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RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CITY AND PEOPLE OF

ST. PAUL, 1843-1898.

BY AUGUST L. LARPENTEUR.

"There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will."

I am requested by our worthy Secretary to make some remarks upon the early settlement of our beloved state and the city of St. Paul in particular, for your edification. I shall endeavor to do so in as simple and interesting a manner as I am capable of, under the circumstances. In my early days the benefits of a classical education were not easily acquired, and not within the reach of everyone, as to-day; hence, you will pardon me if I my tale unfold incoherently. As a plea for my undertaking to perform this, my duty, I, as well as every other old settler, owe it to posterity.

The development of the great Northwest was not due alone to the graduates of the Harvards, Yales, Princetons, or William and Marys, but largely to the noble and sturdy class of pioneers, the coureurs des bois, the Indian traders. "Twas they who first penetrated these vast forests and plains, and by their traffic with the natives soon paved the way for large cities like Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and St. Paul, to be built upon their once "happy hunting grounds." These traders were brave men, many of them men of refinement, choosing this vocation because it brought them close to nature and nature's God. Few but us old settlers can realize the worldly paradise we had here, and no one better than we can understand the reluctance with which the Indians left it.

Before civilization desecrated it, I may say, it was a land flowing with milk and honey. We had game of all kinds

*Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, September 12,

right at our door, and were not circumscribed by game laws; fish of every variety abounded in our many lakes; and a day's ride from where we stand would bring us into buffalo herds. Some great inland seas, and other lakes of less magnitude, but all containing pure, limpid water, shone forth with the reflection of the sun, like so many diadems in the crown of some fairy queen. When Father Hennepin made his report to Louis XIV ("le Grand Roi," as he was called), the king dubbed him "le Grand Menteur" (the big liar). He could not believe such a country could exist, and the good friar had not half told all there was, or that could be said about it. And little did I think, when a boy in Maryland, studying my geography in a Baltimore county schoolhouse, that I would ever see the Falls of St. Anthony. Nor was it my intention, when I left home, to come in this direction; hence, I have adopted the above text. The part which I took in the formation of our state and city was purely accidental. Some of our most worthy and honored citizens came here for a purpose, as governors, judges, etc.; but I came here for "romance alone," to take of nature all she had to give and give nothing in return. This idea came to me from circumstances which I shall treat upon later on.

KINDRED, AND MIGRATION TO ST. PAUL.

My grandfather was a great admirer of Napoleon, and one of his strong adherents, a member of the National Guard, and, after Waterloo, he could not be contented with a Bourbon dynasty. Therefore, in 1816, he packed his grip and came to America, and settled near Baltimore. His family consisted of three boys and one girl. My father was the eldest. His name was Louis. The second was Eugene, who became a worthy citizen of this state and died in 1877, loved and respected by all who knew him. The youngest was named Charles, and of him I shall speak later.

My father married a Miss Simmons, of Mount Washington, Baltimore county. Her father was a drummer in the war of 1812, and was what was called "an Old Defender," a society that has now become extinct. They were among those who defended the city of Baltimore from the invasion of the British, and killed their General Ross at the battle of North Point.

When I was about six years old, my mother died, leaving myself and an only brother. We were taken to our grandfather's, and with him I made my future home. Grandmother, before dying, enjoined my grandfather to care for and have me in his keeping, and truly the good man did, and for years we were inseparable.

My uncle Charles, the youngest of the family, being rather of a romantic disposition and not well disposed to manual labor, embraced the first opportunity to gratify his ambition. A friend of our family, Colonel Johnson, had for some time been an Indian agent at St. Louis for the Sacs and Foxes, and for various tribes along the Missouri. He came to Baltimore for the purpose of receiving his portion of an estate that had been left him. A part of that portion consisted of twentyfive negroes. In course of conversation with grandfather, Col. Johnson said he would like Charles, my uncle, to accompany him out west as far as St. Louis. Here was Charles' opportunity, and he embraced it at once, his father being willing. This was in 1828. His autobiography is now in the hands of the publisher, Francis P. Harper, of New York, as edited by Dr. Elliott Coues, of Washington City, from his diary, which, when published, I shall be pleased to present to this Historical Society.

Charles Larpenteur had been in the West about eight years, five of which had been spent in the Indian country, when he made us his first visit. I was then a lad going to school. He brought with him a variety of Indian curiosities, among which were complete suits of an Indian chief and his squaw, all trimmed with beads and the quills of the fretful porcupine. The squaw's dress just fitted me, and he dressed me up for exhibition to our friends; and he, as the great chief, would give the war whoop, and go through their various antics, much to our edification. From that moment, I made up my mind that I would see and realize some of this, and traverse the vast plains, of which he gave us such glowing accounts.

We were still suffering from the effects of the panic of 1837, and in 1841 my uncle Eugene, who was occupying the old homestead, the "Pimlico farm," made up his mind that he would go west, upon the solicitation of his brother Charles.

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Thereupon I got the consent of my grandfather to accompany him as far as St. Louis. We came from Baltimore to Harrisburg, Penn., by rail and canal, and also by canal to Hollidaysburg; crossed the Allegheny mountains, descending an inclined plain to Johnstown; travelled from Johnstown to Pittsburg by canal; and thence down the Ohio river by boat to Cairo, and up the Mississippi river to St. Louis, Mo., reaching the latter point about October first. My intention was to remain in St. Louis during the winter, and go up into the Indian country on the upper Missouri with my uncle Charles in the following spring, as we then expected him down in charge of a fleet of Mackinaw boats loaded with their winter's catch of furs. But, as fate would have it, the company sent him the other way among the Blackfeet Indians, toward the headwaters of the Yellowstone river and the great Park, which then was unknown, but today is recognized as one of our most precious national treasures.

This vast country was owned by various tribes of Indians, and California had not yet been ceded to the United States government by Mexico. All traders had to receive a license permitting them to trade, or even to travel or hunt, within these territories. The country was full of game of all kinds, and the Indians lived "like gods." The buffalo roamed in their midst without fear, as if placed there by a bountiful Providence for their special benefit. The fur trade was of vast importance; and, as the Hudson Bay Company, of British America, often encroached upon this territory, American traders kept close to the line in opposition to them. My uncle Charles' services being very valuable to the company, he was induced to remain in the country. Therefore, the fleet of the American Fur Company arrived in St. Louis in the spring of 1843 without him, as it did the spring previous, and I abandoned for that season again the hope of reaching the plains of the upper Missouri. In the meantime, I remained in the family of my uncle Eugene, and assisted him in his vocation. The spring following his arrival he leased about five acres of ground upon which there was a comfortable little house, situated on Chouteau avenue, near Chouteau's pond, for the purpose of market gardening; and the two years I remained with him our crops were simply immense. But

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