HON. G. W. LE DUC.
GOODHUE COUNTY.
This county lies on the west bank of the Mississippi river, between the counties of Dakota and Wabasha. It derived its name from James M. Goodhue, pioneer editor and publisher in St. Paul. It is a rich and populous county. The county seat is Red Wing, a thriving city of 7,000 inhabitants, located on the banks of the Mississippi a short distance below the mouth of Cannon river, and at the outlet of several valleys forming a larger valley, well adapted to become the site of a city. The hills surrounding the city are high, bold and many of them precipitous. Mount La Grange, commonly known as Barn Bluff, a large isolated bluff, a half mile in length and three hundred and twenty feet in height, stands between the lower part of the city and the river. Part of the county lies upon the shore of Lake Pepin, and includes the famous Point no Point, a bold promontory extending far out into the lake, with a curve so gradual that the eye of the person ascending or descending the lake is unable to define the Point, which appears to recede before him as he approaches, till at last it disappears, when looking backward he sees it in the part of the lake already traversed. Cannon river, a considerable stream, passes through the county from west to east.
Cannon Falls, on this river, once a picturesque and wild waterfall, is now surrounded by the mills, manufactories and dwellings of a flourishing village, named after the falls. Goodhue county was organized under territorial law. In 1845 the principal point was Red Wing. There we found a Swiss missionary named Galvin, an Indian farmer name Bush and the noted Jack Frazer, a half-breed trader, all living in log buildings. Mr. Galvin had a school of Indian children. Near by was an Indian cemetery—burying ground it could not be called, as the bodies of the dead were elevated upon the branches of trees and upon stakes to be out of reach of animals. The bodies were wrapped in blankets and exposed until the flesh had decayed, when the bones were taken and buried. Red Wing's band of Sioux Indians had their encampment here. It is said that Red Wing, the chief for whom the village and city was afterward named, chose for his burial place the summit of Barn Bluff, and that when he died he was buried there, seated upon his horse, with his face turned to the Happy Hunting Ground, the Indians heaping the earth around him till a huge mound was formed. The legend may need confirmation, but a mound is there to this day, on the highest part of the bluff, and the high spirited chief could certainly have wished no nobler grave.
Red Wing city bears few traces of its humble origin. It is a fine, compactly built city, with handsome public and private buildings. It was for some years the seat of Hamline University, now removed to St. Paul.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
Hans Mattson.—Col. Mattson is a native of Onestad, Sweden. He was born Dec. 23, 1832. His parents were Matts and Ilgena (Larson) Mattson, both now residents of Vasa, Minnesota. The son was educated at a high classical school in Christianstad, and in his seventeenth year entered the military service as a cadet and served one year. Disliking its monotony, and having an adventurous spirit he embarked for America, where he found himself abjectly poor, and worked as a cabin boy on a coasting vessel, as a farm hand, and afterward with a shovel on an Illinois railroad until 1853, when he secured a position as an emigrant agent, whose business it was to select homes for Swedish colonists. He, with others, came to Vasa, Goodhue county, Minnesota, where he dealt in real estate, studying law meanwhile with Warren Bristol. He was admitted to the bar in 1858. He was elected county auditor the same year and served till 1860, when he entered the army as captain of Company D, Third Minnesota Infantry. At the end of four years he left the service with the rank of colonel. After his return from the war he formed a law partnership with C. C. Webster, and a year later he accepted the position of editor of a Swedish newspaper in Chicago. In 1867 Gov. Marshall appointed him secretary of the state board of immigration, which position he held several years, doing the State excellent service. In 1869 he was elected secretary of state, but before his term of office expired resigned to accept the appointment of land agent of railway corporations, which enabled him to spend four years abroad.
