In 1870 several claims were made for purposes of speculation, and afterward sold to Mrs. Hester Gilman, of St. Cloud, and other parties, but the greater part of the city site was purchased of the government in 1870, by Hester Gilman and Thomas H. Campbell. The Lake Superior & Puget Sound Company, organized under the laws of Maine, and duly authorized by the laws of Minnesota, purchased Gilman's and Campbell's claims and made the original survey and plat of the town on Sept 25, 1871. The name, Brainerd, was given to the new town in honor of Mrs. Brainerd Swift, wife of the first president of the Northern Pacific road. In 1883 a new survey was made by Heinze Brothers. The site was a handsome plain, originally covered with prince pine trees, many of which were left standing as ornamental trees.
Among the first settlers we find the names of Charles Darby, E. H. Bly, L. P. White, W. P. Spalding, W. W. Hartley, Stuart Seely, F. W. Peake, S. W. Taylor, E. B. Lynde, John Bishop, T. C. Barnes, and John Martin. The first permanent dwelling, a log house, was built by Charles Darby, the next was built by Stuart Seely, and the third by L. P. White. E. H. Bly built the first store. The Headquarters Hotel, subsequently destroyed by fire, was built in 1871. Many of the buildings of ancient Crow Wing were moved to Brainerd. The Leland House was built in 1871-2; the Merchants in 1879. The post office was established in 1871, with S. W. Thayer as postmaster. The county seat was removed to this place in 1871, and a court house and jail built by L. P. White, at an expense of $971.60. The first marriage, that of Joseph Gronden and Miss Darby, occurred in 1870. A city charter was obtained Jan. 11, 1873. The following were the first officers: Mayor, Eber H. Bly; aldermen, L. P. White, M. Tuttle, W. S. Heathcote, Wm. Murphy, T. X. Goulett; president of the council, L. P. White.
Brainerd has a court house, built at a cost of $45,000, and school buildings worth $45,000. The Northern Pacific depot and shops were built at a cost of $500,000, and the Northern Pacific sanitarium at a cost of $35,000. The sanitarium is a hospital for the sick or disabled employes of the entire line of road, and is supported by monthly installments from the employes. Dr. Beger is superintendent. Brainerd has one steam saw mill with a capacity of 12,000,000 feet per annum, another with a capacity of 3,000,000 feet, and many fine business blocks and tasteful residences. It has also electric lights, water works, and street cars, and is making rapid progress as a city.
In 1886 a charter was obtained by Charles F. Kindred & Co. to build a dam across the Mississippi. The dam has been completed at a cost of $125,000. It has a head of 20 feet, with sufficient flow to secure 25,000 horse power, and a boomage overflowing 3,000 acres, forming a reservoir 12 miles in length, with side lakes, the whole capable of holding 1,000,000,000 feet of logs. The whole city machinery, including electric lights, water works, street cars, and Northern Pacific railroad shops, will be attached to this water power. Crow Wing county contributed $50,000 in bonds to the building of this dam. Brainerd has an opera house, and is well supplied with churches, the Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Methodists having organizations and buildings.
L. P. White was born in Vermont in 1811. He was self educated. He was married in Vermont, came to Chicago in 1858, and engaged in railroading until arriving at Brainerd, in 1870, where he built the first frame house. His wife was the first white woman resident of the city. Since locating at Brainerd, Mr. White has been the acting agent of the Lake Superior & Puget Sound Company, which has laid out all the town sites from Northern Pacific Junction to Moorhead with the exception of Detroit.
Allen Morrison was one of a family of twelve, seven boys and five girls. His father was born in Scotland, but emigrated to Canada, where he died in 1812. Two of the boys were in the English Navy, and killed at the battle of Trafalgar, in Egypt. William Morrison, a brother of Allen, and several years his senior, was among the early explorers of Northern Minnesota, having visited the Territory as early as 1800, and was one of the party who discovered Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi river. Allen's first visit to this region was in 1820, when he came to Fond du Lac, as a trader in what was then known as the "Northern Outfit." For several years he was associated with his brother William in the Fond du Lac department, during which time he was stationed at Sandy Lake, Leech Lake, Red Lake, Mille Lacs, and Crow Wing, and when the Indians were removed to White Earth, went there also, and remained until his death. In 1826 he was married to Miss Charlotte Chaboullier, who died at Crow Wing in the fall of 1872. She was a daughter of a member of the old Northwestern Fur Company, who was a trader on the Saskatchewan, and died in Canada in 1812. Mr. Morrison was the father of eleven children. Caroline, now in Brainerd, was married to Chris. Grandelmyer in April, 1864. Rachel resides with her sister, Mrs. Grandelmyer. John J. and Allen, at White Earth; Mary, the eldest, now Mrs. J. R. Sloan, at St. Cloud; and Louisa, now Mrs. John Bromley, at Northern Pacific Junction. Mr. Morrison died on the twenty-eighth of November, 1878, and was buried at White Earth, in the historic valley where he had passed so many eventful years. His name, however, will not perish, nor his virtues be forgotten. In the first territorial legislature he represented the district embracing the voting precincts of Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing, and when the present county of Morrison was set off, the legislature named it in honor of this esteemed veteran pioneer.
Charles F. Kindred, an active, enterprising citizen of Brainerd, is doing for his adopted city all that one man can do. Mr. Kindred, for many years after his arrival in Minnesota, was a trusted agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and while in their employ acquired a thorough knowledge of the resources of North Minnesota, which he uses to the best interest of the section in which he has made his home. He is at present superintending the building of the Kindred dam.