Winona County, Minnesota

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: EARLY LAND TITLES

Pages 157-171
From the book
"History of Wabasha County"
Published in 1884
Concerning Wabasha and Winona Counties in Minnesota

These pages were transcribed by Steve Thornton

Following the trader, the missionary and the government employee, the town-site hunters, the pioneer land speculators, crowded the advance of civilization. In this county the town-site speculators were in the van of settlers seeking permanent homes. In the selection of town sites the traders had some advantage in securing the first choice of locations; but their selections did not always prove to be the most successful speculations. The professional town-site operators were generally more than their equals in management after selections were made and the tide of immigration began its movement.

It may first be truly said that the first town-site claimants ~ the first to secure locations for town sites in what is now Winona county ~ were the traders W. B. Bunnell and Nathan Brown. Bunnell's selection for his trading station was made more directly with a view of convenience for the special business in which he was engaged, but with the design of making it his future home. The Territory of Minnesota had just been organized, and he was aware that the time was not far distant when the Sioux would be compelled to move back and give way to the advance of the white race and civilization.

His selection was made in anticipation that when this part of the country should become settled it would be an important business point. Bunnell was familiar with the back country and with the river, and took possession of his chosen locality with the impression and an honest belief that he was securing the best steamboat landing and town site on the west side of the river, between Lake Pepin and the Iowa line, and there waited the progress of events.

Nathan Brown's trading-post was a town site. B. W. Brisbois, a trader residing at Prairie du Chine, and F. S. Richards, a trader at the foot of Lake Pepin, made choice of this locality with the same ideas of the future development of the country that had influenced Bunnell. They selected Mr. Brown as a proper person, one in whom they had confidence and considered trusty, to join with them in this speculation, and hold the location by establishing a trading station. The location was not the choice of Mr. Brown. At the time this proposition was made to him he was at St. Anthony, where he had about decided to locate himself. He consented to become a partner, but not with the design of making it his future home. By agreement they were to take his share off from his hands whenever he should choose to leave, and to pay him for holding the situation. This they failed to do when required, and Nathan Brown became a permanent resident of that locality. Brisbois and Richards furnished Brown with goods for the Indian trade, and he here carried on quite a flourishing business, principally with the Winnebagoes, who lived across the river in the Trempealeau country. his trade with the Sioux was more limited. He also engaged in furnishing wood for steamboats, employing choppers during the winter for that purpose, paying them principally from his store.

Another town site was selected by Chute and Ewing about three fourths of a mile below Brown's, in which Capt. D. S. Harris had an interest for a while. This was also a trading station. A Canadian Frenchman held the locality for about a year, when he left, and Jerry Tibbits took his place. Mr. Tibbits is still a resident of that vicinity, living in the town of New Hartford. This town site was, after two or three years, attached to the one held by Mr. Brown and its name of Catlin dropped.

This trading station Nathan Brown held for the company from 1849 to 1955, when it was duly entered at the United States land office as a town site under the name of Dacota (sic).

As a speculation it did not prove to be a successful undertaking or a profitable investment for its proprietors. A few settlers made it their home for a while, but were compelled to leave and earn a living elsewhere. Mr. Brown says he could not afford to support the settlers who located there, and bought out all who had an interest in the town and converted the tillable land into a farm.

It failed as a steamboat landing, but the railroad station, Dacota, on the river road, marks the location of the ancient town site and trading station of Brisbois, Richards, and Brown, Indian traders and town-lot speculators.

Nathan Brown yet lives on the same claim, and near the site of the cabins he built there in 1849. He has a large farm in that vicinity, and is now the oldest resident in the county or in southern Minnesota, having occupied the same locality about thirty-four years.

Mr. Brown and Mr. Bunnell came here about the same time. In conversation relative to early days Mr. Brown said: "The first time I ever saw Bunnell was in the spring of 1849. I was going down the river, footing it on the ice, on my way from St. Anthony to Prairie du Chine. Finding the traveling unsafe, I left the river at Holmes', now Fountain City, and took the trail along the bluffs. I got wet crossing the Tremealeau river, and as it was then dark I camped. In the morning, after going a short distance, I came to a cabin which I found occupied by Bunnell's family. He had been living there during the winter."

Aside from the trading stations already mentioned, there were no other settlements made or commenced in this vicinity until after the treaty with the Sioux in 1851, when the first settlement was made on Wabasha prairie.

This prairie had but little to recommend it to the attention of either the town-site hunter or settlers seeking choice locations for farms and homes in the new country which the Sioux were soon to relinquish to the whites. It was a sandy plain, apparently level as viewed from the river, and scantily covered with a stunted growth of wild grass. A few trees and bushes fringed the immediate bank of the river, while but a single tree stood on any other part of the prairie on which the city of Winona now stands. A striking contrast with its present appearance ~ covered as it now is with such vast numbers of lofty and beautiful shade-trees, giving it a resemblance to a forest, with varied thickets of undergrowth through which broad avenues and partial clearings had been made. The one lone tree was in the lower part of the city. It stood in the valley, between Third and Fourth streets, in front of where the Washington school building now stands.

In the time of high water, when the Mississippi seemed to disregard boundaries, this prairie was but an island, apparently so low and level that it was but little above the water which lapped onto its banks. A rushing torrent then flowed through the slough above, where now the embankments of the railroads form a dam. In the rear, a broad current of water, three fourths of a mile wide, separated it from the mainland.

Bunnell, the trader, living three or four miles below, had learned through the traditions of the Indians from the Sioux, with whom he was intimate and had familiar acquaintance, that the whole of Wabash prairie had been entirely submerged during some of the most extreme floods of the river.

No story was more current during the earlier days of the settlement of this locality, or told with more apparent candor and truthfulness, than that about the general overflow of high-water on this prairie. From the traditionary evidence first cited, it soon reached the stage where positive proof could be readily made. Many of the old experienced river men claimed, and positively asserted, that they had passed over the highest part of the prairie on rafts and with boats. Not to be behind in experience, steamboat men stated that they, too, had found there sufficient depth of water for any boat.

The story that steamboats had passed over may possibly have started from the fact that during the high water of 1849 a small steamboat did get aground on the lower part of the prairie. The pilot of the Lynx mistook the channel on dark, stormy night, and ran his craft out on the low land, just below where the house of Mrs. Keyes now stands. to return the boat to the river it was necessary to take everything out of her, even her boilers and the brickwork of the arches in which they were set.

It was said that during the high water of 1852 it was not uncommon to hear the raftsmen hail the residents of the prairie with, "You'd better get out o' there or you'l [sic] get drowned out. I've seen that prairie all under water." A raftsman was considered a green one if in his experience he had never seen Wabasha prairie covered with water.

Strangers ~ passengers on the steamboats ~ were commonly entertained as they approached the prairie with the stereotyped remark, "It looks like a nice place to build a town, but it overflows." The persistent repetition of such remarks was as annoying to the settlers as it was irritating to the proprietors of the embryo city plotted there.

The proprietor of a rival town site was holding forth on this subject to a crowd of passengers, as the steamboat approached the prairie from below, saying, "It is true it does look like a nice place to build a town, but, gentlemen, I have passed over the highest land on Wabasha prairie in a boat."He was here interrupted by a passenger, a resident of the prairie, the dignified and gentlemanly appearing Rev. H. S. Hamilton, who removed his hat as he stepped forward and gravely said: "Excuse me, sir, but can it be possible that your name is Noah? There is no record that any one has passed over that prairie since the days of that ancient navigator of the deep." the town-site blower was forced to retreat from the laughter of the amused crowd of passengers.

To Capt. Orin Smith belongs the credit of selecting Wabasha prairie as a location for a town site. He was the founder of the city of Winona. At that time he was a citizen of Galena, Illinois, and the captain of the steamboat Nominee, running between Galena and St. Paul. He had seen western towns spring up like magic, enriching the lucky proprietors. Land speculations and town-site operations were the most common topics of conversation among his passengers. From a desire to engage in some profitable speculation, should opportunity offer, he watched for a chance to secure a town site on the river. His observations convinced him that eventually, when the Indian title should become extinct on the west side of the river in the Territory of Minnesota, an important point must spring up, and he early comprehended that Wabasha prairie possessed the most favorable and decided advantages for the rapid growth of a large commercial town when the country should become settled.

The treaty with the Sioux in 1851 presented an opportunity which Capt. Smith at once took advantage of, although the treaty had not been ratified and the Indians were still occupying the country. He was familiar with the river, and was aware that there were but two locations suitable for steamboat landings on Wabasha prairie. One, the present levee ~ the other about a mile below. Capt. Smith was aware, from his personal knowledge (he had navigated the upper Mississippi many years), that Wabasha prairie was not subject to an entire overflow, neither had it been submerged within the traditional recollections of the "oldest inhabitants" among the whites; yet he was to a certain extent influenced by the Indian traditions, by Bunnell's opinion and by the opinions of some of the old river men of his acquaintance in his first choice of location. He selected the lower landing for his town site because the banks were higher, the shore bolder, with a good depth of water at all seasons of navigation. He was also aware that the upper landing was subject to overflow, although available and satisfactory at other times. He therefore decided to secure and control both landings.

In accordance with this plan he made his arrangements to take possession, and selected as his agent in this transaction Erwin H. Johnson, the carpenter on his steamboat, the old Nominee. He made a written agreement with Johnson to hold the two claims he had selected, for which Johnson was to have an undivided half of both claims. Capt. Smith also agreed to pay Johnson twenty-five dollars per month and furnish all necessary subsistence. Johnson was to engage in banking steamboat wood, which Captain Smith proposed to have cut on the islands opposite during the winter.

Capt. Smith landed Erwin H. Johnson from the Nominee at the lower landing on Wabasha prairie at about ten o'clock at night, on the 15th of October, 1851. He also left with him two men, employed as wood-choppers. One of these men was Caleb Nash. The name of the other is unknown; he left on the return of the Nominee down the river.

Johnson was furnished by Capt. Smith with a small quantity of lumber for a shanty, a yoke of oxen and abundant supplies of provisions and blankets. These, with Johnson's tool-chest, a few necessary tools, a bucket or two, an iron pot, a bake-kettle, an iron spider and a few dishes, comprised the entire outfit.

They camped for that night on the beach where they landed, and slept under a few boards which they laid against the bank above. the next day they built a small cabin on the same locality where they had passed the night. This structure was about 10 X 12, with a shed roof sloping toward the bank. The back end of this cabin was the bank against which it was built. A fireplace was formed in one corner, a hole above in the lower part of the roof afforded exit for the smoke. the material used for this fireplace was the brick thrown from the Lynx when aground about half a mile below in 1849.

This shanty, as it was called, was the first "claim shanty" put up on Wabasha prairie. It stood on the beach, below the high bank of the river, nearly in front of where the planing-mill of the Winona Lumber Company now stands. Johnson built a stable for the oxen on a bank ten or fifteen rods back from the river. This was made of poles and covered with coarse grass from the bottoms. In the absence of any other means of conveyance a crotch of a tree was used as a sled to transport such things as the oxen were required to haul. Johnson afterward built a rough sled for his use in banking wood on the island during the winter.

Not long after Johnson's arrival on Wabasha prairie another town-site speculator made his appearance in this locality. On the 12th of November, 1851, Silas Stevens, a lumber dealer in La Crosse, landed from the Excelsior at the upper landing, about where the L. C. Porter flouring-mill now stands. With him came Geo. W. Clark, a young man in his employ, and Edwin Hamilton, a young man from Ohio, looking for a chance to speculate in claims, who had been induced to come up from La Crosse, where he had been stopping for a short time.

Mr. Stevens brought with him lumber for a shanty, a cooking stove, and a liberal supply of provisions, blankets, etc. It was about eleven o'clock at night when this party left the steamer Excelsior. Mr. Stevens was aware that Capt. Smith had made a claim here and placed a man on it to hold possession, and the party at once made search for his cabin. The night was intensely dark, and they were compelled to hunt for some time before they found Johnson. His locality was unknown to either of them. Mr. Stevens had a few days before been up the river as far as Bunnell's landing, and from the bluff above had seen some men and a yoke of oxen on the lower end of the prairie, but no cabin was in sight.

Fortunately, by following down the bank of the river, they discovered the shanty and were furnished by Johnson with the best accommodation the cabin afforded, ~ a bed of hay on the floor where all slept together, covered with blankets. Johnson had not then completed his shanty. He afterward improved the interior by putting up a shelf or two to hold his supplies and dishes, and two double berths, one over the other in one corner. These were made of poles, his supply of lumber was insufficient. For comfort these berths were filled with dry prairie-grass, covered with blankets.

This party took breakfast with Johnson before beginning the business of the day. Up to this time the question of boundaries to their claims had not been considered either by Capt. Smith or Johnson. Capt. Smith had simply proposed to claim the two landings, with at least 160 acres of prairie in each claim, and as much more as they could control. It now became necessary to have their boundaries more accurately defined.

Mr. Stevens had come up for the express purpose of securing one of the landings, not being aware that Capt. Smith proposed to hold them both through Johnson, who he supposed was only an employe, without an individual interest in the matter. Mr. Stevens expected to take possession of and hold the upper landing through an employe of his own, Mr. Clark, who had come for that purpose. He was somewhat surprised to find that Johnson had already laid claim to it, with the approval of Capt. Smith, but no improvements had been made. Not being of an aggressive nature, Mr. Stevens hesitated to take advantage of this and take possession without Johnson's consent, which he could not obtain.

After a general consultation, in which the whole party participated, it was finally agreed that the land along the river should be divided into "claims" of half a mile square, and that Johnson should have the first choice of two of the claims, one for Capt. Smith and the other for himself.

Accordingly, on the morning of November 13, 1851, the first claim-stakes were driven on Wabasha prairie, and the first defined claims made within what are now the boundaries of Winona county. the stake agreed upon as the starting-point was driven on the bank of the river below the present residence of Mrs. Keyes. From this stake a half-mile was measured off with a tape-line up the river, where another stake was driven. This half-mile was chosen by Johnson for Capt. Smith and was called "Claim No. 1." The next half-mile measured off up the river bank was called "Claim No. 2." This was at once chosen and claimed by both Stevens and Nash.

Mr. Stevens expected that claim No. 2 would be awarded to him. He had been influenced by the recommendations and persuasions of Capt. Smith to come up and select a claim to hold possession, and he now supposed that after Smith and Johnson he was entitled to the next choice; but he was again disappointed, and again gave way to Johnson's decision in the matter. Nash, supported by and under the instructions of Johnson, claimed it by seniority as a settler. He had been a resident on the prairie about three weeks, and claimed the land by his rights of first discovery.

The next half-mile, claim No. 3, was assigned to Mr. Stevens. It could hardly be called his choice. Claim No. 4 was awarded to Johnson as per agreement. The next half-mile, claim No. 5, was selected by Edwin Hamilton, who claimed precedent. He had seen the prairie some weeks before from the deck of a steamboat while on a trip up the river with Mr. Stevens. No farther measurements were made at this time, but the next half-mile was duly awarded to George W. Clark, the junior settler and the last of the party. No one disputed his rights to claim No. 6.

These claims, made as described, were afterward designated by the numbers then given and by the names of the persons to whom they were awarded by this party until after the government survey of the public lands in this part of the territory. The township lines were surveyed in 1853, but the subdivisions were not completed until 1855.

The following copy of a lease is presented as documentary evidence to show that these claims were generally known by the numbers given, and also as a relic of early days in this locality.