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
He built here a two story log court house, which, the county failing
to pay for, was left upon his hands. He kept a trading station, was
clerk of the county court and county commissioner. He filled several
offices of trust and was by far the most important and universally
serviceable man in the new county of St. Croix. In 1843 he left
Dakotah, and returning to Gray Cloud, continued his Indian trade at
that point and further west by means of branch houses. He was a member
of the territorial Wisconsin legislature two sessions at Madison. He
returned to Stillwater in 1848, left again in 1849, and in 1850
removed to St. Paul, where, in 1852, he purchased of Mr. Goodhue the
_Pioneer_, then the leading Democratic paper of the Territory. Mr.
Brown was chief clerk in the Minnesota territorial legislature during
the sessions of 1849, 1850 and 1851. In 1854 and 1855 he was a member
of the territorial council. In 1857 he was a member of the Democratic
wing of the constitutional convention. During his residence in St.
Paul he was interested in building up the town of Henderson, to which
place he ran a stage line from St. Paul. About this time, also, he
busied himself with the invention of a steam wagon, calculated to
traverse the western plains and drag after it trains of cars.
Financial and other difficulties prevented the completion of his
design, which, however, he never entirely abandoned during the
remainder of his life. In fact he went East in 1870 expressly to get
his invention perfected, but from this journey he never returned. He
died somewhat suddenly in New York in that year.
Mr. Brown was a man of iron will and muscular frame. He owed but
little to schools, but was a close observer of men and of the times in
which he lived. He was a genial companion and true friend, and a man
of honorable principles. His was a rugged but generous nature. He was
public spirited, far seeing and far reaching in his plans. He believed
in the great Northwest. He predicted its future greatness as a wheat
growing and agricultural country, and, as far back as 1839, predicted
that a great city would rise at the head of Lake St. Croix or at the
Falls of St. Anthony. Yet so little schooled was he in the wisdom of
the speculator that he sold the property in St. Paul now known as
Kittson's addition, and worth several millions of dollars, for one
hundred and fifty dollars, and a lot on Third street, now valued at
$25,000, for a box of cigars.
PAUL CARLI.--Mr. Carli was of German and Italian descent. He was born
in Italy, July 25, 1805. His father was a merchant. He was married in
Chicago, in 1834, to a sister of Joseph R. Brown, and moved in 1841 to
the outlet of Bolles creek, on the west side of Lake St. Croix, to a
place near the site of Afton. In 1846 he was accidentally drowned in
the lake, within sight of his dwelling. His children, Joseph R. and
Maria, are residents of Stillwater.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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