Books: Minnesota and Dacotah

C >> C.C. Andrews >> Minnesota and Dacotah

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"For several years I had trading-posts extending from Lake Superior to
the Red River of the North, from 46 degrees to 49 degrees north
latitude, and never found the snow so deep as to prevent supplies
being transported from one post to another with horses. One winter,
north of Crow Wing, say 47 degrees north latitude, I wintered about
sixty head of horses and cattle without giving them food of any kind
except such as they could procure themselves under the snow. Between
the 45th and 49th degrees north latitude, the snow does not fall so
deep as it does between the 40th and 45th degrees; this is easily
accounted for upon the same principle that in the fall they have
frosts much earlier near the 40th than they do near the 45th degree. I
say this in reference to the country watered by the Mississippi River.
Owing to its altitude the atmosphere is dry beyond belief, which
accounts for the absence of frosts in the fall, and for the small
quantity of snow that falls in a country so far north. Voyageurs
traverse the territory from Lake Superior to the Missouri the entire
winter with horses and sleds, having to make their own roads, and yet
with heavy loads are not detained by snow. Lumbermen in great numbers
winter in the pine regions of Minnesota with their teams, and I have
never heard of their finding the snow too deep to prosecute their
labors. I have known several winters when the snow at no time was over
six inches deep."

The Hon. H. H. Sibley, ex-delegate from Minnesota, in a letter dated
at Mendota says: "As our country is for the most part composed of
prairie, it is of course much exposed to the action of the winds. It
is, however, a peculiarity of our climate, that calms prevail during
the cold weather of the winter months; consequently, the snow does not
drift to anything like the extent experienced in New England or
northern New York. I have never believed that railroad communication
in this territory would be seriously impeded by the depth or drift of
snow, unless, perhaps, in the extreme northern portion of it." (See
Explorations and Surveys for the Pacific Railroad, I., 400.)

A few facts in regard to the people who live four or five hundred
miles to the north, will best illustrate the nature of the climate and
its adaptedness to agriculture.

It is common to say that settlements have not extended beyond Crow
Wing. This is only technically true. There is a settlement at Pembina,
where the dividing line between British America and the United States
crosses the Red River of the North. It didn't extend there from our
frontier, sure enough. If it extended from anywhere it must have been
from the north, or along the confines of that mystic region called
Rainy Lake. Pembina is said to have about 600 inhabitants. It is
situated on the Pembina River. It is an Indian-French word meaning
cranberry. Men live there who were born there, and it is in fact an
old settlement. It was founded by British subjects, who thought they
had located on British soil. The greater part of its inhabitants are
half-breeds, who earn a comfortable livelihood in fur hunting and in
farming. It sends two representatives and a councillor to the
territorial legislature. It is 460 miles north-west of St. Paul, and
330 miles distant from this town. Notwithstanding the distance, there
is considerable communication between the places. West of Pembina,
about thirty miles, is a settlement called St. Joseph, situated N. of
a large mythological body of water called Miniwakan, or Devil's Lake;
and is one of the points where Col. Smith's expedition was intending
to stop. This expedition to which I refer, started out from Fort
Snelling in the summer, to explore the country on both sides of the
Red River of the North as far as Pembina, and to report to the war
department the best points for the establishment of a new military
post. It is expected that Col. Smith will return by the first of next
month; and it is probable he will advise the erection of a post at
Pembina. When that is done, if it is done, its effect will be to draw
emigrants from the Red River settlement into Minnesota.

Now let me say a word about this Red River of the North, for it is
beginning to be a great feature in this upper country. It runs north,
and empties into Lake Winnipeg, which connects with Hudson's Bay by
Nelson River. It is a muddy and sluggish stream, navigable to the
mouth of Sioux Wood River for vessels of three feet draught for four
months in the year. So that the extent of its navigation within the
territory alone (between Pembina and the mouth of Sioux Wood River) is
417 miles. Buffaloes still feed on its western banks. Its tributaries
are numerous and copious, abounding with the choicest kinds of game,
and skirted with a various and beautiful foliage. It cannot be many
years before this magnificent valley shall pour its products into our
markets, and be the theatre of a busy and genial life.

One of the first things which drew my attention to this river was a
sight of several teams travelling towards this vicinity from a
north-westerly direction. I observed that the complexion of those in
the caravan was a little darker than that of pure white Minnesotians,
and that the carts were a novelty. "Who are those people? and where
are they from?" I inquired of a friend. "They are Red River people,
just arrived-- they have come down to trade." Their carts are made to
be drawn by one animal, either an ox or a horse, and are put together
without the use of a particle of iron. They are excellently adapted to
prairie travelling. How strange it seems! Here are people who have
been from twenty to thirty days on their journey to the nearest
civilized community. This is their nearest market. Their average rate
of travelling is about fifteen miles a day, and they generally secure
game enough on the way for their living. I have had highly interesting
accounts of the Red River settlement since I have been here, both from
Mr. Ross and Mr. Marion, gentlemen recently from there. The settlement
is seventy miles north of Pembina, and lies on both sides of the
river. Its population is estimated at 10,000. It owes its origin and
growth to the enterprise and success of the Hudson's Bay Company. Many
of the settlers came from Scotland, but the most were from Canada.
They speak English and Canadian French. The English style of society
is well kept up, whether we regard the church with its bishop, the
trader with his wine cellar, the scholar with his library, the officer
with his sinecure, or their paper currency. I find they have
everything but a hotel, for I was particular on that point, though not
intending just yet to go there. Probably the arrivals do not justify
such an institution, but their cordial hospitality will make up for
any such lack, from all I hear. They have a judge who gets a good
house to live in, and L1000 sterling a year; but he has nothing of
consequence to do. He was formerly a leading lawyer in Canada.

The great business of the settlement, of course, is the fur traffic.
An immense amount of buffalo skins is taken in the summer and autumn,
while in the winter smaller but more valuable furs are procured. The
Indians also enlist in the hunts; and it is estimated that upwards of
$200,000 worth of furs are annually taken from our territory and sold
to the Hudson's Bay Company. It is high time indeed that a military
post should be established somewhere on the Red River by our
government. The Hudson's Bay Company is now a powerful monopoly. Not
so magnificent and potent as the East India Company, it is still a
powerful combination, showering opulence on its members, and
reflecting a peculiar feature in the strength and grandeur of the
British empire-- a power, which, to use the eloquent language of
Daniel Webster, "has dotted over the whole surface of the globe with
her possessions and military posts-- whose morning drum-beat,
following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the
earth daily with one continuous and unbroken strain of martial music."
The company is growing richer every year, and its jurisdiction and its
lands will soon find an availability never dreamed of by its founders,
unless, as may possibly happen, popular sovereignty steps in to grasp
the fruits of its long apprenticeship. Some time ago I believe the
Canadas sought to annex this broad expanse to their own jurisdiction.
There are about two hundred members in the Hudson's Bay Company. The
charter gives them the power to legislate for the settlement. They
have many persons in their employ in England as well as in British
America. A clerk, after serving the company ten years, with a salary
of about $500 per annum, is considered qualified for membership, with
the right to vote in the deliberations of the company, and one share
in the profits. The profits of a share last year amounted to $10,000!
A factor of the company, after serving ten years, is entitled to
membership with the profits of two shares. The aristocracy of the
settlement consists principally of retired factors and other members
of the company, who possess large fortunes, dine on juicy roast beef,
with old port, ride in their carriages, and enjoy life in a very
comfortable manner. Two of the company's ships sail up into Hudson's
Bay every year to bring merchandise to the settlement and take away
furs. [1] But the greatest portion of the trade is done with
Minnesota. Farming is carried on in the neighborhood of the settlement
with cheerful ease and grand success. I was as much surprised to hear
of the nature of their agriculture as of anything else concerning the
settlement. The same kind of crops are raised as in Pennsylvania or
Maine; and this in a country, be it remembered, five hundred miles and
upwards north of St. Paul. Stock must be easily raised, as it would
appear from the fact that it is driven down here into the territory
and sold at a great profit. Since I have been here, a drove of
fine-looking cattle from that settlement passed to be sold in the
towns below, and a drove of horses is expected this fall. The stock
which comes from there is more hardy than can be got anywhere else,
and therefore is preferred by the Minnesotians.

[1 "The Hudson's Bay Company allows its servants, while making a
voyage, eight pounds of meat a day, and I am told the allowance is
none too much." (Lieutenant Howison's Report on Oregon, p. 7.)]

The following extract from Ex-Governor Ramsey's address, recently
delivered before the annual fair at Minneapolis, wherein he gives some
results of his observations of the Red River settlement during his
trip there in 1851, will be read with much interest:--

"Re-embarking in our canoes, we continued descending the river for
some fifteen miles further, through the French portion of the
settlement, lining mainly the west or left bank of the river, until we
arrived about the centre of the colony, at the mouth of the
Assinniboin tributary of Red River, where we landed and remained a few
days, viewing the colony and its improvements. I was at that time, and
am even now, when I look back upon it, lost in wonder at the phenomena
which that settlement exhibits to the world, considering its location
in an almost polar region of the North. Imagine a river flowing
sluggishly northward through a flat alluvial plain, and the west side
of it lined continuously for over thirty miles with cultivated farms,
each presenting those appearances of thrift around them which I
mentioned as surrounding the first farms seen by us; but each farm
with a narrow frontage on the river of only twenty-four rods in width,
but extending back for one or two miles, and each of these narrow
farms having their dwellings and the farm out-buildings spread only
along the river front, with lawns sloping to the water's edge, and
shrubbery and vines liberally trained around them, and trees
intermingled-- the whole presenting the appearance of a long suburban
village-- such as you might see near our eastern sea-board, or such as
you find exhibited in pictures of English country villages, with the
resemblance rendered more striking by the spires of several large
churches peeping above the foliage of the trees in the distance,
whitewashed school-houses glistening here and there amidst sunlight
and green; gentlemen's houses of pretentious dimensions and grassy
lawns and elaborate fencing, the seats of retired officers of the
Hudson's Bay Company occasionally interspersed; here an English
bishop's parsonage, with a boarding or high school near by; and over
there a Catholic bishop's massive cathedral, with a convent of Sisters
of Charity attached; whilst the two large stone forts, at which reside
the officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, or of the colony once called
Upper Fort Garry, and situated at the mouth of the Assinniboin, and
the other termini the Lower Fort Garry, which is twenty miles farther
down the river, helped to give additional picturesqueness to the
scene. I had almost forgotten to mention what is, after all, the most
prominent and peculiar feature of that singular landscape, singular
from its location-- and that is the numerous wind-mills, nearly twenty
in all, which on every point of land made by the turns and bends in
the river, stretched out their huge sails athwart the horizon, and
seemingly looked defiance at us as invading strangers, that were from
a land where steam or water mills monopolize their avocation of flour
making. One morning as we passed down the principal high road, on our
way to Lower Fort Garry, the wind, after a protracted calm, began to
blow a little; when presto! each mill veered around its sails to catch
the propitious breeze, and as the sails began to revolve, it was
curious to observe the numerous carts that shot out from nearly every
farm-house, and hurried along the road to these mills, to get ground
their grists of spring wheat, with which they were respectively
loaded.

"Another incident during the same trip that struck us oddly, was
seeing two ladies driving by themselves a fine horse hitched to a
buggy of modern fashion, just as much at home apparently as if they
were driving through the streets of St. Paul, or St. Anthony, or
Minneapolis, instead of upon that remote highway towards the North
Pole; but this was not a whit more novel than to hear the pianoforte,
and played, too, with both taste and skill. While another 'lion' of
those parts that met our view was a topsail schooner lying in the
river at the lower fort, which made occasional trips into Great Lake
Winnepeg of the North, a hundred miles below.

"I took occasion during my visit to inquire what success the farmers
met with in securing good crops, and the profits of farmers generally.
As to wheat, I learned that the yield of the spring variety was quite
equal in quantity and quality to the crop of that grain on any more
southern farms; that in raising barley they could almost surpass the
world; and the cereals generally, and all the esculent roots, were
easily raised. Indian corn was not planted as a field crop, though it
was grown in their gardens. In a word, the capacity of their land to
produce almost everything plentifully and well, was established; but
for all this, farming did not afford much profit. for want of a
sufficient market; beyond a small demand by the Hudson's Bay Company,
there was no outlet for their superabundance; and to use an Austrian
phase in regard to Hungarians, the Selkirkers are metaphysically
'smothering in their own fat.' To remedy this state of things they
were beginning, when I was there, to turn their attention towards
raising cattle and horses, for which their country is well calculated;
and the first fruits of this new decision given to their farming
energies, we have already experienced in the droves of both which have
recently been driven from thence and sold in this vicinity."

I think the facts which I have herein hastily set downhill dispel any
apprehension as to the successful cultivation of the soil in the
northern part of the territory. It has a health-giving climate which
before long, I predict, will nourish as patriotic a race of men as
gave immortality to the noble plains of Helvetia. There is one thing I
would mention which seems to auspicate the speedy development of the
valley of the North Red River. Next year Minnesota will probably be
admitted as a state; and a new territory organized out of the broad
region embracing the valley aforesaid and the head waters of the
Mississippi. Or else it will be divided by a line north and south,
including the western valley of that river, and extending as far to
the west as the Missouri River. I understand it will be called
Dacotah, though I at first thought it would be called Pembina. There
is always a rush into new territories, and the proposed new territory
of Dacotah will present sufficient inducements for a large
immigration. When the valley of the North Red River shall be settled,
and splendid harvest fields adorn its banks; when great factories take
the place of wind-mills, and when railroads shall take the place of
Red River carts, then we will have new cause to exclaim,

"Westward the course of empire takes its way!"

LETTER XI.

THE TRUE PIONEER.

Energy of the pioneer-- Frontier life-- Spirit of emigration--
Advantages to the farmer in moving West-- Advice in regard to making
preemption claims-- Abstract of the preemption law-- Hints to the
settler-- Character and services of the pioneer.

CROW WING, October, 1856.

I DESIRE in this letter to say something about the pioneer, and life
on the frontier. And by pioneer I mean the true pioneer who comes into
the West to labor and to share the vicissitudes of new settlements;
not the adventurer, who would repine at toil, and gather where he has
not sown.

As I have looked abroad upon the vast domain of the West beyond the
dim Missouri, or in the immediate valley of the Mississippi, I have
wondered at the contrast presented between the comparatively small
number who penetrate to the frontier, and that great throng of men who
toil hard for a temporary livelihood in the populous towns and cities
of the Union. And I have thought if this latter class were at all
mindful of the opportunities for gain and independence which the new
territories afforded, they would soon abandon-- in a great measure at
least-- their crowded alleys in the city, and aspire to be cultivators
and owners of the soil. Why there has not been a greater emigration
from cities I cannot imagine, unless it is owing to a misapprehension
of Western life. Either it is this, or the pioneer is possessed of a
very superior degree of energy.

It has been said that the frontier man always keeps on the frontier;
that he continues to emigrate as fast as the country around him
becomes settled. There is a class that do so. Not, however, for the
cause which has been sometimes humorously assigned-- that civilization
was inconvenient to them-- but because good opportunities arise to
dispose of the farms they have already improved; and because a further
emigration secures them cheaper lands. The story of the pioneer who
was disturbed by society, when his nearest neighbor lived fifteen
miles off, even if it be true, fails to give the correct reason for
the migratory life of this class of men.

It almost always happens that wherever we go somebody else has
preceded us. Accident or enterprise has led some one to surpass us.
Many of the most useful pioneers of this country have been attracted
hither by the accounts given of its advantages by some one of their
friends who had previously located himself here. Ask a man why he
comes, and he says a neighbor of his, or a son, or a brother, has been
in the territory for so many months, and he likes it so well I
concluded to come also. A very respectable gentleman from Maine, a
shipowner and a man of wealth, who came up on the boat with me to St.
Paul, said his son-in-law was in the territory, and he had another son
at home who was bound to come, and if his wife was willing he believed
the whole family would come. Indeed the excellent state of society in
the territory is to be attributed very much to the fact that parents
have followed after their children.

It is pretty obvious too why men will leave poor farms in New England,
and good farms in Ohio, to try their fortunes here. The farmer in New
England, it may be in New Hampshire, hears that the soil of Minnesota
is rich and free from rocks, that there are other favorable resources,
and a salubrious climate such as he has been accustomed to. He
concludes that it is best to sell out the place he has, and try
ploughing where there are no rocks to obstruct him. The farmer of Ohio
does not expect to find better soil than he leaves; but his
inducements are that he can sell his land at forty or fifty dollars an
acre, and preempt as good in Minnesota for a dollar and a quarter an
acre. This operation leaves him a surplus fund, and he becomes a more
opulent man, with better means to adorn his farm and to educate his
children.

Those who contemplate coming West to engage in agricultural employment
should leave their families, if families they have, behind till they
have selected a location and erected some kind of a habitation;
provided, however, they have no particular friend whose hospitality
they can avail themselves of till their preliminary arrangements are
effected. It will require three months, I judge, for a man to select a
good claim (a quarter section, being 160 acres), and fence and plough
a part of it and to erect thereon a cabin. There is never a want of
land to preempt in a new country. The settler can always get an
original claim, or buy out the claim of another very cheap, near some
other settlers. The liberal policy of our government in regard to the
disposal of public lands is peculiarly beneficial to the settler. The
latter has the first chance. He can go on to a quarter section which
may be worth fifteen dollars an acre, and preempt it before it is
surveyed, and finally obtain it for $1.25 an acre. Whereas the
speculator must wait till the land is surveyed and advertised for
sale; and then he can get only what has not been preempted, and at a
price which it brings at auction, not less than $1.25 an acre. Then
what land is not sold at public sale is open to private entry at $1.25
an acre. It is such land that bounty warrants are located on. Thus it
is seen the pioneer has the first choice. Why, I have walked over land
up here that would now bring from ten to twenty dollars an acre if it
was in the market, and which any settler can preempt and get for $1.25
an acre. I am strongly tempted to turn farmer myself, and go out and
build me a cabin. The speculation would be a good one. But to acquire
a title by preemption I must dwell on the soil, and prove that I have
erected a dwelling and made other improvements. In other words, before
a man (or any head of a family) can get a patent, he must satisfy the
land officers that he is a dweller in good faith on the soil. It is
often the case, indeed, that men get a title by preemption who never
intend to live on their quarter section. But they do it by fraud. They
have a sort of mental reservation, I suppose, when they take the
requisite oaths. In this way many valuable claims are taken up and
held along from month to month, or from year to year, by mock
improvements. A pretender will make just improvements enough to hinder
the actual settler from locating on the claim, or will sell out to him
at a good profit. A good deal of money is made by these fictitious
claimants. It is rather hard to prevent it, too, inasmuch as it is
difficult to disprove that a man intends some time to have a permanent
home, or, in fact, that his claim is not his legal residence, though
his usual abiding place is somewhere else. Nothing could be more
delightful than for a party of young men who desire to farm to come
out together early in the spring, and aid each other in preempting
land in the same neighborhood. The preemptor has to pay about five
dollars in the way of fees before he gets through the entire process
of securing a title. It is a popular error (much like the opinion that
a man cannot swear to what he sees through glass) that improvements of
a certain value, say fifty dollars, are required to be made, or that a
certain number of acres must be cultivated. All that is required,
however, is evidence that the party has built a house fit to live in,
and has in good faith proceeded to cultivate the soil. The law does
not permit a person to preempt 160 acres but once; yet this provision
is often disregarded, possibly from ignorance, I was about to say, but
that cannot be, since the applicant must make oath that he has not
before availed himself of the right of preemption.

I will insert at this place an abridgment of the preemption act of 4th
September, 1841, which I made two years ago; and which was extensively
published in the new states and territories. I am happy to find, also,
that it has been thought worth copying into one or more works on the
West.

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