Part 32 (2/2)

On the banks of the Kettle river a five-year-old boy burned his hand badly Thethe wound, decided that it was incurable, ordered the boy to place his hand upon a block, and by a single blow from a common hatchet severed it fro

OLD BATICE, _alias_ ”Kettle,” lived on Kettle river in 1880 Counting by moons he claims to have lived there ninety-nine years He is certainly very old He says that he has always been a friend to the whites, and that in the Sioux outbreak of 1862 he counseled his people to remain quiet; that he was the enemy of the Sioux, three of whom he had killed and scalped To co his eneray hair He claims to be half French

AN INDIAN DANCE

In June, 1880, the Indians were practicing a new dance near the Kettle River railroad station, part of which it was e to witness

The dance house was a rudely constructed pole fras About thirty dancers, es, were crowded in the dance house, sweating, grunting, hopping and bounding at the tap of a deer skin drumhead, and the ”chi-yi-chi-yi-chi-hoo” of a quartette of boys and girls, squatted in a corner of the bark house The din was incessant, the chant of the singers, or howlers, monotonous and wearisome, yet the dancers stepped and bounded to their rude music as readily as do civilized dancers to the ed instruhtened the Burnett county people, and required at least ten days for its complete performance A few ladly withdrew

FOOTNOTES:

[E] Several years prior to this Willia station upon the shores of this lake, and is probably the first white man who visited it, but it does not appear that he identified it as the source of the Mississippi

CHAPTER XI

KANABEC COUNTY

Kanabec county, prior to 1849, was included in St Croix county, Wisconsin; thence until 1852 it was a part of Rao county; and thence until its organization in 1859, a part of Pine county It was attached for judicial purposes at various tianized for judicial purposes, Judge Crosby holding the first term of court at Brunswick The second term was held at Mora in 1884, in the new court house

The writer, when a member of the Minnesota senate in 1858, selected the name and introduced the bill for the formation of the county Its boundaries are Aitkin county on the north, Pine on the east, Isanti on the south, and Mille Lacs on the west It is atered and drained by the Kanabec and its tributaries This river is navigable to Brunswick, and one of its tributaries, Rice river, is navigable six miles from its mouth to Rice lake The soil is a rich, sandy loa and productive One-fifth of the entire surface was originally covered with pines About 25,000 acres are natural meadohile much of the remainder is covered with hardwood, and a small portion is brush prairie, which can be easily rendered fit for cultivation The best crops are wheat, oats and potatoes, but Indian corn can be grown profitably as compared with other localities in Minnesota Srow luxuriantly

Cranberries have been shi+pped in considerable quantities Redtop, clover, and tirow rank, and are profitably cultivated Upward of 5,000 tons of hay are cured annually The lu interests are still i annually driven to the Stillwater boom This county is spotted with lakes and abounds in strearanite is found on the Kanabec river above Mora, which will eventually be quarried and exported

The first perton, who came in 1855 They were followed by Stephen W Tolman, Alvin De Wolf, John L Spence and others Gov Sibley appointed the following as the first board of officers, June 10, 1859: County commissioners, Geo L Staples, chairister of deeds, Jaee; sheriff, Benj L Gifford The first election was held in October, 1859 The folloere elected county officers: County coton, Geo

Morrison; auditor, Benj Bill

In the bill organizing the county, Brunsas designated as the county seat, and so remained until 1882, when by popular vote Mora was selected In 1883 the county built a court house at a cost of 5,000, and a jail costing 2,000 In 1874 the county built a bridge across the Kanabec at Brunswick, the bridge and its approaches being 1,300 feet in length, at a cost of 5,000 In 1879 the county built a bridge across the Kanabec at Grass Lake at a cost of 4,000 As this bridge obstructed navigation in 1884, the county, at a cost of 4,000, rebuilt it in such a way that steae was built across the Kanabec in the town of Arthur at a cost of 4,000

The first post office was established at Brunswick in 1859, Geo L

Staples, poste to Brunswick In 1847 Rev W S Boutwell preached the first sermon within the present limits of the county The first deed recorded was a warranty deed from Ralph Potter to John A Snyder, both of Illinois, in June, 1857, conveying lands in sections 3 and 10, townshi+p 38, range 25 The second deed recorded was froley to Hersey, Hall, Whitney and Fenno, of Boston, and Isaac Staples of Stillwater, conveying the northeast quarter of section 1, townshi+p 38, range 24, and other lands

ARTHUR

The town of Arthur includes townshi+p 39, ranges 23, 24 and 25 It was organized in 1883 The first supervisors were: Ira A Conger, Andrew E Westling and Charles A Staples; clerk, Stanton D Seavey The village of Mora was the first settlement Anna C Larson was the first child born in the town The first e was that of Frederick G

Turner and Edith Perkins The first death was that of Henry Rust, in 1847, killed by Indians There is one house of worshi+p, at what is known as the Swedish mission