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HISTORY OF ANOKA COUNTY 

and the Towns of Champlin and Dayton

in Hennepin County Minnesota

By Albert M. Goodrich

Minneapolis

Hennepin Publishing Col. 1905

Transcribed by MaryAlice Schwanke

CHAPTER 1.

PREHISTORIC.

The ancient inhabitants of North America generally known as Mound Builders have left numerous traces of their existence in Anoka county and vicinity, but among these there are no ruined fortifications, such as exist in some parts of the country. This would seem to in dicate the absence of enemies and perhaps a somewhat sparse population. Where the population was denser, as along the Mississippi a few hundred miles farther south, there have been found some elaborate defensive works.

The mounds which are found in this county are all constructed near a lake or a river, and seem to have held a place in some sacerdotal ceremony. One mound stands near the shore of Round lake in the town of Grow. Another mound covered with sturdy oak trees stands near the western shore of Boot lake in the town of Linwood. Several other mounds are found in Centreville. Two mounds were found in Champlin - one of them near the mouth of Elm creek. In Isanti county there is a chain of nine mounds. Most of these mounds have been opened and found to con tain skeletons of human beings as well as various relics of the past. The early settlers questioned the Indians in regard to these mounds, but here, as elsewhere, the latter denied all knowledge of their origin. The Indians did, however, sometimes use the mounds as burial places for their own dead. The Indian skeletons are usually not difficult to distinguish from those of the Mound Builders, as they are usually not deeply interred and are frequently accompanied by trinkets or old gun barrels, indicating traffic with white people.

The idea that the Mound Builders were of the same race as the Indians seems to be gaining ground, but it is evident that their mode of life was totally different from that of the great majority of Indians existing in the United States at the time of the advent of the white race. We seem no nearer to fixing even an approximate date for this ancient semi-civilization than were those explorers who first noticed the earth works a century and a half ago. We can do little more than guess how the Mound Builder, without any beast of burden or knowledge of wheelbarrows, heaped up the earth, toiling up the slope with a basket on his back; what rites he celebrated upon the summit to propitiate the gods of the lake or stream; what quantities of the corn he tilled were taken from him by a ruling caste; and how at last the gathering; tribes of the wilderness-barbarous but free-smote this incipient civilization to its downfall.

THE FIRST WHITE MEN.

The first white men known to have visited the land included in the present state of Minnesota were two French traders, Medart des Groselliers (pronounced Gro-zay-yay') and his brother-in-law, Pierre Radisson. Groselliers kept a diary of his travels, but on one occasion his canoe was upset and the record lost. Whether these two men ever set foot in Anoka county is not certain, but at all events they were very near it. In 1659 they journeyed from Quebec to La Pointe (now Bayfield) on the south shore of Lake Superior, after ward visiting the Huron villages between the Black and Chippewa rivers in what is now Wisconsin. They then made their way to the Sioux villages in what is now Kanabec county, Minnesota, where they spent the winter. They are also known to have crossed the Mississippi river not far from St. Anthony falls, either on this expedition or a few years later.

In 1662 they returned to Quebec, where their account of their explorations excited a great deal of interest. In 1668 Groselliers and Radisson piloted an English vessel into Hudson’s bay in the hope of discovering the long sought Northwest passage to the Pacific. This expedition led to the formation of the Hudson Bay Company in 1670.

In 1665 a French priest, Father Claude Allouez, visited the western shores of Lake Superior and car ried back to Quebec the knowledge of a great river which the Chippeways called “Messipi.” At this time the Ojibways or Chippeways, as they were universally called by the white settlers of later days, lived around the shores of Lake Superior and the other great lakes. Minnesota soil was almost wholly the “land of the Dacotahs” or Dakotas, as they called themselves. Their hostile neighbors, the Chippeways, called them Nad ouessioux, which the white traders speedily shortened to Sioux (Soo), and by this name they continue to be popularly known, despite all attempts to revive the name Dakota.

In I679 Daniel Greysolon Du Luth entered Minnesota by way of Lake Superior to trade with the Indians and make explorations. The following spring Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest, and two companions, who had been sent by La Salle to explore the upper Mississippi, discovered St. Anthony Falls. The falls may have been seen by Groselliers and Radisson, but at all events it was Hennepin who made them known to the outside world.

According to Hennepin’s account he and his companions, Michael Ako (or Accault) and Picard Du Gay, were captured by a war party of about 120 Sioux while preparing a meal on the bank of the Mississippi somewhere below Lake Pepin. Not being able to understand a word of the Dakota tongue, they came near being murdered. But finally their captors decided to spare the lives of the three white men and to take them home and make slaves of them. The Sioux villages were at Mille Lacs. The red men and their captives paddled up the Mississippi to “within five or six leagues” of St. Anthony Falls, where the Indians hid their own canoes in a creek, destroyed the canoe belonging to the white men, and made the remainder of the journey on foot, much to the disgust of Hennepin, who nearly perished from fatigue on the way. He says: “Eight Leagues above the Fall of St. Anthony we met with the River of the Issati or Nadouessians [Rum river], which is very narrow at the mouth. It comes out from the Lake of the Issati [Mille Lacs], lying about seventy Leagues from its Mouth. We called this River The River of St. Francis; and it was in this place that we were made Slaves by the Issati.”*

Shown as a footnote *English edition of Father Hennepin’s Travels, London, 1698

The portioning out of the newly made slaves and most of their belongings probably took place within the present limits of Anoka county - possibly in Isanti county. The Indians made the division here because they lived in villages at considerable distances apart, and those who lived farthest on were anxious to make sure of their portion before the nearest villages were reached. Otherwise the other Indians, reinforced by their friends at home, might claim the lion’s share.

The Isantis were a branch of the Dakota tribe. The captives arrived at Mille Lacs some time in May, 1680, and remained there until early in July, when they accompanied a party of Indians who were going down the Mississippi on a buffalo hunt. This time they camped opposite the mouth of Rum river on the present site of Champlin, and found the hunting in the vicinity very poor. Hennepin says: “Four Days after our Departure to hunt the Wild Bulls the Barbarians made a Halt some eight Leagues above the Fall of St. Anthony of Padua, upon an Eminence over against the River of St. Francis. The Savage Women prepar’d little Docks to build the new Canow's in, against the return of those who were gone for Bark. The Youth in the mean time went out to hunt the Stag, the Wild-Goat and the Castor [beaver]; but with so little Success that the Prey they brought home was so disproportionable to the Number that were to feed on’t, that we had hardly every one a Mouthful. Happy the Man that once in four and twenty Hours cou’d. get so much as a Sup of Broath.

 Shown as a footnote *English edition of Father Hennepin’s Travels, London, 1698

“This put the Picard and my self upon hunting after Gooseberries, and other wild Fruits, which often did us more harm than good. * * * This extreme Want made us take a Resolution, upon Michael Ako’s refusing to accompany us, to venture ourselves in a little sorry Canow as far as the River Ouiseonsin, which was at no less distance from us than 130 Leagues, to see if the Sieur de Salle had kept his Word with us; For he had promised us positively to send men with Powder, and Lead and other Merchandizes, to the place which I have already mentioned: And of this he assured me more than once before his departure from the Illinois.”

The account goes on to describe the trip to the Wisconsin river, which was accompanied by many hardships and ended in disappointment, as no trace of any of La Salle’s men could be found. However, after returning some distance up the Mississippi, the two white men fell in with the Sioux, who had had a successful hunt on the Buffalo river. After this Hennepin says the Indians descended the Mississippi about eighty leagues, hunting. as they went. On July 28th they were much surprised to learn that there were five other white men in the vicinity. The strangers came where Hennepin and his party were, and proved to be Du Luth and his companions, who had made a portage from a branch of the St. Louis river to a branch of the St. Croix river, and by following the St. Croix to its mouth had reached the Mississippi. Du Luth was anxious to see the country of the Isantis, and all of the eight white

FATHER HENNEPIN'S PICTURE OF A BUFFALO. Doubtless the first ever made.  Probably drawn in England under his direction. From the English edition of Father Hennepin's travels printed in 1698.

men accompanied the Sioux back to Mille Lacs. Here, according to Hennepin’s narrative, was gathered the first crop sown by white men in the far west. He says: “We arrived at the Villages of the Issati on the 14th of August, 1680, where I found my Chalice very safe, with the Books and Papers which I had hid under ground, in presence of the Savages themselves. These Wretches had never had so much as a thought to meddle with them, being fearful and superstitious in relation to Spirits, and believing there is Witchcraft in every thing they cannot apprehend. The Tobacco which I planted before our Departure, was half choak’d with Grass. But the Cabbage, and other things which I had sown, were of a prodigious growth. The Stalks of the Purslain were as big as Reeds: but the Savages were afraid so much as to taste them.”

Towards the end of September an agreement was made with the Indians that the white men should return to Canada and make arrangements for a trading station somewhere on the Mississippi. At first the Indians were inclined to send some of their tribe with the explorers, but on reflecting that the route lay through the country of their enemies, the idea was abandoned. Hennepin says: “In fine, Ouasicoude, their chief Captain, having consented to our Return in a full Council, gave us some Bushels of Wild-Oats [wild rice], for our Subsistance by the way, having first regal’d us in the best manner he cou’d, after their fashion. We have already observ’d, that these Oats are better and more wholsom then Rice. After this, with a Pencil, he mark’d down on a sheet of Paper which I had left, the Course that we were to keep for four hundred Leagues together. In short, this natural Geographer described our Way so exactly that this Chart serv’d us as well as my Compass cou’d have done. For by observing it punctually, we arrived at the Place which we design’d, without losing our way in the least.

“All things being ready, we disposed ourselves to depart, being eight Europeans of us in all. We put ourselves into two Canows, and took our leaves of our Friends, with a Volly of our Men’s Fusils, which put them into a terrible Fright. We fell down the River of St. Francis [Rum river] and then that of the Meschasipi. Two of our Men, without saying any thing, had taken down two Robes of Castor, from before the Fall 0f St. Anthony of Padua, where the Barbarians had hung them upon a Tree as a sort of Sacrifice. Hereupon arose a dispute between the Sieur du Luth and my self. I commended what they had done, saying, The Barbarians might judge by it, that we disapproved their Superstition. On the contrary, the Sieur du Luth maintan’d, That they ought to have let the things alone in that Place where they were, for that the Savages wou'd not fail to revenge the Affront which we had put upon them by this action, and that it was to be feared lest they shou’d pursue and insult us by the way.”

However, no ill results followed from the indiscreet conduct of the men, and the whole party reached the Wisconsin river in safety. From the Wisconsin they made a portage to the Fox river, and floated down the latter to Green Bay. On account of the ice they found it necessary to pass the winter at Machilimachinac (Mackinaw) strait. In the spring Hennepin and his two original companions made their way through the great lakes by canoe to the Niagara river and thence to Fort Frontenac on the eastern end of Lake Ontario, which was at that time the extreme western outpost of the French government in Canada.

In 1685 De la Barre, then governor of Canada, sent Nicholas Perrot with twenty men to the upper Mississippi. They spent the winter on the bank of the river above the present site of La Crosse, and in the spring built Fort St. Antoine on the east shore of Lake Pepin. Like all the early western forts, it was not a very formidable affair - a log house, surrounded by a stockade. The next year Perrot was with Du Luth at the Detroit river assisting in preventing English traders from entering the country west of Lake Michigan. In 1689 he returned to Lake Pepin and took formal possession of the country in the name of the king of France, but the same year Frontenac became governor of Canada, and the small garrison at Fort St. Antoine was ordered to be withdrawn.

In the year 1700 Pierre Le Sueur, who was probably with Perrot on Lake Pepin in 1689, ascended the Mississippi river from the Gulf of Mexico with about twenty-five men in a long boat provided with sails. He visited St. Anthony falls, and proceeded up the St. Pierre [Minnesota] river to the vicinity of the present site of Mankato. He built a fort on the Blue Earth river, which he named Fort L’Hullier, and drove sharp bargains with the Sioux who came to exchange furs for knives, tobacco and bullets. In the spring he loaded canoes with two tons of bluish-green mud, under the impression that it was copper ore, and transported it to the mouth of the Mississippi, whence it was shipped to France. The next year (1702) Fort L’Hullier was abandoned on account of the failure of supplies to reach the garrison and the hostility of the Sioux.

During the first half of the Eighteenth century French traders frequently traversed the upper Mississippi valley, and Lake Pepin continued to be a favorite trading place. Exploration in the north was pushed to Rainy lake, to Lake of the Woods, and finally to Red river, where a fort was built in 1738. The English had established flourishing agricultural colonies along the Atlantic coast. But the French had been more successful in gaining the friendship of the Indians, and the lucrative trade in furs was falling more and more into French hands. Most of the French traders took Indian wives, partly for safely and partly because there were no white women in the country in which they passed their lives. The half-bloods born of these marriages took naturally to the trade of their fathers, and cemented the ties which bound the Indians to the French. New France had spread not only over the valley of the St. Lawrence and the borders of the great lakes, but over the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio. The English-speaking settlers chafed under the growing French encroachments, and war broke out at last. Braddock suffered a crushing defeat in 1755, and his army was only saved from destruction by the energy of Washington. But the English occupation was of a more compact and solid character than that of their adversaries, and under the leadership of better generals the English cause began to mend. Quebec fell in 1759, and French supremacy received its death blow as Wolfe and Montcalm poured out their life blood on the plains of Abraham.