Fifty Years In The Northwest: With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And NotesFolsom, William H. C. (William Henry Carman)
History
Fifty Years In The Northwest: With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes
Folsom, William H. C. (William Henry Carman)
Minnesota -- History; Wisconsin -- History
The correction lines of the government survey had been run in 1846-7,
chiefly in the latter year. Township, range and section lines were run
in 1847, and in the early part of 1848. Prior to this claims had been
made and were held subject to the limitations of the first legal
survey. The creation of the new state of Wisconsin and the
prospective organization of Minnesota Territory, the development of
the lumbering business and the formal opening of the government lands
to entry, gave an impetus to immigration. Stillwater profited largely
by this immigration, it being an objective point. Population
increased. The village was regularly surveyed and platted in the fall
of 1848, Harvey Wilson, surveyor. Stillwater, although it never
aspired to be the future capital of the Territory, became a
headquarters for political characters and a place for public meetings
for the discussions of territorial and other public questions. It was
convenient of access, and contained up to that time a greater
population than was to be found in St. Paul, and it seemed likely to
become the commercial metropolis of the Territory.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] For the facts in this history I am indebted to John McKusick,
Jacob Fisher, Elias McKean, and Elam Greely.
CHAPTER III.
BIOGRAPHIES.
JOSEPH RENSHAW BROWN, one of the best known of the pioneers, came to
Dakotah, Schulenberg's addition, in 1839. For items in his history I
am personally indebted to him. He was born in 1805, and, when old
enough, apprenticed to a printer. On account of ill treatment he ran
away and enlisted in the United States army at the age of fourteen
years, serving as a drummer boy. He came with the army to the
Northwest Territory in 1819. After enlistment he made his first home
at Gray Cloud on the Mississippi, where he married a half-breed woman.
Wisconsin history says she was the daughter of Robert Dickson, Indian
trader and friend of the English in 1812. He learned and spoke the
Chippewa and Sioux languages fluently. In 1839 he founded the town of
Dakotah, at the head of Lake St. Croix, and erected some log
buildings. Through his influence, in part, St. Croix county was
organized, and the county seat located in Dakotah.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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