Fifty Years In The Northwest. William H. C. Folsom
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"It is none of your d——d business." That was enough to kindle the magazine of Joe's wrath. A sudden blow of his fist, and the man was prostrate on the sidewalk and his peanuts and apples scattered. The last seen of the discomfited street merchant he was on his hands and knees scrambling with the boys for the possession of his scattered fruits, and casting an occasional vengeful glance at the towering form of "Big Joe" departing slowly from the scene of conflict. Mr. Perro is of French parentage, and a native of Kaskaskia, Illinois. He has been a resident of Stillwater since 1844.
James McPhail.—Mr. McPhail, as his name indicates, is of Scotch parentage. He was born in Inverness, Scotland, in 1824, and came to America in early life. He was one of the first log pilots on the waters of the Mississippi and St. Croix. He settled in Stillwater in 1848, was married to Eliza Purinton in 1849, and died in St. Louis in 1857. Mrs. McPhail died in Stillwater in 1885. They left no children.
John Cormack.—Mr. Cormack commenced piloting on the St. Croix in 1845. He was married in 1860 to Miss Jackins. He made his home in Stillwater continuously for thirty years, during which time he served as pilot. He died at Princeton, Mille Lacs county, in 1885.
John Hanford.—Mr. Hanford was a St. Croix river pilot in the '40s. He married an adopted daughter of Socrates Nelson, of Stillwater. He died at Stillwater. Mrs. Hanford subsequently married Barron Proctor.
John Leach.—Mr. Leach made his home at Marine many years, during which time he engaged in piloting on the St. Croix; subsequently he removed to Stillwater. In the later years of his life he has been blind.
Stephen B. Hanks.—Mr. Stephen B. Hanks, formerly of Albany, Illinois, piloted the first raft from St. Croix Falls to St. Louis in 1842. He followed piloting rafts and steamboats until 1885.
Samuel S. Hanks.—Samuel, a brother of Stephen B., commenced piloting in the '40s, and is still active.
Among the early pilots on the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers were Antoine Lapoint, Augustus Barlow, Richard Whiting, James Hickman, George M. Penny, and Daniel McLean.
CHAPTER IV.
POLK COUNTY—DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY.
Polk county contains 700,000 acres of land, well diversified with timber and prairie, uplands and valleys, rivers and lakes, and fertile enough to sustain a large population. The county was established by the Wisconsin legislature in 1853, and originally included much more territory than it now contains, new counties having been formed north and east of its present domain. Indian traders had visited it at an earlier period, but the first permanent white settlement was made in 1837, and the first pioneer who came with the serious intention of making permanent improvements was Franklin Steele. As Mr. Steele's history is in a great part the history of the early settlement, we insert it here, and very nearly in the language of Mr. Steele himself, as he communicated it to the writer some years since:
"I came to the Northwest in 1837, a young man, healthy and ambitious, to dare the perils of an almost unexplored region, inhabited by savages. I sought Fort Snelling (which was at that time an active United States fort) as a point from which to start. In September, 1837, immediately after the treaty was made ceding the St. Croix valley to the government, accompanied by Dr. Fitch, of Bloomington, Iowa, we started from Fort Snelling in a bark canoe, also a scow loaded with tools, supplies and laborers, descended the Mississippi river and ascended the St. Croix to the Dalles. We clambered over the rocks to the Falls, where we made two land claims, covering the Falls on the east side and the approach to it in the Dalles. We built a log cabin at the Falls, where the Upper Copper trap range crosses the river and where the old mill was afterward erected. A second log house we built in the ravine at the head of navigation. Whilst building, four other parties arrived to make claim to this power. I found the veritable Joe Brown on the west side of the St. Croix, trading with the Indians, a few rods from where Baker & Taylor built their mill (near the end of the present toll bridge). Brown had also cut pine logs, part of which, in 1838, were used by Baker & Taylor, but most of them were burned by forest fires on the ground where they were felled. In February, 1838, I made a trip to the Falls with a dog team for the relief of one Boyce, who was cutting logs at the mouth of Snake river, and had had some trouble with the Indians. I helped him until he left the country. Peshick, a chief of the Chippewas, said, 'We have no money for logs; we have no money for land. Logs can not go.' He said he could not control his young men and would not be responsible for their acts.
"In the spring of 1838, from Fort Snelling we descended the Mississippi river to Prairie du Chien in bark canoes, thence by steamer to St. Louis, Missouri, where a co-partnership was formed by Messrs. Fitch, of Muscatine, Iowa, Libbey, of Alton, Illinois, Hungerford and Livingston, of St. Louis, Hill and Holcombe, of Quincy, Illinois, and myself. We chartered the steamer Palmyra, loaded her with all the materials with which to build a saw mill, including mechanics to do the work, and started for the scene of operations. Plans for procedure, rules and by-laws were discussed and adopted during the journey on the steamer, and the new organization was christened the St. Croix Falls Lumbering Company. Calvin A. Tuttle was the millwright."
The trip was made in safety, our immediate plans executed, and the Palmyra was the first steamboat that ever sailed the St. Croix river and lake. Mr. Steele made an estimate for the construction of the mill and dam at $20,000, which he submitted to the company. It was accepted, and Calvin A. Tuttle, a millwright, was placed in charge of the work, but Mr. Steele sold his interest to the company before the mill was completed. On examination of the records we find that W. Libbey was the first agent of the company. We find also from the same record that Libbey knew little or nothing of the business he had undertaken. With a few barrels of whisky and one of beads he busied himself trading with the Indians. This was the first whisky sold in the valley, and it was sold in defiance of government law.
Much could be written about this old pioneer company of the Northwest, and its history, could it be truly written, would contain many thrilling incidents and scenes worthy of remembrance; but much is already forgotten and many of the most prominent actors have passed away, leaving no record of their lives. The company, as a corporation, passed through many changes of name and ownership. Its history would be a history of litigations, of wranglings and feuds, of losses and gains, of mistakes, of blunders and of wrongs. In the first place, the mill was planned by men practically unfitted for such work, inexperienced in lumbering and unacquainted with the vast expenditures requisite for the opening up of a new country, hundreds of miles from labor and the supplies needed for manufacturing. There were three requisites present, a splendid water power, abundance of timber at convenient distances and a healthful climate; but these alone did not and could not make the enterprise a success. Had practical, experienced lumbermen been employed the result might have been different, but impractical methods, enormous expenses, with no profits or dividends, caused most of the company to withdraw, forfeiting their stock in preference to continuing with the prospect of total bankruptcy. Goods were brought annually, at great expense, from St. Louis by the large steamers which then controlled the trade of the Mississippi and the St. Croix. The navigation of the St. Croix grew annually more difficult, the immense number of logs floated down since 1838 wearing away the banks and increasing the number and area of sand bars and not infrequently obstructing the channel with jams.
It is not known exactly how or when the name of St. Croix came to be applied to the beautiful river bearing it, but La Harpe, in his "Louisiana," gives the most plausible account of its origin: "This name is not ecclesiastical in its associations, but named after Monsieur St. Croix, who was drowned at its mouth." Le Sueur, who explored the Upper Mississippi in 1683, says he left a large river on the east side, named St. Croix, because a Frenchman of that name was drowned at its mouth. As Duluth was the first white man to embark in the waters of the St. Croix, descending it in canoes, from near Lake Superior, which he did in 1680; and as Hennepin and La Salle