Fifty Years In The Northwest

CHAPTER X.
PINE COUNTY

Prior to the organization of Minnesota Territory, in 1849, Pine county was included within the limits of St. Croix county, Wisconsin. Until the organization of Chisago county, in 1852, it was within the limits of Ramsey, and from thence until 1854, within the limits of Chisago, when it was organized under its present name. Until 1858 it included the territory of the present counties of Kanabec and Carlton. It is bounded on the north by Carlton county, on the east by the St. Croix river and the state line, and on the west by Aitkin and Kanabec counties. It is well watered by the St. Croix, Kettle and Kanabec rivers with their numerous tributaries. There are many fine lakes within its borders. The finest of these are Cross, Pokegama, Pine and Sturgeon lakes. This county was originally heavily timbered with pine, from which fact it derived its name. Though immense quantities have been removed, the supply is still great enough to make this region a lumberman's paradise for years to come.

The facilities for floating logs to the St. Croix are scarce equaled elsewhere. Since 1837 the Kanabec river has been a principal feeder to the lumber trade of the St. Croix valley. In some of the forests a new growth has succeeded the old, and should the land be not otherwise used, the lumberman may yet reap successive harvests in periods ranging from eight to fifteen years. Much of the land in this county is well adapted for agriculture. The soil is chiefly a sandy loam with clay subsoil. Much of the county will eventually become a good grazing and cereal growing region. The southern townships are heavily timbered with hardwood and are rapidly being converted into good wheat farms. A large quantity of cordwood, piles and ties is annually marketed by means of the railroad. Kanabec river is navigable from Chengwatana and Pine City to Brunswick, in Kanabec county. The same steamboat that since 1881 has navigated the Kanabec, also makes trips, six miles up the Rice and Pokegama rivers. The first crops raised in the county, except those raised by traders and missionaries, were raised on the Greeley farm, Kanabec river, near the western limits of the county, by Royal C. Gray.

At the organization of the county, Herman Trott, George W. Staples and Royal C. Gray were appointed commissioners. The county was attached for judicial purposes to Chisago until 1872, at which date the county seat, located at Chengwatana by legislative enactment, was changed by a popular vote to Pine City. The first district court was held in October, 1872, Judge Crosby, presiding; John D. Wilcox, clerk; Edward Jackson, sheriff.

The first marriage license, issued in 1872, was to John Kelsey and Mary Hoffman. The first board of county officers, after the removal of the county seat, were: Commissioners, Hiram Brackett, George Goodwin and Edward Jackson; auditor, Adolph Munch; register of deeds, Don Willard; county attorney, treasurer and superintendent of schools, John D. Wilcox. The first article recorded by the register of Pine county was a military land warrant, No. 12702, in the name of Prudence Rockwell, located by William Orrin Baker upon the southeast quarter of section 32, township 38, range 20, subject to forty days' pre-emption, dated Stillwater, June 19, 1855; T. M. Fullerton, register. Assigned, June 14, 1856, to Enos Jones. The second record is of a warranty deed from John F. Bradford to W. A. Van Slyke, of Ramsey county, of the west half of the northwest quarter of section 30, township 39, range 19, and the west half of the northwest quarter of the same section.

The finances of the county were in good condition until 1872, from which time, owing to heavy expenditures for new roads, with possibly injudicious management, and two defalcations of county auditors, considerable embarrassment ensued. In 1876 the state legislature bonded the county indebtedness of $10,000, in ten year bonds, at ten per cent interest. These bonds were readily received by the creditors, and the county is now free from debt. During the last year a bridge 800 feet long was built across the Kanabec river near Pine City, at a cost of $3,350, for which the State appropriated $1,500 and the county $1,850.

The Lake Superior & Mississippi railroad was completed to Kanabec river in 1868, and in 1869 extended northwest to the county line. The building of this road was speedily followed by the erection of numerous mills along its line, a list of which is appended, with the very remarkable statistics of the losses by fire, from which but four of these mills were exempt:

North Branch, Swenson & Co., flour mill; burned; loss, $8,000.

Rush City, Taylor & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $3,000.

Rock Creek, Edgerton & Co., capacity 2,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $8,000; rebuilt.

Rock Creek, Strong & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $1,500; rebuilt.

Rock Creek, Long & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; removed.

Pine City, Ferson & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $50,000; rebuilt.

Pine City, Ferson & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $25,000; rebuilt.

Pine City, Munch & Burrows, stave mill; burned; loss, $10,000.

Pine City, Brackett & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly.

Mission Creek, Taylor & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $12,500; rebuilt.

Mission Creek, Taylor & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $12,500.

Hinckley, Grant & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $3,000.

Hinckley, McKean & Butler, capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $7,000; rebuilt.

Miller Station, Robie & Co., shingle mill; burned; loss, $3,000.

Kettle River, S. S. Griggs & Co., capacity 3,000,000 feet yearly; never operated; loss, $5,000.

Moose Lake, McArthur & Co., capacity 2,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $30,000.

Barnum, Cooley & Co., capacity 1,000,000 feet yearly; burned; loss, $5,000.

Barnum, Bliss & Co., capacity 10,000,000 feet yearly.

Northern Pacific Junction, Payne & Co., two mills burned; loss, $50,000; rebuilt the third time.

POKEGAMA LAKE

This beautiful lake lies in township 39, range 22. It is about five miles in length by one in breadth and finds an outlet in Kanabec river. It is celebrated for its historical associations. Thomas Conner, an old trader, informed the writer of these sketches, in 1847, that he had had a trading post on the banks of this lake thirty years before, or about the year 1816. This was before Fort Snelling was built. Mr. Conner said that there was a French trading post at Pokegama long before he went there. It was in the spring of 1847, after a wearisome day's tramp, that I made his acquaintance and shared his unstinted hospitality. His post, at that time, was located at the mouth of Goose creek, Chisago county, on the banks of the St. Croix. His rude, portable house was built of bark, subdivided with mats and skins into different apartments. Although at an advanced period in life, his mind was clear and he conversed with a degree of intelligence which caused me to ask him why he lived thus secluded, away from all the privileges of a civilized life. His reasons, some of them, were forcible; he liked the quiet of the wilderness, away from the turmoils of the envious white race. I learned from him many interesting facts connected with travelers, traders and explorers of our St. Croix valley. This was the last season he spent on the river.

In 1847, when I visited Pokegama, Jeremiah Russell, an Indian farmer, had a very pretty farm on a point of land on the southwest side of the lake, and between the lake and the river. A Frenchman, Jarvis, lived a short distance from Russell. Across the lake from Russell's were the neat and tasteful log buildings and gardens of the Presbyterian mission. The mission was established in the spring of 1836, by Rev. Frederic Ayer and his associates, under the auspicies of the American Board of Foreign Missions. Mr. Ayer had been laboring at Yellow Lake mission, but, owing to the growing unfriendliness of the Indians, had been removed to Pokegama. Much pertaining to the mission work, both at Pokegama and elsewhere, will be found in the biographies of the principal missionaries. We mention here only such incidents as may be of more general interest. For many of these incidents we are indebted to Mrs. Elisabeth J. Ayer, of Belle Prairie, the widow of Rev. Frederic Ayer, for a long time missionary to the Ojibways. This estimable lady has passed her eighty-fifth year, but her mind is still clear and her hand steady, her manuscript having the appearance of the work of a precise young schoolmistress. She mentions an old Canadian, who had been in the country sixty years, and for seven or eight years had been entirely blind. He was known as Mushk-de-winini (The-old-blind-prairie-man), also the old trader, Thomas Conner, the remains of whose mud chimney and foundation of the old trading house may still be seen on the southern shore of the lake.

Franklin Steele was the first white man to visit the mission. In the spring of 1837 the mission aided three or four families in building. February, 1837, Rev. Mr. Hall, of the La Pointe mission, visited Pokegama, and organized a church of seven members, – three of whom were natives, – administered the ordinance of baptism to eight persons, and solemnized two marriages, probably the first in the valley of the St. Croix. Revs. Boutwell and Ely came to the mission in 1837. A school had been opened, some Indian houses built, and gardens enlarged, and the future of the mission seemed assured. Mrs. Ayer relates the following account of the

BATTLE OF POKEGAMA

In 1811 the Sioux selected this settlement as the place to avenge the wrongs of the Ojibways – some of recent date; the principal of which was the killing of two sons of Little Crow (done in self defense) between Pokegama and the falls of the St. Croix. The Sioux arrived at Pokegama in the night, and stopped on the opposite side of the lake, two miles from the mission. The main body went to the main settlement, and, after examining the ground where they intended to operate, hid among the trees and brush back of the Indian gardens, with orders that all keep quiet on both sides of the lake till a given signal, when the Indians were busy in their gardens, and then make quick work. But their plans failed. Most of the Ojibways of the settlement had, from fear of the Sioux, slept on an island half a mile out in the lake (I mean the women and children), and were late to their gardens. In the meantime a loaded canoe was nearing the opposite shore and the few Sioux who had remained there to dispatch any who, in time of battle, might attempt to escape by crossing over, fired prematurely. This gave the alarm, and saved the Ojibways. The chief ran to Mr. Ayer's door and said, expressively: "The Sioux are upon us," and was off. The Indians seemed at once to understand that the main body of the enemy was at hand. The missionaries stepped out of the door and had just time to see a great splashing of water across the lake when bullets came whizzing about their ears, and they went in. The Sioux had left their hiding place and the battle commenced in earnest. Most of the women and children of the settlement were yet on the island. The house of the chief was well barricaded and most of the men gathered in there. The remainder took refuge in a house more exposed, at the other end of the village. The enemy drew up very near and fired in at the window. One gun was made useless, being indented by a ball. The owner retired to a corner and spent the time in prayer. The mother of the house, with her small children, was on her way to the island under a shower of bullets, calling aloud on God for help.

The missionaries seeing from their windows quantities of bloody flesh upon stumps in the battle field, thought surely that several of their friends had fallen. It proved to be a cow and calf of an Ojibway. The mission children were much frightened and asked many questions, and for apparent safety went up stairs and were put behind some well filled barrels. In the heat of battle two Ojibways came from the island and landed in front of Mr. Ayer's house. They drew their canoe ashore and secreted themselves as well as the surroundings would permit. Not long after three Sioux ran down the hill and toward the canoe. They were fired upon and one fell dead. The other two ran for help but before they could return the Ojibways were on the way back to the island. Not having time to take the scalp of their enemy, they hastily cut the powder horn strap from his breast, dripping with blood, as a trophy of victory. The Sioux drew the dead body up the hill and back to the place of fighting. The noise ceased. The battle was over. The missionaries soon heard the joyful words, quietly spoken: "We still live." Not a warrior had fallen. The two school girls who were in the canoe at the first firing in the morning were the only ones killed, though half the men and boys in the fight were wounded. The Sioux women and boys who had come with their warriors to carry away the spoils had the chagrin of returning as empty as they came.

The Ojibways were careful that no canoe should be left within reach of the Sioux. From necessity they took a canoe, made by Mr. Ely, and removed their dead two miles up the river, dressed them (seemingly) in the best the party could furnish, with each a double barreled gun, a tomahawk and scalping knife, set them up against some large trees and went on their way. Some of these articles, including their head-dresses, were sent to the museum of the American board, in Boston.

In the closing scene the missionaries had the opportunity of seeing the difference between those Indians who had listened to instruction and those who had not. The second day after the battle the pagan party brought back to the island the dead bodies of their enemies, cut in pieces, and distributed parts to such Ojibways as had at any time lost friends by the hands of the Sioux. One woman, whose daughter was killed and mutilated on that memorable morning, when she saw the canoes coming, with a head raised high in the air on a long pole, waded out into the water, grabbed it like a hungry dog and dashed it repeatedly on the stones with savage fierceness. Others of the pagans conducted themselves in a similar manner. They even cooked some of the flesh that night in their kettles of rice. Eunice (as she was named at her baptism) was offered an arm. At first she hesitated; but for reasons, sufficient in her own mind, thought best to take it. Her daughter-in-law, widow of her son who had recently been killed and chopped into pieces by the Sioux, took another, and they went into their lodge. Eunice said: "My daughter, we must not do as some of our friends are doing. We have been taught better," and taking some white cloths from her sack they wrapped the arms in them, offered a prayer, and gave them a decent burial. About this time a Mr. Kirkland was sent from Quincy, Illinois, by a party who wished to plant a colony not far from the mission station. He arrived at Pokegama very soon after the battle. Notwithstanding what had happened he selected a location on Cross lake, just where a railroad has now been in operation for some years. He worked vigorously for two or three weeks, and then went to consult the Indian agent and the military at Fort Snelling. They gave him no encouragement that the two tribes would ever live in peace; and he went home. The Ojibways lived in constant fear, and the place was soon deserted. This was a great trial to the missionaries; but they did not urge them to stay. They separated into small parties and went where they could get a living for the present and be out of danger. The teachers remained at their post, occasionally visiting the Indians in their retreat, hoping they might soon think it safe to return to their homes. In this they were disappointed. These visits were not always very safe. On one of these trips Mr. Ayer was lost, and from cold and hunger came near perishing. Not finding the party he sought, he wandered about for a day or two. In the meantime the weather became much colder. Not expecting to camp out he took only one blanket and food enough for one meal. In crossing Kettle river on a self-made conveyance, and there being ice on the opposite shore, he got wet. The Indians, anticipating his visit, had sent a young man to the mission station to guide him to, their new locality. He returned in haste, fell on Mr. Ayer's track, and a light sprinkle of snow enabled him to follow it until he was found.

Mrs. Ayer relates several incidents illustrative of Indian character. As her husband had been stationed at Yellow Lake, and afterward at Red Lake, these incidents are not necessarily located at Pokegama:

A NOBLE CHIEF

The Red Lake Indians were a noble band – they had a noble chief. In civilization he led the way, in religion he did not oppose. He shouldered a heavy axe, and could be seen chopping on one side of a large tree, in perspiration, while his wife was on the other side, helping all she could with her hatchet. This chief was also an advocate of temperance. Not that he didn't love whisky, but he hated the effect of it on his band. He dictated a letter to the president, begging him not to let the white faces bring any more firewater to his people, giving as one reason that they had teachers among them who must be protected, and if they had whisky he did not know what might happen.

FRANK CONFESSIONS

In the church there was much childish simplicity. Once when Mr. Ayer was lecturing on the eighth commandment, he paused, and without expecting an answer, said: "Now who is there among you who has not stolen?" One woman began to confess – another followed, then another. One thought she had stolen about seven times. Another entered more into particulars, mentioning the things she had stolen, till the scene was quite amusing. Another rose to confess, but was cut short by her husband, who said: "Who knows how many times he has stolen? We are a nation of thieves." And with a few remarks the meeting closed.

A COWARDLY DEED

After a medicine dance, according to Indian custom, they proposed a feast, but there was nothing on which to feast. There was a large company and all were hungry. Mr. Ayer's cow was in the barnyard near. Three daring fellows sitting by themselves began to taunt each other in regard to their comparative prowess. After an excitement was created, one of them, to show his bravery, shot the cow. Mr. Ayer was in his garden and witnessed the performance. Two or three of the leading men in this pagan party came immediately to Mr. Ayer to learn whether he would take the cow for his own use. While they were talking (perhaps twenty minutes) the cow was cut in pieces, and in the Indians' kettles preparatory to a good time. After the Indians had sold their land they paid for the cow.

AN UNJUST ACCUSATION

Indians are said to be revengeful. They are. So are white men. They fight for their rights. So do white men. They are thieves and liars. So are white men. Quarrelsome, envious, jealous. So are white men. Experience teaches that according to their knowledge they compare favorably with Anglo-Saxons. Sin is none the better, nor less mischievous, for being civilized.

A missionary, a good man, too, he was, accused an innocent woman of stealing his shirts that were laid out on the snow to whiten. His wife, not remembering that she had brought them in early in the morning, asked him to go out and get them. But they were not to be found! "Who has been here this morning?" was asked. "Ekwazans; I don't remember any other." "Well, she shan't have those shirts. I'll overtake her before she gets home." He followed her four miles, determined to have his shirts. The woman declared her innocence, and told him to search the wigwam. He did so, but said himself that it was done rather roughly. In the meantime the wife espied the shirts just where she had put them. This affair was ever after a source of regret to them.

Some of the Indians laughed heartily; others made remarks rather sarcastic. The woman herself felt disgraced by the accusation, but never manifested signs of wanting to "pay back," or in any way to avenge the wrong.