It is 1680. Father Hennepin is in his canoe. He is viewing with awe the glistening falls of the Mississippi River. He is saying, “I shall name this after my patron saint.” Not in his wildest dreams could he imagine what would happen to the territory thereabouts. After all, Indians were everywhere. This was their land.
Fast forward to 1837. Treaties with the Chippewa and Sioux Indians brought about the settlement of the country around the Falls of St. Anthony. The treaties did away with the Indian’s title to a large tract of land on the east side of the Mississippi. But even before the treaties were ratified by the United States Senate, settlement was commenced near the falls.
Various officers from Ft. Snelling began selecting lands and building log cabins. The trouble was army officers could not legally claim land while holding a military commission. So others, who knew it was illegal, “jumped” the claims, made improvements and took the land for themselves. Oh, there was a lot of that going on!
1838 — One of the first settlers in the town of St. Anthony was Franklin Steele, who had been a sutler at Ft. Snelling — (one who provides goods and merchandise to troops at a post). He was most prominent in founding the settlement and developing its industries. Other early settlers were Sgt. Nathaniel Carpenter, Thomas Brown — a soldier, William Marshall a surveyor, Peter Quinn — a trader’s clerk and farmer at the post, Roswell Russell — a trader at Ft. Snelling, Pierre Bottineau — a French half-breed and trader, Sumner Farnham and William Cheever. Their claims were made between 1838 and 1847.
The first houses in St. Anthony were crude log cabins, the largest being built by Franklin Steele. He converted one of the rooms into a store to be used by Roswell Russell for selling goods he brought in from Ft. Snelling. Russell later erected a frame house and moved his store into it. A year later, Wm. Marshall, the surveyor, opened a larger store in which he also had his office.
1847 — Because Steele’s claim had rights along the eastern side of the falls, he desired to erect a sawmill, with Ard Godfrey as builder. (The old govt. sawmill on the other side of the river was going out of business.) Money was raised with difficulty, so he had to sell part of his water rights to some Boston capitalists.
1848 —A dam was completed, and the first run of logs went down the Mississippi. The little sawmill at St. Anthony Falls began to convert them to lumber on September 1, 1848 with the first lumber sawed going into Roswell Russell’s frame store building.
The surveyor, Wm. Marshall, surveyed and platted most of the claims in the area of which Cheever, Steele and Bottineau’s constituted the original town. Cheever gave the town the name of “St. Anthony City.” Marshall didn’t like it and named it “St. Anthony Falls.” But Franklin Steele said, “that is too big of a mouthful,” and shortened it to “St. Anthony.” His was the final word.
l849 - Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, (the west side) the first pioneer resident was Colonel John H. Stevens. He arrived just after the creation of the Territory of Minnesota which opened up lands on the west side of the Mississippi River to settlement. He secured a claim on the bank of the river, just above the rapids and built the first house in what was to be Minneapolis. He was married to Frances H. Miller, and they had the distinction of having the first child born in Minneapolis proper, a daughter named Mary Elizabeth. Steven’s friend from the other side of the river, Franklin Steele, talked him in to operating a ferry for the government, to be used free of charge to all government agents, soldiers and army wagons. This was a great convenience to garrisons of two posts.
1852 — Hennepin County was created by an act of the Territorial Legislature in March. A special election was called to organize the new county and the meeting was held at Col. John Steven’s house by the falls. They voted that the county seat should be on the west side of the Falls of St. Anthony. The next order of business was to give the settlement a name. Several names had been bandied about, some of which were Hennepin, Snelling and All Saints. One of the commissioners thought that Albion would be a proper name. Another commissioner suggested Lowell, because with all the water in the area it would be a “low well.” After a vote, Albion won out and it was tentatively adopted.
This did not go over well with the residents of the county! There was unanimous sentiment against it. Charles Hoag, a classical scholar who held a large claim south of Bassett’s Creek, walked into the office of the St. Anthony Express, on the east side of the river, and handed editor George D. Bowman a note. It said, “The name I propose, Minnehapolis, is derived from Minnehaha, falling water, with the Greek affix, polis, a city — thus meaning “Falling Water City” or “City of the Falls.” The “H” is to be silent.” In fact, Hoag had only invented the name the previous night in bed, but the editor endorsed it enthusiastically. In the morning of November 5, 1852, the editor readied the press, inserted the article and blotted out the unpopular name of Albion. No one else was consulted and it was apparent the editor totally ignored the name selection of the county commissioners. Hoag and Bowman had won a victory!
At a meeting in December 1852, at Colonel Steven’s house, it was heartily approved by most of the citizens and they decided to withdraw the silent “H” and call it Minneapolis, a beautiful combination of the Dakota and classic Greek. This settled forever one of the most troublesome matters the original settlers in this area had to contend with.
Note: Taken from Minnesota and Its People Vol. 2, by Joseph A.A. Burnquist and Personal Recollections of Minnesota and Its People and Early History of Minneapolis by John H. Stevens -1890. Coming next: Former settlers of St. Anthony move to Camden area.