Fifty Years In The Northwest. Folsom William Henry Carman

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СКАЧАТЬ a member of the territorial Wisconsin legislature two sessions at Madison. He returned to Stillwater in 1848, left again in 1849, and in 1850 removed to St. Paul, where, in 1852, he purchased of Mr. Goodhue the Pioneer, then the leading Democratic paper of the Territory. Mr. Brown was chief clerk in the Minnesota territorial legislature during the sessions of 1849, 1850 and 1851. In 1854 and 1855 he was a member of the territorial council. In 1857 he was a member of the Democratic wing of the constitutional convention. During his residence in St. Paul he was interested in building up the town of Henderson, to which place he ran a stage line from St. Paul. About this time, also, he busied himself with the invention of a steam wagon, calculated to traverse the western plains and drag after it trains of cars. Financial and other difficulties prevented the completion of his design, which, however, he never entirely abandoned during the remainder of his life. In fact he went East in 1870 expressly to get his invention perfected, but from this journey he never returned. He died somewhat suddenly in New York in that year.

      Mr. Brown was a man of iron will and muscular frame. He owed but little to schools, but was a close observer of men and of the times in which he lived. He was a genial companion and true friend, and a man of honorable principles. His was a rugged but generous nature. He was public spirited, far seeing and far reaching in his plans. He believed in the great Northwest. He predicted its future greatness as a wheat growing and agricultural country, and, as far back as 1839, predicted that a great city would rise at the head of Lake St. Croix or at the Falls of St. Anthony. Yet so little schooled was he in the wisdom of the speculator that he sold the property in St. Paul now known as Kittson's addition, and worth several millions of dollars, for one hundred and fifty dollars, and a lot on Third street, now valued at $25,000, for a box of cigars.

      Paul Carli. – Mr. Carli was of German and Italian descent. He was born in Italy, July 25, 1805. His father was a merchant. He was married in Chicago, in 1834, to a sister of Joseph R. Brown, and moved in 1841 to the outlet of Bolles creek, on the west side of Lake St. Croix, to a place near the site of Afton. In 1846 he was accidentally drowned in the lake, within sight of his dwelling. His children, Joseph R. and Maria, are residents of Stillwater.

      Christopher Carli, brother of Paul, was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, Dec. 7, 1811. The youth of Christopher was devoted to study. He was educated at Heidelberg University, and studied medicine. He came to America in February, 1832. The March following he located in Buffalo, where he practiced medicine three years, and returned to Europe where he remained two years. Returning to America, he practiced a year in Chicago, a year in New Orleans and another year in Chicago. He came to Dakotah, St. Croix valley, May 24, 1841. March 12, 1847, he was married to the widow of Paul Carli, Joseph R. Brown officiating as magistrate. He was the first practicing physician north of Prairie du Chien. His home was at Dakotah until the organization of Stillwater. He opened his first office on the west side of Lower Main street, block 28. His practice extended from Lake Pepin to Lake Superior and from Menomonie Mills, Wisconsin, to the Mississippi river. His mode of travel was by birch canoe, on horseback, on skates and on foot. He was a member of the first city council in Stillwater and has been city and county physician. He opened the first bank in Stillwater when fractional currency was in demand. His floating scrip was all redeemed. Two children, Christopher and Socrates N., are married and residents of Stillwater. Dr. Carli died Nov. 6, 1887.

      Lydia Ann Carli. – Mrs. Carli has passed through many stirring scenes, and is one of the first female settlers in the St. Croix valley. A fluent and interesting talker, her recitals of early incidents and adventures are heart enlivening. Lydia Ann Brown was born in Lancaster, Penn., March 18, 1818. In 1834 she came with friends to Chicago, where in 1839 she was married to Paul Carli. She came to Dakotah in 1841, and lived there until 1844. The village was surrounded by Indians and there was no white woman nearer than Marine, twelve miles distant. In 1844 the Carlis removed to the mouth of Bolles creek, near Afton, on Lake St. Croix, where they built themselves a two story house commanding a picturesque view of the lake and the adjacent prairies and hills. It was a lone tenement, midway between Prescott and Stillwater. Mrs. Carli having lost her husband as before narrated, in 1847 was married to his brother, Dr. Christopher Carli.

      Phineas Lawrence. – But little is known of the early life of Mr. Lawrence. He had been a river pilot. He was the first sheriff elected in the St. Croix valley, or northwest of Prairie du Chien. He was elected and qualified in 1841. On serving the first and only summons he was ever called upon to serve, he approached the party summoned, holding up to view the documents, and exclaimed: "I, Phineas Lawrence, high sheriff of St. Croix county, in the name of the United States and of the Immaculate God, command you to surrender." He was a robust, fleshy, cheerful man, and felt in all their force the responsibilities of the position in which he was placed. His name has been given to a creek in Chisago county, where he once logged. He died in Stillwater in 1847.

      Jacob Fisher. – Jacob Fisher, a millwright, came to St. Croix Falls in 1842, and being a skilled mechanic found employment at once on the old mill at the Falls. He made the first land claim and framed the first building in Stillwater. The building framed was the mill of which mention has been made. This establishes his claim to priority as the first white man who made a movement toward the settlement of Stillwater. Others were before him in the settlement of Dakotah or Schulenberg's addition. Mr. Fisher is a plain, frank, outspoken man, who has no trouble in making his hearers understand exactly what he means. He was born in Canada in 1813, and still resides in Stillwater. He has a wife and one son in California.

      James S. Anderson was born at Marshalltown, West Virginia, on the fourth of February, 1826. When he was twelve years old his parents removed with him to Burlington, Iowa, where he lived for eight years. He came to Stillwater in 1846, where he has since resided. In 1852 he was married to Miss Harriet T. McDonald, at St. Louis, by whom he has had four children, three of whom are now living – Robert M. Anderson, prominently known in lumber circles, and Misses Sibella S. and Ella P. Anderson. Upon Mr. Anderson's arrival at Stillwater, he engaged in the employ of Elias McKean, then a prominent lumberman, now a resident of Washington county. In 1869 Mr. Anderson formed a partnership with William McKusick, John A. Nelson and Alexander Johnson, under the firm name of McKusick, Anderson & Co., which firm built and operated the large saw mill opposite Stillwater. Four years ago Mr. McKusick retired from the firm, since which time the firm has been J. S. Anderson & Co. In 1874 Mr. Anderson became the senior member of a heavy logging firm known as Anderson & O'Brien, of which the other members were the well known lumbermen J. S. and John O'Brien. In connection with his other business interests Mr. Anderson was a heavy owner of pine lands, and a stockholder and director in the Lumberman's National Bank. There were two other well known lumber firms of ancient date with which he was connected, and these were McComb, Simpson & Co., organized in 1850, and also Delano, McKusick & Co., organized in 1857. From 1857 to 1869 he was also a heavy logger alone. Mr. Anderson died May 8, 1885. His death resulted from a mill accident, his rubber coat having caught in the belting of a shaft revolving at a rapid rate. His body was frightfully mangled, but he survived two days, exhibiting, under the circumstances, the most remarkable composure, dictating his will and arranging his business matters as calmly as he might have done on an ordinary occasion.

      Emanuel Dixon Farmer was born in Tennessee in 1828, and came to Stillwater in 1845, where he has resided ever since, engaged in the lumbering and saloon business. He was married to Parmelia A. Collier, in Stillwater, 1848.

      Col. John Greely. – Col. Greely was sixty years of age when he came to the West, and although a strong, active and enterprising man in the earlier part of his life, owing to advancing years and ill health was rather a spectator than an active participant in the stirring scenes of his new home. He was born at Southampton, Massachusetts, April, 1777. He was married to Hannah Greely, a second cousin, at Hopkinton, New Hampshire, Oct. 5, 1801. He followed the lumbering business on the Merrimac river in early life. He furnished the timber used in erecting the first factory in Lowell, Massachusetts, cut on the mountains of North New Hampshire. In after life he moved to the west end of Sebec lake, Maine, where he founded the town at first named Greely, but afterward Willimantic, now the site of extensive manufactories where the famous Willimantic thread is made. Col. Greely came to Stillwater in 1847.

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