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Edwin Bell

MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY,

VOL. X. PLATE IV.

EARLY STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA AND

RED RIVERS.*

BY CAPTAIN EDWIN BELL.

ST. PAUL AND ITS VICINITY IN 1850.

On the 16th day of December, 1850, I called on Governor Ramsey at his new house on Walnut street, to which he had recently moved. The governor was surrounded by a large delegation of Sioux Indians, each of whom had a long-stem pipe across his lap. Those were the first wild Indians I had ever seen. Their faces were painted in streaks of red and black, and many of them had eagle feathers on their heads. They were orderly, so far as I could see, and I little thought that within a few years I should carry their yearly supplies to Redwood Agency, and guns and ammunition up the Minnesota river to destroy these same Indians.

St. Paul at that time was little more than an Indian trading post. The Indians in winter camped in the heavy timber on the west side of the river from Kaposia to a point opposite St. Paul. As soon as the ice formed so as to bear them, great numbers would cross over to trade. Trading was done with A. L. Larpenteur, on the corner of Third and Jackson streets; with Mr. Simpson, on Minnesota and Third streets; and the Fuller Brothers, at the Upper Levee. All these traders dealt heavily in furs.

In the year 1850, I preempted what is now called Langdon, situated near the river, fifteen miles below St. Paul. After I fin

*Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, May 13, 1901.

ished my house on the prairie and moved in, the Sioux used to pass frequently on their way to Point Douglas. During the two years we were on the prairie, we were not troubled by them, neither did we hear of any family that was troubled. I found that farming was not my forte, so I returned to St. Paul.

STEAMBOATING ON THE MINNESOTA RIVER.

In 1855 I had command of the steamer Globe, making trips on the Minnesota river, and in the early fall of that year we carried supplies to the Sioux at Redwood Agency. The Indians would come down the river several miles to meet the boat. They were like a lot of children, and when the steamboat approached they would shout, "Nitonka pata-wata washta," meaning, "Your big fire-canoe is good." They would then cut across the bend, yelling until we reached the landing.

In the fall of that year, 1855, their supplies were late, when I received orders from Agent Murphy to turn over to the Indians twelve barrels of pork, and twelve barrels of flour. As soon as we landed, we rolled the supplies on shore. I was informed that the Indians were in a starving condition. It was amusing to see five or six of them rolling a barrel of pork up the bank, when two of our deck hands would do the work in half the time.

A young Indian girl stood at the end of the gang plank, wringing her hands and looking toward the boat, exclaiming "Sunka wanicha," meaning "They have my dog.". The cabin boy told me the cook had coaxed the dog on board and hid it. I could speak the language so as to be understood, and I motioned to the girl and said, "Niye kuwa," meaning "Come here." She came on board, and I told the cook to bring the dog to me. When the dog came, she caught it in her arms, exclaiming, "Sunka washta," meaning "Good dog." She then ran on shore and up the hill. It seemed to me that white people took advantage of the Indian when they could, even steamboat cooks.

When the flour and pork were on level ground, the barrel heads were knocked in, and the pork was cut in small strips and thrown in a pile. Two hundred squaws then formed a circle, and several Indians handed the pieces of pork to the squaws until the pile was disposed of. The flour was placed in tin pans, each squaw receiving a panful.

Later, in the same season, we had an unfortunate trip. The boat was loaded deep. Luckily Agent Murphy and Capt. Louis Robert were on board. Ye had in the cabin of the boat ninety thousand dollars in gold About three miles below the Agency, we ran on a large boulder. After much effort, we got the boat afloat. Major Murphy gave orders to land the goods, so that they might be hauled to the Agency. We landed and unloaded, covering the goods with tarpaulins. There were about fifty kegs of powder with the goods. While we were unloading, the agent sent for a team to take Captain Robert and himself, with the gold, to the Agency. Then we started down the river. We had gone only a few miles, when we discovered a dense smoke, caused by a prairie fire. The smoke was rolling toward the pile of goods, which we had left in charge of two men. When we reached the ferry at Red Bank, a man on horseback motioned us to land, and told us that the goods we left were all burnt up and the powder exploded. This was a sad blow to the Indians.

The following is a list of the steamboats running on the Minnesota river, during high water, in the year 1855 and later: Clarion, Captain Humberson; Globe, Captain Edwin Bell; Time and Tide, Captain Nelson Robert; Jeannette Roberts, Captain Charles Timmens; Mollie Moler, Captain Houghton; Minnesota, Captain Hays; and the Frank Steele and Favorite, both sidewheel steamers. These boats were drawn off when the water got low; and when the railroad paralleled the river, all boats quit running.

On the 16th day of December, 1895, I called on Governor Ramsey again, to talk over old times, forty-five years after my first call. What changes have taken place since then! When I started to leave, I thought I would see how much the governor remembered of the Sioux language. I said, "Governor, nitonka tepee, washta." "What did you say, captain?" asked the governor. I replied, "Nitonka tepee, washta." "Why, captain," said he, "that means, My house is large and good;" and, with a wink, "Captain, let's have a nip." Of course we nipped, and said "Ho!" All old settlers will know the meaning of the Sioux exclamation, "Ho!"

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE RED RIVER OF THE NORTH.

In the summer of 1859 I arranged with Mr. J. C. Burbank

to go to the Red River of the North to take charge of the steamboat Anson Northup, load the freight on the boat, and take it to Fort Garry. This was the first steamboat ever run on the Red river.

I was to take a few men with me for deck hands, and Dudley Kelly, a brother of Patrick H. Kelly, as clerk. I would find a pilot and engineer at the boat. We left the next morning on the stage. On arriving at the Red river, we were informed that the boat had started for the townsite of Georgetown, in charge of the stage agent. If we drove fast, they said, we would overtake the boat, as the river was very crooked. We got ahead of her, and when we heard her coming around the bend, we hailed them. They landed, and I went on board and showed my papers to the man in charge of the boat, who introduced me to the pilot, Jesse Young, and also to Lem Young, the engineer. Then leaving us, he got on the stage, going to Abercrombie.

We started for Georgetown. We found three deck hands on the boat. Two were old pinery men. They were of great service afterward at Goose rapids. There were also two families on board, the first pioneer families coming through the United States to Fort Garry. All others came by the way of Hudson bay. Two men were also passengers, one a minister. We soon landed at Georgetown, and loaded the freight on the boat.

Two more passengers got on board there for Fort Garry. I inquired about the river below. They said the water was deep down to the fort. As voyageurs, in their birch canoes, they had passed up and down without trouble, but we found a steamboat a little different from a canoe. I called a meeting to find out the amount of provisions there was on board, as in our stage trip to the Red river we had passed the wagon with provisions for the boat. They had a broken wheel, and a man had gone back to St. Cloud for a new one. This would take several days. The passengers and crew were all anxious to start down the river, and, as there were provisions to last through the trip, all went well until we reached Goose rapids.

There we saw the break of boulders in the channel of the river, and we also saw shoal water on a gravel bar below. The pilot and I took the small skiff to examine. We found that the boulders would have to be removed before we could get through. We made scrapers to dig below the boulders. When we had dug

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