Stillwater)

Farming and capital items 105 Years Ago MINNESOTA FARM REVIEW University Farm, St. Paul, Minnesota January 13, 1917 MOSQUITOES LIVE BY FIRE *** FREEZE KILLS OFF THREE *** TWO SLEEP UNDER PILLOW Two little weak, wabbly mosquitoes won a warm bed after the cold weather last Wednesday night, though it is scarcely possible, their owner believes, that they will ever enjoy it. Three of their comrades are dead, and these two are scarcely more than living. The pets belong to Malachai Harney and were being kept in a bottle so that he could study their intimate life and that he might know better how to fight the pests in the anti-mosquito campaign in North St. Anthony Park next sumer. The bugs froze when the fire went out in the house where Harney lives at 1263 Cleveland Avenue. The bottle was kept near the radiator and the mosquitoes were doing well until the freeze caught up and made them lonely for the tropics. The two that were left alive could hardly be made to move after the bottle was warmed in the morning. Harney has kept the bottle under his pillow since the freeze.

The Life of Chilean Nitrate* Deposits A.D. 1917 Total Nitrate Deposits in Chile: 720 million tons Estimated life of deposits at present rate of World’s consumption: 300 years

For Reliable Information Write:

Dr. Wm. S. Myers, Director, Chilean Nitrate Propaganda 25 Madison Avenue, New York *An important element in crop growing.

Upriver at the Stillwater Prison 134 Years Ago THE PRISON MIRROR Published by the inmates of the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater Minnesota Vol. 1, No. 10 October 12, 1887 Motto: “It is never too late to mend.” Sense and Nonsense Never let mistakes discourage you. Act from principle instead of impulse. Earnestness of purpose is the secret of success.

Territorial Dispatch 170 Years Ago THE MINNESOTIAN January 10, 1852 GOVERNOR’S MESSAGE Alex Ramsey Speaks to the Legislature Fellow Citizens of the Council and House of Representatives: In the discharge of my official trust, the duty again devolves upon me of communicating to the Legislature information of the condition of the Territory. As both branches of the Assembly which I have the honor at this time of addressing, rare fresh from the people, I doubt not that your deliberations will fairly reflect the public sentiment; and that in the measures which may engage your attention, there will be that agreement in the principles, and that concurrence in the details of legislation, which are necessary to give consistency to councils, and unity to action…For an exhibition in detail of the fiscal condition of the Territory, I refer you to the usual annual repots of the Auditor and the Treasurer, which will be laid before you at an early day…(1851 valuation for Ramsey county at $782,113; Washington county at $335,172; Banton County at $64,775; Wabashaw couty at $83,208; Wahnahta county at $36015; Dakota county at $31,020, no other counties listed)…the unorganized counties appear to have neglected their contribution to the revenue of 1850, but as they are subjectonly to to a territorial tax, and as their quota is very small, I am constrained to think the omission has arisen through neglicence on the part of the collecting officers. Your attention is invited to devising means for collecting, within the term of each year, its current revenues…St. Paul, occupying a site which but three years ago was an uninhabited waste, with its population of twenty-five hundred inhabitants, its commercial activity, its numerous public edifices, and private dwelling houses of superior construction, is rapidly pressing forward to become the Great Capital of the Northwest.

Saint Anthony, beautifully situated almost under the spray of the great falls of the Father of waters, with its intelligent population, and the genial and refining influences of the University, so fitly located there, must enjoy an enviable distinction as the seat of learning in the valey fo the Mississippi; While Stillwater, the lumber depot of the North, with the rapid augmentation of this giant interest, is increasing in with unabated vigor in wealth and population, and will every occupy a commanding position as the central mart of the opulent valley of the St. Croix.

In pursuance of law, a Board of Building Commissioners was elected in May last, and contracts have been let by them for the erection of a Territorial Prison at Stillwater, and for the building of a Capitol at St. Paul—the former to be completed by the 1st of December, 1852, and the latter so as to accommodate the two branches of the Legislative Assembly at the session of 1853.

In view of the insufficiency of the appropriations to complete the roads, Lt. Simpson advises me, that he has recommend to the Department, that the several balances, now available, be applied , as soon as may be, to the construction of such portions of the roads, as most require the expenditure to make them passable at all time; for instance, in the case of the Point Douglas and Fort Ripley road; to the erection of bridges over streams, which at times are not fordable, and to ditching and throwing up the road, where necessary to make it of service; in the case of the Point Douglas and St. Louis river road, to opening and making available to the portion lying between Point Douglass an the Falls of the St. Croix, and as much further as may be attainable. IN the case of the Mississippi and Long Prairie road, the same course is also recommended.

Nothing as yet has been done, towards the location and survey of the road from Mendota to the mouth of the Big Sioux river, for want of the requisite engineering force: but neither this road, nor that from Wabashaw to Mendota, running as they do through a country, the Indian title to whichis not yet definitively extinguished, are of such immediate importance to our community, as the other roads, for the construction of which appropriations have been made…I am not aware of any disposition in this community, to apply to the Legislature for the incorporation of a bank. Until there shall be a general call of the community for such an institution, I think its establishment would be premature and deprecated…The case is still stronger in relation to rivers, which the federal authorities declare to be public highways, assume jurisdiction of, exclude from the surveys, and thus prevent them from being private property of the citizens, or the property of the States through which they flow. In this instance, the power of improvement seems inseparably connected with ownership and jurisdiction…To avoid iteration, I simply refer the Legislature to what I have urged in former messages, in regard to the propriety of Congress in granting to settler, upon unsurveyed lands, the same privileges as if the lands had been surveyed. I believe the passage of such a measure to be of the highest importance to the people of Minnesota, and in itself strictly just. If the treaties negotiated with the Sioux (Dakota) and Chippewas (Ojibwa) during the past year, shall receive the approbation of the President and the Senate, the necessity of such an enactment will become significantly manifest.

It becomes you, gentlemen, in the most solemn manner, to protest against the grievous wrong that would be done our own, in common with the other Territories of the United States, should a project, which was brought before Congress at its last session, become a law. I allude to a bill for parceling the public lands among the several States of the Union. I am not well informed as to the details of the bill, but understand that the effect of its enactment would be to break up the present admirable system of surveying and disposing of the public domain, and leave to each State the management of its and disposition of such parcel of the public Territory as might fall to its share—thus introducing perplexity and confusion, where now is simplicity and system; and retarding the settlement of the public lands, by the annoyances incident to thirty or more independent and conflicting jurisdictions.

As to the disposition which may be made of the proceeds of the public lands, we have, in our political relations, no voice; but if a concerted effort is to be made for the division of these lands among the States, it would seem that all the objects contemplated might be attained by a distribution of their proceeds, leaving the present system of survey and sale undisturbed.

To the people of Minnesota the most interesting political event, that has occurred since the organization of the Territory, is the extinction, by the treaties of Traverse des Sioux, Mendota, and Pembina, of the Sioux and Chippewa title to immense tracts of land, upon the western side of the Mississippi. These treaties bridge over the wide chasm, which could alone obstruct the advance of Minnesota to the lofty destination evidently reserved for her.

By the two former treaties, the Dakota Indians relinquish to the government their right of usufruct (i.e. the right of use and enjoyment) previously claimed by them east of the Sioux Wood and Big Sioux rivers, extending over four degrees of latitude and five of longitude, and covering a superficial extent of 45,000 square miles.—This vast district nature has marked out for exalted destinies…If the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, shall, in their present stage, be defeated, I do not hesitate to express my decided and unalterable opinion, that very many years will elapse before as large a cession will be made upon equally advantageous terms.

Negotiations with Indian tribes generally involve conflicting interests and delicate antagonisms, and sometimes contend with unenlightened prejudice and uninstructed politics, Of all the presumptions indulged, that is one of the rashest, which looks for repeated and favorable opportunities for their successful conduct.

It behooves the Legislature, among the first duties of the session, to memorialize the President and Senate of the United States, for the early ratification of these treaties; and also, in anticipation of their favorable final action, to ask for an early survey of the lands acquired.

(descriptions follow, including reference to the “Grand Bois” or “Great Forest” of the voyageurs).

ALEX RAMSEY