During these years from 1871 to 1874, the woods of Wisconsin were thoroughly traveled over by land hunters, and nearly all of the desirable timber was entered at the respective land offices, so that there remained no further field for exploit. A new field was therefore looked for, and this I found in Minnesota.
CHAPTER XIII.
Entering Minnesota, the New Field.
In the summer of 1874, I went to the head waters of the Big Fork River with a party of hardy frontiersmen, in search of a section of country which was as yet unsurveyed by the United States government, and which should contain a valuable body of pine timber. Having found such a tract of land, we made arrangements through the surveyor-general's office, then located in St. Paul, to have the land surveyed. The contract for the survey was let by the United States government to Mr. Fendall G. Winston of Minneapolis.
The logging operations on the Mississippi River in Minnesota at this period extended from a short distance above Princeton on the Rum River, one of the tributaries of the Mississippi River, to a little above Grand Rapids. To reach Grand Rapids from Minneapolis, the traveled route was by way of the St. Paul and Duluth railroad to Northern Pacific Junction, thence, over the Northern Pacific Railroad, west to Aitkin. From this point the steamboat Pokegama plied the Mississippi to Grand Rapids, the head of navigation at that time. For many years this steamboat was owned and operated by Captain Houghton, almost wholly in the interest of the lumber trade. Later, Captain Fred W. Bonnes became its owner. Subsequently, the old Pokegama burned, when Captain Bonnes built a new boat, using the machinery of the Pokegama, and naming it Aitkin City. At a still later period he built the larger steamer, Andy Gibson.
In those days, the lumber-jack was a very interesting type of man. Men from Maine and New Brunswick were numerous. Scotchmen, Irish-Americans, and French-Canadians constituted a considerable portion of all the labor that went to the logging camps of Minnesota. As early as the month of July, they began their exodus from Minneapolis to the woods for the purpose of building new camps, cutting the wild grass that grew along the natural meadows, and making it into hay for the winter's use for oxen and horses. Some of these men worked at the sawmills in summer, but there was not employment for all at this work, and many spent their time in idleness and not infrequently in drunken carousal. On leaving the city for the logging camps, they were pretty sure to start out, each with one or two bottles of whiskey stored away in his tussock, which was ordinarily a two bushel, seamless sack, with a piece of small rope tied from one of its lower corners to the upper end of the sack. In this were placed all of the lumber-jack's belongings, except what were carried in his pockets, including one or two additional bottles of whiskey. Not all of the lumber-jacks drank whiskey, but this was the habit of very many of them. By the time the train had arrived at Northern Pacific Junction, where a change of cars was made, and where the arrival of the Northern Pacific train from Duluth, west bound, was awaited, many of our lumber-jacks were well under the influence of John Barleycorn. Disputes would frequently arise while waiting for the train. These would be settled by fist fights between the disputants, their comrades standing about to see that each man had fair play.
On one of our trips to the pine forests north of Grand Rapids, we arrived at Aitkin on a train loaded with this class of men, as well as their bosses, and proprietors of the lumber camps. Aitkin at that time was not much more than a railroad station for the transfer of the lumbermen and merchandise to the steamboat. A few men had preempted lands from the government and had made their homes where now is the city of Aitkin. The late Warren Potter was one of them. He kept a large store which was well stocked with lumbermen's supplies, and which was the rendezvous for the lumbermen. His preemption claim was only a short distance in the woods from his store. He had been East to buy goods and had returned by train that day. He found that his preemption claim had been "jumped" by one, Nat Tibbetts, whom he found occupying the Potter cabin. An altercation took place between the two men, resulting in Tibbetts blacking Potter's eye. The only representative of the law was a justice of the peace, a man whose name was Williams. Before him, Potter swore out a warrant for the arrest of Tibbetts, charging Tibbetts with assault with intent to do bodily harm. Potter asked me to act as his attorney to prosecute his case. This honor was politely declined, and I assured him that he would find a better man for the occasion in the person of S. S. Brown, the well-known log jobber, who was in town.