1855

First Installment of Minnesota Lands Offered for Sale. "...it was not till 1855 that the first installment of lands, 1,178,003 acres in the extreme southeastern corner of the state, was offered for sale. The pioneers of the day, however, had no troublesome scruples, and they continued to swarm over the thirteen counties west of the Mississippi River in the region of the lower Minnesota." A History of Minnesota, Vol. I, p. 354

A Flood of Immigration Pours Into Minnesota. "It was not, however, till the spring of 1855 that a flood of immigration, perhaps without precedent, poured into Minnesota. Navigation opened on April 17 with the arrival of the War Eagle, bringing 814 passengers. The packet company brought thirty thousand that season, clearing one hundred thousand dollars. The hotels of St. Paul were so overcrowded that people had to encamp in the streets. If we may trust to the political arithmetic of Minnesota's first and very capable statistician, Joseph A. Wheelock, there must have been forty thousand people in the territory by the close of 1855." A History of Minnesota, Vol. I, p. 359

119 Steamboat Arrivals at St. Paul from the Minnesota River Valley. "...the Minnesota River became the scene of a lively navigation. In 1855 there were 119 steamboat arrivals at St. Paul from that river." A History of Minnesota, Vol. I, p. 361

The Town Site of St. Peter Entered at Land Office. "In the spring of 1855 the town site, then consisting of 319 acres, was entered by Judge Chatfield, at the land office in Winona, in trust, under the provisions of the act of 1844, for the members of the St. Peter company and those to whom they had sold lots." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 650

"The first store [in St. Peter] was built in May, 1855, by J. R. Gardner." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 651

"The first school was taught in the summer of 1855, by Mrs. Mundy, in a small shanty which was situated near the residence of W. B. Dodd." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 655

"In the first years of the existence of the company they would contract with any responsible persons to donate lots on condition of their being built upon and occupied within a certain reasonable specified time. Each corner and adjoining lot, however, was reserved fby the company...

"On February 6, 1855, a contract was entered into by the company with James M. Winslow to erect and completely finish a building for a hotel which should be three stories in height above the basement, and to be of such size, form and description as would correspond with the specified height, to be built of stone and contain at least thirty rooms, of such size and capacity as shell be well calculated for the accomodation of guests, for convenience, and in accordance with the modern style of architecture. The company agreed to furnish all the stone free of expense, and to make to Winslow, when the title was obtained from the government, a deed of one-half of the block on which the house was to stand, and, furthermore, to pay him the sum of $2,000 in cash, in four equal payments of $500 each, on the completion of a story of the house. The hotel was completed at a cost of $19,000, and opened in October, 1855, by S. L. Wheeler. It was continued for about a year by Mr. Wheeler, and afterwards by Daniel Birdsall...

"In March, 1855, it was ordered that each member of the company be requested to build a house in St. Peter the ensuing spring, it being understood that each member who built was to have the lot on which he built donated to him; in accordance therewith, W. A. Gorman. Wm. L. Ames, C. H. Parker, Thomas W. Coleman, G. W. Farrington, G. K. Swift, A. F. Howes and H. L. Moss agreed to proceed forthwith to erect houses." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 652

"The first birth of white child in St. Peter occurred February 4, 1855, it being that of P. D. Wheeler, son of Sheldon L. and Margaret S. Wheeler. To celebrate this event, the company donated a lot, in trust, for his son, to the father. The second born white child was Willis Gorman Dodd, son of Captain W. B. Dodd, who, also, had deeded to him a lot. The first marriage was between M. K. Wright and Mary E. Hunter. The event took place on July 4, 1855. The first death was that of a pauper, an unkown man who committed suicide." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 652-53

Fort Ridgely is Complete. "By 1855 Fort Ridgely was complete, although the original plans for the post had been altered. Only the commissary and barracks were built of stone, while the remaining structures were of wood; no stockade was built, and no well was ever dug." They kept the door shuut...Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, a Minnesota Historical Society pamphlet

"The fort itself...presented problems to defenders. Completely devoid of a stockade, the post was merely a collection of detached and unfortified buildings. The chief ones, grouped around a parade ground ninety yards wide, included a large two-story stone barracks on the north side, a one-story commissary at the northwest corner, two-story frame buildings serving as officers' quarters on the east and west sides, and the commandant's and surgeon's quarters on the southwest corner. Behind the barracks to the north stood a row of log houses for civilian employees and a small log hospital. Stables for the horses lay across the New Ulm road to the south. Ammunition magazines stood out on the prairie two hundred yards northwest of the fort. To the west near the road to Redwood Ferry were the cutler's house and other outbuildings." The Sioux Uprising of 1862, p. 25

"Fort Ridgely soon developed into a self-sufficient community, although from 1853 to 1861 never more than 300 soldiers and civilians lived there at any time." They kept the door shuut...Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, a Minnesota Historical Society pamphlet

Flandrau and the Post Office in New Ulm. "It was as a lawyer that Flandrau had his first contact with the citizens of New Ulm, a tie that was to develop over the years into a warm mutual friendship. The town was founded in 1854-55 by members of German colonization societies from Chicago and Cincinnati. Under the law, Flandau recalled, a town site could only embrace 320 acres, but the projections of New Ulm laid out an immense tract comprising thousands of acres. Many of the settlers had not taken any steps toward becoming American citizens, which was a necessary preliminary to preëmption, and everything among them was held in a kind of common interest, the Cincinnati society furnishing the funds. It was not long before they discovered that they needed legal advice in their venture, and called on me to regulate their matters for them.

"In the practical way of the frontier, Flandrau as deputy clerk of the court always carried the seal and naturalization papers with me, so that I could take the declaration of intention of anyone who desired to become an American citizen anywhere I happened to find him, on the prairie or elsewhere. In this way I qualified many of the Germans for preemption, and took them by the steamboat load down to Winona to enter their lands. I would be furnished with a large bag of gold to pay for the lands, and sometimes...I would work off forty or fifty preemptions in a day. The lawyer added, I became such a necessary factor in the building of the town that, if any difficulty occurred, even in the running of a mill which they erected and ran by the accumulated water of many large springs, I was immediately sent for to remedy the evil.

"One of the things, Flandau was called upon to remedy was the lack of a post office in New Ulm. This he did in 1855 with the help of Henry M. Rice, a fellow Democrat who was at the time Minnesota Territory's representative in Congress. I at once wrote to Mr. Rice to give the new settlement a postoffice, said Flandau. It was not long before I received an answer, which contained the postmaster's commission, his bond for execution, a key for the mail bags, and all the requisites. Inviting some friends to accompany him, Flandau set out for New Ulm to open the new office with appropriate ceremonies. On the way the group stopped to pick up Francis Baasen, Minnesota's first secretary of state, who had a claim about two miles below the town, where the ferry crossed the Minnesota River at Redstone.

"The New Ulm people were a very social lot, and my visits to the town always included a good deal of fun, explained Flandau, so I concluded to make a special event of the establishment of the new postoffice...Baasen had been appointed a notary public, and was provided with large business-like envelopes and formiable red seals, so Flandau decided to write a letter to Anton Kaus (Flandrau always spelled it Kouse), who had been chosen postmaster, and sign it with the name of Franklin Pierce, President of the United States. He then enclosed the letter in one of Baasen's large envelopes, and we all drove up to the house of Mr. Kouse, and called him out. I stood up in the wagon, and made him a speech, Flandau went on, informing him of the creation of the office, and that I had his bond and commission and a letter to him from the president of the United States, which I was instructed to deliver to him in person, and I added that it was customary on such important occasions for the newly appointed postmaster to propose the health of the postmaster general.

"Kouse rushed into his house, and appeared with a brown jug and a tin cup, from which we all drank a bumper to the health and prosperity of the postmaster general, the town of New Ulm, and...the postoffice...was a reality. Flandau added that he never learned whether Kaus caught on to the joke, or whether he has cherished the executive letter as an heirloom for his posterity." Charles E. Flandau and the Defense of New Ulm, pp. 14-15

First Settlers in Granby Township. "The first settlers in [Granby]...were James Doot, Sr. and family, coming in May, 1855. His two oldest boys, Simon and Almond C., located near Swan Lake. Joseph Searles and the Anderson brothers arrived soon after." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 693

First Settlers at Norwegian Grove. "As early as 1855 a party of Norwegians, Ole Aestenson, Gunder Nereson and Swenke Torgerson [see 100th Anniversary Norseland Lutheran Church, p. 4] settled near a grove in the northern part of the [New Sweden] town, naming the locality Norwegian Grove. History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 690

Winnebago Settled on the Blue Earth Reservation. "...in 1855 the scattered bands of Winnebago were finally located on their Blue Earth Reservation." A History of Minnesota, Vol. IV, p. 193

Chippewa Indians of the Mississippi, Pillager and Winnibigoshi Bands. "...by a treaty of February 22, 1855, the Chippewa of the Mississippi and the Pillager and Winnibigoshish bands gave up their rights of occupancy to a great central tract stetching from the Swan River to the Red and from the mouth of Crow Wing to Rainy River."A History of Minnesota, Vol IV, p. 191

"Five months later [in February 1855] there was negotiated at Washington a second treaty with the chiefs of the Chippewa of the Mississippi and other bands, by which they surrendered an immense area in northern Minnesota, stetching from the base of the triangle to the Red River of the North, and from the latitude of the mouth of the Crow Wing River to that of Turtle Lake, plus a considerable triangle west of the Big Fork River with a narrow apex on the Rainy River. The total area of this cession was more than half that of the Suland. Just as the acquisition of 1854 was a miners' proposition, so that of 1855 was a lumbermen's. About the included headwaters of the Mississippi and the Crow Wing were the best stands of pine timber in the territory. The two treaties were indeed parts of one scheme. Both provided for annuity payments in money and goods and liberal presents of guns, ammunition, and clothing; for payments of traders' claims; for preemption of quarter sections of land by missionaries, teachers, and other legal residents; and for eighty-acre grants of land to mixed-bloods. They also forbade the making, sale, and use of spirituous liquors on the lands ceded. This prohibition in the earlier treaty was to continue until revoked by the president; in the later treaty, until revoked by Congress. In both, reservations were made for residences of the Indians, the most considerable being those about Leech, Cass, Winnebagoshish lakes. After these acquisitions there remained in the hands of the Red Lake and Pembina bands a large region, roughly quadrilateral, in the extreme northwest part of the territory; and in the hands of the Bois Fort band, an area of about one hundred townships between the Vermilion and the Big Fork, north of the cession of 1855." ." A History of Minnesota, Vol I, pp. 306-7

"By the treaty of 1855 reservations were established for the Mississippi bands on Mille Lacs, Rabbit Lake, Gull Lake, Sandy Lake, Rice Lake, and Lake Pokegama; and for the Pillsger and Winnibigoshi bands on Cass Lake, Leech Lake, and Winnibigoshish. The Mille Lacs tract proved to be within the boundaries of the cession of 1837 instead of that of 1855., but the reservation was set up; and the Rice Lake tract fell within the limits of the Sandy Lake Reservation." A History of Minnesota, Vol IV, p. 192

Road Building Invites Settlement Away from the River Fronts. "The moneys appropriated by Congress for road-building were distributed by the legislature as impelled by existing interests, and the highways thus opened served to unite the scattered settlements and to expedite a primitive commerce. Military roads constructed by the general government, such as those from Point Douglas to Fond du Lac, from Point Douglas to Fort Ripley and thence to the Red River of the North, from Mendota to Wabasha, and from Mendota to the Big Sioux River, invited settlement away from the river fronts into the interior." A History of Minnesota, Vol. I, p. 361

1856

Territorial Legislator Charles E. Flandrau. "In 1856 [Charles E.] Flandrau was elected as a Democrat to a two-year term in the Council, the upper house of the territorial legislature. He represented the tenth district, which then included the counties of Brown, Le Sueur, Steele, Fairbault, Blue Earth, Nicollet, Sibley, Pierce, and Renville." Charles E. Flandrau and the Defense of New Ulm, p. 17

Charles E. Flandrau Appointed Indian Agent. "On August 16, 1856, President Pierce appointed [Charles E.] Flandrau to the post of United States Indian agent for the Upper and Lower Minnesota Sioux. By character, temperament, and background the lawyer -- now twenty-eight years of age -- was well equipped to discharge the duties of this position during a tense period in Indian affairs. He became agent at a time when the last Sioux bands were moving to the new reservations that had been provided for in the treaties of 1851. In this difficult transition the Sioux relinquished their spacious ancestral lands, which encompassed most of southern Minnesota, and with some reluctance took up residence in a narrow strip of reservation bordering the upper Minnesota River." Charles E. Flandrau and the Defense of New Ulm, p. 15

Slow Removal of the Sioux to the Reservations. "The removal of the Sioux to the reservations began in the fall of 1853, but proceeded so slowly that Flandrau's predecessor as agent, R. G. Murphy, reported in 1856: Three of the upper bands still remain off the reserve, and in the midst of white settlement." Charles E. Flandrau and the Defense of New Ulm, p. 15

St. Peter Company Obtains New Organization From Legislature. "The first post-office was established in 1856, with George Hezlep as postmaster. The office for some time was situated in the store of J. R. Gardner, who was acting postmaster." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 654

"In February, 1856, several lots were sold." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 653

"On March 1, 1856, a new organization was effected and a charter obtained from the territorial legislature. The corporators were then H. F. Howes, Henry A. Swift, George Hezlep, T. B. Winston, H. L. Moss, Wm. L. Ames, George W. Farrington, Wm. B. Dodd and Joseph Dailley. The capital stock was fixed at $100,000 with power to increase..." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, pp. 650-51

"The legislature of 1856 passed an act, along with others of the kind, to incorporate the St. Peter Company, which was to have power to erect buildings in Le Sueur and Nicollet counties. The measure went through without suspicion being aroused that a plot of revolutionary proportions lay concealed in it." A History of Minnesota, Vol. I, pp. 381-82

A Great Land Boom. "Such a tide of immigration, as flowed in during 1855 and 1856, to say nothing of the high birth rate, could not fail to have its effect on business. There was little need, if any, of an export demand for produce salable at the gate of the farm or at the door of the shop. Furs, ginseng, and cranberries seem to have been the principal commodities as yet shipped down river. Money in the shape of Indiana wildcat bills and the like, was none too plentiful, and the demand for it was so great as to carry interest up to three per cent a month and to five where notes were not paid at maturity. One conservative Pennsylvanian who had come to St. Paul refused at first to lend at that high rate, believing that no honest business could stand it. He finally ventured a small loan to a real estate dealer, who bought land of the government at $1.25 per acre and sold it at $2.50 to another, who in turn disposed of it at $15.00, all within a brief time." A History of Minnesota, Vol. I, pp. 362-63

Griswold Family Is Impressed By the Land Boom. "On an early October morning in 1856, Harriet Griswold left her New England home in Somers, Connecticut, to travel to the wilds of Minnesota. Carrying her baby in her arms, and with her three older children around her, she set forth with her husband, Allen. They went north by stage or carriage to Springfield, Massachusettes, and then by train past places familiar to the generations who followed her -- Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, west to the Mississippi River, to the end of the railroad where the steamboat Golden Era took them up the river to St. Paul. It was indeed a golden era they were in search of as they reached for the American dream of riches from speculation in the unclaimed lands of the West. And they were not the first.

"Never mind that all their worldly possessions, having been sent the cheaper way by water were probably lost in a gale on the Great Lakes. Forget that Harriet and two of her children were sick. The important thing was that land was selling well and, as speculators, they could expect some of the riches to come to them. They were not dreaming an idle dream. Minnesota was in the midst of a land boom. True tales of 300 percent profits were commonplace. In her first letter home, Harriet relayed the good news in staccato language, echoing the bulletins from Western Union: Allen...is quite pleased with the investment in lots at Cambridge says they are selling rapidly it is thought the land office will be removed there next spring. The land office would bring more settlers in its wake, raising prices still further." Forgotten Persephones, Minnesota History, 50/4 Winter 1986, pp. 135-36

The Harkin Family Settles in West Newton. "How do you tell a complete stranger that you have just married his daughter? How do you explain that for a honeymoon you are taking her, a Glasgow girl born and bred, halfway across the American continent to homestead in a place called Minnesota on the border of Indian territory? How do you begin to say these things.?

"Alexander Harkin may well have asked himself these questions when, on May 4, 1856, a week after he had married Janet Crawford in Andover, Massachusetts, he sat down to write a letter to his new father-in-law in Glasgow, Scotland. All things considered, the letter does credit to Alex, an earnest and miable young man who was an employee of the West Amesbury [Massachusetts] Manufacturing Company, a teacher in the West Amesbury Congregational Sabbath School, and a member of the Young Men's Praying Circle.

"Dear Father, "I suppose or rather expect that you will look a little astonished when your Eye rests on this sheet...I know that you will be wanting to know who I am & what I am writing to you for & more especialy why it is that I call you Father. Well then that is very easily explained, so I will go at it & explain it in as few words as possible. Well then in the first place, I am a native of Old Scotland. I left it a little over 6 years ago for the purpose of finding me a home on the Continent of America, & these six years have I been in search of it & so while searching for it, I became acquainted with your Daughter Janet, & after a long acquaintance with each other we finally concluded that I should call you Father & thus give you the Privilige of Calling me Son. So after all these preliminaries we now live together as husband & wife, & now Dear Father...though Mountains & seas divide us Bodily yet Spiritualy we can mingle together & especialy when we morning & evening Surround the throne of our -- Father God -- there can we remember each other, there can we plead for the Blessing of Heaven on each other...& now father though you & I have never had the pleasure of seeing each other & talking on this subject...your daughter & myself...have done nothing rashly., we have taken into consideration a great many things Before entering upon our new relation of life, & now today May 5 -- we Start this evening on a Journey of nearly three thousand miles into the interior of the country -- Minnesota Territory is now to be our destination. There we intend making our home. I have procured a farm on which we will live leaving Factories & Factory Bells far Behind. But now for the present I will close, promising to [write] you again as soon as we get settled down in our new home. Till then I must Bid you goodbye. Your affectionate Son Alexr Harkin"

"Born in Melrose, Scotland, to Janet Thompson and Barney Harkin on May 1, 1928, Alex -- known to his family as Sandy -- was not the first Harkin to turn emigrant. Barney Harkin apparently had set and example for his children by leaving his own birthplace in Donegal County, Ireland, as a young man and settling in Scotland. There he made a modest living as a general contractor specializing in road building and excavation work. All three of his sons emigrated from Scotland to seek their fortunes in the United States. Henery, the eldest, set sail in December, 1847, followed by Barney, junior, in February, 1848, and Alex, the youngest, in April, 1850. An unmarried daughter, Catherine, remained at home in Scotland to care for her widower father.

"Despite their various travels, the Harkins appear to have stayed in touch with one another. Indeed, Barney was largely reponsible for bringing Alex and his bride to Minnesota Territory. As a soldier stationed at Fort Ridgely, Barney had been impressed by the rich farming opportunities of the Minnesota Valley. Here, he wrote Alex in 1855, is a large Territory inviting the Laborer to Cultivate and it will yield him one hundred fold of all that is necessary for his maintenance, and he need not be wandering about the world asking A Brother worm to give him leave to toil.

"After two weeks of traveling by railroad, steamboat, and team and wagon, Alex and Janet reached Fort Ridgely on May 22, 1856. Within three days of their arrival, they moved onto a farm which Barney had apparently already picked out for them in West Newton, a tiny farming settlement on the north bank of the Minnesota River abouthalfway between Fort Ridgely and New Ulm. I have at present, Alex later wrote to his farther-in-law, only one hundred & thirty three acres of land -- inferior to none & superior to most of the land in Scotland. It is of a rich Black loam varying from one to four feet deep. I have about 55 or 60 acres of timber land...the remainder...is all clear -- as clear of every appearance of brush or trees as any single lea field in Scotland...In general the prairie is as fine pasturage as you ever saw -- yielding the finest of natural hay -- & it is not as some imagines overspread with swamps -- no it is generally speaking fine dry land. But it takes from 3 to 5 yoke of Cattle to plough it the first time, after that it is as easily ploughed as a garden." Alexander Harkin, Dealer in Dry Goods and Groceries, pp. 5-10

Swan and Dakota Cities Laid Out in Nicollet Township. "Several villages have been laid out; Swan City, in 1856, on section 5; Dakota City the same year opposite Judson; at both places a store was kept for a time, and at the latter a sawmill was built by W. H. McNutt." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 676

Joel B. Kennedy Settles in Nicollet Village. "Joel B. Kennedy was born July 25, 1831, in Warren, Ohio, where he learned printing, and remained until twenty-three years old. Then worked at his trade in Marion, Iowa, until 1856, at which date he settled in Nicollet, and soon after built the Half-Way House, of which he was proprietor until 1880..." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 678

Johannes Johnsen Odegaard Arrives in the Norseland Community. "Among the arrivals in the community in 1856 was Johannes Johnsen Odegaard with his family, who came with others from Coon Prairie, Wis., to the new settlement. The preponderance of opinion today is that to him shall go the credit for the founding of the [Norseland Lutheran] congregation." 100th Anniversary Norseland Lutheran Church, p. 4

The First School in Lake Prairie Township. "The first school [in Lake Prairie township] was taught by James Lamm in the fall of 1856. in a claim shanty on section 29..." History of the Minnesota Valley, Nicollet County, p. 669

Coon Prairie Congrgation's Income From 3 November 1855 and 1856. "The following interesting table provides a list of all the heads of families and owners of property, together with the few unmarried who then were members of the [Coon Prairie] congregation (those who had moved away were not included). It also shows the assessed value of their property together with the sum each should pay. Their earlier paid subscription was included in the payment of the total tax."

"An account of the treasurer's income, the member's payments made after the foregoing assessment, with the contributions made after the subscription, and that which came in during the preceding account, deducted from this assessment." Coon Prairie, pp.75-77

Note: the editor selected the two names above from a list in the book which contains 102 names.