MINNEAPOLIS.
From the establishment and occupation of Fort Snelling in 1819, to the settlement of the county in 1840, numerous traders and adventurers, generally of French or Canadian origin, and not infrequently intermarried with Indians, and semi-Indian in their habits of life, occupied transient homes on or near the military reservation; but these have exercised so little influence upon the development of the country that they merit no recognition or record from the historian. As a general thing, they disappeared before the march of civilization. A few, wiser, stronger, more far-seeing than the rest, adapted themselves to the new order, made claims, engaged in the enterprises of civilized life, and thus obtained an honorable position amongst the pioneers of the country.
Of these, Joseph R. Brown, by far the most distinguished, by permission of the military authorities, located in Hennepin county near the falls of Minnehaha, in 1829. He is the first white settler. Maj. Taliaferro, then in command of the Fort, in the same year made a farm on the shores of Lake Calhoun, and placed Philander Prescott in charge. In 1834 the Pond brothers, missionaries, located on Lake Calhoun and erected the first dwelling worthy of the name within the present limits of the county of Hennepin. In 1849 Philander Prescott made a claim on what is now Minnehaha avenue. Frank Steele obtained permission from the secretary of war to occupy this claim, whereupon Mr. Prescott abandoned it, and made another on laud adjoining. This he was allowed to retain. Charles Mosseaux, by permission of the military authorities, made a claim on Lake Calhoun in 1856. This claim is now occupied by the pavillion. Rev. E. G. Gear, chaplain at Fort Snelling, by permission of the military authorities, made a claim near Lake Calhoun and employed Edward Brissett to live upon it. Afterward a contest arose as to the ownership. Chaplain Gear, by the aid of Judge Black and H. M. Rice, secured a congressional enactment allowing him to purchase the land from the government. David Gohram made a claim on the Lake of the Isles, but subsequently sold out to R. P. Russell. John Berry, the Blaisdells, Pierce Lowell and many others located in the vicinity of Lakes Calhoun and Harriet, and in 1853 were followed by settlers on nearly all the lands lying immediately west of the Mississippi, in the vicinity of the falls. In 1854 there were twelve farm houses scattered widely from the falls to the vicinity of the lakes. It had been evident for some time that a city of considerable pretensions must arise somewhere in the vicinity of the Fort and the falls. The locality of the coming city was decided largely by advantages of situation, and these were in favor of the locality immediately adjoining the falls, the water power there afforded being a powerful attraction. For the first recognition of these advantages we must go back to a period several years anterior to the location of these claims and there find a starting point in the history of Minneapolis.
In 1820 the military authorities at Fort Snelling had erected a stone mill for sawing their own lumber and grinding the grain shipped from St. Louis. They also built a log house and cultivated a few acres of adjacent ground. This mill, run by the water of the falls, was located a short distance below. This was the first utilization of the water power. The mill, which has long since disappeared, was located on the present site of Sidle, Fletcher & Holmes' flouring mill. In 1854 one saw mill, the first in Minneapolis aside from the old government mill, was located just below the falls. It had a capacity of 1,500,000 feet per annum and besides manufactured great quantities of shingles. It was under the direction of C. King. A steam saw mill was built at the mouth of Bassett's creek, above the falls, in 1856, and another the following year, half a mile further up the river. Thus began the great lumber business of Minneapolis, in 1857 there being three mills with an aggregate capacity of 75,000,000 feet per annum.
The attitude of the government with regard to the lands reserved about the Fort, the act of 1839, driving off those who had settled upon them and destroying their property, and the uncertainty with regard to the tenure of land claims, acted as an effectual bar to further improvement until ten years later, when Hon. Robert Smith, member of Congress from Alton district, Illinois, and Col. John H. Stevens, the pioneer of Minneapolis, each obtained permits from the secretary of war and the officers of the Fort to occupy one hundred and sixty acres of the reservation. Smith's location included the stone mill, which he agreed to use in grinding Fort Snelling grain. Mr. Smith engaged C. A. Tuttle to operate the mill and hold the claim. Mr. Tuttle was to have an interest for his labor. This interest he afterward sold to Smith, who, when the government relinquished the reservation, transferred his claim to Anson Northrup and others, who were organized into an association for the entry of land. Soon as the entries were completed the land passed into the hands of the Minneapolis Water Power Company, which proceeded at once to improve the water power.
Col. J. H. Stevens meanwhile located in person on his permit, and in 1849 built the first frame house in Minneapolis, on the ground now occupied by the union depot. J. B. Bassett purchased the fraction of land on the river above Stevens, Col. Emanuel Case the fraction above Bassett's, A. E. Ames the eighty where the court house stands, and Edwin Hedderly the fraction below the water power. Mr. Stevens made the first survey of village lots in the spring of 1854; Chas. W. Christmas, surveyor.
The Smith claim was surveyed by W. R. Marshall in the fall of 1854. In 1856 Atwater's addition was surveyed. Other additions were added from year to year as the growth of the city demanded. At the release of the reservation in 1855, the entire present site of the city was covered with claims.
The name Minneapolis, derived from an Indian word minne, meaning water, and a Greek word polis, meaning city, had been early applied to the new village, Chas. Hoag having first suggested the name. In March, 1853, the commissioners of Hennepin county adopted the name as that of a territorial precinct. A government land office had been established in 1854, of which M. L. Olds was register and R. P. Russell receiver. The first, newspaper, the Minneapolis Democrat, was established in 1854. During the same year the Masons and Odd Fellows organized lodges, the Presbyterians, Baptists and Methodists organized societies, and public schools were established. In 1857 the court house, at a cost of $12,000, a school house, and several churches were erected.
The village of Minneapolis was organized in 1858. H. T. Welles was the first president. In 1867 Minneapolis obtained a city charter. Minneapolis and St. Anthony Falls were united under the same government, by act of legislature, approved Feb. 28, 1872, under the name of Minneapolis, St. Anthony Falls being recognized in the directory as East Minneapolis. The united cities elect in common a mayor and city council, but each is financially responsible as to contracts existing previous to the union, and each maintains its own schools.
We append a list of mayors of the two cities prior and subsequent to the union: