CHAPTER XII.
CHISAGO COUNTY.
LOCATION--SURFACE--SCENERY.
Chisago county, located on the west bank of the St. Croix river,
between the counties of Pine on the north and Washington on the south,
the St. Croix river on the east and the counties of Isanti and Anoka
on the west, presents an agreeable variety of surface, upland and
generally undulating, covered with hard and soft wood timber, well
watered by lakes and streams. Its principal streams are the St. Croix
and its tributaries, Rush and Sunrise rivers and Goose creek, and its
principal lakes are Chisago, Sunrise, Green, Rush, and Goose lakes.
Its lake scenery is unsurpassed in beauty. The county takes the name
of its largest and most beautiful lake. In its original, or rather
aboriginal, form it was Ki-chi-sago, from two Chippewa words meaning
"kichi," large, and "saga," fair or lovely. For euphonic
considerations the first syllable was dropped.
CHISAGO LAKE.
This lake is conspicuous for its size, the clearness of its waters,
its winding shore and islands, its bays, peninsulas, capes, and
promontories. It has fully fifty miles of meandering shore line. Its
shores and islands are well timbered with maple and other hard woods.
It has no waste swamps, or marsh borders. When the writer first came
to Taylor's Falls, this beautiful lake was unknown to fame. No one had
seen it or could point out its location. Indians brought fish and
maple sugar from a lake which they called Ki-chi-sago Sagi-a-gan, or
"large and lovely lake." This lake, they said, abounded with "kego,"
fish.
In 1851 the writer, with Bart Emery, made a visit to this beautiful
sheet of water. We found it what its Indian name imports, "fair and
lovely water." The government had, the year before, completed a survey
of the lake, and it was high time that it should be given a name by
which it should be designated on the map and recognized by civilized
visitors. What name more beautiful and appropriate than that which the
Indians had already given it. That name we at once recognized and used
all our influence to perpetuate under somewhat adverse influences; for
Swedish emigrants having settled in its neighborhood, a strong effort
was made to christen it "Swede Lake," but the lake is to-day known as
Chisago, and Chisago it is likely to remain. We believe in the policy
of retaining the old Indian names whenever possible. As a rule they
are far more musical and appropriate than any we can apply. The
Indians have left us their lands, their lakes, their streams; let us
accept with them the names by which they were known. Some have been
translated into English and appear on the maps as Goose, Elk, Beaver
and Snake. By all means let us retranslate them in memory of the race
that once owned them.
DALLES OF ST. CROIX.
Chisago county shares with Polk county in the ownership of the wildest
and most peculiar scenery in the valley of the St. Croix. At Taylor's
Falls, the head of navigation, the river flows between ledges of trap
rock, varying in height from fifty to two hundred and fifty feet, for
the most part perpendicular, but wildly irregular, as is common in
trap rock formations. These ledges are crowned with pine trees and a
dense undergrowth of bushes and vines. The prevailing color of the
rock is a cold or bluish gray, but broken occasionally by brilliant
patches of coloring, red, yellow or green, as they may be stained by
oxides of the metals, or covered with lichens and mosses. This
formation is known as "The Dalles," sometimes improperly styled
"Dells." The rocks composing it are porphyritic trap, an igneous rock
forced upward from the interior of the earth through crevices in the
crust while still in a liquid state and then solidifying in masses,
sometimes prismatic but oftener in irregular polygons, and broken by
parallel lines of cleavage. Some geological experts claim that these
rocks are "in place" as forming a part of the original crust of the
earth, but the balance of evidence seems to be in favor of their
having been erupted at a comparatively modern period. This is
evidenced by the presence of water-worn boulders and pebbles, imbedded
in the trap, somewhat like plums in a pudding, while it was yet
plastic; and now forming a species of conglomerate as hard and compact
as the trap itself. These rocks are supposed to be rich in copper and
silver, and miners have spent much time in prospecting for these
metals.
Whatever the origin of the rocks, it is conceded that they were once
plastic, at which time this region could not have been a safe or
pleasant dwelling place for such beings as now inhabit the world. The
theory of a comparatively recent eruption of these rocks is not a
pleasant one, for the suggestion forces itself upon the mind that that
which has been, at least in recent times, may occur again. The
occasional recurrence of earthquakes on our western coast, and the
recent severe disturbances in South Carolina and Georgia, raise the
query whether this region may not again be visited with an outburst
and overflow of trap, terrible and destructive as the first. The
foundations, however, seem firm enough to last forever. The rocks are
of unusual hardness, and the crust of the earth is probably as solid
and thick here as elsewhere. The Dalles proper are about one mile in
length. The river, in its passage through them, varies in width from
one hundred and fifty to three hundred feet. It was formerly reported
unfathomable, but in recent years, owing to a filling up process
caused by the debris of the log drivers, it is found to be not more
than a hundred feet in its deepest place. The river makes an abrupt
bend about a bold promontory of trap known as Angle or Elbow Rock. To
the first voyageurs this seemed to be the end of the river, and gave
rise to the story that at this point the river burst out of the rocks.
Much of the frontage of the rocks upon the river is smooth and
perpendicular, and stained with oxides of iron and copper. In places
it is broken. The upper rocks are disintegrated by the action of rain
and frost, and, where far enough from the river, have fallen so as to
form a talus or slope of angular fragments to the water's edge.
[Illustration: THE DEVIL'S CHAIR.]
THE DEVIL'S CHAIR.
There are some instances in which, by the breaking away and falling of
smaller rocks, larger rocks have been left standing in the form of
columns. Most notable of these are the "Devil's Pulpit," and the
"Devil's Chair." The former, owing to surrounding shrubbery, is not
easily seen. The latter is a conspicuous object on the western shore
of the river a few rods below the lower landing. It stands on the
slope formed by the debris of a precipice that rises here about 120
feet above the river. Its base is about 40 feet above low water mark;
the column itself reaches 45 feet higher. It is composed of many
angular pieces of trap, the upper portion bearing a rude resemblance
to a chair. It is considered quite a feat to climb to the summit. The
face of the rocks is disfigured by the names of ambitious and
undeserving persons. The nuisance of names and advertisements painted
upon the most prominent rocks in the Dalles is one that every lover of
Nature will wish to have abated. To spend an hour climbing amongst
these precipices to find in some conspicuous place the advertisement
of a quack medicine, illustrates the adage: "There is but one step
from the sublime to the ridiculous."
THE WELLS.
A more remarkable curiosity may be found on that bench or middle
plateau of the Dalles, lying between the upper and the lower Taylor's
Falls landings, in what has been not inaptly styled "The Wells." These
are openings, or pits, not much unlike wells, in places where the trap
is not more than 50 feet above water level, varying in width from a
few inches to 30 or 40 feet, the deepest being from 20 to 25 feet.
These seem to have been formed by the action of water upon pebbles or
boulders, much as "pot holes" are now being formed in the rocky
bottoms of running streams. The water falls upon the pebbles or
boulders in such a way as to cause them to revolve and act as a drill,
boring holes in the rock proportioned to the force of the agencies
employed. Some of these boulders and pebbles, worn to a spherical
shape, were originally found at the bottoms of these wells, but have
been mostly carried away by the curious. Some of the wells are cut
through solid pieces of trap. The walls of others are seamed and
jointed; in some cases fragments have fallen out, and in others the
entire side of the wells has been violently disrupted and partly
filled with debris. The extreme hardness of the trap rock militates
somewhat against the theory of formation above given. It is, however,
not improbable that this hardness was acquired after long exposure to
the air.
SETTLEMENT AND ORGANIZATION.
In the history of St. Croix Falls mention has been made of some of the
pioneers of Chisago county. St. Croix Falls and Taylor's Falls, the
pioneer settlement of Chisago county, though a river divides them
which is also the boundary line of two states, have much that is
common in their early history. The inhabitants were always greatly
interested in what was going on over the river. We may add, that
although they now stand in the attitude of rival cities, their
interests are still identical, and we believe that, but for the unwise
policy of making St. Croix river a state line, they might be to-day
under one city government, and as compact and harmonious as though no
St. Croix river rolled between them. The river is their joint
property; both have the same heritage of trap rocks and pines, the
same milling privileges, the same lumbering interests, and, it must be
confessed, they remain up to the present time about equally mated. J.
R. Brown was unquestionably the pioneer of the settlement. Frank
Steele says he found J. R. Brown trading, in 1837, on the spot now the
site of Taylor's Falls.
He was not, however, the first white man upon the soil. There is some
documentary evidence of the establishment by the French of a fort
forty leagues up the St. Croix some time between the years 1700 and
1703. This fort was in all probability erected on the plateau below
the Dalles, the distance given, forty leagues, being exaggerated after
the fashion of the early voyageurs. It was called Fort St. Croix.
There was also a prehistoric settlement, the ruins of which the writer
noted as early as 1851, on the school land addition to Taylor's Falls.
These were the foundations of nine houses, plainly visible. Over some
of them trees two feet in diameter were growing. The rock foundations
ranged in size from twenty to thirty feet, with the hearth containing
ashes underlying the debris of ages, on smooth hearthstones showing
years of service, being apparently a century old. These were the
homes, undoubtedly, of a civilized people, and we may claim for
Taylor's Falls, Chisago county, one of the first improvements made by
whites in the limits of Minnesota.
During the last half of the last century a prominent trading post was
established and maintained for many years on the St. Croix river,
which was founded by Pierre Grinow, and during the close of the last
century it was in the charge of one James Perlier, who afterward
became one of the most useful citizens of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Lawrence Barth was also here in 1793. The evidence of the existence of
this trading post rests upon traditions and the ruins referred to.
Recurring to the pioneer Brown, the most irrepressible of all the
advance guard of civilization, we find him only a transient
inhabitant. He stayed long enough to cut 200,000 feet of pine logs
from the present site of Taylor's Falls, when the neighborhood lost
its attractions. These were the first pine saw logs cut in the St.
Croix valley.
In 1838 a French trader, Robinet, was located at the same place, but
in the summer of the same year came Mr. Jesse Taylor from Fort
Snelling where he had been following the business of a stonemason. He
had heard of the ratification of the Indian treaty by Congress, and he
greatly coveted some of the rich lands brought into market by that
treaty. Mr. Taylor, with an Indian guide, came to the Dalles of the
St. Croix. As Mr. Steele had already claimed the east side, Mr. Taylor
concluded that he would claim the west side. Returning to Fort
Snelling he reported to an associate, Benjamin F. Baker, formed a
partnership and returned with men, boats, provisions and building
material, but on his return to the falls he found Robinet, the trader,
in a bark shanty (at the present junction of Bridge and River
streets). Robinet was in actual possession of the coveted acres.
Robinet having no other function than that of a trader, and
consequently having no serious designs on the lands was easily bought
off, and Baker & Taylor, in August, 1838, commenced improvements,
building a log house, a blacksmith shop, a mill, and commencing a mill
race which had to be blasted. They also built piers and a wing dam
just above the present location of the bridge. The mill was located at
what has since become the upper steamboat landing. Mr. Taylor named
the lower falls Baker's falls, and the settlement, Taylor's Place.
When the town was platted, in 1850, it was called Taylor's Falls. The
name came also to be applied to the lower falls.
The mill enterprise was a melancholy failure. The builders were not
practical mill men. The improvements were expensive. The work of
blasting rock and building made slow progress. There was no income as
long as the mill was in process of building. In the midst of these
embarrassments, in 1840, Mr. Baker died. Mr. Taylor took entire
possession with no other right than that of a squatter sovereign. In
1843 Mr. Taylor sold the unfinished mill to parties in Osceola, and in
1844 everything movable was transferred to that place. The double log
cabin remained, and there Mr. Taylor lived for eight years on the
proceeds of the sale, performing in all that time no work more worthy
of the historian's notice than fixing his name upon the settlement and
falls. Many of the later residents query as to why it was ever called
Taylor's Falls. It takes a keen eye to discover any fall in the river
at the point named. The falls indeed were once far more conspicuous
than they are now, owing to the fact that a large rock rose above the
water at the ordinary stage, around which the crowded waters roared
and swirled. That rock, never visible in later days, was called Death
Rock, because three hapless mariners in a skiff were hurled against it
by the swift current and drowned.
The old log house, the sole remnant of the Baker and Taylor project,
if we may except some holes in the rock made by blasting, and some
submerged ruins of the wing dam and pier, has passed through various
changes. It has been used as a store, as a boarding house, as a
warehouse, as a church, as a school house, and as a stable. Part of it
still remains and is habitable. It is located on lot 18, block 15. In
1846 Jesse Taylor sold his claim to Joshua L. Taylor for two hundred
dollars. This claim, like most of the claims made prior to the survey
of government lands, was not accurately defined. It included, however,
all the lands, on the west side of the river, extending northward to
the St. Croix Company's claim, at the upper falls, and including the
present site of Taylor's Falls.
Aside from mill building, nothing was done in the way of improvements
until 1846, when Jerry Ross and Benjamin F. Otis commenced farming on
what was subsequently known as the Morton and Colby farms. Both raised
potatoes and garden vegetables and built houses. This was the first
cultivation of the soil in Chisago county. In 1847 Mr. Otis sold his
improvements to Wm. F. Colby, who, in that year, raised the first corn
grown by white men in the county. In 1846 Thornton Bishop commenced
improvements on a farm at the head of the rapids, six miles above
Taylor's Falls. J. L. Taylor, in 1848, built a pre-emption shanty
midway between the upper and lower falls. In 1849 he proved up his
pre-emption to lots 5, 6 and 7, section 30, township 34, range 18. N.
C. D. Taylor pre-empted the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter
of section 25, and the west half of the same quarter section; also lot
1, section 36, township 34, range 19.
In 1849 Lewis Barlow and Wm. E. Bush became citizens. An abstract of
the canvassed returns of an election held November 26th shows but six
votes in the settlement. In 1850 W. F. Colby pre-empted the northeast
quarter of section 25, township 34, range 19, and W. H. C. Folsom the
southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the same.
At a regular meeting of the St. Croix county board, held at
Stillwater, April 2, 1850, the following judges of election were
appointed within the present limits of Chisago county: St. Croix Falls
precinct, Wm. F. Colby, Wm. Holmes, N. C. D. Taylor; Rush Lake
precinct, Levi Clark, Walter Carrier and Richard Arnold. At a meeting,
held Oct. 7, 1850, the petition of Lewis Barlow and ten others, of St.
Croix Falls precinct, was presented, asking for a special election, to
elect two justices of the peace. Their petition was granted. The poll
was: Wm. E. Bush, one vote; John H. Reid, six votes; Ansel Smith, five
votes. Reid and Smith were declared elected. The first survey of town
lots was made in 1851, by Theodore E. Parker, of Stillwater, and under
this survey the village was legally established as Taylor's Falls. The
first deeds recorded in Chisago county were transcripts from
Washington county of lands consisting of town site property, dated
1851, conveyed to W. H. C. Folsom by J. L. and N. C. D. Taylor.
The movement for the organization of a new county from the northern
part of Washington commenced in the winter of 1851-52. A formidable
petition to the legislature to make such organization, drawn up and
circulated by Hon. Ansel Smith, of Franconia, and the writer, was duly
forwarded, presented and acquiesced in by that body. The writer had
been selected to visit the capital in the interest of the petitioners.
Some difficulty arose as to the name. The writer had proposed
"Chi-sa-ga." This Indian name was ridiculed, and Hamilton, Jackson,
Franklin and Jefferson were in turn proposed. The committee of the
whole finally reported in favor of the name, Chisaga, but the
legislature, in passing the bill for our county organization, by
clerical or typographical error changed the last "a" in "saga" to "o,"
which, having become the law, has not been changed.
The eastern boundary of the county was fixed as the St. Croix river;
the southern boundary, the line between townships 32 and 33; the
western, the line between ranges 21 and 22, for three townships south,
and the line between ranges 22 and 23 for the remaining townships
north. To show how little was known of the geography of the section we
refer to the record of the county commissioners of Washington county,
dated Dec. 15, 1848, at which St. Croix district, the present Chisago
county, was established as "bounded on the north by Sunrise river and
on the west by line between ranges 21 and 22"--an utter impossibility,
as the Sunrise river flows in a northerly direction entirely through
the county and at its nearest point does not come within three miles
of the range line mentioned.
The election for the first board of county officers was held at the
Chisago House, Oct. 14, 1851. Twenty-three votes were polled at this
election. The following officers were elected: Commissioners, Samuel
Thomson, chairman; N. C. D. Taylor, Thomas F. Morton; clerk of board
and register of deeds, F. W. Abbott; treasurer, W. H. C. Folsom. The
bill establishing the county provided that "the seat of justice of the
county of Chisago shall be at such point in said county as the first
board of commissioners elected in said county shall determine." In
accordance with this law, at the first meeting of the commissioners,
held at the office of N. C. D. Taylor in Taylor's Falls, Jan. 5, 1852,
the town of Taylor's Falls was chosen as the county seat, "agreeable
to the Revised Statutes, chapter 1st, section 14th."
As the population of the county increased the project of moving the
county seat to a more nearly central position was agitated. In 1858 a
vote was taken which resulted in favor of its removal to Centre City.
The matter of the legality of the vote was referred to the court, and
decided by Judge Welch adversely, on the ground that a majority of the
voters of the county had not voted. The county seat consequently
remained at Taylor's Falls. In 1861 another vote was taken by which
the county seat was removed to Chisago City, and there it remained
under somewhat adverse circumstances. Chisago City having but a small
population and no conveniences for such a purpose, and being for
several years without even a post office, repeated efforts were made
for another removal, until in 1875 a vote to remove it to Centre City
carried. In January, 1876, the records were removed. The county
authorities issued $5,000 bonds for a court house which was erected on
a point of land extending into Chisago lake, a beautiful situation.
The bonds have been paid and the county is without indebtedness, and
has a surplus of about $10,000.
The town of Amador comprises two eastern tiers of sections of township
35, range 20, and two fractional sections of township 36, range 20,
fractional township 35, range 19, and one fractional section of
township 36, range 19. The St. Croix river forms its boundary on the
north and east. The surface is undulating. The western and southern