Part 88 (1/2)
On Sept 3, 1849, the first session of the legislature assembled at the above tee to the two houses in joint convention asse of the assembly rooms was of the plainest description
Considerable discussion ensued during the session on this subject, as to whether the Territory had a right to expend the 20,000 appropriated in the organic act, for a capitol building The question having been submitted to Hon Wm Meredith, secretary of the treasury, he replied that the ”Departs in question can only be erected at the _perovernment, located as described”
The second session asse, since burned, which occupied the site of the Third street front of the Metropolitan Hotel At this session the seat of government was fixed at St Paul, as above noted D F Brawley, Jonathan McKusick, Louis Robert and E A C Hatch were elected building coe property owner of St Paul, donated to the governround since known as ”Capitol Square,” and plans drawn by N C Prentiss were adopted The contract was let to Joseph Daniels for 33,000, but the building finally cost over 40,000 It was commenced at once, but not completed until the suislature were cos That of 1852 assembled in Goodrich's block on Third street below Jackson, and that of 1853 in a two story brick row on Third street, where the front of the Mannheimer block now is
BURNING OF THE CAPITOL
At nine o'clock on the evening of March 1, 1881, while both houses of the legislature were in session, and all the halls and depart was found to be on fire The flareat rapidity to be checked, and all that could be done was to save the contents of the building The most valuable records and papers of the various offices, and of the legislature, with soreater part of the contents of the building, including the valuable law library, the supply of state laws, documents and reports, and all the stationery in the secretary of state's store rooms, etc, were a total loss The Historical Society's library was mostly saved The entire loss to the State was fully 200,000
Fortunately the city of St Paul had just completed a fine and spacious market house, which was still unoccupied, and its use was at once tendered the State by the city authorities, and while the fla the furniture and effects saved from the old capitol were re the state departain at work in their new quarters But two days of the session yet remained Gov
Pillsbury i the burned edifice, using the old walls, and an act appropriating 75,000 for that purpose was passed Work was commenced at once It was then found that the old walls were too unsafe to use, and at the extra session in September, 1881, the further sum of 100,000 was appropriated for the co Its total cost was about 275,000 The doiving a noble view to the visitor who ascends it The exterior of the edifice is neat and tasty, and it is altogether creditable to the State, considering its comparatively small cost
SELKIRK VISITORS
In the early days a so their homes on the banks of the Red River of the North and on the shores of Winnipeg, in as known as the Selkirk settlement, now included in the province of Manitoba They were a mixed race of Scotch, French and Indian stock, born and raised under the government of the Northwest British Fur Company They were a peaceable, partly pastoral and partly noround quite successfully considering the high latitude of their ho wheat, vegetables, cattle and horses They engaged in hunting and trapping and yearly visited St Paul with the surplus products of their labor to be disposed of forof files of carts drawn by cows, oxen and ponies, and commanded by a captain elected to the position who exercised over the affairs,sinews and leathern thongs This harness was made of raw hides, Indian tanned, and seith animal sinews Their costue Their caravans included from 100 to 600 carts, which were laden with furs, buffalo robes, buffalo tongues, dried pemmican, etc As they came a distance of 450 ood nal for starting, the lowering, for stopping At night the carts were ranged in a circle about the encampment, and sentinels posted Their encareat crowds of the curious In 1857 their train consisted of 500 carts, and in 1858 of 600, but later, as railroads were built northward and steamers were placed upon the Red River of the North, their nuradually diether
CYCLONES
Recorded and unrecorded, Minnesota and Wisconsin have had their full share of those atht so much destruction in the Western States In the early days, when the country was sparsely settled and villages and toere few and far between, they ca but little attention They left no traces on the plain, and in the forests only a belt of fallen timber, known as a ”windfall” These belts are sufficiently numerous to establish the fact that these storms were probably as frequent in early, even in prehistoric, times as at the present Their movements are more destructive in later times because of the improvements of civilization, the increased nurowth of towns and cities The tornado has ent, its movements are better known and reed as to the cause of these destructive phenoh is known to overthrow the theory so persistently advanced that it is in consequence of the cutting away of the forests and the substitution of farms In fact much of the country was already prairie land and abundant evidences of tornadoes are found in the rown up trees of considerable size, and this at a period long before the lumberman commenced his destructive work
We append a few sketches of cyclones that have occurred in comparatively recent times
THE ISANTI COUNTY CYCLONE
This storm occurred in September, 1865, and spent its fury chiefly in Isanti county, but extended beyond and was felt even in Wisconsin
The tornado gathered its wrath in the southwestern region of Isanti county, in what is called the ”Lake Typo settlement,” some forty miles north of St Paul It was first discovered in the shape of ”two clouds,” as the people there residing expressed it, ”approaching each other fro of these counter currents of strong winds appeared to form the blackened heavens into a funnel-shaped mass The direction of the as fro the St Croix river passed through an unsettled portion of ti pines interspersed with black oaks of medium size
On Wood river, Burnett county, Wisconsin, the trunks of pine trees, three feet in diah, were twisted into ”broo oaks were also served the same way; and the whole track of the tornado, from thirty rods to three-fourths of a
Pines and oaks were all prostrate, and proround, their branches and trunks interlocked, and in soht of thirty feet
The author of this work lost about 10,000,000 feet of pine logs in Wood river in this cyclone On Clath and about half a mile in width, the forest was laid in s, and parties who cah soon after the te with the velocity of lightning to the northeast, overtook Dr Co Sunrise prairie with a mule team, accompanied by a hiredto some shrubs near by, but when the fury of the ind had passed, all they could find of their outfit was the poor ue of the wagon The hind wheels, box, and the rest of the outfit, together with the doctor's , when last seen, were bound zenithward
Weant of the Third Minnesota Battery, Light Artillery, and Orville Grant and brother--sons of R
Grant, Esq, a far, and happened to be caught where the storh the heaviest ti, and at first attempted to take shelter in an old school house near by, but soon saw that was no place for theot behind; soon that commenced to move Hobbs seized hold of an oak, some ten inches in diameter, which immediately commenced to be loosened at the roots and to spin around like a top The tree was prostrated and he with it--he receiving very severe injuries The Grant boys, were also injured, but none near so badly as Hobbs The log school house shared the fate of the surrounding forest A resident near by states that he saw one-half the roof sailing upward at least four hundred feet above the tops of the tallest trees
THE COTTAGE GROVE CYCLONE
On June 15, 1877, a terrific cyclone visited the town of Cottage Grove, Washi+ngton county, Minnesota We append the correct and vivid description taken froton County:”
”At 9 o'clock P M there arose in the southwest a dark and heavy cloud, attended with loud thunder, vivid lightning and a strong wind
The cloud an to fall in torrents, when suddenly the wind ca before it There see from the west and the other froether in section 22 The stronger current being from the southwest, the store in section 27, taking away a portion of the roof of Ethan Viall's house, and a trunk out of the chamber, no trace of which could be found A corn cultivator was taken up, some portions of which were never found, while other parts were found twoIn section 22, when the currents ars description The timber in its track was prostrated; fences were torn up and scattered in every direction; E Welch's house came in the line of desolation; Mr and Mrs Welch had stepped out to look after some chickens in which Mrs Welch was specially interested, and, startled by the roar of the wind, were in the act of returning to the house When near the door the wind took up the house, bearing it away, and a stick of ti them down When Mr Welch recovered he had hold of his wife, but she was dead The stick of timber struck her on the head and caused instant death The next object in the path of destruction was C D