Fifty Years In The Northwest. William H. C. Folsom
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Fort Snelling was killed by a Pillager of the Upper Mississippi, an Indian of a band that was not in the council. The Sioux and Chippewas, it is true, are bitter, relentless, hereditary foes, but this slaughter occurred through a grievous mistake. The Chippewas, on their return, rested at the Falls. Capt. Frazer gave them medicine, dressed their wounds and fed them. The Indians gave way to the wildest grief at their losses, and when they heard of the sixty killed of the Mille Lacs band, their mourning cries and moans baffled description.
THE FIRST LOGGERS.
The first logs were cut by J. R. Brown on the Taylor's Falls flat in the winter of 1836-37, but the first regular outfit and camp was that of John Boyce, who came up in a mackinaw boat from St. Louis with eleven men and six oxen, landing at St. Croix Falls late in the fall of 1837. Mr. Andrew Mackey, who was in his party, has furnished me with some items regarding this adventure. The boat was cordelled over the rapids, and, with poles and lines, taken as far as the mouth of Kanabec river, where a camp was established. Boyce had considerable trouble with the Indians. Little Six, a Chippewa chief, came to the camp with two hundred warriors in a defiant, blustering manner, telling him to "go away," to "go back where they came from." Boyce proceeded to the Indian mission at Lake Pokegama and invoked the aid of Rev. Mr. Boutwell, Ely, Ayers and Seymour, who came back with him to the camp and had a "talk" with Little Six, who claimed that the whites had paid no money. Mr. Seymour explained to them the provisions of the treaty, of which they would soon hear; that under its provisions the whites had a right to the timber; that they were not usurpers, that they would live peaceably and not disturb their game. The Indians granted assent, but refused to allow the whites to remove any of their chingwack (pine). Mr. Seymour, apprehending trouble, advised Mr. Boyce to leave. He determined to remain. The Indians being still troublesome, Mr. Boyce descended the river to the falls, the Indians following. On going over the falls the boat filled and Mr. Boyce lost nearly all he had. The Palmyra shortly after broke the silence of the Dalles with its shrill whistle and brought the news of the ratification of the treaty by Congress. Boyce sent his boat down the river, built small boats and made haste to return to his camp on Kanabec river, where he remained through the fall and winter cutting logs.
THE FIRST RAFTING.
In April and May of 1839, Boyce rafted his logs with poles and ropes made of basswood strings. The high water swept them away. He gathered from the broken rafts enough for one raft, made it as strong as possible, and continued the descent. The raft struck upon the first island and went to pieces. Boyce saved the canoe and a part of the provisions. Boyce was by this time in a furious rage at his want of success, but tried a third time to make a raft. The crew, tired and hungry, refused to work. A new contract was made and written on a slate, there being no paper. The logs were left in the river. Some of them floated down and were sold to the Falls company and to the company at Marine. Boyce lost all his labor and investment; the men got but little for their work. Frank Steele had assisted in supplying provisions and clothing for the men, the value of which he never received. Boyce was disgusted and left the country.
AN INDIAN PAYMENT.
Levi W. Stratton, who came up on the Palmyra, July, 1838, gives a few reminiscences from which we select an account of a payment made to the Chippewa Indians the year of his arrival. The crew and passengers of the Palmyra had been greatly annoyed by the Indians, who expected their first payment in July, and besieged the boat in great numbers, demanding it at the hands of the first whites who had come up the river, unable to understand the difference between the regularly constituted authorities and those immigrants who had nothing to do with the payments. It was not until the first week of November that their goods came for payment. The place where Stillwater now stands was selected as the place where they should assemble.
The old stern wheel Gipsey brought the goods and landed them on the beach. The Chippewas came there to the number of 1,100 in their canoes, nearly starved by waiting for their payment. While there receiving it the river and lake froze up, and a deep snow came on; thus all their supplies, including one hundred barrels of flour, twenty-five of pork, kegs of tobacco, bales of blankets, guns and ammunition, casks of Mexican dollars, etc., all were sacrificed except what they could carry off on their backs through the snow hundreds of miles away. Their fleet of birch canoes they destroyed before leaving, lest the Sioux might have the satisfaction of doing the same after they left.
Many of the old as well as the young died from overeating, they being nearly starved. Thus their first payment became a curse rather than a blessing to them, for their supplies soon gave out, the season for hunting was past, they were away from home and had no means of getting there, except by wading through deep snow. Many perished in the attempt. As is usual in such cases, I suppose, no one was to blame, but the poor Indians had to suffer the consequences of somebody's neglect. The old Gipsey had scarcely time to get through the lake before the ice formed.
INDIAN DANCING AND THEFT.
In the rough log cabin at St. Croix Falls were three females, the wives of Messrs. Orr and Sackett, employes of the company, and Miss Young, daughter of a widower of that name. Life in that cabin was by no means a dream of bliss, for in consequence of the mosquitoes, more relentless persecutors than the Indians, a smudge had to be kept burning night and day, or at least by day when the sun was not shining. The old cabin served for a kitchen, while an arbor was improvised outside for a dining room. Shortly after the arrival of the immigrants, and before they had learned all the peculiarities of Indian character, they were visited by a party of fifteen or twenty braves, who set about adorning themselves, and spent the forenoon in painting and getting themselves up in gorgeous rig, regardless of expense, preparatory to giving a free entertainment. Just before dinner was called, they arranged themselves near the table and gave a dance, which was very much applauded, after which they were given presents of bread and meat, and dismissed, apparently highly pleased with the success of their exhibition. The household gathered about the table to enjoy their repast, but to their consternation, not a knife, fork or spoon could be found. While the majority of the Indians were riveting the attention of the new comers by their extraordinary antics, the remainder were quietly abstracting the tableware. They were afterward charged with the theft, but protested innocence. The missing articles were never heard of again. A pig of lead, left outside, disappeared at the same time. The poor Indians denied ever having seen the lead. Mr. Stratton remarked, however, that all their war clubs, pipes and gun stocks had been lately and elaborately ornamented with molten lead.
OTHER THEFTS.
At another time, shortly before payment, when the Indians were unusually hungry and troublesome, two barrels of pork and one of butter mysteriously disappeared. The pork barrels were found empty in the river, and also the butter barrel with one-third of the contents missing. The Indians lay all day in camp sick, but protested their innocence. Nevertheless, at payment day a claim of two hundred dollars for the pork and one hundred and fifty for the butter was allowed and kept back. They made no objections to paying for the pork, but protested against paying for the butter, as it did them no good and made them all sick.
In September, an old Indian came to the cabin, begging for something to eat. The agent went to the pork barrel and held up a fine piece of pork weighing about twelve pounds, to which the tail was still attached. At sight of this his countenance fell and he went away silently and sullenly.
Shortly afterward a yoke of oxen was missing. They had been driven off over some bare ledges of trap to break the trail. An Indian was hired to hunt for them. He found that this same beggar who had been so disgusted with the offer of a piece of pork with the tail attached had driven them off and slaughtered them. Payment day made all right, and the Indians were compelled to pay a good price for rather poor beef.
HARD TIMES.
Mrs. Mary C. Worth communicated to the writer the following incidents, illustrating some of the vicissitudes of the early settlers:
It was in the fall of 1842. There were about two hundred people in the village, most of them