing on Third street, which had been intended for a saloon, was the governor's receiving room and office and Mrs. Ramsey's reception room and parlor. Sometimes might be seen on one side of the room Mrs. Ramsey entertaining some lady friends, on the other the governor with a half dozen or more of Indians, he being superintendent of Indian Affairs in addition to being governor, or there would be a squad of Indian traders who no doubt were advising him how to discharge the duties of his office. To his great honor, he ran it to suit himself.

There was no delay in the governor's movements. A proclamation was issued on the first day of June, 1849, declaring the Territory to be organized and established, and all persons were enjoined to obey, conform to, and respect the law accordingly. On the eleventh day of June he issued an order for the taking of the census, a return of which was made on the fourth day of July. On the seventh day of July a proclamation was issued organizing the Territory into seven council districts for legislative purposes, defining their boundaries, and ordering an election on the first day of August for a delegate to represent the people of Minnesota in the House of Representatives of the United States, and for nine members 0147 107 of the Council of the Territorial Legislature and eighteen members of its House of Representatives.

Immigration grew in volumes during the year. Many immigrants came to the Territory, men of all occupations and trades, among whom, and more than was necessary, were doctors, lawyers, real estate sharks, and men who, although not sent out by missionary societies or Young Men's Christian Associations, claimed they were the benefactors and friends of the people, although in fact the disciples of the devil, and who would not only take what they could carry but anything they could lay their hands on, money loaners who wanted five per cent a month, with ten per cent after due, sometimes requiring six months' interest in advance.

During the summer three weekly newspapers were started, the Pioneer, the Chronicle, and the Register. After a few issues the Chronicle was sold out to the Register, which was afterward the Chronicle and Register. These newspapers did much to bring immigration to the Territory.

The steamers came loaded with immigrants seeking a new home. Buildings went up as if by magic, not of marble, stone, or brick, but small frame tenements, something that for the time being would keep out the rain and wind. It looked as if Minnesota might amount to something after all.

“Old Rough and Ready” was not as fortunate in his appointments of Territorial judges as in that for governor. They were not great lawyers, nor did they become eminent as jurists, but they had a pull, as the politicians would say. B. B. Meeker was a nephew of Senator Trueman Smith, of Connecticut; David Cooper was a brother of Senator James Cooper, of Pennsylvania; Aaron Goodrich, a protégé of William H. Seward, of New York.

Cooper, perhaps the best lawyer of the three, spent much of his time out of the Territory during his term of office. He was the Beau Brummell of Minnesota, always appearing in 0148 108 full dress with a ruffled shirt and low shoes with silver buckles. However, it might be said of the judge, after he left the bench, that he adopted to a certain extent the dress of a pioneer.

Goodrich, not having a very high opinion of his associates on the bench, always waited to hear what their views were on any legal proposition, and then took the opposite side of the question, spending a good part of the time writing dissenting opinions. He was always tenacious in regard to the dignity of the Court, and always liked to be spoken to as the Court. Even at his meals, if he desired anyone at the table to hand him something, he would say, “Will the gentleman be so kind as to hand the Court the beans, the pickles, the bread?” or whatever he might want. On more than one occasion he stopped counsel while addressing a jury, and said that the remarks of the attorney reminded him of an affair down in Tennessee; then he would proceed to tell some amusing story, and by the way he was a first-class story-teller. The judge was removed by the president before the expiration of his term of office. One of the charges against him was that he was too fond of the women.

Judge Meeker made himself famous as a judge of great learning and research by reason of a decision he made at a term of the District Court held at Sauk Rapids, where a demurrer had been interposed to an indictment, on the ground that the law under which it had been found had never been published. Notwithstanding the fact that the law had been published in the newspapers and distributed in unbound copies in book form, the judge held that, to make a legal publication, the law not only had to be printed but published in bound volumes. In justice to his memory, I must say that he did not insist upon their being bound in calf.

Charles K. Smith was the first Secretary of the Territory. The appointment was made at the request of Tom Corwin of Ohio, who was a relative. Nepotism existed in those days as now. When a man got an appointment to office, the first hard work he did was to attempt to secure a position, not 0149 109 only for all his own relatives, but his wife's relatives also, on the tailboard of the official wagon. The appointment was an unfortunate one. While Mr. Smith was a man of ability, he was endowed with a disposition that led him into antagonism with everyone. Like the man in Texas, who believed that he was a greater man than old Grant, he believed that he was the greatest man in the Territory, and that he ought to have been appointed governor. During the few months he held office, it was a continual warfare between him and his associates in office and the people. Yet he was active and labored for many things that were for the betterment and advancement of the Territory. He was the founder of this Society, and for the first few months of its history he may be said to have been the Historical Society. It was one of his hobbies. He was one of the active promoters in securing legislation and organizing the district school system of the Territory, and was the first Territorial Secretary of Schools, an office answering now to our Superintendent of Public Instruction. It may be said also that he was the father of freemasonry in Minnesota. He was removed from office in October, 1851, leaving the Territory between two days, and of the opinion, perhaps, that with his departure the days of the Historical Society were numbered. Nearly all the contributions which were of any value, he took with him.

A. M. Mitchell, in place of Joshua. L. Taylor, who declined the appointment, was appointed United States Marshal. It will be seen that Ohio, even at that early day, had a pull on federal patronage, as Mr. Mitchell was the second appointed from that state. He held the office until September, 1851, notwithstanding the fact that he was a candidate for delegate to Congress in one of the most memorable congressional campaigns Minnesota has ever had. He was seldom in the Territory while in office, and discharged the duties of his office by deputy and mail. He was one of the men Goodhue wrote against with all the ferocity of his pen, for his absentness from the Territory.

The first session of the Territorial Legislature convened on the third day of September, 1849. There were nine members of the Council and eighteen members of the House of Representatives. The place of meeting was in the Central House, a hotel situated on the northeast corner of Second (or Bench) and Minnesota streets. The secretary of the Territory, whose duty it was to secure rooms, was unable to get them elsewhere. The main building was a two-story log house, weatherboarded and painted, with a frame addition in the rear. The House of Representatives met in the dining room, and the Council upstairs, in what was known as the ladies' parlor.

The hours of meeting were adapted to the rules of the hotel in regard to its meal hours. After breakfast the dining room was cleared of its table and dishes, the desks of the members were brought in, and the business of the day began. About 11.30 notice was served upon the speaker that the dining room was wanted; the members would then pick up their desks and pile them up in what was known as the office; their papers they generally put in their pockets. The tables and dishes would then be brought into the dining room for dinner. After the dinner the room would again be cleared and become the hall of the House of Representatives. When supper time came, notice was again served to the House to vacate, which was done. The room used by day for a council chamber was converted at night into a sleeping room. The desks and chairs were piled up at one side of the room, and the vacant part of the floor was covered with straw ticks and Indian blankets, upon which some of the members would sleep. This was a little different from what it will be in the new capitol.

Alexander Ramsey, in his message as governor to this First Territorial Legislature, among other things said: “I would advise, therefore, that your legislation should be such as will guard equally the rights of labor and the rights of property, without running into ultraisms on either hand; as will recognize no social distinctions, except those which merit and knowledge, religion and morals, unavoidably create; as will repress crime, encourage virtue, give free scope to enterprise 0151 111 and industry; as will promptly, and without delay, administer to and supply all the legitimate wants of the people,—laws, in word, in the formation of which will be kept steadily in view the truth, that this Territory is destined to be a great State, rivalling in population, wealth and energy, her sisters of the Union. * * * * * Thus you will see, gentlemen, that yours is a most interesting and responsible position, and that in your hands, more than in that of any future Legislative Assembly, will be the destinies of Minnesota.” Well and honestly did they discharge the trust reposed in them by the old pioneers of Minnesota.

The men who composed that first legislature, though they may have worn moccasins and buffalo coats in season, were a class that would compare most favorably with the men who now represent Minnesota in the legislature of the State. They were men of more than ordinary intelligence, energetic and industrious, men of character, men who had thrown away the comforts of other homes and sought homes on the frontier of civilization to better their condition in life.

Among these men were Morton S. Wilkinson, who afterward became a member of Congress and a United States senator; William R. Marshall, a governor of Minnesota and a general in the Civil war; David Olmsted, first mayor of St. Paul, and whose first message to the common Council after fifty years might be read with profit by that distinguished body of men, the present common council; Lorenzo A. babcock, afterward attorney general of the Territory; William H. Forbes, quartermaster in the army and Indian agent; and Gideon H. Pond, the devoted missionary. Then there were David B. Loomis, Martin McLeod, Mahlon Black, Henry N. Setzer, and Joseph W. Furber. In fact, there was not a man among them who did not become more or less prominent in the early history of Minnesota, as among those who aided materially in every effort and scheme which started Minnesota on her way to a great future. All the members of that first legislature have passed into the great unknown, except Parsons K. Johnson, who resides at Brainerd, Minnesota, and in his eighty-ninth year lives to interestingly tell the story of pioneer days.

All the laws passed at the first session were good laws. There was no wildcat legislation or boodling. The boodlers were among the later arrivals, for, as Governor Ramsey used to say, “The old settlers were honest, if nothing else.” Among the laws passed were those establishing courts, organizing counties, laying out territorial roads, granting ferry charters, incorporating the Minnesota Historical Society, licensing groceries (I believe they call them saloons now), and one act in which the people of St. Paul were very much interested, incorporating the town of St. Paul. Among other acts of legislation was a class that grew so rapidly in later years that, had it not been for the constitutional prohibition, it would have taken up a large part of the time of the legislators, as it does now of our district courts, namely, divorce cases.

An attempt was made at this session to locate the permanent seat of government at St. Paul, but it failed. St. Anthony, with almost the population of St. Paul, thought it had some claims, and its members fought the bill to a finish. Stillwater, with not much less population, while it hardly thought lightning would strike the banks of the St. Croix, like some of our politicians, was in the market.

One day during this first session, while William R. Marshall was addressing the House, a member in a seat in front of him called him a liar. Marshall, with the agility of a cat, jumped over his seat and before anyone realized what was going on knocked the member out of his seat to the floor; returning to his seat, he apologized to the House and proceeded with his remarks. The matter dropped there and was never heard of again. This was pioneer ethics.

On the first day of January, 1851, the Second Legislature assembled in the Rice house, a three-story brick building, situated on the north side of Third street, near Washington street.

During the year 1850 there had been an election for delegate to Congress in which there was nearly as much lying and meanness as in the late brotherly contest between Robert C. Dunn and Judge Collins. It was not a party contest, however. It was one of cliques, factions, and clans. Although one of 0153 113 the candidates was a Democrat and the other a Whig, the Whig administration, of which Governor Ramsey was the head, supported the Democrat, while Henry M. Rice, a Democrat, and his political friends, supported the Whig. There was an immense amount of bitterness manifested during the campaign. The Pioneer, in one of its editorials, speaking of the interest created, said that quite a number of citizens had been seen upon the streets without shirts, they having bet their last one on the result of the election. The same feeling manifested in the canvass for delegate was soon seen in the legislature.

Goodhue, the editor of the Pioneer, who had been elected Territorial printer a few days after the legislature convened, had an editorial in his paper in which he attacked Judge David Cooper with unparalleled ferocity, he belonging to the opposing political faction. Cooper was absent from the territory at the time. A brother of the judge took up the cudgel in his behalf. Joseph Cooper, the brother, gave it out that Goodhue was to be shot on sight. He armed himself with a revolver and a dirk knife. Goodhue, having heard of Cooper's threats, armed himself with a revolver and a small pistol that he carried in his pants' pocket.

The next day after the publication of the article, shortly after noon and upon the adjournment of the House, Cooper and Goodhue both being present in the House, Cooper came out first and took position on the sidewalk, and Goodhue a moment later. When Goodhue reached the street Cooper advanced, drawing his revolver and exclaiming: “You d—, I will blow your d—d brains out” Goodhue drew his revolver also. By this time the members of the House and those in the lobby had reached the street. Some four or five shots were fired, but, as the combatants kept dodging around and through the crowd, others were more likely to be shot than either of them. By this time the sheriff reached the scene of action, caught the parties, and disarmed them as he supposed, taking from each his revolver. Cooper still had his knife, and Goodhue his small pistol. A party, whose name it is not necessary to mention, sprang to Goodhue and threw his arms around him from his back and held him, while Cooper stabbed him 0154 114 several times in the abdomen. Goodhue, when released, drew the small pistol from his pocket and shot Cooper in the groin, from the effects of which he afterwards died. Surgeon McLaren, of Fort Snelling, who attended Goodhue and dressed his wound, said that not one man in a hundred, cut as he was, would have lived.

There is no doubt but that there was a conspiracy to murder Goodhue. He was an able writer and aggressive. He never hesitated to write and print what he thought, and with his foes he had no mercy. He was a thorn in the side of the opposition, and they made the Cooper article a pretext to put him out of the way. The affair intensified the feeling in the legislature, and from then until the close of the session it may be said that the members went armed to the teeth.

James M. Goodhue died on the 27th of August, 1852. Many men have lived in Minnesota that could have been better spared. St. Paul today would be a more beautiful city had he lived. One of the things he labored for was, that the bank of the Mississippi should be boulevarded from Robert street to Hill street, so that no buildings should ever be erected whose rear would border on the river, giving those traveling by water and rail a display of clothes-lines, garbage barrels, etc. Though Goodhue was not a member of any church, there has never been a newspaper editor in Minnesota that has taken higher ground in favor of the church, morality, and everything that tended to the betterment of the people, than he did. To him, more than any one else, the friends of temperance were indebted for the passage of the Maine liquor law, of 1852; he wrote vigorously and much in favor of its passage, claiming that Minnesota should have a statute that would aid in making people more temperate. A Democratic paper today advocating prohibition would be a novelty. His paper was the foe of gambling and prostitution. Before the organization of the Territory, gambling was a public amusement; in Goodhue's day it was hidden behind closed doors, and much less public than in the present day. No house of prostitution was ever permitted to exist within the corporate limits of the village. 0155 115 Goodhue has had only two peers in Minnesota as an editor and conductor of a public journal, and these men are Joseph A. Wheelock and Earle S. Goodrich.

James Vincent, a wag and a joker, suggested a few days after the shooting affair, to some of his chums, that at a noon hour they gather up a crowd and take possession of the hall of the House of Representatives, and give out the word that there should be no more meetings of the members of the House of Representatives in that building. The boys thought it a good suggestion. The next day some sixty or seventy men marched into the House and took seats, Vincent occupying the speaker's chair, declaring the House open for business. They then commenced in a mock way to legislate, repealing laws they thought obnoxious, passing laws they thought desirable.

It was soon noised over the village that a mob had taken possession of the capitol. The public was excited. Ames, speaker of the House, called upon Governor Ramsey and demanded that some soldiers be sent for from Fort Snelling to clean out the mob. The demand was complied with. A courier was dispatched to the fort, and in a short time it was announced that a company of soldiers was on the way to St. Paul. Vincent, having heard the news, waited until they were within a short distance of the village, when he announced that the hour of adjournment had arrived. With that he ran his hand in his pocket and drew out some forty or fifty half dollars, which he threw broadcast among the crowd, saying, “The laborer is worthy of his hire; Gentlemen, the enemy is in sight, get!” and he “got.” It was quite a while before the governor and the speaker of the House heard the last of the scare.

There were not many bills introduced at this session which became laws. There were two, however, which led to much discussion and a very considerable amount of bad blood among the members. These provided for the location of the Territorial 0156 116 capital at St. Paul and “for the apportionment of representation of the Territory.” As to the first, it has been asserted and stated from time to time that the location of the capital at St. Paul was the result of a trade between St. Paul, St. Anthony, and Stillwater, by which St. Paul was to have the capital, St. Anthony the university, and Stillwater the prison. The story has been told so often that nearly everyone in the state believes it to be true. Some old settlers have asserted that the compact was made as early as 1848 at Stillwater, before the organization of the Territory. If that had been true, why was the capital not located at the first session? Now there is not a word of truth in the statement. The St. Anthony members, both in the Council and House, fought the bill at every stage, from its introduction until its passage, and died like men in the trenches. John Rollins represented St. Anthony in the Council, and Edward Patch and John W. North in the House. The St. Anthony members, however, did make a bargain, not with St. Paul, but with David Olmsted and William R. Sturgis, members of the Council from the sixth district, that, if they would vote with them to defeat the location of the capital at St. Paul, they would use their influence to secure from Congress a grant of a township of land to aid in the construction of county buildings in Benton county. In fact, they did secure the passage of a memorial to Congress asking for the grant.

The St. Anthony combine, even after the passage of the bill, to show the blood that was in them, proposed to get the title of the bill amended so as to read, “A bill to provide for carrying out a magnificent scheme of log rolling.”

It may be said that in 1857, when an attempt was made to remove the capital from St. Paul, had it not been for the St. Anthony delegation in the House of Representatives, the capital of Minnesota would be on Nicollet Island instead of in St. Paul. When the St. Paul members, realizing that the fight was a hopeless one, and preferring St. Anthony to St. Peter, made a motion to strike out the words St. Peter in the bill and insert St. Anthony, the motion came within one of being carried, the St. Anthony members voting against it. They preferred St. Peter to St. Anthony. They were a modest set with small heads.

The most exciting subject before the legislature of 1851 was the apportionment bill. It was claimed by one side that it was unfair, because it gave the territory west of the Mississippi river an undue proportion of representatives, as its only inhabitants, except soldiers and Indian traders, were Indians. Pembina county, with only seventy acres under cultivation, had twice the representation of Benton county, which had 4,000 acres of cultivated land. After the passage of the bill by the House, seven members who refused to vote upon its third reading handed in their resignations as members, which were promptly accepted. The fight on this bill was the aftermath of the bill locating the capital. After it had become evident that St. Anthony had no show for the capital, St. Paul joined in with St. Anthony to secure the university. As St. Anthony was in Ramsey county at that time, they were as anxious for its location at the Falls of St. Anthony as the members representing that village, and at their request Gen. George L. Becker, of St. Paul, drafted the bill which was afterwards introduced into the legislature by Mr. North, of St. Anthony, and became a law.

It may be possible that the St. Paul members thought that the granting of a charter for a university was kind of mythical, as there had been no appropriation in money or a grant of land to aid in its erection. In fact, the people were more interested in claims, town sites, pine lands, furs, and the wherewith to get daily bread, than in universities. I am inclined to think that, had St. Paul realized the situation, the university might have been located somewhere else. I am willing to admit that, notwithstanding all the shrewdness, cunning, and political manipulation of St. Paul, with the growth and development of the state during a period of little over half a century, it is evident that the city at the Falls of St. Anthony received the largest piece of pie.

During this second session of the legislature there were other laws passed which it is unnecessary to refer to. It may be said, however, that they were mostly for ferry charters, laying out territorial roads, the building of booms, and divorcing 0158 118 people who had come to Minnesota to take a fresh start. The session finally closed on the night of March 31, which was a day and night of excitement, such as we have never seen since in St. Paul and never desire to. Hundreds of citizens were about the streets and public places, armed to the teeth and ready, upon the slightest provocation, to shoot down their fellow citizens who opposed them. Feelings of enmity, bitterness, and hatred, were engendered between citizens during the session, and particularly during its last days, which extended even into family relations and were not eradicated for months.

The third session of the Legislative Assembly convened on the seventh day of January, 1852, in a brick building which had been erected for commercial purposes on Third street, on part of a lot now covered by the Merchants' Hotel, and which was known as the Goodrich building, having been erected by Judge Goodrich. The Council elected William H. Forbes as president, and the House of Representatives elected John D. Ludden as speaker.

Mr. Ludden then was a resident on the St. Croix, but now for many years he has been a resident of St. Paul, and is one of the oldest and most honored members of your society. While he was successively a member of the Territorial Legislature in the House and in the Council, he was always a friend of St. Paul, and his vote was never wanted when it did not come as loyally as if he had been a representative of St. Paul. This city can never do too much honor to Mr. Ludden for the stand he took in our capital fights.

This session was the first in which Pembina was represented in the Territorial legislature. Norman W. Kittson, who afterward became one of St. Paul's most public-spirited and prominent citizens, was the member of the Council. Joseph Rolette, who a few years later became famous as a man who could defeat legislation of which he did not approve, and Antoine Gingras, were the members of the House of Representatives. Kittson, Rolette, and Gingras, each had his cariole drawn by three dogs, in which they came to St. Paul from 0159 119 Pembina. They were eighteen days on the way, two of which they did not travel, owing to the inclemency of the weather. Pembina is now reached in twelve hours from St. Paul by rail. For the first few days of the session it was hard to tell whether it was the dogs or the honorable members who represented Pembina, as the dogs were first in the legislative halls and the last to leave, and it was only when the sergeant at arms was ordered to put the dogs out and keep them out, as Pembina was not entitled to double representation, that the two houses were relieved of their presence, and then there was not an entire riddance of them, for they hung around the outer doors and manifested a disposition to let no one in or out of the halls, as was the case in the late strike at South St. Paul by the strikers.

Governor Ramsey delivered his third annual message on January 13, 1852, in the Baptist church, a small frame building, which stood upon a hill known as Baptist hill, long since dug wholly away, the ground now being occupied by some of our largest wholesale houses. In his message he said, in part, as follows:

To the people of Minnesota, the most interesting political event that has occurred since the organization of the Territory is the extinction, by the treaties of Traverse des Sioux, Mendota, and Pembina, of the Sioux and Chippewa title to immense tracts of land upon the western side of the Mississippi. These treaties bridge over the wide chasm, which could alone obstruct the advance of Minnesota to the lofty destination evidently reserved for her.

By the two former treaties, the Dakota Indians relinquish to the government their right of usufruct to all the country previously claimed by them east of the Sioux Wood and Big Sioux rivers, extending over four degrees of latitude and five of longitude, and covering a superficial extent of 45,000 square miles. This vast district nature has marked out for exalted destinies.

Of the 37,000,000 square geographical miles of territorial surface which the globe, according to Malte Brun, contains, probably no tract of equal extent embraces a fewer number of acres doomed to eternal sterility. Within its extreme limits, it may be safely asserted that there is hardly a rood that is not arable; for the wet and swampy lands are easily drained, and eventually will be the most eagerly sought for agricultural purposes. Rapid streams, fed from rich 0160 120 prairies, and shaded by noble forests; clear lakes, stocked with fish; a soil enriched with the spoils of the decayed vegetation of several thousand years, are features common to the entire region. Rich veins of mineral wealth, and an inexhaustible command of water power, point it out as the future abode of manufacturing greatness; while the boundless plains, subdued by the voluntary toil of freemen, will become the chosen abiding place of pastoral republicanism. (The governor had no reference to modern republicanism.) * * * * * These various rivers in great part navigable, each with their own set of tributary streams, some fed by rills which gush from fertile highlands, others draining lakes of transparent clearness, form a chain of inland communication, which, as a natural feature, is unknown in the physical geography of the Eastern hemisphere. Over all, and through all, pervades a climate which stimulates exertion and is eminently favorable to health.

Although the treaties to which the governor refers had not yet been ratified by the Senate of the United States, and were not ratified until June and August of that year 1852, while the treaty in 1851 with the Ojibways at Pembina failed of ratification, the mere fact that the treaties had been made satisfied the people. By the time the Sioux treaties were ratified, many thousand immigrants had come to Minnesota, settled upon the land, made claims, laid out town sites, and opened up farms, villages, and cities. It was the dawn of a new day in the history of Minnesota, and from that date on till now she has grown in population and wealth.

It may be said that while Governor Ramsey and Luke Lea, United States Commissioners, have always been credited with the making the Indian treaties of Traverse des Sioux, Mendota, and Pembina, and properly so, yet had it not been for such men as Henry H. Sibley, Martin McLeod, Norman W. Kittson, William H. Forbes, and Alexis Bailly, these treaties would never have been made. They were the power behind the throne, for they were all Indian traders, had been in the country for many years, spoke the languages of the Dakotas and Ojibways, and had their confidence. It was to their interest that these treaties should be made, as the Indians were largely in debt to them, and hence they used all of their influence to assist in the making of a treaty. The commissioners did not do much more than feed the Indians and indicate what they wanted; the traders did the rest.

There was but little general legislation at this session of 1852, and the only bill that gave rise to any special discussion was one entitled: “A bill for the restriction of the sale of intoxicating liquors, and for other purposes.” As previously mentioned, the villages of St. Anthony Falls and Stillwater were almost exclusively settled by people from the state of Maine. After Neal Dow in 1851 had secured the passage of what was known as the Maine liquor law, the settlers from Maine in Minnesota, under the impression that anything done in Maine was all right, started out to secure a similar liquor law in Minnesota. Though the people did not take seriously to the proposition at first, they finally succeeded. Section 19 of the act provided for a submission of the law to the electors, before it went into effect. It was voted upon April 5, 1852, and the unexpected happened, a majority of the electors voted in favor of the law. What may seem strange, even Ramsey county gave a majority in favor of prohibition, a thing that would hardly occur in this age of religious and temperance reform; the old settlers were of a better class and with less pretentions. The law, however, was held to be in violation of the Organic Act of the Territory and therefore void.

Before this decision was rendered by the court, an attempt was made to enforce a seizure of a quantity of liquor found in the warehouse of William Constans. A riot appeared to be imminent, as those opposed to the law were out in force to resist the arrest and seizure. The sheriff had been active and had sworn in some fifty deputies determined to enforce the law. While the riot was in its incipient stages, the Rev. Edward D. Neill appeared upon the scene, armed with a Bible, and, taking a position on the head of a whisky barrel, advised the crowd to let the law take its course. After some discussion and quite a number of warlike threats, a compromise was effected. Mr. Constans agreed not to sell or in any manner dispose of the liquor he had on hand, until the question of the constitutionality of the act would be passed upon by the court. If the validity of the act was sustained, he agreed to turn the same over to the sheriff.

At the session of the legislature in 1853, an attempt was made to re-enact the law, eliminating the unconstitutional sections of submitting it to the electors of the Territory for their approval. It passed the Council, but failed in the House of Representatives by one vote. Another attempt to pass a prohibitory law was made at the session of 1854, but it never came to a vote in the House of Representatives.

As the territory grew in population, and immigrants came pouring in from the Old World, bringing with them the habits and customs of their fatherland, the sentiment in favor of prohibition became less every day, until now the passage of such an act is not seriously entertained.

The fourth session of the Territorial Assembly met on the 5th day of January, 1853, in a brick building on the southeast corner of Third and Minnesota streets. Martin McLeod was elected president of the Council, and Dr. David Day, of Long Prairie, speaker of the House of Representatives. Dr. Day was afterward, for many years, one of St. Paul's leading and most influential citizens.

Notwithstanding the fact that a speaker had not been elected until the twentieth day of the session, and then not until sixty-four ballots had been taken, this session was quiet and uneventful, having none of the bitterness of some of the former sessions. It is true that the Whigs, having control of the national administration, and having filled all the Indian agencies and postoffices with men of that faith, began to think that the Whig party in Minnesota amounted to something after all, and that they could do business on their own account; but, generally speaking, they got so mixed up with the opposition that it was difficult to tell which was which. They did not know much more about party principles than a great many men in our day, and, to be frank, that is very little.

During the sessions of 1853–4, one of the legislative pastimes was the introduction of bills to incorporate plank road companies. Some became laws, others fell by the wayside. A history of these bills was amusing. They were drawn in the office of the Territorial printer, and were introduced in the legislative assembly by some of his friends. As a matter of fact, it was not thought that any plank roads would ever be built, but the bills were introduced to swell the printer's account. All bills were ordered printed, the printer receiving as compensation one dollar per thousand ems. Bills being fat work, they may be said to have been a perquisite. Later on, many bills incorporating railroad companies were introduced for the same purpose.

Members of the legislature at the present time have become more enlightened as to legislative rascality. Instead of adding to the bank account of the printer, they look out for number one. At every session of the legislature, bills are introduced attacking railroads and other corporations, not with the expectation that they will become laws, but that the members introducing them will be seen. If the sight is sufficiently large to pay off a mortgage on the homestead, or to buy an additional forty acres of land, or to cover the expenses of a trip to Europe, the passage of the bill will not be pressed, and the member introducing it will tell you that upon further investigation he found he was wrong.

On the adjournment of the legislature, from seed time to harvest, and from harvest to the election in the fall, you will find the member going around among his constituents, explaining his votes and actions. Perhaps the explanation may be satisfactory, he may be returned as a member, and, with his experience and education the previous session, he may so enrich himself as to be willing to retire to private life, or to take a nomination for governor or member of Congress at the close of the session. On the other hand, if public sentiment is such that he dare not risk a canvass, he will tell you that he cannot afford it, that politics are an expensive thing, the outlay greater than the income, and that man passes into history as a friend of the people. We have many such.

The year 1854 and the Fifth Legislature were ushered in with greater hopes and brighter prospects for the then far-off Territory of Minnesota. The days of ox teams and prairie schooners were passing away. The year previous had witnessed a civil and military expedition, by order of the United States, starting from St. Paul in search of the long-desired thoroughfare to the Pacific. Governor Isaac I. Stevens, who was in charge of the expedition, had recently made a report, showing that the route was entirely practicable.

On the fourth day of January, 1854, the legislature convened for the first time in the new capitol, a building which cost nearly $32,000, and which we thought was a magnificent edifice. The architect received fifty dollars for drawing the plans.

Ramsey had been succeeded as governor by Col. Willis A. Gorman of Indiana, who, in his first message to the legislature, urged the importance of railway communication, and dwelt upon the necessity of fostering the interests of education and of the lumbermen. It is needless for me to say to you, gentlemen of the Historical Society, that the latter have been fairly dealt with. At least, I have never heard any complaint that these poor fellows have suffered from unreasonable laws or an arbitrary enforcement, and nowhere will you find their names among the poverty-stricken or as seeking aid from the charitable.

During the session quite a number of bills became laws, granting ferry franchises, locating Territorial roads, organizing counties, and incorporating Hamline and Minnesota Central Universities and the city of St. Paul.

Among other bills which became laws in 1854 was one that led to much ill feeling among the prominent men of the Territory, which years did not eradicate. A bill was then pending in Congress, giving to the Territory of Minnesota a grant of lands to aid in the construction of a railroad from the mouth of the Left Hand or Nemadji river on Lake Superior 0165 125 via St. Paul to the Iowa state line. The bill introduced in the Territorial Legislature was to incorporate the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company, and was so drawn that, if the bill then pending in Congress became a law, the lands granted would enure to the benefit of the Minnesota company. It was thought by the Minnesota statesmen that, with the enactment of the two laws, there were millions in it. Everyone wanted a hand in the deal, but the hand wagon was too small to hold all the old combinations of politicians still existing. The governor was left out in the cold, and from the day of the introduction of the bill in the legislature until midnight of the last day of the session, when he approved it, he fought its passage with all of his great ability.

Now, after fifty years, with a knowledge of the great growth and power of railroad corporations, time has demonstrated that in nearly every one of his objections to the bill he was right. Then, however, they were looked upon as the outgrowth of pure selfishness upon his part; the facts are, the people were against him. I have no doubt, in my own mind, that the bill was approved under duress.

It had been said, and perhaps truthfully, that there would be an executive veto. From the time the bill reached the governor until it was returned to the Council approved, a large proportion of the male population of St. Paul, with quite a number from St. Anthony and Stillwater, kept surging in and around the capitol, and it may be said to have been a howling mob, with threats of violence and blood; if not for this, there might have been a veto. “He that complies against his will, is of his own opinion still.”

Two days after the adjournment of the legislature, the governor left for Washington, where he devoted his time to securing such amendments to the bill pending in Congress for a grant of lands to aid in the construction of railroads as would exclude the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company from being the beneficiary of the grant. In this he and his associates would have been successful, had there not been an alteration in the bill. The third section of the bill, as it passed the House of Representatives, read as follows:

And be it further enacted, That the said lands hereby granted to the said Territory shall be subject to the disposal of any legislature thereof, for the purpose aforesaid and no other, nor shall they ensure to the benefit of any company heretofore constituted or organized.

The alteration consisted in striking out the word “or” and inserting the word “and,” which made the section read, “heretofore constituted and organized.” Who made the alteration, was never definitely settled; but the better opinion was that the clerk of the House of Representatives made the change. The Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company had been constituted, but had not organized. On the first day of July, 1854, two days after the approval of the bill by the president, the company met in the Chamber of Commerce in the city of New York and organized and laid claim to the grant.

The Minnesotans who had opposed the passage of the bill incorporating the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad Company, when they became advised of the alteration, sent up a howl of lamentation, which was never equaled by the children of Israel in their darkest hour of servitude. Congress was beseiged by day and night, as having permitted a flagrant attack upon the purity of the National Legislature. Notwithstanding the fact that enlightened jurists and lawyers were of the opinion that the alteration was merely verbal and did not change the meaning of the act, which must be determined from all the language used in it, taken as a whole and not depending upon the construction of a single word, its enemies at home, with the active co-operation of members of Congress who were opposed to making any grants for railroad purposes, secured its repeal by an act approved August 4, 1854.

Minnesota for a while may be said to have been in mourning. The discussion in subsequent Territorial legislatures, and in the newspapers of the day in regard to it, would more than fill a good sized volume. Yet i the light of subsequent events and action of Congress in making liberal grants of the public lands to the Territory and State for railroad purposes, perhaps it was well that the act was repealed.

It may seem strange to those not familiar with the earlier laws of the Territory, to know that for four years after its organization it had a law which authorized imprisonment for debt. The act was passed at the first session of the Territorial Legislature. All the judgment creditor had to do to place the debtor behind the bars, was to satisfy the justice that the debt was founded on a contract and that the debtor had property sufficient to satisfy the judgment over and above what was exempt and could not be levied upon, which was always easily done in an age of reckless swearing. The law failed to make any provision for the discharge of the debtor, unless the debt was paid. The imprisonment seemed to be indefinite and during the life of the debtor.

A law was passed in 1851, which seemed a little more merciful for the poor debtor, as it gave him an opportunity, after having enjoyed the luxury of prison life for then days, to make an application to two justices of the peace, for a discharge from prison. If the justices were satisfied that he had neither real estate or personal property exceeding in value twenty dollars, and that he had not conveyed or concealed or in any way disposed of any property with intent to defraud his creditors, he received his discharge. The judgment remained in full force against any estate which he had then or which at any other time belonged to him, apparently without regard to the statute of limitation. There were several imprisonments for debt under this law. Shylocks exist in every age. One man died while so imprisoned. It was thought he committed suicide, but whether from the disgrace of being imprisoned for the paltry debt of twenty-eight dollars, or for being confined in such a building as the first jail of Ramsey county was, no one has ever been able to definitely determine.

As time went on, public attention began to be aroused against the law, because it was a relic of barbarism; but many persons who might have settled in Minnesota went elsewhere to make homes, and residents of Minnesota, when they began to be financially embarrassed, folded their tents like the Arab and sought other homes. In 1854, a bill was introduced for its repeal. It was referred to a committee, who in their report said, in part:

That an American may, in the nineteenth century, be incarcerated within the four walls of a prison, cut off from the light of heaven and communication with his fellow men, and this for the inconvenient crime of being poor, is to your committee a source of astonishment and regret, especially when they think upon the various mutations which daily transpire in our midst. The man of wealth today is the beggar of tomorrow.

The bill failed to pass, however, for the reason that it had been drawn by Judge Aaron Goodrich, who was not a member, and who had attempted to repeal about half of the civil code in the bill. At the next session of the legislature a bill was unanimously passed repealing the law. In our day there are wiped out in Minnesota hundreds of thousand dollars of debts, without payment, as it were, by the stroke of the pen in the Bankrupt Court of Minnesota. It is no exaggeration on my part to say that it is a very fortunate thing for a great many persons in Minnesota in our time, that the law for imprisonment for debt, passed in 1849, has been repealed.

If it were not for the fact that this paper has already been spun out beyond the limit, the writer had intended to follow up briefly the story from 1855 down to the organization of the State government in 1858; to speak of the real estate mania in 1855, '56, and '57, up to the time when the financial panic struck the Northwest, how every man thought he was a millionaire, and then a struggle for daily bread, how hundreds were forced out upon the prairies and opened up farms to get the wherewith to live; of the law transferring St. Anthony from Ramsey county to Hennepin county; and of the grand military and civic parade, with oratory and music, on the occasion of laying the corner stone of a magnificent building which was to be erected for the Historical Society. That was forty-eight years ago the 24th of last June; yet, gentlemen, I am told the building has never been completed. The story of the attempt to remove the capital, which was only defeated by the cunning and shrewdness of Joseph Rolette, a member of the legislature from Pembina, and the dual Constitutional Convention,— these and many other incidents 0169 129 in Minnesota history might have been written up, but the work has been left for some one else.

Before I close this paper, however, I want to make a suggestion. On the second day of July, 1864, Congress passed an act, which in part reads as follows:

And the President is hereby authorized to invite each and all the states to provide and furnish statues, in marble or bronze, not exceeding two in number for each state, of deceased persons who have been citizens thereof, and illustrious for their historic renown or from distinguished civic or military services, such as each state shall determine to be worthy of this national commemoration; and when so furnished the same shall be placed in the old hall of the House of Representatives, in the capitol of the United States, which is hereby set apart, or so much thereof as may be necessary, as a national statuary hall, for the purposes herein indicated.

The invitation was extended by the President to the State, but no action has ever been taken to furnish either statue. Now, has not the time come when the two statues that Minnesota is entitled to should be placed in Statutary Hall? To do this, where should the movement originate, if not in and by the Historical Society? While Minnesota has many honored dead, for whom the State would do itself honor by placing their statues in the National Statuary Hall, I take it for granted, as we have only two places, that there will be no difference of opinion as to the names of the men whose statues should be placed there, the one Henry Hastings Sibley, the other Alexander Ramsey. And why? Because they stand out, more prominently than any others, as the men who laid the corner stone of our great State, and who deserve the reward of immortality as far as it can by the State be conferred upon them.

Henry Hastings Sibley was really the father of Minnesota. He first came to what is now Minnesota in 1834, and located at St. Peter's, now Mendota, as the chief factor of the American Fur Company. He erected the first civilized dwelling house in the Northwest in 1835. He performed the first judicial functions here, as a justice of the peace, when St. Peter's was a part of Iowa. When Wisconsin was admitted 0170 130 into the Union, in 1848, he was chosen by the citizens who occupied the deserted remnant of the territory to represent them in the Congress of the United States, to secure the passage of an act organizing the Territory of Minnesota; and in March, 1849, he succeeded in so doing. He was twice elected as a delegate to Congress from the Territory of Minnesota, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention. When Minnesota was admitted into the Union, as a State, in 1858, he was chosen its first governor. In 1862, when our state was threatened with destruction by the rebellion of the Sioux Indians, he was the man that was chosen to defend it, and he did it with success. He was twice a member of the Legislature. He was always, until the day of his death, a wise, cultivated, and universally esteemed and beloved citizen of the State, enjoying the confidence of our people in an eminent degree.

Alexander Ramsey was the first governor of Minnesota Territory, and to him, more than all the rest of the people of the Territory, we are indebted today for a magnificent school fund, now amounting to fifteen millions of dollars, and in the future destined to reach a sum of not less than forty millions of dollars. He was one of the commissioners that made the treaties with the Sioux Indians, in 1851, by which they ceeded all their lands west of the Mississippi river to the United States. He was the second governor of the State, and represented it during two terms in the United States Senate. It is no discredit to other senators to say that he was the best one Minnesota ever had, as far as the interests of the State were concerned. He was chosen, while living here later as one of our citizens, to the positions of Secretary of War of the United States, Secretary of the Navy, and Commissioner to Utah, in all of which distinguished offices he performed their various and important duties with credit and honor to himself, the State, and the Nation.

I trust your Society will memorialize the Legislature at its next session to make such generous appropriation as will enable the Historical Society to secure and place a statue of each of these men in the National Statuary Hall at Washington city.

On March 4, 1854, an act passed by the Territorial Legislature, creating the St. Paul Bridge Company, was approved by the governor, Willis A. Gorman. On the same day he approved the act incorporating the city of St. Paul.

The incorporators of the Bridge Company, named in the act, were Lyman Dayton, J. C. Ramsey, John R. Irvine, J. W. Bass, W. G. LeDue, W. R. Marshall, Joseph R. Brown, George L. Becker, William Ames, N. Myrick, A. L. Larpenteur, J. W. Simpson, C. N. Oakes, M. E. Ames, and Louis Robert. They were given the usual corporate rights. The company was given authority to select any site, and might build to the west shore, or from bluff to bluff, as the directors might deem best. No bridge could be built by any other party within one mile on either side, without the consent of this company, during the life of the charter, which was thirty-five years from the completion of the bridge. The franchise was to be forfeited if a commencement was not made within two years from the date of the act; and it allowed five years in which to complete the work.

In June, 1856, J. S. Sewall was appointed engineer, and he made the plans and was superintendent of construction. A small amount of work was done during the following fall and winter. In the spring of 1857, arrangements were made to push the work; but on September 15, 1857, the mechanics and laborers refused to work any longer unless they were paid up to that date. Previous to this last date, the Legislature in March, 1856, had extended the time for commencing until July 1 of that year, and had designated four years from the date of the act in which to complete the bridge.

The company ran short of funds, and applied to the city for aid. The Legislature, in March, 1858, authorized the city to loan to the company city bonds to an amount not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, provided the proposition was ratified at an election to be held on the 24th of said March. The result of the election was 1,562 votes for the proposition, and 19 against it. April 26, 1858, the company executed a bond and mortgage to the city, covering all its property and franchises as security for the prompt payment of the interest on the bonds so loaned and of the principal when due. The history of the result of that financial transaction is too long for this paper, and I will not follow it further than to say that the city issued its bonds for the full amount authorized, in lots of twenty-five thousand dollars each, the first $25,000 being granted April 6, 1858; the second on June 1, 1858; the third on September 21, 1858; and the fourth and last on January 4, 1859. The company generally failed to pay the interest, and, as they were city bonds, the city had to do it.

After the bridge was completed, which was in June, 1859 (not in 1858, as Williams has it), the city, by an agreement with the company, took charge of the bridge and used the gate receipts, above expenses, towards paying the interest on the bonds it had loaned to the company. The city also paid numerous claims against the company, after the same had been allowed by the company. In March, 1867, by legislative authority, the company turned the bridge over to the city, the latter paying about 33 1-3 per cent to the stockholders, in city bonds, on the amounts they had paid on their stock. The city thereafter was the owner 0176 134 in fee, as well as practically for several years previous. The amount of bonds authorized for this purpose was $17,000. It took only $11,382.43.

The authorized capital of the company was $150,000. The stockholders had paid in $48,038.81. The bridge cost $161,855.81. It was a wood and iron trestle structure, 1,311 feet in length, commencing at the river end of Wabasha street, and ending on the West St. Paul side at what was then called Bridge street, later called Dakota avenue, and now known as South Wabasha street. The present bridge rests upon most of the original piers, but being considerably longer, required additional ones. The West St. Paul end was about twelve feet above the ground, to insure its safety against inundations which that flat was subject to once or twice a year. The company, of course, had to grade up to the floor of the bridge; and in 1861 the city graded entirely across the flat, and put in two or three substantial bridges over small creeks. The roadbed was raised several feet above the level of the flat.

The bridge became a free bridge at noon, on the 18th day of November, 1874, coincident with West St. Paul becoming a part of the city of St. Paul, as its sixth ward.

The next expensive improvement projected was to grade East Seventh street from Kittson street to the eastern city limits, to a temporary grade. To this end, on October 16, 1860, the city council instructed the city engineer, Gates A. Johnson, to prepare plans and estimates of the cost of this proposed work. At the next meeting of the city council, October 30, the engineer reported that the total cost would be $16,683, as follows: One stone arch culvert across Trout brook, $2,333; one stone arch culvert across Phalen creek, $4,350; embankment and excavation, $10,000. It was considered too costly for the property owners to bear, and the project was allowed to sleep more than ten years, until May 2d, 1871, when Alderman Ferdinand Willius revived it by offering the following:

Resolved, That the Commissioner of Assessments be authorized to advertise for plans, specifications, and estimates, for the construction 0177 135 of a bridge, of wood, or wood and iron combined, with stone or iron piers, over the Lake Superior and Mississippi railroad and Phalen creek, on Seventh street.

The resolution was adopted, and on June 8, 1872, after a sleep of another year, the Board of Public Works, which I think had been created in the meantime, reported the engineer's estimate of cost as follows:

Extension of Trout brook culvert $2,000

The contract for the improvement was awarded to J. W. Smyth, for $39,400, and was dated June 24, 1872, and expired October 1, 1872,—a few days over three months! Of course he could not do it within the life of that contract. More time was given him, and the work was completed on August 22, 1873.

Until this improvement was completed there was but one carriage road from the city to the summit of Dayton's bluff. It ran by the way of the line of Fourth street (which was then simply a bad road), across Trout brook and Phalen creek; thence to Commercial street, at the foot of the bluff, and to what is now Conway street; then up a long, steep and stony hill, past the Dayton residence, which stood and still stands near the brow of the bluff, at the northeast corner of Hoffman avenue and Conway street, 25 or 30 feet above the grade of the former.

Hoffman avenue was first graded in 1873, the same year in which the East Seventh street improvement was completed. Patrick Nash was the contractor. The north end of it was made to connect with the Seventh street bridge on grade. It had a down grade to Conway street, then an up grade to the summit of the hill.

Leaving Dayton's bluff to get along with two carriage approaches from the west for the next eleven years, we will return to the lower part of the city, where most of the heavy wholesale and manufacturing business is located, as well as the railroad general offices, freight houses, etc., to see the changes wrought there within the last forty-two years. For those whose residence does not date back to 1862, the contour of this portion of the city in its natural condition is shown on S. P. Folsom's official map of St. Paul in 1855, as no material changes took place before 1862.

Nearly all the space between the bluff and the river, from Sibley street to Dayton's bluff, and for some distance beyond Fourth street, up Trout and Phalen creeks, which at this point are in one valley, was a bottomless bog.

Occupying the space between Jackson street and Broadway, from Fourth to Seventh street, stood a high drift hill, called by various names, as Mount Pisgah, Baptist hill, and Burbank's hill. It was best known as Baptist hill, so called from the fact that a Baptist church once stood upon its summit. The northeast corner of this hill crossed Seventh street, and the southwest corner crossed Fourth street. A spur of it followed the line of Fifth street to Neill street, or a little below, and thence up Neill to Seventh street, connecting there with one running from Kittson street to Westminster avenue, which forms the left bluff of Trout brook for a long distance up the stream.

Sibley street was graded through Baptist hill in 1876, making a cut of fifty-one feet. I think that was about the highest part of the hill, and the point from which cannon salutes were fired, during the Civil War, in honor of Union victories. Fifth street was graded through this hill in 1877; Sixth street was also graded through it in 1877; and Wacouta street in 1877 or 1878. When these four streets had been cut through the hill, they left the block bounded by them standing as a plateau about fifty feet high. The hill was composed of a heterogeneous mass of drift clay, gravel, boulders, broken limestone, and pretty nearly everything else in the way of hill-building material, It was just what was needed in other places near by, but not there. This plateau and the rest of the hill have long since disappeared, except a few isolated low 0179 137 places that have not yet been leveled. A large portion of the material was used on lower Fourth and Third streets, to fill the bogs and other bottomless mudholes. It was free dirt, and every one was at liberty to help himself. The hill gradually disappeared, and the area bounded by the four streets named is now Smith Park.

At one time there was quite a settlement of respectable citizens on that hill. The Burbank residence, a large two-story brick house, occupied a prominent position on the river front, and from it a fine view could be had of the river's magnificent scenery. Among other prominent citizens who had their habitation there was the late William H. Grant, a member and councilor of this Society. On the ground once occupied by that hill, now stand massive business blocks.

Before leaving this portion of the city I will call attention to another transformation scene, one which, for magnitude and cost, far exceeds the last one mentioned, the Union Depot Yards. Where now stands the Union Depot itself, and nearly all the space occupied by those miles and miles of steel rails in the depot yards, forty-two years ago, and several years less than that number, was a literal “slough of despond.” It was fathomless and apparently bottomless. The original Union Depot building, I think, was on a pile foundation; but, whether it was so or not, the foundation settled, and the walls cracked to such an extent as to make the building unsafe. I think that it was officially condemned, and I know there was talk of doing so; but it was patched up in some way so that it did not fall. This building was burned June 11, 1884, the inside being completely destroyed. It was immediately restored and improved.

The first railroad operated in Minnesota was the St. Paul and Pacific, now the Great Northern. Its first track extended from St. Paul to St. Anthony, a distance of ten miles. Its first train of passenger cars arrived here on the steamboat Key City on the morning of June 28, 1862, and was immediately transferred to the track. In the afternoon of the same day the locomotive, William 0180 138 Crooks, which had arrived previously, was backed down the track, coupled to the cars, and took a distinguished party of citizens to St. Anthony and back. Instead of attempting to fill in a roadbed through that quagmire, from Trout brook to the station, they drove piles and built their track on them. The River Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railway also came into the city on piles through or over that quagmire, for the same reason that it had apparently no bottom. Both roads gradually filled in a roadbed. Now, all that flat has been filled until it is from a few feet to ten feet, or more, above its former level.

The first depot building of the old St. Paul and Pacific railroad company was a small affair, and was first located at the foot of Rosabel street. For many years past it has been in the service of other roads, its last service being for the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway. It now stands where it was last used, behind the building occupied by the general offices of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, on the east side of Broadway. This large building, also the General Offices Building of the Great Northern Railway Company, and several other heavy buildings within the bounds of that great bog, rest in a clay-pit. Some of them do not rest very well, notably a large five-story brick building at the upper side of the Third street bridge; it is cracked in several places from bottom to top.

The railroad business of St. Paul has grown to such proportions within the last few years that there is not room enough on the original flat to handle it, and the roads are reaching out in various directions for more room; they are asking for vacation of streets and alleys, and purchasing private property, so that they can extend their trackage.

The Northern Pacific Company has purchased, besides other real estate, the residence property of the late Horace Thompson, on Woodward and Lafayette avenues, which they propose to grade down for use. They had already demolished the buildings, when the tornado of August 20, 1904, came to their aid and uprooted nearly all the trees on the grounds.

Several years ago, the exact time I do not know, the Union Depot Company, with the consent of the United States government, filled in a portion of the river, of the following dimensions: Beginning at the Chicago Great Western draw-bridge, and extending 4,300 feet down the river, to Phalen creek, with an average width of about 100 feet and a maximum width of about 190 feet, making a total of about 430,000 square feet, that is, about ten acres.

In 1901–02, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company, also with government authority, filled in a strip in front of a portion of this area previously secured by the Union Depot Company, beginning at Broadway, and extending down the river to a point just below Phalen creek, leaving an opening for the creek. The length of the fill is about 3,000 feet, with an average width of about 150 feet and a maximum width of about 240 feet. The total area thus filled is about twelve acres.

In making these fills, the railroads have covered seven islands that appear on the early maps, six of which had names of pioneers. On one of these islands once stood Prince's rotary steam sawmill; it stood nearly opposite the foot of John street, between John and Olive streets. It was destroyed by fire before its site was wanted by the railroad people, and thus died respectably.

The Chicago Great Western railway some years ago acquired a strip of the river, on the west side, of the following size: The fill begins at South Wabasha street, and extends to South Robert street, with a width of about 400 feet, and also includes two blocks west of South Wabasha street, and one block east of South Robert street, making in total something over twenty acres.

The history of railway improvements in the lowertown district would be an interesting one, but would be foreign to the object of this paper; and if it were not, I am not competent to write it. I have given only so much of it as pertained to changes in the land and water surfaces, both of which are involved to a large extent.

The first grain elevator in St. Paul was located on the river bank, a little east of the foot of Wacouta street. It was built soon after the entrance of railroads to the city, and was commonly 0182 140 called the “Delano Elevator.” On one of its supporting piles was the mark from which levels were started. The building was destroyed by fire many years ago, and its site is now buried.

Before leaving the river front, I will speak of that noted ravine which the old settlers tell of to new comers, in stories that sound very much like the proverbial fish stories; but some of them, at least, are true.

Starting at Third street, between Sibley and Jackson streets, a ravine existed in the early days of St. Paul, running in a west-northwest direction, so that it entered the south line of Fourth street near the middle of the block, and continuing in the same direction, reached the west line of Jackson street at the northwest corner of that and Fourth streets, and passed on for some distance. The ravine was quite wide, and sufficiently deep to allow the river, in times of unusually great freshets, to back up into the gully as far as Jackson street to a depth sufficient to float a light skiff. The bottom of the ravine at that point was from thirty to thirty-five feet below the present grade of Jackson and Fourth streets at their junction.

On the north side of the ravine, the late Lot Moffet kept a tavern called, on a triangular sign suspended from the front end of the house, “Temperance House.” The building was a wooden one, and not nearly as large as the Hotel Ryan. Jackson street had not been fully graded when I first passed by the house, but a sidewalk had been laid, and I remember that it was nearly on a level with the eaves of the house. When the street was graded, the house was nearly hidden from view a short distance away. As the street grade was raised, he would build higher, and finally he built another edifice which inclosed the original one, living in the old house until the new one had a roof on, when he took the old house out, in pieces. The city paid him several hundred dollars, in bonds, for damages on account of the street grade. He had about two stories below the street. His new edifice, on account of its peculiar and original architecture, was called “Moffet's Castle.” The First National Bank Building now occupies its site. As the ravine was springy and the ground beneath was very soft, when 0183 141 the erection of that building was undertaken, it was found an expensive job to get a solid foundation. The president of the bank, Mr. H. P. Upham, recently informed me that it cost them $20,000 to get the foundation up to the water-table. Hon. C. D. Gilfillan also had similar trouble at the northwest corner of the Gilfillan Block, on the corner diagonally opposite; and others who erected business blocks along the south side of Fourth street, between Jackson and Sibley streets, had a similar experience.

Nearly all the territory from Jackson street west to Wabasha street, between Fourth and Ninth streets, tributary to this ravine, has been filled in from a few inches to fifteen or more feet, the original surface having been of a clayey composition and unreliable for heavy buildings. There are a few spots where the limestone remains in place, the principal one being the site of the Court House; but the northeast corner of that building hangs over the clay-pit, both the limestone and sandstone being absent. It is very expensive to get secure foundations in that section. The New York Life Building did not, and the northeast corner of it is gradually sinking. Twice, to my personal knowledge, they have raised the inner edge of the sidewalk, so as to make it incline toward the streets instead of the building, and several of the big granite blocks, especially on the Sixth street side, are broken.

In 1884 and 1885, there was probably more money expended for bridging and grading in St. Paul than in any other two years of its history.

In 1883, the wooden bridge over Phalen creek on East Seventh street, built in 1873, had become so decayed as to be dangerous, and it was condemned, carriage travel being blocked. Then came the serious question of what should replace it. Finally it was decided to make a solid fill, with stone arches over the railroad tracks and creek. It was a very large undertaking, for the valley was about one hundred feet deep, and very wide, but it was deemed to be really the cheapest in the end, as plenty of material was at hand in the deep cuts which would necessarily be made to produce a proper grade ascending eastward to the summit of the hill. The excavated earth would have to be deposited somewhere,—another instance of Nature's careful regard for the law of supply and demand, 0184 142 as frequently illustrated in St. Paul. The Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads occupied Trout brook valley from bluff to bluff, and I believe they took care of that valley where a continuous steel or iron bridge spans the chasm.

The McArthur Brothers took the contract. They also regraded Hoffman avenue from Sixth to Seventh street, to correspond with the new grade on Seventh.

Oakland avenue, a street running upward along the bluff from Ramsey street to Summit avenue, was opened in 1884–5, at a cost of $51,469.75. The city contributed $20,000 in bonds toward its cost. The assessment for the balance was spread over a large area. The especial object for which the street was constructed was to afford an approach by street cars to the south side of St. Anthony hill. The Grand avenue line to Groveland Park traverses this avenue.

St. Paul has thirty-four iron and steel bridges, which cost $2,708,641.06; and twenty-six built of wood and other material, at the cost of $150,413.21. The total investment of this city in bridges now in use in thus $2,859,054.27. I will give the original cost of a few of the most important and expensive of these bridges, and the length of some of the long ones.

On Dayton's bluff the cuts and fills are numerous, as may be seen from the street cars, but generous Nature has provided places to deposit the surplus material from the cuts.

When Wabasha street was opened through “Hog-back” or Wabasha hill, there was a place waiting to receive the vast amount of sand and gravel that had to be disposed of, that place being now Central Park.

When Jackson street was cut through a part of the same hill or long plateau and ridge of drift, there were marshy streets below waiting for a large portion of the material taken from the south side, and deep hollows on the north for that taken from that side

When Mackubin street was graded north from Iglehart street, a six feet cut at Fuller street furnished the material for a nine feet fill at its crossing of St. Anthony avenue, and graduated off at Carroll street.

When Martin street (now West Central avenue) was graded west from Western avenue, a heavy cut near Mackubin street furnished material for a nine feet fill from Kent street to Dale street and beyond.

In grading St. Anthony avenue west from Western avenue, there were enough small cuts to fill all the low places on the line of the improvement. There was a cut of four to six feet between Dale and St. Albans streets and beyond. The north portion of that elevation was taken down to St. Anthony street grade, and the material (sand and gravel) was deposited by tram cars in a former lake bed directly north, between Martin street (Central avenue) and Aurora avenue.

When Dale street was graded north from Laurel avenue, it passed through three little lakes between Dayton avenue and Carroll street. There was a cut of twelve feet at Carroll street, and plenty of room on Block 25 (between Carroll and Iglehart streets) or on Carroll street west of Dale, to deposit the material taken out.

When Iglehart street was graded west from Mackubin street, there was a cut of 12¾ feet just before reaching Kent street, and 0186 144 plenty of places in the vicinity for the surplus material. Between Dale and St. Albans streets, it passed through Larpenteur lake. It also passed through a lake between Kent and Dale streets.

When Rondo street was graded west from Mackubin street, there was a deep cut on the south side of the street, between Kent and Dale streets. Enough of the material taken out was deposited on the St. Anthony end of the late W. L. Wilson's property to raise it up to street grade, from three to eight feet, and some went to other places where needed.

I might go on almost indefinitely with similar records, but there is another branch of my subject to be considered and I will pass on to that.

Perhaps it would be more correct to describe these changes as from water surfaces to land surfaces, for that is the result of our lakes disappearing, from any cause.

A large number of little lakes that existed within the city area only a few years ago have disappeared from the face of the earth, and dry land appears where they once rested. Go over to the east end of the city, and you can count dry lake beds by the score; and many other lakes are in the process of drying up, being mere marshes today. Soon the farmer will be plowing where they existed, “sparkling and bright.” Go to the western part of the city, to Merriam Park or St. Anthony Park, anywhere, in any direction, and you will find the same drying up process in operation. Even the lake that once existed within the limits of our State Fair Grounds is only a marsh now. But to be more specific, I will mention a few, some with names and some nameless ones, that I once knew, which have passed from view.

Forty years ago, and less, there was a beautiful lake in the ravine that is now occupied by Oxford street. Its south end, when I first saw it about forty-five years ago, was somewhere near the part of the ravine where Carroll street crosses it, but may have been a little farther south; and it extended north as far as to Ellen street, one block north of University avenue. It was supposed to be a spring lake. It supported two names, Lake's lake, and Hare's lake. Mr. Hare lived on the high ground west of the 0187 145 lake; and Mr. Lake lived close to the west shore of the lake, also on its west side. One of the children of the latter was drowned in this lake, in sixteen feet of water. The lake had entirely disappeared at least fifteen years ago.

When the Gas Company, a few years ago, concluded to erect a million cubic feet gas-holder on St. Anthony hill, they, for some reason, located it in the dry bed of that lake. They got along very nicely with the excavation, and had made good progress with the foundation, when suddenly water in great force burst through the crust beneath and destroyed a portion of the foundation. The consequence was, that they were obliged to run two powerful steam pumps twenty-four hours a day for several weeks, before they exhausted or subdued the flow.

A chain of three lakes, beginning near Dayton avenue, on the line of Dale street, had an outlet for the most southern lake of this series, crossing Marshall avenue through a log culvert into the second lake on the north side of Marshall avenue, which in turn emptied into a third lake that covered nearly all of Block 25 and part of Block 26, of Mackubin & Marshall's Addition. The outlet for the three was at the northwest corner of Kent and Carroll streets, crossing Kent street, and by a northeast course, passing in front of the late W. L. Wilson's old residence, under a bridge, and across Mackubin street into a valley, where it was finally absorbed. This was before any of the streets named were graded.

Iglehart street was graded through the lower one of these lakes; and Dale street was graded across and through all three of them, and put them out of existence.

Larpenteur lake was a fine body of clear water. The east end was at a little distance west of Dale street, between Carroll and Marshall streets, and it extended to and a little beyond St. Albans street. It was directly opposite the Protestant Orphan Asylum. A good many years ago a land owner, whose south line was in the water at the east end of this lake, filled in to his line, but did not improve the property. Iglehart street was graded through it, and St. Albans street across it; the remaining part was filled in, terminating its existence.

A pretty lake that rested in a hollow between Martin street (now West Central avenue) and Aurora avenue, extending from half a block east of St. Albans street to a little west of Grotto street, was put out of existence by grading Fuller street through it and St. Albans and Grotto streets across it.

Another small but pretty lake existed where the Madison School Building now stands. When the School Board purchased the property, it was in the contract that the seller should fill in the lake. The fill was about 25 feet. The material used was sand and gravel, taken from Hog-back hill, directly back of it, and was, probably the first extensive inroad made in that hill. After the lake had been put out of existence, a drive-well was put in, which furnished all the water used in the construction of the building and in the school for several years, until water mains were put in on Bluff street.

The Webster School building was erected in the midst of a large marsh that had been a shallow lake. For several years there was water in the basement. A deep cess-pool was dug on the Mackubin street side, but it gave only partial relief. Later a sewer was put in and connection was made with it, which gave full relief.

The most of Pacific Addition, two blocks, was under water when it was platted. A deep bed of peat underlies it, and extends a considerable distance south, east and west. The peat has been on fire several times, in dry seasons; at one time it burned under this Addition, and let Atwater street down several feet. The Fire Department has been called on several occasions to put out the fire, but their labor was of little avail.

Where the suburb of Macalester college is, a large but shallow lake was platted.

A beautiful little sheet of water once reposed in a fine grove of native trees on Dayton's bluff, at the junction of Hastings avenue and Cypress street of today; but when I first saw it, there were no streets or avenues visible there. Today there is scarcely enough water left of it for a duck to float on. It can properly be classed with the extinct lakes.

I have on my list, and in my memory, numerous other dry lake beds, but will not mention them, as this paper is now longer 0189 147 than it ought to be for one evening's reading. I will close with a brief mention of the existing lakes and water courses within the limits of St. Paul. They are few. Leaving out the lakes connected with our city water supply, there are only two, so far as I know, and of them I shall make brief mention.

The first to which I will direct attention is called “Nigger lake” or “Dead Horse lake.” This fine body of water lies in a deep basin, extending from the east side of Dale street and the south side of the Northern Pacific railway tracks east nearly to Mackubin street. It formerly extended to Farrington avenue. It had several bays, and at least one island. It crossed Maryland street and the Northern Pacific roadbed, only a few years ago. It is quite deep near the upper end, and, being fed by springs, is one of the sources of Trout brook. It contains several varieties of fish.

The other lake referred to is Lake Como, one of our park jewels now, but it came very near being one of St. Paul's extinct lakes. On September 13, 1891, only thirteen years ago. I walked entirely around it, on dry ground, at least one hundred yards inside of the water-line of fifteen years before, when what is now called Cozy lake was simply an arm of Como, with a continuous water surface. Now they are really artificial lakes, having been filled and maintained by water pumped up from artesian wells.

There are now only two visible watercourses within the city limits, I believe, if we do not count the many cool springs and brooklets of the Fish Hatchery water supply. These are Phalen creek and Trout brook, which enter the Mississippi near Dayton's bluff as one stream, though their sources are far apart. Trout brook has three principal sources, Sandy lake, McCarron lake, and Nigger lake. The outlets of the first two unite at some distance above the point where the overflow from the latter is received. They all pick up numerous small tributaries along their course.

Phalen creek is not only the outlet of Lake Phalen, but also takes the overflow from lakes Gervais, Kohlman, and their tributaries. The White Bear road crosses Phalen creek near the foot of the lake.

I have been obliged to leave out many items that I had on hand, for want of room. I am aware that the paper is too long, and that I may not have made the best selections from the material I had, but it is too late now to correct the poor selection.

Please bear in mind that every change in the relationship of land and water has resulted in an increase of land, not one of water. Hundreds of acres have been added to the land area of St. Paul within less than forty years by the drying up and filling up of our lakes and ponds, besides the forty or fifty acres reclaimed from the river by and for the railroads.

We learn from the records to which reference has been made, that even the earliest explorers of the country were attracted by the natural beauties and advantages of this locality, and were wont to linger in the vicinity as they passed to the remoter regions of the great Northwest. It appears that some of the first stockades and trading posts of the early French voyageurs were established on territory now within the limits of Goodhue county.

Groseilliers and Radisson, the first white men in Minnesota, are thought to have come in the spring of 1655 to the large Prairie island, on the west side of the main stream of the Mississippi at the confluence of the Vermilion river, about eight miles above Red Wing, and to have remained there, with Huron and Ottawa Indians, excepting absences in hunting expeditions, during more than a year, returning to Lower Canada in the summer of 1656. A French trading post, called a fort, was established on Prairie island in the year 1695, in accordance with the command of Frontenac, the governor of Canada, by Le Sueur, as a barrier against hostile Indians, which served the purpose for a time of a protecting refuge for the venturesome explorers of the country.

In 1727, an expedition from Montreal, lead by La Perriere du Boucher, came to the low, sandy peninsula that extends into Lake Pepin, a short distance below the site of the present village of Frontenac, which they called Pointe du Sable, and there built a stockaded fort, named in honor of Beauharnois, who was then governor of Canada. With this expedition came two Jesuit missionaries, Michael Guignas and Nicholas de Gonnor, and their mission chapel, a little log building within the stockade, was consecrated to “St. Michael the Archangel.”

The next representatives of Christianity and civilization who attempted to utilize the beauty and bounty with which nature invited the white man to occupy the country, were two Swiss missionaries, Revs. Samuel Denton and Daniel Gavin, with their families, who came out to the New World under the patronage of the Evangelical Society of Lausanne, Switzerland. They first established their mission at Trempealeau, Wis., in 1837, removing in the following year to what afterwards became the site of the city of Red Wing. They found there a band of about three hundred Dakota or Sioux Indians, descendants of a people who had made the locality their home, so far as these savage wanderers of the earth could regard any spot as their home, for many generations. The then chief of this band of Indians was Hhoo-pa-hoo-doo-ta, which being interpreted means Scarlet Wing; hence the place came to be called by the whites “Red Wing's village.” The Indian designation of the 0193 151 spot was Remnicha, which is a combination of three Sioux words, signifying hill, water, and wood, appropriately suggestive of the wooded bluffs of the locality and the great river that flows along their base.

While these missionaries were doubtless successful in some degree in making less savage than in their natural state the Indians with whom they came in contact, and for whose spiritual welfare they were devoting their life's work, it does not appear that their efforts were prospered to an extent to greatly encourage them. The mission was maintained, though much of the time in a languishing condition, until 1846, when from failing health or other cause the Revs. Denton and Gavin gave up their work and the mission was transferred to the care of the American Board of Missions. It was practically vacant the next two years, until 1848, when Revs. Joseph W. Hancock and John F. Aiton were appointed by the American Board to renew the effort to humanize and in some degree civilize the Indians. Mr. Aiton was first on the ground, but did not long remain, as he moved away in 1850. Mr. Hancock arrived in June, 1849, and from that time until the present he has resided near the spot on which was located his mission house.

By this time conditions had notably changed in the new Northwest, and the beautiful region washed by the waters of the upper Mississippi had begun to attract attention from the venturesome western pioneer. The advantages of the country had to a limited extent been proven, and the result became known to many who had previously viewed the dim possibilities of the region, with more or less interest. A considerable influx of white settlers had located at various points of vantage in the country, mainly at St. Paul, St. Anthony, Stillwater, Mendota, and even far off Pembina. The Territory of Minnesota had been established March 3rd, 1849. A census of the territory was taken under the provisions of the organic act the following June, which showed a total population of 4,780 souls,—principally, it is presumed, classed as white, though including, as we know, many of mixed blood,—of which number Red Wing village contributed thirty-three, twenty males and thirteen females. This was the nucleus from which has been developed the 0194 152 magnificent community of Goodhue county, numbering 31,137 souls, according to the census of 1900.

Early settlement of the locality was somewhat retarded by delay in the extinguishment of the Indian title to its lands, but in 1852 a treaty was concluded which ceded a large area, in which was included most of that which subsequently became Goodhue county. A considerable reservation was made along Lake Pepin, on which the county borders, but this was soon made available to settlement by the purchase of scrip representing the land, issued to the Indians and mixed bloods, for whose benefit the reservation was made. This treaty also provided that the Indians should be removed farther west, and, according to its terms, they were located in 1853 on a reservation provided for them on the upper waters of the Minnesota river.

Rev. J. W. Hancock may be regarded as the father of Goodhue county. Though not the first white man to locate within its limits, he was the first one who faced the discouraging conditions that for a time confronted him, and who maintained throughout a determination to remain and make the locality his home. His work among the Indians was fruitful of good results, and his counsel contributed greatly in encouraging and aiding the efforts of the whites who now began to gather about him, in organizing and maintaining a civilized community. Among the first recruits who came to his aid in this behalf, and who took a leading part in the subsequent development of the locality, were John Day, Dr. William W. Sweney, William Freeborn, Calvin Potter, James McGinnis, E. C. Stevens, David Puckett, Charles Parks, and Warren Hunt, who came in 1852; also Matthias Peterson and Nels Nelson, who were respectively the pioneers of the Norwegian and Swedish nationalities, which early became a considerable and most desirable element of the population of Goodhue county. H. L. Bevans, William Lauver, James Akers, Norris Hobart, Mathew Sorin, Reazin Spates, T. J. Smith, Hugh Adams, E. P. Lowater, and others, came in 1853. Abner Post, George W. Bullard, and James Wells, had come to the locality in 1850, but had established themselves some miles south on the shore of Lake Pepin. Through their efforts the village of Wacouta was started, which flourished moderately for a time as a rival of Red Wing, but failed to maintain itself in competition with its more energetic neighbor.

Red Wing was surveyed and platted in 1853, the town proprietors being William Freeborn, Alexander Ramsey, B. F. Hoyt, and C. L. Wells. This year saw a moderate overflow of the population of Red Wing onto the prairies and into the valleys in the vicinity, and the fertile soil of that region began to disclose its capabilities for the support of civilized man. The county was established by act of the Territorial legislature, approved March 5th, 1853, and was named for James M. Goodhue, the pioneer journalist of Minnesota, who commenced the publication of the Minnesota Pioneer in St. Paul in April, 1849. Goodhue was a native of New Hampshire, where he was born March 31st, 1810, and died in St. Paul, August 27th, 1852. He is represented to have been a man of marked individuality, restless and impulsive, a writer of much ability and force, who achieved great success in his profession as a journalist. A contemporary has remarked of him, that “with the ingenuity of Vulcan he would hammer out thunderbolts on the anvil of his mind, and hurl them with the power and dexterity of Jove.”

The county was duly organized by the appointment by Governor Ramsey of a full set of county officers to serve until an election under the law could be held, Red Wing being designated as the county seat, and Goodhue county thus became a well defined entity of the prospective commonwealth of Minnesota.

As an illustration of a day of small things, it is interesting to note that the first session of the Board of County Commissioners of Goodhue county was held June 16th, 1854, on a pile of lumber on an otherwise vacant lot in Red Wing, when an organization was effected and an adjournment taken to a later date. At the next meeting a careful estimate for the budget for the ensuing year indicated that it would be necessary to raise $554.09 to meet the same, and a tax of one per cent on an assessed valuation of $65,305 was levied to provide the required funds. If there was any graft in that estimate, it did not appear in the figures upon which it was based, nor do I think there was evidence of it in the subsequent disbursement of the money. It was also voted at this meeting to submit to a vote of the electors of the county a proposition authorizing the creation of an indebtedness to the amount of six hundred dollars, with which to provide a suitable Court House for Goodhue 0196 154 county. What the character of the edifice thus contemplated would have been had the scheme matured, is left to the imagination, for the proposition was defeated at the election.

Like all portions of the more accessible sections of the territory, Goodhue county received considerable accessions to her population during the two or three years following, and her development in other respects maintained a corresponding pace. Early in the year, 1855, a United States land office was located in Red Wing, with W. W. Phelps as register, and C. C. Graham as receiver. This gave the village much local importance for a time, until the removal of the land office to Henderson on the Minnesota river. The lands within this district were largely of a most desirable character, and hence, as immigration came into the country, they were rapidly taken up as homesteads, or by the location of warrants, Indian scrip, or in other legal methods of acquisition.

Speculators were hovering like vultures over the country, so that, for possession of some of the finest tracts, there was much competition. On these many squatters had located before the land had been surveyed and subdivided, and as a consequence there were many serious conflicts between rival claimants, which at times threatened trouble. The condition became so serious that a vigilance committee was organized in Red Wing for the protection of the squatters against the schemes of the speculators. The methods of the committee were generally effective, and as a rule the squatters' rights prevailed. The usual procedure was that, when the offending land grabber appeared at the land office to establish his claim, he was hustled to the bank of the Mississippi, and there was required to formally relinquish all claim to the disputed land or take the alternative of a ducking, with the near possibility of being drowned.

In 1855 also the educational and religious interests of the community received a notable stimulus by the establishment of Hamline University in Red Wing. This institution being under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Red Wing naturally became the center of influence for the time of that denomination for the Territory of Minnesota, and the headquarters of many of the great lights of Methodism of the Northwest. There were evangelists 0197 155 in those days whose mighty work for Christianity and civilization proved a powerful agency in giving direction to the moral, intellectual, and religious character of our people. A conspicuous element of the community of Red Wing in the latter fifties, was a group of these men, who became distinguished for their great ability, untiring industry, and absolute devotion to their work. Such men as the Rev. Dr. Akers, Mathew Sorin, Chauncey and Norris Hobart, Jabez Brooks, Daniel Cobb, B. F. Crary, and others, made a notable aggregation of great minds. With perhaps an exception or two, they have all passed to their reward, leaving a rich legacy of good accomplished for posterity.

Hamline University was removed from Red Wing many years ago to its present location in St. Paul, where it has developed, under the inspiration given it in those early days, into one of the leading educational institutions of our state.

The growing village of Red Wing early attained a high reputation for its good morals and sobriety. For a long time the sale of liquor was not only prohibited, but was actually prevented in the village and vicinity. The temper of the community in that respect was submitted to a test while these model conditions prevailed. Several barrels of whiskey were smuggled into the village, but the effort to distribute and utilize their contents signally failed. The whiskey was made to swell the volume of the Mississippi's flow, and the parties responsible for this effort to discredit the good name of the community were taught a lesson that was well remembered, and that had the effect to discourage a like experiment for a long time thereafter.

In March, 1857, Red Wing was incorporated as a city, its first mayor being J. C. Weatherby, one of its pioneer merchants and public spirited citizens. During the early months of this year there was a notable swell in the volume of immigration into the country, which greatly stimulated the spirit of speculation that had been uneasily slumbering for a time, and which developed in its subsequent activity the inevitable boom which must come as an early experience to all new countries. Numerous new townsites were projected and the future was many times discounted in the values at which corner lots and eligible locations for all sorts of 0198 156 industries were offered. Business enterprises were undertaken on a scale that might have been justified a decade of two later, but which met their inevitable fate in the reaction that soon involved every interest in the country. The newcomer at once became infected with the hopefulness and enthusiasm that was in the air, and that seemed to inspire and stimulate every member of the community in whatever undertaking he was engaged.

It was just at this time that the writer drifted into the current of immigration that was strongly flowing westward, and became a resident of Red Wing in July, 1857. He brought with him an old Washington hand press and a quantity of indifferent type and other printer's material, which had recently been doing duty in another locality in the advocacy of “squatter sovereignty,” with which he established the Red Wing Republican, a weekly newspaper. From the date of its first issue, September 4th, 1857, it has been continuously published until the present time. The new editor was no printer, but he soon became more or less of an expert in “sticking type,” working the press, and writing boom editorials in exploitation of the locality, and of the interests of the Territory in general.

My experience in soliciting business was not of the kind that stimulates the hustling qualities of the canvasser or commercial agent of the present day. The question was not the competition to be met, or the quality of goods to be exploited, but rather the effort required to find possible customers in the then sparsely settled region of Goodhue county. Most of the residents of Red Wing were induced, as a matter of public spirit, to subscribe for the newspaper, and nearly all the business and professional people of the young city gave it moderate advertising patronage, but a more extended support must be secured if the enterprise was to prosper. In the effort to secure this, every trail, bypath and highway in the county became almost as familiar to the writer as the single plank walk extending between his office and boarding house. There were then only two habitations on the old Zumbrota road between the Hay Creek and Zumbro river valleys, a distance of about fifteen miles, which illustrates the condition of “magnificent distances” that impressed the traveler when crossing the prairies of Goodhue county 0199 157 forty-seven years ago. The sites of the now thriving villages of Zumbrota, Pine Island, Cannon Falls, and Kenyon, were occupied by the nucleus of their present prosperous development; but throughout the county at large the monotony of the horizon was only occasionally relieved by the sight of a settler's cabin.

As an illustration of this condition, a patron of the paper proposed to trade a quarter section of land in Goodhue township, about fifteen miles from Red Wing, for two hundred dollars' worth of advertising and job printing, but there seemed to be too much land in that section for any useful purpose and the trade therefore did not materialize. A few years ago the writer was advised that this same quarter section of land, with but moderate improvements, could be bought for eight thousand dollars, spot cash.

The recent rapid increase of the population of the Territory had developed conditions that warranted the taking of steps preliminary to the admission of Minnesota as a state of the Union, and questions pertinent thereto began to agitate the people. Party strife was then strenuous throughout the country. It was during the Buchanan regime, when the Kansas-Nebraska issue, involving the question of the extension of slavery, was violently agitating the country, and premonitions of impending trouble that finally culminated in the war of the rebellion were painfully felt by all our people. These conditions had spread to the remotest frontier, and Minnesota became involved in the political contention that elsewhere prevailed. The Territory was of course under democratic influences, its officers being appointees of President Buchanan, and Goodhue county was practically dominated by those who professed that political faith.

With more enthusiasm perhaps than discretion, the editor of the new paper waded into the political controversies of the time. The Constitutional Convention met and split upon partisan rocks, and for a time it seemed (if you will pardon the paradox) that the ship of state would become stranded before it was fairly launched. A bitterly contested election followed for state and county officers and members of Congress, in which the Democrats won by a narrow margin on the general ticket, but Goodhue county was “redeemed.” The new editor, though then, as later, bearing the character of a man of much modesty, did not fail to claim his full share of credit 0200 158 for the result achieved in the county. It was a period of bitter partisanship, and in reverting to it at this distance of time one can but wonder that in the heat of party conflicts, which were almost continuous in their character, the pleasant personal relations that characterized the pioneer days of Minnesota were so generally maintained.

The pioneers of the fifties in Minnesota had fairly established the character of their new home as a region of superior agricultural resources, and in climatic conditions most healthful to human life, and they were beginning to realize somewhat from their efforts the fruition of their hopes, when the worldwide financial revulsion of 1857–8 came upon them like a withering blast. While the effect of this general collapse of nearly all business interests was seriously felt throughout all sections of the country, the frontier, and especially the Minnesota frontier, felt it in an exceptional degree. The natural resources of the country had not yet been developed sufficiently to afford a living to the people who had sought a home upon its soil. The necessaries of life were yet to a large extent being brought from the East and South. Nearly every steamboat that came up the Mississippi had its decks loaded with flour and meat, to pay for which the limited wealth that had accumulated, and that the more recent immigration had brought into the country, was soon exhausted. You have all had experience with the financial disturbances of more recent periods, but I venture to say that those of you who were here at the time to which I refer would characterize the panic of 1857–8 as the climax of financial distress, to which nothing of like character in subsequent years is to be compared.

It was during the days of wildcat banking in the West, and the discredited issues of the institutions thus classed constituted practically all of the limited money there was in the country. Even this rapidly depreciated in value and soon became worthless. It was for a time a more or less intricate problem for one to keep himself advised of the daily depreciation and consequent current value of the occasional bank note that came into his possession. The prime necessities of life were relatively dear. The country had nothing on which to realize, except lots in embryo towns, and these soon lost their intrinsic as well as their inflated values, and became no 0201 159 longer current as a medium of exchange. The expedients resorted to for a supply of currency were amusing, though strikingly suggestive of the extreme distress of prevailing conditions. The State paid its obligations in warrants of doubtful value, because of their uncertain redemption. County, city, and town orders were “floated;” merchants and other business establishments issued “scrip;” and individual due bills became “thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa,” whose only element of redemption was a promise of renewal.

Under the stress of these conditions, a proposition was formulated, and was urgently pressed, for a loan of the credit of the State, to the amount of five million dollars, to aid in the construction of the several “land grant” railroads, whose lines had been surveyed or projected to span the state in all directions. The proposition involved an amendment to the State Constitution recently adopted, and a measure for the purpose was offered early in the legislative session of 1858. The movement precipitated a fierce contest, but the representation which was pressed with all its plausible force, that its adoption would result in the disbursement of five millions of money throughout the state, proved an appeal that no argument could withstand. It passed the legislature and was adopted by a popular vote of nearly four to one. Goodhue county being comparatively remote from any of the proposed lines of railroad, its people were generally opposed to the proposition in its early presentation, and the young editor at once antagonized it in his newspaper. He was loudly applauded by his constituents for the vigor of his fight against the swindle, as it was termed, when the campaign opened; but as it progressed he realized that these plaudits perceptibly lessened, and as it reached its close he was made to feel, in his solitude, much like the chief mourner at a funeral. His vindication came, however, some months later, in the disastrous collapse of the entire scheme, which, instead of bringing the promised financial relief, imposed a heavy burden of debt upon the state, on account of which its credit greatly suffered before the burden was removed.

Minnesota had no usury laws in those days, hence money was “worth what it would bring.” Five per cent a month was current interest for a time, as the writer well remembers in recalling his 0202 160 experience with a loan of one hundred dollars made upon that basis. The principal sum became a matter of minor moment, but the monthly demand for interest caused the debtor often to anxiously “walk the floor.” The recollection of the pretexts resorted to, the economies practiced, and the privations suffered by most of our people in their endurance of the conditions encountered in those panicky times, no doubt brings an occasional thrill to the consciousness of many, even to this day, as those experiences are sometimes recalled to mind.

But the pioneer is a man of almost limitless resources. That is the characteristic that chiefly distinguishes him. His recuperative quality, ever manifested after disappointment or apparent defeat, is the dominating influence that buoys him up and bears him on. He is always hopeful, ever determined and never daunted by obstacles that might discourage the average man. He encounters with equanimity adverse conditions and overcomes them, as a part of the expected experience with which he must deal in his efforts to achieve success. The people of Goodhue county, and of Minnesota generally, did not linger long in the cave of gloom that for a time seemed to constitute their environment as a consequence of the financial panic of 1857–8. They went through a sort of voluntary liquidation, in which things were in a manner evened up all around, and a new start in life began.

There was soon a perceptible rise in the tide of immigration into the country. Large colonies of Scandinavians, Germans, and other nationalities direct from the northern countries of the Old World, brought frequent accessions to the population, and under their patient and industrious efforts the prairies of Goodhue county were rapidly transformed from their wild condition into comfortable homes and prosperous centers of thrifty people. The country soon became self-supporting. Imports of food stuffs practically ceased, and steamboat interests on the Mississippi sought cargoes rather in the surplus grain the country produced than in the importations that fed the people in former years. Farm lands appreciated in value, and even town lots began to be redeemed from the threatened forfeiture of the delinquent tax list.

The agricultural development of the country gave a substantial stimulus to all business interests, and thereby contributed to the towns a new resource with which to renew their life. The clouds of adversity gradually rolled away, and the sunshine of a coming prosperity sent genial rays of hope into the hearts of all the people. The census of 1860 gave Goodhue county a population of 8,977, which indicates, at a glance, the remarkable progress made in the development of the county in the years immediately prior to that date; and when it is noted that the major portion of this increase in population were settled upon the prairies and along the valleys, the substantial character of this growth will be recognized. The wonderful crops of grain grown on the farms of this county gave early proof of the great fertility of its soil, and, to the mind of the observant and prophetic, brought premonition of the conditions which in a few years made Red Wing the largest primary grain market in the world, a distinction that city enjoyed for several years, until the construction of railroads through its tributary territory considerably curtailed the area that sought that point for a market.

These conditions of encouragement and promise had inspired a hopefulness in the future that stimulated every interest and infused activity into every enterprise in a notable degree. The strain of the panic had become wholly relieved, and the distress of the period it covered was wellnigh forgotten, when the black cloud of civil war began to develop upon the horizon of the country. The political turmoil of preceding years had often threatened trouble, but it had always been averted by one of the many notable compromises of our history, so that the portended crisis for the time was postponed. The country had become accustomed to this manner of adjustment of its sectional difficulties, and had confidently looked for a settlement upon such lines of the differences that then divided parties and sections, hence it was not prepared for the culminating crisis that now confronted it. There was no section of the North, however, that rallied sooner from the terrible shock, or that came to the rescue of the government with greater promptness and enthusiasm than the frontier 0204 162 communities which then constituted one of the youngest states of the Union. The claim has been often made, and I believe is yet undisputed, that the first offer of volunteers for the war came from Minnesota; and in the organization that went to the front under that tender of aid, there was a large contingent from Red Wing and Goodhue county.

The news of the attack on Fort Sumter reached Red Wing April 19th, 1861, and at the same time there was received President Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers for three months' service. A public meeting was held the evening of the same day, which in many respects was the most notable public assembly ever held in that community. No subsequent even in its history had attached to it equal significance with that which called the people of Red Wing together at that time, and in which they pledged their lives and fortunes for the maintenance of the Government in its full integrity.

The practical result of this outburst of patriotic enthusiasm was the enrollment of a company of 114 men, which within a week was on its way under the lead of that grim old veteran, Col. William Colvill, to Fort Snelling for muster into the military service of the United States. Within another week a second company was enrolled and tendered to Governor Ramsey, but it was required to wait until a second regiment was authorized before it could be accepted. In every succeeding call for volunteers Goodhue county responded with numbers generally exceeding her quota, and was thus represented in every organization save two that was raised in the state during the war. The final record of her patriotic tender to the cause of the Union was a total of 1,508 men mustered into the military service from a population of 8,977, or one man in every six of the population, including men, women, and children. Included in the number who bore commissions there were four colonels, one lieutenant colonel, and three majors, all of whom rose to these ranks through subordinate grades; eighteen captains, twenty lieutenants, one surgeon, and one chaplain.

The drain of the war upon the population and resources of Minnesota, in conjunction with the paralyzing effect of the Indian outbreak of 1862 and its consequent desolation of her frontier, proved a serious check to the continued development of all interests 0205 163 throughout the state, and Goodhue county of course shared in this condition. Recovery from the depression thus produced was for a time exceedingly slow. The atmosphere, however, had been cleared. The integrity of the Government had been vindicated, and its permanence was assured by the removal forever of the cause that had so often threatened its existence. The Indian problem had been solved in a manner that rendered impossible any recurrence of the conditions which unsettled life and made it precarious upon the frontier. These considerations infused into the situation a feeling of security and confidence in the future, which had a powerful influence in the rehabilitation of the country. Its recovery came, prosperity returned, and the wonderful development followed that has given us the imperial commonwealth in which we so greatly rejoice today.

This brief and cursory mention of early experiences in Red Wing and Goodhue county does not pretend, as must readily appear, to constitute in any sense a history of the period which the narrative covers, but is rather a record of personal recollections. In the same sense it may be appropriate to add the writer's estimate of a few of the citizens that were prominent in the community in those early days, and for whose labors in its building up succeeding generations must cherish most grateful memories.

One of the earliest settlers in Red Wing was William Freeborn. He was a typical pioneer. He had kept on the outer edge of civilization all his life. The more primitive his surroundings, the more contented he became. He accounted of little worth anything that did not require effort and hard knocks to attain, and of all things that came easy he was ever suspicious. He revelled in the conditions that prevailed when he came into the country, but he became uneasy as he saw it develop and population increase. He lived for a time in St. Paul, but, feeling that he was being crowded there, he removed to Red Wing in 1852. Freeborn was a most hospitable and kindly gentleman and a public spirited citizen, always ready to aid in all efforts to promote the interests of the community; yet he seemed to dread the conditions that he soon realized as existent, that the real frontier was rapidly receding from him. He often boasted that he had never seen a railroad, and that he never intended 0206 164 to expose himself to the influence of that particular agency of progress. For a time he felt secure in that respect, as he thought, with most of us, that it would be a long time before a railroad would seek to compete with the mighty Mississippi in the matter of transportation. When it became probable that railroads would soon invade the country, he trekked with his young family and household gods in prairie schooners to the far-off Pacific coast, and finally located, after many months wandering, in a part of California, where he recently died, remote from the disquieting shriek of the locomotive.

A close associate of Freeborn's in the initial development of Red Wing was Dr. William W. Sweney. The doctor, though a man of some peculiarities, was a most lovable character. He was an educated gentleman and a physician of exceptional ability. He was one of the pillars of Red Wing for many years, proving most helpful in all matters relating to the upbuilding of the community, and was among the first to be consulted on any question of public interest. The doctor was an ideal sportsman, and the streams and wooded bluffs that abound in the environs of Red Wing, with their abundant life of fish and game, were to him an earthly paradise, in which he sought frequent relaxation from the somewhat exacting duties of his profession.

William W. Phelps was an aggressive force in the development of the county, a characteristic supported by ability and culture of a high order. He was a leader in public affairs, and his influence proved potent in the direction of agencies that gave character to the community. He was one of the first members of Congress from the State of Minnesota, and served several terms as mayor of Red Wing.

C. C. Graham, or “Uncle Chris,” as he was known by everybody, was essentially a character, a most substantial citizen withal, ever alert to promote the public good, but always looking for the ludicrous in whatever came to his attention. He was one of the cheeriest and sunniest characters I ever met; and when one was oppressed with the blues, if he could have a little chat with “Uncle Chris,” his normal condition would soon be restored. The most serious subject or situation had its redeeming side to him, and if there was any element in a depressing condition to relieve its character, he would bring it to the surface at once.

Joseph A. Thacher, of Zumbrota, the “farmer statesman” of Goodhue county, was a central figure around whom the rural population of the county were wont to rally. He had many of the characteristics of the New England puritan, but a long residence in the West had modified their asperities. He had well defined views upon all public questions, and did not lack ability or inclination to vindicate his opinions when occasion offered for their expression. He served in the legislature of the state, and would doubtless have represented his district in Congress but for his rigid views of political ethics, which restrained him from adopting the methods in vogue and practiced by aspiring politicians in his time. He early realized the substantial character of the resources and capabilities of the new country in which he had made his home, and hence had unlimited confidence in the possibilities of its future. He did much to advance the material interests of his immediate locality, and is gratefully remembered as one of the founders of that delightful community, cosily nestled in the charming valley of the Zumbro.

Judge Eli T. Wilder, though not one of the earliest settlers of Red Wing, was from the time he came there in 1856 to the date of his death, which occurred less than a year ago, at the age of ninety, perhaps one of the most prominent, as he was surely one of the most stately characters in that community. He had served on the bench in Ohio, and, when relieved from that duty, came west, seeking a change of climate for the benefit of his health. The judge was essentially judicial in all his relations in life. He spoke with marked deliberation, and when expressing his opinion upon any subject, it impressed one as an authority by which it would be absolutely safe to be guided. He was logical in all things, thoroughly dissecting any subject with which he had to deal, and exposing pretense or fraud with merciless emphasis. Naturally Judge Wilder's influence upon all matters relating to the weal of the community was very great, and his advice was ever followed with a confidence that no mistake would be made in doing so. Under a somewhat austere exterior, he possessed a most kindly and sympathetic nature, which often brought cheer to his fellowman.

Theodore B. Sheldon was foremost among the representative business men of Red Wing. He was always among the first to aid 0208 166 with his counsel and his means every enterprise, with rare exception, that was proposed for the promotion of the business interests of the young city. The records of nearly every corporate industry or interest that has been developed in that locality, during a period covering nearly half a century, will disclose his name often at the head of the list, as one of its promoters. His liberality and public spirit in this behalf stimulated others to like action, and thus he contributed greatly to the growth of the city. That he exercised sound business judgment in these matters is evidenced by the large estate he left at his death, which occurred in 1900. Eighty thousand dollars of his estate he bequeathed to the city, for the erection of a memorial expressive of his regard for the community with which he had been identified for so long a time. This memorial is now represented by one of the finest auditorium structures to be seen in the Northwest.

Red Wing lost one of its most earnest and effective early supports in the death of Charles Betcher in 1903. A resident of the place for nearly fifty years, he was for much of that time at the head of what became perhaps the largest manufacturing industry in the city. His contribution to the commercial activities of the locality gave to those interests much strength and character. He always took the conservative side of public questions, and his restraining influence often had a wholesome effect in determining the policy adopted in the management of public affairs. He was a positive character, not easily persuaded after he formed an opinion, but always deliberate in reaching his conclusions.

This list of pioneers of Red Wing and Goodhue county, who have passed away, and who have left an impress upon the community that will long remain to distinguish it, might be greatly extended. Such an enumeration should also include the few of the early settlers who are yet living, and who in their declining years encourage by their counsel the later generation, which has inherited in full measure the ability, energy, and ambition of their predecessors, as is evidenced by the continued progress and prosperity that give Red Wing high rank among the progressive cities of Minnesota.

From the organization of the state, and even before, relief for the destitute, unfortunate, and forsaken, has been a matter of public and private care. In the larger cities, municipal, church, and private charities existed. Organized charities followed as soon as organization was practicable. In our counties there were at least “poor houses” and “county boards;” in our larger towns, superintendents for the poor; and in our villages very practical charities, though unorganized. Always and everywhere our churches have engaged in charitable work, especially within their own lines. Throughout our state today these primitive forms of charity still exist.

In answer to many inquiries, I learn from mayors and town officers that Red Wing, Brainerd, St. James, Lake City, Shakopee, Farmington, Excelsior, and other large towns and small cities, have no organized charity societies, but depend on county boards, churches, and lodges, for this work. Besides these agencies for relief, Winona has a “poor commissioner,” appointed by the Council, a city hospital, and a poor farm. Stillwater has a Bethel Home and the King's Daughters' Society. Mankato has two organized relief societies, Protestant and Catholic; Rochester, a Woman's Relief Association; Owatonna, a Benevolent Society; Northfield, a Board of Relief, differing, as I understand, from the usual county board; Cannon Falls, a Ladies' Aid Society; Saint Cloud has St. Joseph's Home; and Moorhead levies a mill tax, yielding about $1,000 annually, and has a Ladies' Benevolent Society. The ladies, as you will have noted, frequently take the lead in charitable work; in Excelsior, “the police” are mentioned in this connection.

In our three largest cities, development of organized charity has been more rapid and far greater than elsewhere in the state.

Duluth has a board of control, as well as the county board, a superintendent of the poor, the Bethel Star of Hope Mission, and a Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and recently has organized, with great promise of usefulness, an Associated Charities Society. Here, as elsewhere, the churches, secret societies, etc., are abundant in relief work.

The city of St. Paul has the earliest record of organized and systematic charitable work. Beginning with the usual county board, a superintendent of the poor, and the aid of the churches, there has been developed here a very complete system of organized charities, second to none in the West, and ranking with the best east or west. I am unable to state with certainty the earliest organized charity here. Among the earliest were St. Joseph's Hospital, established in 1854; the St. Vincent de Paul Society, in 1856; St. Luke's Hospital, in 1857; and the Young Men's Christian Association, in 1857–8, whose general relief work, however, only dates from 1868.

As the Young Men's Christian Association is unique in its attempt to do the relief work of this city, and in its history, I give it mention first and here. When it entered upon its general relief work, Rev. Mr. Chase was its missionary and relief agent. Mr. E. W. Chase, long known in relief work here, succeeded him as secretary. During the Civil War, this Association, whose rooms were then in the Ingersoll Block, worked efficiently with the United States Christian Commission.

In 1876 the St. Paul Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, on the basis of the New York society, was formed to relieve the Y. M. C. A. from relief work and to enlarge and systematize it. Since then this society has been the most important factor in our general relief work, and has been known as the St. Paul Society for the Relief of the Poor. It is still the only society here for general and applied relief. Further reference will be made to it.

As to municipal relief, our city Board of Control, organized in 1872, was, so far as known, the first of its kind. Possibly it is the only one where the appointment is made by the judges of the District Court; but originally it was not so here. It has in charge the City 0214 170 and County Hospital, of which Dr. Arthur B. Ancker has long been the head physician. In 1903, the number of patients was 2,412; and for some parts of the year an average of about two hundred was reached daily. The expense item was about $65,000. Its contagious ward, a new building, is admirably adapted to the purposes of isolation.

The city alms house has about seventy-five inmates, and with it is connected a well managed poor farm. The amount expended annually is about $11,000.

In “out of door relief” about $8,000 was expended in 1903, and 1,871 cases were reported.

In connection with the City and County Hospital, a state department for crippled and deformed children was established in 1897, since which time 205 children have been treated. This work is under the care of the Board of Regents of the State University.

A state Detention Hospital for the insane was also here established in 1897, and is under the Board of Control. Thirteen cases were cared for, at the City Hospital, last year.

St. Luke's Hospital was chartered in 1857 as the Episcopal church hospital and orphans' home for Minnesota. It was reorganized and more fully established in 1873. After two removals, the hospital, as Saint Luke's, found a home at No. 43 Eighth street, and thence removed to its fine new building in October, 1892. It has accommodations for a hundred patients or more, and about 1,000 patients make use of it annually. Its staff and force have been remarkable for devotion and efficiency, and its training school for nurses is very successful.

St. Joseph's Hospital, established in 1854, being, I think, our oldest organized charity, shows no loss of energy or ability. On the contrary, its last report, which is the 51st annual, is its best report. The number of patients treated in 1903–04 was 2,595. It was among the first to establish a training school for nurses, and to give them systematic instruction in materia medica. More than two hundred Catholic sisters and about fifty lay nurses are here employed.

Bethesda Hospital, founded in 1892, received and treated 819 patients in 1903. It is well equipped, and has an able staff. It has also deaconesses' and nurses' training classes.

Luther Hospital, founded in 1904, received and treated 106 patients last year.

The Cobb Homœpathic Hospital is the only homœpathic hospital in the city. A hundred and six cases were treated last year. Eight assistants are employed.

Excellent as are many of our city charities, none are more nearly fundamental than the St. Paul Society for Relief of the Poor, already referred to. It was organized in 1876, and was incorporated in 1881, as the “St. Paul Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor.” It was founded by Daniel R. Noyes. Henry M. Rice, H. R. Bigelow, and Alexander Ramsey, have been its presidents; E. W. Chase, Rev. Richard Hall, and Morgan L. Hutchins, its secretaries. Over 50,000 applications for relief have been received and acted upon. An average of nearly 1,000 annually have been aided. There were 908 cases last year, of which 394 were new. Besides the main work of general and applied relief, its loaning fund has proved of great value, and its loans have been generally paid. The charter legislation for a loaning bank has been secured. Its industrial school, the largest in the city, has about 350 girls in attendance, under the management of Mrs. T. L. Blood. This society owns its building, 141 East Ninth street, and has a small endowment fund, the gift of Judge Henry Hale. It has saved the city many thousands of dollars by its work, and the city last year contributed a small amount for its support. A much larger amount could be well used.

The “Associated Charities” was formed by Rev. Dr. Samuel G. Smith and others, largely connected with the Relief Society, after a failure some years before by others in the same line. It was formed to act as a bond of union between all the charities of the city. It investigates applicants for relief, and keeps a complete register of them and of their need as ascertained, for reference to prevent duplication of aid. It aims to promote information by public conferences. It conducts friendly visiting, and has a visiting and advisory nurse for needy cases. Its Provident Savings Fund for children in the public schools, and for others, has been successful. Although giving no direct or applied aid in money or material, its work is of the greatest value, and the association is a source of pride to St. Paul. The city Board of Control use this association for practically all their investigations.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society was organized by the late Bishop Cretin in 1856. Its plan is to form a working body in each Catholic church, called a conference. These conferences united form a society. There are more than twenty such conferences in St. Paul. Visitation, friendly aid and counsel, have made this society a support to the churches, and a power for good in every community where it is established.

The Hebrew and Jewish relief societies, and the sisters of Beekoor Cholim, work within special lines, but are doing excellent work. The Jewish Relief Society of St. Paul was organized in 1871, under the name of the Hebrew Ladies' Benevolent Society. The sum of about $1,400 was expended last year, contributed by a membership of about 200.

The King's Daughters, a society of young ladies, was organized in 1888. Aid and counsel, in connection with visitation, are given; 1,242 visits were made last year, and 82 cases aided.

The Ladies' Needlework Guild have for years past made and furnished to the various distributing charities a great number of garments, and thus have rendered valuable aid in the work of relief. This is sometimes made a double charity, by the employment of poor women to do the sewing, under the ladies' direction.

The Salvation Army Industrial Home for Men, on upper Third street, has twenty-eight men “employed,” as they call it. Meals and beds are furnished. Old clothing given to the Home is sold at a nominal price to the needy. Some kind of employment is sought, and generally is found, for those under their care.

The Protestant Orphan Asylum was founded in 1865, and was incorporated the same year. An average of about forty children cared for is reported in 1904. Since this asylum was established, 160 children have been placed in homes. Its present building was occupied October 22, 1885. The management is by a Board of Lady Directors, serving each one month in charge of the work.

The Catholic Orphan Asylum reports 152 received during the last year, 65 of them girls. Employment was found for twenty-eight. Children from two to fourteen years are received. The infants' department, under the same management, received during the same time seventy children. Homes were found for thirty-four. Eighteen infants at this time are in this department.

The St. Joseph's Catholic Orphan Asylum has 138 children under its charge. It is a fine and deserving institution.

The Women's Christian Home was organized in 1871 as the Minnesota Magdalen Society, under a state charter. Its work is necessarily quiet and unostentatious, but is an important one. Twenty-five were admitted during the year, and ten at present are being cared for.

The Salvation Army Rescue Home does a similar work, although its requirements are less strict. Twenty girls and four officers are on its roll, with eight babies and one boy somewhat older.

The House of the Good Shepherd is a female reformatory under charge of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and has about 200 inmates.

The Little Sisters of the Poor conduct an admirable Home for the aged and infirm poor, supported by general solicitation. Last year an average of 146 were cared for.

The Home for the Friendless (a suggestive but unfortunate title) was founded in 1867 for aged women who have no other home. It has at present twenty inmates, aged from sixty-eight to eighty-eight years.

The Church Home, for old and homeless women, was founded in 1895 and incorporated in 1897. It has about a hundred inmates.

The Deaconesses' Home for many years did a good work in training young women for the care of the sick, but ended its work about a year ago.

The Neighborhood House, on the west side, is the only “settlement house” in St. Paul. It has a sewing school of about two hundred; and about fifty, mostly foreigners, are in its classes. It is an experiment, as yet, in settlement work.

Of the Nugent Institute I can get no report; and the Babies' Catholic Home has been absorbed into the Catholic Orphan Asylum.

The Day Nursery, at the Relief Society building, cares during working hours for children of working women, to enable the mothers to earn the daily wage. Last year 691 children were cared for one day or more. The nursery was open 287 days, with an average daily attendance of sixteen.

The Young Women's Friendly Association, founded in 1888 by J. M. Lichtenberger and wife, was incorporated in 1892. It attempts, and very successfully, to ameliorate the conditions of employed women, supplying attractive rooms, with library, music, etc., and serving warm coffee and food for lunch, at nominal cost, and providing a dormitory for young women alone in the city. Kind consideration and advice, with friendly service, have made this association a blessing to thousands. From 700 to 1,600 visit the rooms daily; 26,000 the first year, and 200,000 the last year. Hundreds of sick young women have been supplied with warm and nourishing food sent out by this society, in connection with the work of the Relief Society and the nurses of the Associated Charities.

The Free Medical Dispensary, established in 1896, is admirably housed and equipped, and is a dispensary of the first class. It is served without charge by the best physicians and surgeons of the city. Some income, from those able to pay, comes for medicines and service; but the larger part of the work is free. Last year 8,097 were treated; 661 free prescriptions were given; and 3,008 persons paid ten cents each for prescriptions.

The Child Saving and Prison Association was organized in 1896, D. T. Wellington being the founder and secretary. It succeeded the Newsboys' Home Association. Visitation of jails and prisons, and rescue work for children and discharged prisoners, are its special work; and to prevent juvenile delinquency is its general object. During last year 336 boys and 224 girls, making a total of 560, were reached and aided.

The “Bethel,” was organized in 1872 for river boatmen and workers on the levee. Robert Smith, well known as a Christian worker among them, was its chaplain. Rev. David Morgan has enlarged and developed the work most successfully. In 1888 the Bethel Boat was purchased, and in 1891 was dedicated. For many years the boat was anchored at the foot of Robert street and used as a friendly inn. The Bethel has now a hotel on Wabasha street, somewhat on the “Mills plan,” with reading rooms, lecture courses, industrial school, nursery, etc. It is one of our best and most practical charities.

The Humane Society is doing a good work in preventing cruelty to children as well as to animals.

The Children's Home Society of Minnesota was organized in 1889, under a state charter, and is not merely a local or even Twin City charity. It has received and cared for 2,160 infants and children, up to December, 1904, besides some eighty or more temporary cases. Before the new and beautiful “Jean Martin Home” was received through the generous gifts of the building by Captain John Martin and of the lots by Mr. Joseph Elsinger, the children were cared for in rented houses in the two cities. By far the greater portion of the children received have had homes found for them through the efforts of this society. Last year 160 found homes, and 232 were cared for. Thirty-five are now in the Home, seventeen being babies under one year, four from one to two years old, and fourteen ranging in age from two to sixteen years. The receipts for 1904 were $17,251.11, and the expenditures, $16,904.-81.

An Industrial Mission, maintained by the colored people at 741 Mississippi street, is doing a good work, having a reading room, night school, restaurant, etc.

Several industrial schools have been already mentioned. Those connected with the People's Church and the Hope Mission are among the best in the city.

The churches, one and all, make some provision for their own poor members.

Minor charities, maintained by small circles of people, and in some cases by firms, help many. Individual charities also help to swell the grand total of charity here and throughout the state, but these cannot be recorded. The charitable work of the masonic societies, the Elks, etc., is referred to elsewhere.

I cannot close my reference to St. Paul without mentioning the great and very exceptional fund of nearly $3,000,000 for the poor of the city, known as the “Amherst H. Wilder Charity,” under the wills of Amherst H. Wilder and Mrs. Wilder and of their daughter, Mrs. Cornelia Day Appleby. When available for the purposes designated, a charity of vast resources and immense possibilities for good, indeed of unsurpassed usefulness within its own lines, will under wise direction be developed. Just what will be undertaken, what the plan of operation will be, are undetermined. That the trustees will enter upon the work of direct and applied 0220 176 relief, such as now is done by the Relief Society, seems hardly probable.

If this great charity should lessen the personal interest of good and charitable citizens for their own poor, it could hardly be considered a blessing to the community. Better and cheaper homes for the poor, employment agencies, loaning funds, hospitals for the sick, and even industrial training schools, would seem to be legitimate and wise uses for such a fund.

The following outline history of charities in Minneapolis has been furnished by the secretary of the Associated Charities in that city.

Previous to 1868 the few poor were provided for by neighbors. The Young Men's Christian Association in 1866 aided a few young men to obtain employment.

In 1868 the Women's Christian Association, formed from several “Ladies' Aid Societies,” was first organized. There was a deeply felt need of organization, and a desire to prevent duplication of relief. Its objects are, first, to aid the poor, including support of a visitor among the poor; and, second, to provide homes for the homeless and friendless. Its results have been to establish, in the year 1877, a Women's Boarding Home, and in 1901 a Girls' Home and the Jones-Harrison Home for Aged Women. Until 1901 this association also partly supported the matron of the city lockup.

March 1, 1871, the St. Barnabas Hospital, an Episcopal institution, was established by Bishop Knickerbacker, being the first hospital in Minneapolis.

In May, 1875, the Sisterhood of Bethany was organized as a branch of the Minnesota Magdalen Society of St. Paul. Its object is the promotion of moral purity. In 1876 it established the Bethany Home, as a lying-in hospital and retreat, in which the children born there are cared for temporarily.

In 1877 a Coffee House was established, Chiefly through the efforts of Mr. George A. Brackett, having for its object the solution of the tramp problem by religious services, meals at low rates, etc. Various ministers of the city aid in carrying on the religious services.

The Plymouth Congregational Church in 1879 founded its Bethel settlement; in 1880, a free kindergarten; in 1883, a day nursery; in 1895, the Girls' Club; and in 1899, the Boys' Club.

In 1880 the Board of Supervisors of the Poor was established by an ordinance of the City Council, as required by the city charter. In 1891 the Poor Department was placed under the Board of Charities and Correction, by an act of the state legislature. This Board has supervision of the City Poor House and Farm and of the City Hospital.

In 1882 the Ladies' Benevolent Society (Reformed Hebrew) was organized, and the Sisters of Peace Relief Society (Orthodox Jewish).

October 1, 1883, the Women's Industrial Exchange was founded to relieve distress due to general depression following the “boom.” It endeavored to help women to self-support by expert cookery and handiwork. An upper room was used as a rest room. Practical failure was caused by stores offering better opportunity for sales and by other restaurants taking away patronage from the lunch room.

In 1883–84 the St. Vincent de Paul Society was formed in connection with the Church of the Immaculate Conception, to do the usual charitable work of such societies.

In 1883 the Sir Moses Montefiore Relief Society was founded.

In 1885 the Friendly Inn was founded by George A. Brackett. It took up the tramp problem, and applied to it a work test, the sawing of wood for meals and lodging. Bath and laundry were connected with it. After three years, later work in this direction was carried on by the Associated Charities, into which the Friendly Inn was merged.

December 16, 1884, the Associated Charities was organized, though little work was done until it was reorganized December 14, 1885, with George A. Brackett as president. Its object is the cooperation and correlation of charitable agencies, with registration and careful records. During last year 1,051 cases were investigated by paid agents, assisted by volunteer visitors. Self-help is promoted by an employment bureau, friendly visiting, and a provident fund. The sick poor are cared for by a visiting nurse; and for tuberculosis patients a special nurse is employed, to guard against the spreading of that disease.

The News Boys' Home was founded by Mrs. Farr in 1886, to provide meals and lodging for homeless boys. It was discontinued in 1890.

In 1886 the Salvation Army began its work in Minneapolis. It is mainly religious, but does some relief work. In 1892 it established a Working Men's Home, a lodging house; in 1903, a salvage store; and in 1904, a gymnasium. Its furniture repair shop, library, and club rooms, are in the Old City Hall.

The Eighth Ward Relief Association was formed in 1887, and did good work for some time within the limits of that ward, in which saloons were prohibited.

In November, 1888, the House of the Good Shepherd was founded by Catholic sisters; but in 1903 it was merged into the institution of the same name in St. Paul.

In 1891, the Rebecca Deaconesses (Methodist) began their work.

The Union Mission of Minneapolis was founded in 1896. Its work is mainly religious. It runs the St. James Hotel, which supplies meals and lodging at low rates, and is self-supporting.

The Volunteers of America, beginning here in 1896, do mainly religious work, with some relief to the poor at their Helping Hand Home and Working Girls' Home.

The Unity settlement, founded in 1898 by the Universalist Church of the Redeemer, maintains a free kindergarten and an industrial school.

The Northwestern Hospital was founded in 1882 by Mrs. T. B. Walker. Its object is to provide medical and surgical aid for women and children by regular physicians and women surgeons, and to train nurses.

The Maternity Hospital was opened November 30, 1886, for married women who have no means for payment, and for girls of previous good character.

St. Mary's Hospital (Catholic) was founded in 1887. It receives patients of all classes.

The City Hospital was established July 1, 1887, by the City Council. It has been under the control of the Board of Charities and Correction since 1891.

In 1888 the Deaconesses' Institute was founded as a school for nurses and as a hospital.

In 1891 The Homœpathic Hospital was founded, and in 1892 the Asbury Hospital and Deaconesses' Home (Methodist).

The Catholic Orphan Asylum was established in 1877, providing in Minneapolis a home for boys, and in St. Paul a home for girls.

In 1882 Bishop Knickerbacker founded the Sheltering Arms, an Episcopal home for destitute orphan and half orphan children.

The Stevens Avenue Home, for children and aged women, was opened in 1885, resulting from work of the Children's Home Society of Minneapolis, begun in 1881.

The Washburn Memorial Home, for orphans, was founded in 1886 by Gen. C. C. Washburn.

The citizens of Minneapolis have always been charitably inclined. In the early years all cases of destitution were speedily aided by neighbors and friends. As the city grew, the same methods were followed, though the agents were the churches and small organizations, often social, which led to duplication and indiscriminate aid. The Associated Charities proposed to remedy this evil, but found it hard to change the generous impulses of the people and for some time did little but relief work. When it again took up the endeavor of wisely directing aid, it found co-operation very hard to secure. At the present time it may be said that cooperation is increasing, in spite of the fact that a large number of organizations whose main purpose is religious or social grant relief as a side issue.

Charity is not limited to alms. The tendency is to cause material relief to be restricted in amount, but to be more effective for good in its administration. Some evidence of an awakening to the need of preventive charity is seen in the establishment of an Anti-Tuberculosis Society, which is creating general interest; in care for the physical condition of children, the neglect of which may be a cause for pauperism; in providing public play grounds; and in the restriction of child labor, the public schools requiring investigation to be made before a labor permit is granted.

Minnesota state charities, instituted and supported by the state, are, with few exceptions, under the financial direction of the State Board of Control. This Board, modelled after similar boards 0224 180 in Iowa and Wisconsin, was created under a legislative act of April 2, 1891. It is doubtful whether the State University and the State Normal Schools were intended to be included in this act, and steps are now being taken to free them from such control. Both the Board of Control and the University desire separation and a single control.

This state is unique in taking entire responsibility in cases of insanity. This lessens our pauper population, but is of doubtful expediency in cases of patients who are not poor. Legislation to secure a half payment in such cases is being now introduced. The cottage system is partially adopted, as well as larger buildings, and asylums as well as hospitals.

Our hospitals for the insane and cottage asylums are at St. Peter, Rochester, Fergus Falls, Anoka, and Hastings. The first of these hospitals, established at St. Peter in 1866, had during last year an average of about 1,000 patients. The Rochester Hospital, established in 1878–79, has about 1,100 patients. The Fergus Falls Hospital, founded in 1887, has over 1,300 patients. The Anoka Asylum, opened March 14, 1900, has 120 patients; and the Hastings Asylum, opened April 26, 1900, has 125 patients.

All these hospitals and asylums are well and ably managed, and are supplied with the best modern appliances. Although they are capable of further improvement by use of larger means, they rank with the best in any state of the Union.

Until recently the older hospitals were crowded. It is a question whether insanity and imbecility are increasing in Minnesota. Probably they are not increasing proportionately to the population, although a more general knowledge of our State School for Imbeciles has led to increased attendance there. The cost to the state for the insane at the hospitals and asylums differs slightly, but averages about $150 per annum per capita at all of them.

This country leads all others in the care and instruction of the deaf and dumb; and the Gallaudet College crowns the whole system of such instruction. Our School for the Deaf at Faribault, founded in 1863, has about 250 inmates, the cost of whose care averages about $200 per annum.

Under the same management, the School for the Blind, which was established at Faribault in 1866, now has an attendance of 77, at an average cost of about $260 per annum.

The School for the Feeble Minded, also at Faribault, was established in 1882, and has now about 750 in attendance, showing an apparent increase during recent years. The cost per annum per capita is about $150. The first consignment of feeble-minded pupils from the Hospital for the Insane at St. Peter was made in July, 1879, as a department connected with the School for the Deaf, and three years later this separate school was provided.

The State Public School for dependent and neglected children, at Owatonna, on the Washington plan, was organized in 1885 and opened in 1886. It is a marked feature of advance along this line of our state charities. The number of children cared for up to 1900 was 538, of whom 293 had been placed in permanent homes. At present this school has about 250 scholars, 178 boys and 80 girls. The average age is eight years, and the cost per capita per annum is about $160. Separation of the sexes in two schools is now recommended.

Prior to 1897 no attempt, so far as I know, had been made in this state or any other to relieve crippled children at the public expense, although many private institutions existed. As a state, Minnesota seems to have been the leader in this work. New York and other states have followed. The facilities of the St. Paul City Hospital were secured, and the work was put under the care of the Board of Regents of the State University.

The State Training School at Red Wing has an enforced attendance, for reformation, averaging 387, at an annual cost for each of about $145.

The State Reformatory at St. Cloud is a continuation of our graded penal system. Its average of inmates is 155, at a stated cost of $300 each per annum, which seems excessive. A reformatory for women prisoners should also be provided.

The State Prison at Stillwater can hardly be classed as a charitable institution; yet in its manual training, its libraries, and other educational features, it does charitable work. Its parole system is commendable; of 566 out last year, only 62 violated their parole. Its good behavior recognition is also excellent. With an average of about 520 prisoners, only 50 of whom are women, it is more than self-sustaining through well organized labor, and ranks among the best prisons in the country, and its influences have been helpful to many.

The State University deserves mention, since the state provides so largely for the instruction there, small fees only being required from students. About 3,800 students are now in attendance. Larger appropriations are needed to develop its vast interests. Its president, its faculty, its fine buildings and campus, are the pride of every Minnesotan.

Our State Normal Schools, at Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Moorhead, and Duluth, also come under the head of beneficial and indeed charitable institutions, as the state thus aids very largely in giving an education to the teachers for its public schools.

The Minnesota Soldiers' Home, at Minnehaha Falls, is beautifully situated, well managed, and is one of the best in the country. When the new building for the wives and children and widows of old soldiers is erected, this institution will be even more complete. It now provides for about 380 veterans, including 64 in the hospital. The cost per capita per annum is about $200, and in addition some government aid is received. A relief fund of great value also exists, so that all who prefer to remain at their own homes can do so and have aid there. This institution is not under the State Board of Control.

The masonic, fraternal and beneficial societies, throughout the state, have been already referred to, but their charitable work deserves special mention. In almost every town and village of Minnesota lodges and societies exist, whose highest and best work is the relief of sick and dependent members and their families.

The Odd Fellows' Home and Orphan Asylum at Northfield has a fine new building and some 120 acres of land, together valued at $70,000.

Although no separate exhibition of the charities of Minnesota was made last year at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition by our Board of Control, some showing was made indirectly, and not without favorable notice. If a complete exhibit had been made, it would have demonstrated that this state is in the front rank among the states of the Union in respect to its system of charities.

No force in the world today is more potent than journalism; no soldier is more honored than he who serves in its ranks, and no service equals that of the pioneer newspaper in the early beginnings and upbuilding of territory and state.

This paper is the sixth in the series of the history of journalism in Minnesota. Five papers already printed cover the territorial period. This paper dates from May 11th, 1858, the day Minnesota was admitted as a state, and closes at December 31st, 1860.