Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858

by Marcus Lee Hansen

A third class of settlers around the fort was composed of discharged soldiers. Men stationed at Fort Snelling saw the agricultural value of the surrounding lands, or the possibility of riches in the fur trade. Joseph R. Brown, who came as a drummer boy with Colonel Leavenworth in 1819, entered the employ of the post sutler when he ceased his connection with the army, and later he became an Indian trader.[508] Edward Phelan, John Hays, and William Evans, whose terms of service at Fort Snelling expired about this time were among the first settlers on the land ceded in the treaty of 1837.[509]

In the fall of 1837 it was revealed by a survey that there were one hundred and fifty-seven white persons, not connected with the fort, living on the reservation. Of these, eighty-two had their homes in the vicinity of Camp Cold Water and seventy-five at the fur trading establishments. Approximately two hundred horses and cattle were owned by these persons.[510]

For many years pleasant relations existed between the officers at the post and the civilians. The physician of the garrison willingly responded to calls for his aid made by the people living outside the fort.

“I am compelled”, wrote Joseph Renville to H. H. Sibley, “to ask you for some assistance in regard to a disease which is very bad here—the whooping cough. I pray you to ask the doctor for some medicine, particularly for some camphor.”[511] Many a time Lawrence Taliaferro presided at a frontier wedding, when in one of the rude huts on the reservation the picturesque figure of the fur trader mingled with the glittering uniform of the officer, and dusky faces peered in at the windows awaiting the end of the ceremony when they also could partake of such a feast as only the prairies, lakes, and sutler's store could provide.[512]

In the troubles which naturally arose between the settlers and the Indians, the agent was the mediator. Thirty of Peter Musick's cattle were killed by Indians who, wanting only powder horns, left the carcasses to the wolves.[513] On July 13, 1834, Jacob Falstrom came to the agency bringing the feet and hams of an ox which he claimed had been shot by a Sioux Indian at Mud Lake. He claimed thirty-five dollars from the Indian Department for the loss which he had sustained. As he was a poor man and had a large family to support Major Taliaferro was moved to make an effort to aid him. “I proposed”, he wrote in his diary the same evening, “to contribute $5 for the benefit of J. Faustram to Several of the Gentlemen of the Post—but not meeting with a corresponding Sentiment—the poor fellow must be informed of my bad success in his behalf”.[514]

Only a week later Joseph R. Brown asked to be paid for a hog which the Indians had killed.[515] During the summer of 1837 Louis Massy claimed $150; Abraham Perry $50; and Benjamin F. Baker $750 for similar damages.[516] Many years later the agent wrote of these unpleasant duties: “The traders would make a detective of the agent if practicable. All thefts on each other were reported to the agent for justice. Deserting boatmen (fed on corn and tallow) must be forced to proceed up the St. Peter's with their outfits for the trade, right or wrong. Every ox, cow, calf or hog lost by persons on the Indian lands, the agents were expected to find the culprits or pay for these often fictitious losses.”[517]

A new era in the history of these settlers began when the treaties of 1837 opened the lands east of the Mississippi to settlement. Some time before they had heard rumors of the coming negotiations at Washington, and those living west of the Mississippi sent a memorial to the President stating that they had settled upon the land thinking it was part of the public domain and believing that they would have the right of preëmption upon their claims. But now, if a new treaty was made and the land west of the Mississippi purchased for a military reservation, they asked that they be allowed reasonable compensation for the improvements they had made. However, in the treaty no mention was made of a military reservation, the title to the land around the fort being allowed to rest upon Pike's treaty of 1805.[518]

But to Major J. Plympton, who became the commanding officer at Fort Snelling during the summer of 1837, the presence of these people was undesirable, and so in a letter written to the Adjutant-General he called attention to the settlement and complained of the difficulty of obtaining fuel for the garrison when the squatters were also engaged in the same task. In his reply on November 17, 1837, the Adjutant-General directed that a reservation be marked off—the extent of Pike's purchase being indefinite.[519]

On March 26, 1838, Major Plympton sent a map of the territory which he chose to have considered as a military reservation. This reservation, contrary to the expectations of many, included land on the east side of the Mississippi. Thus there were many who thought that they had been using their legal rights of preëmption when in reality they were only squatters. Order No. 65 issued at the post on July 26, 1838, forbade the erection of any buildings or fences upon the reservation, and prohibited the cutting of timber except for public use.[520] During this same time there seems to have been, on the part of those living on the west bank of the Mississippi, a movement to the east side. Mrs. Abraham Perry came to Agent Taliaferro on October 18, 1838, and complained that the Indians had killed three of her cattle “just below the stone cave”—that is, Fountain Cave which was on the east bank of the river.[521] Yet her husband was among those who had signed the petition of August 16, 1837, as residents on the west side.

Within these lands were also a number of shacks along the river bank a few miles below Fort Snelling. Here whiskey was clandestinely transferred from the boats before they proceeded upstream. During the winter of 1839 the presence of these resorts had a deteriorating effect upon the garrison. Surgeon Emerson wrote to the Surgeon General of the United States on April 23, 1839: “Since the middle of winter we have been completely inundated with ardent spirits, and consequently the most beastly scenes of intoxication among the soldiers of this garrison and the Indians in its vicinity, which no doubt will add many cases to our sick-list.… I feel grieved to witness such scenes of drunkenness and dissipation where I have spent many days of happiness, when we had no ardent spirits among us, and consequently sobriety and good conduct among the command.”[522]