Fifty Years In The Northwest by William H. C. Folsom

RAMSEY COUNTY. Ramsey county, named in honor of Gov. Ramsey, includes an area of about four whole towns lying between Anoka county on the north, Washington on the east and the Mississippi river on the southwest. It was organized by the first territorial legislature. Its surface is undulating, and somewhat abruptly hilly along the Mississippi. It is well watered and drained by the tributaries of the Mississippi, and has besides many beautiful lakes. Its first officers were: Register of deeds, David Day; sheriff, P. C. Lull; judge of probate, Henry A. Lambert; treasurer, James W. Simpson; county attorney, W. D. Phillips; county surveyor, S. P. Folsom; coroner, J. E. Fullerton; clerk of court, J. K. Humphrey; auditor, Alexander Buchanan; court commissioner, Oscar Malmros; district judge, E. C. Palmer; common pleas judge, W. S. Hall; county commissioners, Ard Godfrey, Louis Robert; senator, W. H. Forbes; representatives, B. W. Brunson, John L. Dewey, Henry Jackson, Parsons K. Johnson. Rev. Lucian Galtier, a Catholic priest who visited the Upper Mississippi in the spring of 1840, has the honor of naming the then unpromising city of St. Paul. Others had been on the site before him. A few families had been banished from the vicinity of Fort Snelling and had found homes a few miles further down the river. These were not all reputable people, for amongst them was one Pierre Parrant, who, on account of the appearance of one of his eyes, which was sightless, was known as "Pig's Eye." Parrant sold whisky, and was, from all accounts, an unscrupulous and worthless fellow. As a matter of course, his establishment being to many the chief attraction of the place, it was called by his nickname. The Indians would travel hundreds of miles to _the place where they sell Minne waukan_ (whisky). The location was near the once well known Fountain Cave. The name of "Pig's Eye" might have been perpetually fastened upon the young city but for the timely arrival of Father Galtier, who gave to it the name of St. Paul, because, as he says in a letter to Bishop Grace, referring to the fact that the name St. Peter (Mendota) had already been affixed to a place some miles above, "As the name of St. Paul is generally associated with that of St. Peter, and the Gentiles being well represented in the new place in the persons of the Indians, I called it 'St. Paul.'" It does not appear that Father Galtier was ever a resident of St. Paul, as he only came at stated times to hold services and administer the sacraments. The name Pig's Eye was subsequently transferred to a place several miles below, where it is still retained. The best known of the first settlers of St. Paul are B. Gervais, Vetal Guerin and Pierre Bottineau. The two former gave to Father Galtier the ground necessary for a church site and cemetery. "Accordingly," writes the good father, "in the month of October logs were prepared and a church erected so poor that it would well remind one of the stable at Bethlehem. It was destined, however, to be the nucleus of a great city. On the first day of November in the same year I blessed the new _basilica_ and dedicated it to St. Paul, the apostle of nations. I expressed a wish at the same time that the settlement would be known by the same name, and my desire was obtained." During the fall of 1841 Father Augustin Ravoux arrived from below and became a resident of Minnesota and later of St. Paul. In 1841 Rev. B. T. Kavanaugh established a mission at Red Rock. Henry Jackson came from Galena the same year, established a trading post and did well. He was afterward a member of the first territorial legislature and of the first town council. Jackson street perpetuates his name. Sergt. Mortimer and Stanislaus Bilanski also came in 1842. The accessions of 1843 were John R. Irvine. C. C. Blanchard, J. W. Simpson, A. B. Coy, Wm. Hartshorn, A. L. Larpenteur, Scott Campbell, Antoine Pepin, Alexander Mege, A. R. McLeod, Alexis Clautier, Joseph Gobin, David T. Sloan, Joseph Desmarais, Louis Larrivier and Xavier Delonais. These mostly engaged in trade. Messrs. Irvine, Blanchard, Hartshorn and Coy, and later, Mege, were associated together. Some of the last named accessions of 1843 were Canadian French, half-breeds, or allied by marriage to the Indians. There were other settlers of whom we can find only casual mention, probably transients or adventurers. The prominent accessions of 1844 were Capt. Louis Robert, Charles Bazille, Wm. Dugas, Francis McCoy and Joseph Hall. Louis Robert was a trader, Bazille was a carpenter and built this summer for Capt. Robert the first frame house in St. Paul. This house was built of hewn lumber, sawed lumber not being obtainable. It was on the lower levee, and was used as a warehouse but was moved to East Fourth street, where, as No. 58, it was still standing a few years ago. Dugas was a millwright and built a saw and grist mill on Phalen's creek (spelled in an old deed Faylin's creek). The mill was a failure. Dugas was a man of some prominence and represented the New Canada precinct in the first territorial legislature. McCoy and Hall were carpenters. This year the governor of Wisconsin Territory appointed Henry Jackson a justice of the peace. Jackson, before his commission arrived, married an eager couple by bond, they giving bond to reappear when he should receive his commission and be legally united. Jackson was justice of the peace, postmaster, hotel keeper, legislator, and clerk of court combined in one. This fall Father Galtier was transferred to Keokuk and Father A. Ravoux took charge of the churches at Mendota and St. Paul. Rev. J. Hurlbut, a Methodist missionary, held the first Protestant service, using the house of Henry Jackson for that purpose. The first deed on record bears date of April 23, 1844, and transfers from Henry Jackson, St. Croix county, Wisconsin Territory, to William Hartshorn, of St. Louis, Missouri, for a consideration of $1,000, half of the following tract of land in St. Croix county, Wisconsin Territory, being the place where the said Jackson now lives, situate immediately on the Mississippi river and known as the St. Paul landing, containing three acres, with all buildings and improvements thereon. The permanent accessions of 1845 were Francis Chenevert, David Benoit, Leonard H. La Roche, Francis Robert, Augustus and David B. Freeman, W. G. Carter and Charles Cavileer. La Roche was a carpenter, but engaged in trade. He bought the land on which the Merchants Hotel now stands for $165, and the year following built a cabin of tamarack logs, which was known as the St. Paul House. This property he sold to S. P. Folsom. La Roche died at Crow Wing in 1859. W. G. Carter, better known as "Gib" Carter, was a member of the Stillwater convention in 1848. He died in 1852. Francis Robert was a younger brother of Louis Robert. He died in 1849, from an injury received while running the St. Croix rapids in a birch canoe. Chenevert clerked for Capt. Robert. He was unmarried, and died in