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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 IV.

TRADERS AND PROSPECTORS.

The first lumbering done on Rum river was in the winter of 1848-9.  The work was done by Daniel Stanchfield, with Sumner W. Farnham as foreman of one of his two crews. The logs were cut on Stanchfield brook to the amunt of 2,200,000 feet, and driven down to the St. Anthony mill. Mr. Stanchfield found the ruins of the old camp where the soldiers had cut logs for the construction of Fort Snelling in 1821, and located one of his own camps within a hundred feet of it.

In 1846 Congress had authorized the calling of a constitutional convention in Wisconsin territory, preparatory to the admission of the state of Wisconsin into the Union.  When the convention met a number of its members wished to make Rum river the western boundary of the new state. The influential citizens of St. Paul and the St. Croix valley were alarmed at the prospect of thus becoming a tail of the Wisconsin kite, and a memorial was hastily prepared and forwarded to Washington, protesting against the proposed boundary, with the result that the St. Croix river became the western boundary of Wisconsin. A convention to represent what was left of the old Wisconsin territory was called to meet at Stillwater in August, 1848, and H. H. Sibley was elected as delegate to congress.  In this convention N. B. Ferrell and P. Flynn were admitted as delegates from "Rum river." The absurdity of their position will be appreciated when it is understood that there was probably not a single white resident anywhere on Rum river at this time, Captain Folsom having moved to Elk river and William Noot to St. Paul. The two assumed delegates lived at St. Anthony.

In the fall of 1848 or spring of 1849 Antoine Robert (pronounced Ro'-bare) established himself with his family in the Rum river trading post, and associated with him was William Dahl, who came down from Red river.

An act of Congress organizing the teritory of Minnesota was passed March 3d, 1849. St. Paul was made the capital, and Alexander Ramsey of Pennsylvania appointed governor. In April James M. Goodhue printed the first newspaper in the territory, the St. Paul Pioneer. Population poured in with every steamboat arrival. April 27th John H. Stevens, who afterward built the first house in Minneapolis (west of the Mississippi), came with a dozen of his neighbors from Rock River, Illinois. Ascending the Mississippi from St. Paul, they could find no place where they could stop for the night at St. Anthony, and were obliged to push on to Banfil's on Rice creek in order to find sleeping accommodations.

At noon the next day the party arrived at Rum river and were ferried across by William Dahl, who directed them to "the big island" (King's island) as a suitable camping place. During the afternoon members of the party searched the shore of the Mississippi down as far as Rum river for bottom lands and hay meadows. Of course they found no hay, and they shook their heads at the sandy soil over which they passed. Stevens accientally discovered some remains of Noot's farming operations the previous year, and a little search disclosed part of the crop hidden under a brush pile. The claim hunters were surprised to see such large ears of corn.

“Upon this discovery,” says Mr Stevens, “I made up my mind that the soil might be light, but if it produced such corn it was good enough for me.”

Most of the party still protested against locating on such light soil, and all but Mr. Stevens and one other returned in disgust to Illinois. And yet a more thorough investigation would have led to the discovery that one man had made $6,000 from the hay crop in that vicinity the previous year. Mr. Stevens returned to St. Paul and hunted up Noot and gave him $200 for his claim, which laid the foundation of a considerable fortune which Noot afterward acquired. Mr. Stevens, however, never received much value for his money. He cut a few logs on the island, but soon after located on the Minneapolis town site, and his rights in the King’s island property were suffered to lapse.

In the fall of 1849 John R. Bean and John Simpson established a camp on the island since called Cloutier’s island in the Mississippi opposite the present town of Ramsey, for the purpose of traffic with the Winnebago Indians. They carried on a lively trade and the next spring built a log house on the main land near the river upon what is now the farm of C. G. Richardson.

Thomas A. Holmes and James Beatty visited the trading post on the island, observed the thriving business, and determined to secure a share of the trade. They accordingly built a log house the same fall (1849) near the present station of Itaska and put in a stock of goods suitable for the purpose.

The Winnebagoes were an offshoot of the Sioux tribe, and all of the Indians were aware of that fact.

They were settled upon land which had been obtained as a concession from the Chippeways. But race prejudice was so strong among them that in petty disputes between the two large tribes they were constantly inclined to side with the Sioux. Finally a Chippeway was killed by Winnebagoes and a sanguinary conflict seemed imminent. The Winnebagoes hastily transferred their families or a large number of them from Long Prairie to Itaska, where they dug deep pits and threw up breastworks on a piece of ground covering several acres, upon what was afterward the farm of Charles E. Bowers. The spot was upon a steep bank of the Mississippi and commanded a view of the river from both directions. The earth works are still plainly visible. The trouble was finally adjusted and no battle took place.

An unfailing object of interest to new comers in the territory was the Red river cart, which was the only vehicle, and its track the only road, through hundreds of miles of the northern wilderness. This cart was a two wheeled contrivance made entirely of wood and green hides, fastened together with thongs and sinews. No iron or metal of any sort entered into its composition. Two poles from which the bark had been stripped served as thills, and between these was harnessed a pony, or more frequently an ox, always driven single. Moving in caravans of fifty to two hundred carts, in single file, fording and swimming the rivers, and following a tortuous trail at a pace set by the foremost ox, the Indians and half-breeds of the Red river country conveyed their furs and buffalo hides, tongues and pemmican to St. Paul, where traders were eager to outbid the grasping Hudson Bay Company. The sound produced by wooden wheels turning on wooden axles, without the smallest

RED RIVER CARTS AT ANOKA.

1870.

particle of grease to ease the friction, can only be compared to that proceeding from a group of swine whose lunch is half an hour overdue. Remembering that wheels, unlike pigs, are under no obligation to stop for breath, and multiplying the shrill and long drawn out wail by a hundred and upward, one may form a tolerably accurate idea of the music which heralded for miles around the approach of the Red river train. The trail ran from St. Anthony up through what is now Fridley and the town of Anoka, leaving the river near the old Jared Benson place, and striking across the prairie to the Upper Ford, where the State Insane Asylum buildings are now located. Thence it struck into what is now the river road just below where I. A. Harthorn’s house now is. During the time of the Civil War railroads began to creep over Minnesota and the Red river caravans grew shorter and less numerous, and finally ceased altogether to visit St. Paul and Minneapolis about 1868.

During the summer of 1849 the fur company whose Minnesota representative was Henry M. Rice constructed a tow boat to run above St. Anthony falls, and several trips were made by this boat, conveying a hundred bar rels of flour up the Mississippi to the company’s trading posts at each trip. The next spring a steamboat which was named the “Governor Ramsey,” was built by St. Anthony people, and made its first trip to Sauk Rapids the last week in May, 1850.

THE FIRST COLONY.

In the spring of 1850 the first colony to locate within the present limits of Anoka county made their homes in what is now the town of Ramsey. The colony consisted of Daniel Harthorn, John, Emerson and Penuel Shumway, Penuel Shumway, senior, and Cornelius Pitman, with their families and Nathan Shumway and Eber Harthorn. The two last named being single men, made the first trip to spy out the land, and Nathan Shumway erected a log house where the home of Mr. Hanson now stands (E. 1/2 N. E. 1/4 section 35). This was the fifth house built in the county. The rivers were very high. Robert’s ferry across Rum river near the mouth, had not yet progressed beyond the row boat stage, and when some of the new settlers attempted to cross, the boat was upset. Mr. Pitman, being unable to swim, came near drowning, but finally reached the shore without further damage than a thorough wetting and the loss of his hat. In June the families of the colonists arrived on the steamboat Governor Ramsey. The new comers landed opposite the present residence of I. A. Harthorn, the Mississippi being bank high at that point and proceeded to the house of Nathan Shumway. One small log house proving.rather inadequate for the shelter of eight men and six women, to say nothing of the children, some of the colonists were obliged to sleep out of doors the first few nights. The men at once began the erection of houses. Emerson Shumway built a house where I. A. Harthorn now lives (lot 4, section 34), and John Shumway built on the river bank in front of it, near what was then the steamboat landing. Eber Harthorn erected a house on what was afterward known as the F. A. Edgarton place (S. W. 1/4 section 35), Daniel Harthorn built

A PIONEER FAMILY.

Mrs. Geo. A. Foster.

Mrs. Geo. W. Branch. Mrs. S. S. Paine.

John Shumway. Mrs. John Shumway.

on the present Ridge place (W. 1/2 of N. E. 1/4, section 35), Penuel Shumway built where Herbert Wilson’s house now stands (N. 1/2 S. E. 1/4, section 35), and Cornelius Pitman built his house where his son A. I. Pitman still lives (S. 1/2 S. W. 1/4, section 25).

The first breaking for farming purposes in Anoka county consited of six acres directly in front of the present residence of I. W. Patch, and was made by Cornelius Pitman. None of the first settlers had any great amount of worldly possessions. Mr. Pitman’s account of stock disclosed a cow, a small quantity of flour, and fifty dollars in money. He procured the roof boards for his house at St Anthony and placed them in a small boat which he poled up the river.

A week after their arrival John Shumway and his wife were both taken sick with typhoid fever. The nearest physicians were at St. Anthony, and the settlers were inclined to be skeptical in regard to the qualifications of frontier physicians in general. Herself a skillful nurse, Mrs. Shumway directed as best she could the treatment which should be given in her own case and that of her stricken husband, and both, recovered.

PERMANENT SETTLEMENT.

In 1849 an energetic young man named George W. Branch found his way to Rum river, coming thither from New Brunswick. He and another man explored Rum river to its source, poling a boat up the river to Mille Lacs. The next year he returned to New Brunswick and induced his brother-in-law, Horace W. Taylor, to come to Minnesota. Taylor made a claim and built a house on the west side of Rum river north of the present railroad tracks on what was afterward known as the McCann farm, upon a part of which the driving park is now located. This was in July, 1850. When the land was surveyed Mr. Taylor found himself on a school section and moved to a point directly across Rum river, upon land now occupied by the state insane asylum, where he continued to reside until the time of his death in 1893. Taylor located at this point which was the ford ing place of the old Red river trail, thinking that a town would grow up there.

In 1850 also F. W. Traves settled in what is now Centreville. The same year Oliver H. Kelley settled in what is now Elk River a short distance above the present station of Itaska.

In the fall of 1850 three Chippeways took passage on Antoine Robert’s row boat ferry on Rum river. They had imbibed somewhat freely of fire water and declined to pay any fare. A quarrel arose in consequence, and one of the Indians stood up in the boat, threatening Robert’s life. Robert struck him a heavy blow on the head with a paddle, breaking his neck. The two other Indians sprang overboard and swam ashore. A large band of Indians were encamped not far away. Robert took the body ashore and buried it in the sand, and then hastily made his way on horseback to the home of Pierre Bottineau at St. Anthony. Several years later the skeleton of the Indian was disinterred by Dr. A. W. Giddings, who had it preserved for the purpose of an atomical study.

Robert's brother, Louis Robert of St. Paul, took possession of the trading post, put in a swing ferry on Rum river large enough to carry loaded teams, and hired a well behaved and inoffensive half breed named Logan to run it. This boat was probably put in ser vice in the spring of 1851, but from its appearance it had evidently been in use elsewhere previous to that time. At all events it was quite an old looking boat in the fall of 1851. Logan’s wife was a Menomonee squaw.

In May, 1851, Richard M. Lowell landed in St. Anthony, and in company with Simon Bean started in a batteau with supplies for the Rum river log drivers. He was frequently at Rum river and Elm creek there after, but did not make his home in this section until several years later.

In the first days of November, 1851, George W. Branch went to St. Anthony to meet a party of relatives who had come from the East. They were his sister, Mrs. Thompson, and her three children, his father, Samuel Branch, and Matthew F. Taylor, then a lad of fourteen, who had never seen anything of frontier life. The party got into a batteau, which the men proceeded to pole up the Mississippi. They had to break the ice near the head of Nicollet island in order to make the start. At Coon Rapids they were joined by Horace Taylor. It was quite dark when they reached the mouth of Rum river, and a band of Winnebagoes were hold ing a pow wow around their camp fires near Elm creek and sending out whoops that were anything but reas suring to the new comers.

George Branch bought land on the west side of Rum river running from what is now Fremont street northward to Division street. Samuel Branch took the claim immediately north of Horace Taylor’s claim, afterward owned by John Broadbent and now included in the insane asylum grounds. As soon as he was of age Matthew F. Taylor took up the farm in the town of Dayton where he still lives.

The first white child born within the limits of Anoka county, so far as known, was Fernando Shumway, a son of Penuel Shumway, Jr., who was born March 22, 1851. His mother died July 9, 1851, and Rev. Charles Secomb from St. Anthony preached her funeral sermon. This was the first sermon in the county.

Land on the west side of Rum river had been purchased by Henry M. Rice. His brother Orin Rice broke the land for a crop and in 1852 built a substantial house Of hewn logs on what is now the southwest corner of Ferry and Fremont streets (lot 7, block 45). This was the second house built within the present city limits of Anoka. Many years later it was moved to another lot near by and covered with modern siding. A few years ago it was torn down. The third house was begun shortly after by George W. Branch. It stood on the north side of Main street about half way between Ferry street and the bridge, about where C. J. Edgarton’s grocery now stands. This building developed into a hotel of considerable dimensions. Branch sold it while still unfinished, and it was kept as a hotel by Silas Farnham in 1854 and later years, and known as the Farnham House. Still later it was known as the St. Lawrence Hotel and finally as the Kimball House. It was destroyed by fire Aug. 23, 1870.

Another hotel, also known as the Kimball House, was soon after erected near the same site on the corner of Ferry and Main streets. This second Kimball House was also burned some years later.

In the spring of 1852 Logan wanted to move away, and made arangements with George Branch to take the ferry off his hands. During that summer the ferry was run during the day by Samuel Branch and during the night by Matthew Taylor. Most of the traffic consisted of the suupply trains of Borup & Oakes. The drivers never paid anything, the ferriage being charged up to the company. When they came back with empty

MATTHEW F TAYLOR.

wagons they usually forded the river in order to save the ferry charge. In the fall of 1852 came Jacob Strout and took up the farm so long owned by Aranda Giddings in the town of Anoka. He lived in some sort of a shanty during the winter, meanwhile hauling lumber for a more substantial dwelling, which he erected the following spring. About the middle of October, 1852, came Rev. Royal Twitchell with his wife, and a son and daughter, Humphrey B. and Lois C. They moved into the old trading post. The same autumn Jacob Milliman arrived and took a claim on the east bank of Rum river above that of Samuel Branch. Fifty Indians camped that fall among the burr oaks standing between the site of the State Bank and the river.

During this year a settlement was made in what is now Centreville. The Centreville lakes had long been a paradise for hunters and trappers, but no permanent dwelling had been erected until the arrival of F. W. Traves in 1850. In the spring of 1852 came Francis Lamott, and in the fall Charles Peltier, Peter Cardinal and F. X. Lavallee. These four settled in section 23. Joseph Houle lived there during the same year, but did not make a claim until some years later. During the winter Oliver Dupre arrived and the next year came Paul and Oliver Peltier.

In 1852, also, Charles Miles settled on the present site of Champlin.