LITMIR.BIZ

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This village, the first American settlement on the St. Croix, had one large mill with six saws. The water power was utilized by means of a permanent dam with massive piers. A warehouse was perched in a romantic situation amidst the cliffs of the Dalles and furnished with a tramway or wooden railway extending to the summit of the cliffs, for the transportation of goods. A boarding house dubbed the "Barlow House," another the "Soap Grease Exchange," and a few small tenement houses, constituted the village. The leading business men were James Purinton, Wm. Holcombe, Joseph Bowron and Lewis Barlow. We spent half a day in making a portage around the St. Croix falls. The wind being fair, on the third day we sailed as far as Sunrise island. At Wolf creek we passed an Indian trading post. In front of Sunrise island and on the west side of the St. Croix river, a little below the mouth of Sunrise river, stood the trading post of Maurice M. Samuels, long known as one of the most remarkable and notorious men on the frontier. He was a Jew, but had married a Chippewa woman, claiming that he had married one of his own people, the Indians being, according to his theory, descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel.

      On the sixth day we came to the farm of Jeremiah Russell, on Pokegama lake. We found him a pleasant gentleman, engaged as an Indian farmer. We paddled across the lake to the Presbyterian mission. Mr. Boutwell, the superintendent, was absent. The mission was pleasantly located, the management was excellent, the crops were in fair condition, and well cultivated. Everything about the mission betokened good management. Next day we went to a hay meadow opposite the mouth of Ground House creek, where we put up on this and adjacent meadows sixty tons of hay. We left on the twenty-fourth, camping the first night at Chengwatana. On the morning of the twenty-fifth, while passing down Kanabec river, our ears were greeted with some most horrible and unearthly noises. On turning a bend in the river we saw a large body of Indians cutting indescribable antics, in the river and on the shore, chasing each other, reeling and staggering to and fro, yelling and firing guns. They seemed a lot of Bedlamites turned out as if to dispute our passage down the river. Pass them now we must. It was too late to retreat. Our batteau was light. I was in the bow, Brewster was in the stern. The yelling and uproar grew each moment more horrible. Brewster said: "Keep the bow in the best water and pass them in a hurry." He was of great strength; every set of his pole would almost lift the boat from the water. While we were passing several guns were leveled at us, but such was the noise that if any were fired we did not hear them. We were glad when we passed out of range and hearing. While passing we caught a glimpse of the cause of the unusual disturbance, some whisky barrels, and drunken savages around them, staggering, fighting or lying on the ground in drunken stupor. Landing at Samuels' camp, we learned of him that one Myers had hidden a couple of barrels of whisky on Kanabec river, that the Indians had found them, and the jollification we had witnessed would last till the whisky was all gone. We arrived at Stillwater without further adventure.

      In July I made another visit to Prairie du Chien. The mail packet for Fort Snelling, on which I expected to return, broke her shaft and returned to St. Louis for repairs. The postmaster at Prairie du Chien offered me seventy dollars to carry the mail to the Fort, which offer I accepted. I bought a skiff, blankets and provisions, hired one man and started. We poled, paddled and rowed against a strong current, the low water compelling us to keep near the centre of the river. We arrived at Bully Wells' on Lake Pepin on the fifth evening and politely asked the privilege of stopping with him and were promptly refused. It was raining very hard at the time. We drew our skiff up on the shore, turned it over for a shelter, and crawled beneath it with the mail. As it was a cold, wet night, we suffered severely. As we were passing an island above Red Wing, the day following, we saw some Sioux Indian wigwams, and, as we had no firewater and no food to spare we kept close to the opposite shore. We were, however, observed. An Indian appeared on the shore near the wigwams and beckoned to us to cross over. We made no reply but kept steadily on our course, observing, meanwhile, that the Indian, with his gun, was skulking along through the brush, apparently bent on overtaking and waylaying us. We kept a respectful distance, and fortunately were able to increase it, but not till we were beyond rifle shot did we dare to pause for rest. That night we camped without striking a light, and next day arrived at Point Douglas. I went no further. The hardship and exposure of this trip brought on a severe illness. Mr. David Hone, at whose house I remained for two weeks, under the care of Dr. Carli, of Stillwater, took the mail to Fort Snelling. Soon as able I returned to Stillwater.

      In May of this year I had made a claim of government unsurveyed land, covering springs sufficient for a water power. While I was sick at Point Douglas, Joseph Brewster, Martin Mower and David B. Loomis formed a company to build a mill and carry on a logging business. They had agreed upon me as a fourth partner and to build on my claim; Mower and Loomis to attend to getting logs, Brewster and Folsom to build the mill. We moved to our claim Oct. 6, 1846, and went to work in earnest. We agreed upon the name of Arcola for the new settlement. The mill was not finished until April 3, 1847, at which time Brewster and Folsom sold out their interest and returned to Stillwater.

      STILLWATER IN 1846

      Living in Stillwater, Jan. 1, 1846, were the following married men: Cornelius Lyman, Socrates Nelson, Walter R. Vail, Robert Kennedy, Anson Northrup, Albert Harris, John E. Mower, William E. Cove, John Smith, and W. H. C. Folsom. Among the unmarried men were: John McKusick, C. Carli, Jacob Fisher, Elam Greely, Edward Blake, Elias McKean, Calvin F. Leach, Martin Mower, David B. Loomis, Albion Masterman, John Morgan, Phineas Lawrence, Joseph Brewster, John Carlton, Thomas Ramsdell, William Rutherford, William Willim, Charles Macey, and Lemuel Bolles.

      Here follows a list of the pioneers of the St. Croix valley, in 1846, not mentioned elsewhere: Nelson Goodenough, who became a river pilot and settled at Montrose, Iowa; James Patten, Hugh McFadden, Edwin Phillips, a millwright, an ingenious, eccentric man, who left the valley in 1848; Joseph Brewster, who left in 1848, and settled in Earlville, Illinois; Sylvester Stateler, blacksmith, who removed to Crow Wing county, Minnesota, and O. H. Blair, who followed lumbering, a man of talent, but eccentric. He died in 1878. The first school was taught in 1846, by Mrs. Ariel Eldridge, formerly Sarah Louisa Judd. The second school was taught in 1847, by Mrs. Greenleaf; the third in 1848, by Wm. McKusick. A school house was built in 1848. Rev. W. T. Boutwell, a Presbyterian minister, preached occasionally in the reception room of Northrup's hotel. Rev. Eleazer Greenleaf, an Episcopalian, came the next summer and established regular services. Prior to the organization of Stillwater, Rev. J. Hurlbut, a Methodist minister, had preached in Dakotah, St. Croix Falls and Marine, but organized no societies.

      The winter of 1845-46 was very open. All teaming business was done on wheels, except for a few days in December, in which there was snow enough for sledding. A new feature in the trade of the valley this year was the rafting and running of logs to St. Louis.

      In December, 1845, Dr. Borup, of La Pointe, and others went by ice and overland with teams to Prairie du Chien, I accompanying them. The first day we came to Point Douglas, at the confluence of the St. Croix and the Mississippi. Between Stillwater and Point Douglas, on the route we followed, some distance west of the lake, we found but one settler, Joseph Haskell. At Point Douglas there were David Hone, a hotel keeper; Hertzell & Burris, merchants, and Wm. B. Dibble, farmer. We reached Red Wing the second day. At this place lived the famous Jack Frazier, a Sioux half-breed and Indian trader, one Presbyterian missionary, Rev. – Denton, and a man named Bush. James Wells, more familiarly known as "Bully Wells," lived with an Indian squaw on the west shore of Lake Pepin, where stands the town of Frontenac. On the third day we went as far as Wabasha, on the west side, three miles below Lake Pepin, where we found several French families. We stopped at Cratt's hotel. On the fourth day we reached Holmes' Landing, now Fountain City. There were then but two houses, both unoccupied. About noon we passed Wabasha prairie, now the site of Winona. It was then covered with Indian tepees. At Trempealeau, in the evening of the fifth day, we found two French families. On the next day we reached La Crosse and found there two American families. Two days more brought us to Prairie du Chien. On the way we passed a few French families, and these, with those previously named, constituted the entire white population between Stillwater and Prairie du Chien.

      We started on our return with four two horse teams. We took the river road, passing over the ice. In our company was one Tibbetts, from Fort Crawford, and Jonathan E. McKusick, emigrating from Maine to St. Croix valley. They were a social, jovial pair. At Capilaux bluff, Dibble's team was ahead, and my team second. At this place all halted to allow the

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