LITMIR.BIZ

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of liquoring up, which was done at the rear team. Dibble, in going back, left his team unfastened, and while he was "smiling" with his jovial companions the team ran away. The horses soon broke loose from the sled. One horse made for the shore, the other plunged into an air hole in the ice. The entire company rushed to the rescue, and with ropes and poles managed, at last, to float the horse upon the ice in an unconscious condition. All the whisky left by the "smiling" throng was poured down the horse's throat, but in vain. The animal was dead. No other event of interest occurred except some difficulties experienced in the transportation of the first cat ever brought to Stillwater. "Tom" was caged in a narrow box, and the confinement so chafed his proud spirit that he sickened and at one time was reported dead. At the inquest held over his remains by Capt. McKusick, signs of life were discovered, and by liberal blood-letting the cat was restored to consciousness and lived several years afterward, a terror to the rats in Stillwater.

      STILLWATER IN 1847

      For about a year the writer had been officiating as justice of the peace with but little official business, but now and then a marriage to celebrate. On one occasion I walked to Marine to marry W. C. Penny to Jane McCauslin. The marriage was celebrated at Burkelo's boarding house. The wedding supper consisted of cold water and cold pork and beans. The following morning I did not wait for breakfast but returned to Stillwater as I had come, on foot. Another day I rode to Bissell's Mounds and united in marriage John Kenny and a mulatto woman. Friend Kennedy threatened to disown me for thus aiding miscegenation. "Such things are intolerable," he said, but from aught I have ever known to the contrary the couple were well assorted.

      TERRITORIAL ELECTION

      On the sixth day of April an election was held for the ratification or rejection of the constitution adopted by the late territorial convention for the anticipated state government; also a resolution relative to negro suffrage, and an election was ordered for sheriff. The vote resulted as follows:

      For the constitution, 65; against, 61. For equal suffrage to colored persons, 1; against, 126. For sheriff, Walter R. Vail, 58; W. H. C. Folsom, 72.

      There were five precincts that held elections – Stillwater, St. Paul, Gray Cloud, Marine, and St. Croix Falls.

      I immediately gave bonds and qualified as sheriff, and the same day took charge of two criminals, Chippewa Indians, who had been committed by me for murder, while acting as justice. I had previously deputized Ham Gates to take care of them. While in Stillwater they were confined in the basement of the post office building. Their names were Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma. The latter was the son-in-law of Nodin. They were very obedient and tractable, and I treated them kindly, for which Nodin repeatedly told me he would show me a copper mine on Kanabec river. Nodin died not long after his trial, and before he could redeem his promise. The copper mine is yet undiscovered. Fort Snelling was, at that time, the receptacle for criminals in this region, and to the Fort I carried these prisoners with a team, – Ham Gates being driver, – unshackled, unbound, my only weapon a pistol without a lock. In May I summoned jurors and visited Kanabec river to procure witnesses in the case against Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma for the murder of Henry Rust. The first night I stopped with B. F. Otis, on the St. Croix, where Taylors Falls is now situated. On the second day I crossed the river and proceeded up the east side to Wolf creek, thence crossing to the west side, up as far as Sunrise river. There was no inhabitant, Samuels having vacated his shanty. I crossed the river with great difficulty. The water was high, the current was strong and swift, and I could not swim. I found a fallen tree, partly under water, cut a pole, waded out as far as I could into the current, and then by the aid of the pole floated down some distance, until by pawing and splashing I was able to reach the other shore. That night I stopped with an old Indian trader, Mr. Connor, who, with his Indian wife, welcomed me to his bark shanty, divided into rooms by handsome mats, and made me quite comfortable. He had plenty of good food, and entertained me besides by a fund of anecdotes, incidents in Indian history, and adventures of traders, trappers and missionaries in the Lake Superior and St. Croix region. He was a very intelligent and genial man. Next day I went to Russell's farm, paddled a canoe to Ground House river, and traveled thence on foot to Ann river, where I found the parties of whom I was in quest, Greely, Colby, Otis and others, a jolly log driving crew, with whom I spent a very pleasant evening. On the return journey, about two miles above the mouth of Ground House river, I saw the ruins of the trading house in which Henry Rust was killed. Rust, at the time of his murder, was selling whisky for Jack Drake. Rev. W. T. Boutwell gives the following account of the murder: "In the winter of '46 and '47 I visited the camps of Kent & True and Greely & Blake. On one occasion I met Rust, and asked him to come and hear me preach. He did not attend. On this day I preached at three camps. On the following night, at Greely's camp, came a midnight visitor with word that Rust had been shot. Seventy-five men armed themselves with all kinds of weapons, proceeded to the scene of the tragedy, removed the body of Rust and all valuables from the house, knocked out the heads of two whisky barrels and fired the house, the whisky greatly aiding the combustion. I removed the body to Pokegama and buried it there. Forty men attended the funeral. They held a meeting and resolved to clear the country of whisky. They commenced by destroying two barrels of it for Jarvis. He begged hard for his whisky, saying he was a poor man, and in debt to Frank Steele at Fort Snelling. The response was, 'Out with your whisky,' and it was destroyed before his eyes. The whisky of two other trading stations followed. For a brief period there was peace, but the whisky soon put in an appearance again."

      The first term of district court held in Minnesota, then Wisconsin, was convened in Stillwater, the county seat of St. Croix county, June 1st. It was held in the upper story of John McKusick's store, southwest corner of Maine and Myrtle streets, Hon. Charles Dunn presiding. The session lasted one week. The bounds of St. Croix county then included Crawford county, Wisconsin, on the south, Brown county, Wisconsin, and the Lake Superior country on the east, the region as far as the British possessions on the north, and to the Mississippi river on the west. The jurors were found within a circuit of a hundred miles.

      The grand jury was composed of the following gentlemen:

      Jonathan McKusick, J. W. Furber, J. L. Taylor, W. R. Brown, Chas. Cavalier, J. A. Ford, Hazen Mooers, C. Lyman, C. A. Tuttle, Hilton Doe, Elam Greely, Martin Mower, Jr., Edward Blake, W. B. Dibble, Harmon Crandall, Jerry Ross, James Saunders, Joseph Brown, J. R. Irving, J. W. Simpson, John Holton, Pascal Aldrich, and Albert Harris.

      Joseph R. Brown acted as clerk of court, Jonathan E. McKusick as foreman of the grand jury, and Morton S. Wilkinson as prosecuting attorney.

      The attorneys present were: M. S. Wilkinson, of Stillwater; A. Brunson, of Prairie du Chien; Ben C Eastman, of Platteville, Crawford and Frank Dunn, of Mineral Point. There were but few civil cases. Nodin and Ne-she-ke-o-ge-ma were indicted for murder, tried and acquitted on the ground that the killing was the result of a drunken brawl.

      This season, in addition to attending to my duties as sheriff, I went to St. Louis with a raft of logs. The steamer War Eagle, Capt. Smith Harris, towed through the two lakes, St. Croix and Pepin, a fleet containing ten acres of logs. During the winter of 1847-8, I was engaged in logging. It was difficult to get supplies to the pineries before the swamps were frozen over. This season my goods were taken by batteaus from Stillwater to Clam lake.

      AMUSEMENTS. – SOCIETY BALL IN STILLWATER

      A writer in the Stillwater Lumberman, April 23, 1877, gives a sketchy account of an old time ball, from which we select a few items:

      Anson Northrup kept what we called a first class hotel. If a man had blankets he could spread them upon the floor and sleep till the bell rang. If he had none he spread himself on the floor and paid for his lodging by tending stove and keeping the dogs from fighting. It was one of the aristocratic rules of the house that a man who slept in blankets was not to be disturbed by dogs.

      At one time our popular landlord got up a ball. He sent round a copper colored card, – a half-breed Indian boy, – to tell all the folks to come. Everybody was invited. At the appointed hour they began to assemble. Soon all in town arrived except one Smith. Frequent inquiries were made for Smith, and at last a deputation was sent to inquire the cause of his absence; when it transpired that he had broken his leg. He said he was helping the landlord roll a barrel of whisky from

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