ST. CLOUD IN THE TERRITORIAL PERIOD.*

BY WILLIAM B. MITCHELL.

It was the first or second day of May, 1857, when the Cremona, a stern-wheel steamer direct from Pittsburg, Pa., with a number of other steamboats which had cut their way through the thin ice at the edge of Lake Pepin, landed at St. Paul. There was little in the place, which then numbered scarcely more than 7,000 or 8,000 souls, to impress the newcomer. The thing which most directly attracted my youthful attention was the seemingly unprotected condition of the store windows, through which the goods and wares of the dealers could be seen at all hours of the night, offering apparently a safe and easy opportunity for burglars to help themselves,-in striking contrast to the heavily shuttered and strongly barred store windows of Pittsburg, which had just been left.

After discharging such part of its cargo as belonged to St. Paul, the Cremona started for St. Anthony, whose people were exceedingly ambitious to have their embryo city known as "the head of navigation on the upper Mississippi." It was a tedious and expensive undertaking, although finally successful. More than twenty-four hours time was consumed in making the ten miles, during which not only were many barrels of rosin, besides the usual fuel, thrown under the boilers to force a head of steam, but the capstan was brought into frequent requisition to drag the boat over the worst rapids. The success of this effort and a few others of a similar character failed, however, to overcome the obstacles thrown in the way by nature and to make the city at the Falls the head of navigation, which still lingers some ten miles further down stream. After our household goods and other belongings,

Presented to this Society, February 14, 1905.

including a stock of merchandise, had been carted around St. Anthony Falls, they were put aboard the North Star, one of a fleet of three small steamboats which made regular trips to St. Cloud. This destination was reached May 6th, after a continuous journey by river occupying more than five weeks.

The first building to be seen, as the little steamer rounded Stony Point, was the Stearns House, a very creditable three-story hotel located on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi and which had been built the year before. After serving for a number of years its mission as a hotel, the building was purchased in 1869 by the people of St. Cloud and was presented to the state of Minnesota as the first home of the St. Cloud Normal School. Later it was used as a dormitory in connection with the school, and after the erection of the new dormitory (Lawrence Hall) was sold to private parties and removed from the grounds. A little south of it, in 1857, was a small log building in which was printed St. Cloud's first newspaper, the Minnesota Advertiser, owned by the Town-site Company which platted the so-called Lower Town. The first number of the paper was issued in 1856. The bed of an old-fashioned hand press held the "forms." which were inked with buckskin balls, the result being a very creditable looking paper.

Another building of interest was the Everett schoolhouse, a small frame structure located a short distance west of the Stearns House. It contained but a single room, and had been built by private enterprise, and the school was taught by private individuals. It was named for Edward Everett, who recognized the compliment by sending to the school a choice, though not large, selection of standard books, which for many years constituted the public library of the place.

The first town-site location at St. Cloud, covering what came to be known as "Middle Town," now the business center of the city, was made in 1854 by John L. Wilson, who at this writing is still a resident of the city and enjoying good health at the advanced age of eighty-four years. The name was chosen by Mr. Wilson, who has no French blood in his veins, because his fancy had been struck by the name of the city in France which had been the scene of some of Napoleon's famous exploits. The

same year General Sylvanus B. Lowry platted what was first known as Arcadia, afterward "Upper Town," and later Lowry's Addition. Within a few months afterward George F. Brott and Orrin Curtis, of St. Anthony Falls, surveyed and platted St. Cloud City, better known for many years as "Lower Town." These three surveys constituted about all of what until boom times was the city of St. Cloud, but which now, with its various additions, covers parts of three counties.

George F. Brott was a most interesting character, and in those early days was almost omnipresent. He was a born speculator and an ideal promoter, and his town-sites were scattered in all directions over the northern part of the state along the lines of proposed paper railroads. He was of medium size, with short, curly hair, small, restless eyes, a sanguine disposition, winning ways, and a volubility which has seldom been equalled. During the civil war he went to New Orleans, where in various speculations he made and lost several fortunes. Later he removed to Washington city, where he died a few years since.

General Sylvanus B. Lowry, by whom the northern part of the city was platted, was a typical Southerner,-swarthy, dignified, courteous, although at times somewhat taciturn. He was strongly imbued with the southern view regarding the divine right of slavery, and was a recognized leader of the Democratic party during those early days. When first coming to Minnesota he located at Long Prairie, where he spent two years; then going to Watab, he traded there with the Indians until his removal to St. Cloud in 1855. He had a mail contract, which, with real estate business, occupied his attention, and he made this city his home until his death in 1865.

Rev. David Lowry, father of General Lowry, was one of the foremost pioneers of northern Minnesota and one of the strongest intellectually. Leaving Tennessee in 1849 he came to Long Prairie, in the present county of Todd, where he remained for two years teaching an Indian school. He was a man of large frame and great physical strength, and perfectly fearless. It is said that on several occasions when the Indians, after having had too much liquor, became troublesome, he would dash in among them with a club and laying right and left would quickly bring them to good