Название: Fifty Years In The Northwest
Автор: Folsom William Henry Carman
Издательство: Public Domain
Жанр: История
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POPULATION OF ST. CROIX FALLS IN 1848
The following heads of families resided in St. Croix Falls in 1848: H. H. Perkins, Edward Worth, G. W. Brownell, Otis Hoyt, J. Saunders, R. Arnold, L. Barlow, A. L. Tuttle, M. M. Samuels, Geo. De Attley, Moses Perin, and W. H. C. Folsom.
The following single men claimed this as their home: D. Mears, J. L. and N. C. D. Taylor, P. Kelly, A. Romain, J. and W. R. Marshall, W. F. Colby, Dr. De Witt, W. J. Vincent, C. Dexter, A. Youle, H. H. Newberry, J. and O. Weymouth, Geo. Field, W. W. Folsom, J. H. Tuller, J. Dobney, J. Paine, and some others whose names I can not readily recall.
NATURAL LANGUAGE
The Indians, when unable to talk English, nevertheless managed to express themselves intelligibly by gestures, picture writing, and vocal utterances, imitating the sounds which they wished to describe. A kind old Chippewa occasionally visited my camp. He would sit by the camp fire and mark out in the ashes the outlines of lakes and streams. In tracing South Clam river, at a certain point he drew a line across the stream, and blew his breath between his teeth and lips in such a way as to perfectly imitate the sound of falling water. Sometime afterward, in exploring Clam river, on rounding a curve I heard the sound of falling water, and found the fall just as he had located it.
THE DROWNING OF HAMLET H. PERKINS
Mr. Perkins had been in the village since 1847, acting as agent for the Falls company until the winter of 1850-51, when he was accidentally drowned while attending to his duties. He was engaged in repairing the dam, and was standing on a block of ice. In an unguarded moment he lost his foothold and was carried by the swift current under the ice. It was two days before his body was recovered. His family left the valley, taking the body with them.
A QUAILTOWN MURDER
St. Croix Falls. The buildings consisted of a dwelling house, whisky shop, bowling alley, Indian house and stable, the whole inappropriately styled Quailtown, as the name was a gross slander upon the innocent birds. The quails in this "Partridge" nest were evil birds. The resort was noted for its riotous disorder. The worst classes met there for revelry and midnight orgies. In the summer of 1849 Alfred Romain and Patrick Kelly met at Quailtown, disputed, fought, were parted, and the neat day met by agreement to continue the fight with pistols. They were to meet at sunrise in front of Daniel Mears' store. An attempt was made to pacify them, but in vain. Only Romain appeared at the appointed place, and not finding Kelly, hunted through the village for him. About 9 o'clock a. m. he found him at the house of Kimball, a mulatto man. Romain shot him at sight, fatally. At the inquest, held by Dr. Hoyt, it was proven that Romain fired four shots into the body of Kelly, each taking effect, and then crushed his skull with the pistol, and that Kelly fired one shot at Romain. Romain was held for murder, but was never brought to trial. After two years' confinement he escaped from the jail at Prairie du Chien.
Romain afterward removed to St. Louis, reformed his mode of life and became a steady and respectable man. Kelly was a native of Ireland, and at the time of his death was engaged to be married to an estimable lady, one of the corps of teachers sent out by Gov. Slade.
MINERAL PERMITS
In 1846 a party of speculators, composed of Caleb Cushing, Rufus Choate, Robert Rantoul, and others, located a mineral permit, one mile square, covering part of the site of the two towns of St. Croix and Taylor's Falls, with the water power as the centre. Their permit was filed in the general land office at Washington. They located another permit at or near the mouth of Kettle river. As no money was ever expended in improving them, these permits were never respected. Subsequently the government resurveyed the lands and sold them. The present title to these lands is perfectly good.
MARRIAGE UNDER DIFFICULTIES
In the olden time officers could not always readily be found to execute the laws. Parties desiring to be married, being unable to secure the services of a minister or justice of the peace, would seek for an officer on the other side of the river, get on a raft or boat, cast off the fastenings and under the concurrent jurisdiction of the state and territorial authorities, would be pronounced "man and wife." Parties have had the same rite performed in the winter season while standing on the ice of the St. Croix midway between the two shores.
AN INDIAN SCARE
During the excitement following the Indian outbreak, there was a general feeling of insecurity and alarm. The half-breeds were especially apprehensive of some kind of violence. One bright moonlight evening, at St. Croix, a surveyor was taking some observations, and as his instrument glittered brightly in the moonlight, the half-breeds saw it and fled, badly frightened, fancying a Sioux behind every bush. The whites seeing them running, as if for their lives, caught the panic, and fled over to the Minnesota side. The Taylor's Falls people were aroused from their peaceful slumbers to find, soon after, that it was a false alarm. Some of the fugitives hid underneath the bridge and clung to the trestle work till morning.
THE FIRST FIRE CANOE
I am indebted to Calvin A. Tuttle for the following reminiscence: In July, 1838, the steamer Palmyra, Capt. Middleton, of Hannibal, Missouri, in command, the first steamer on St. Croix waters, brought me to St. Croix Falls, landing in the Dalles, east side, opposite Angle Rock. The snorting of the Palmyra brought many curiosity seeking Indians to the Dalles. They gathered on the pinnacles of the trap rock, peered curiously over and jumped back, trembling with fright at the "Scota Cheman" or "fire canoe," the first that had ever floated on the placid waters of the St. Croix. I had been employed as millwright to erect mills in the new, and, as yet, almost unknown settlement. On the Palmyra came the proprietors, Steele, Fitch, Hungerford, Libbey, Livingston, Hill, and Russell, with mill irons, tools and provisions for the enterprise.
MILL BUILDING
After climbing over the cragged rocks we came to an Indian trail which led to the Falls, where we found two men, Lagoo and Denire holding the claim for Steele. The fanciful scheme of building a mill up in the wild land looked now like a reality. The men lived in a log cabin just below the Falls, in a small clearing in the timber, near a copper rock range. Boyce and his men had been driven in by Indians from above. Andrew Mackey and others of Boyce's men went to work with us. Thirty-six men had come from St. Louis on the steamer Palmyra. We moved our machinery from the Dalles to the Falls by water and commenced work immediately. Steele's men had been hindered by the Indians from procuring timber for the building of the mill. We obtained a supply from Kanabec river, which arrived September 15th. Building the mill and blasting the rock occupied СКАЧАТЬ