cheers went up, which so frightened Minnesota that she took refuge in the lap of Massachusetts.

The last division of the procession was made up of Odd Fellows and other societies.

Short speeches were made by Col. Jones, by Gov. Sibley, and by Gen. Emerson, who was chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, and Acting Mayor;-Mayor Kittson being out of the city.

The exercises at the park, after the introductory remarks by Gen. Emerson, were the singing, by the girls in the car, of the "Telegraph Song" to the tune of "America;" then a speech by Ex-Governor Gorman, which was followed by the band playing the "Star Spangled Banner;" and then Ex-Governor Ramsey delivered the principal speech for the day. A few remarks in German were made by Mr. Samuel Ludvigh; and the singing of "Hail Columbia" closed the proceedings.

An illumination and fireworks had been planned for the evening; the former was successfully carried out, but rain prevented the latter.

Minnesota having been admitted into the Union on May 11th, 1858, the state officers were sworn in on the 24th of that month. Early in September, the Auditor of State having selected the room occupied by the Historical Society for his of fice, the collection was removed to a small room at the end of the right hand side of the hall that led to the Cedar street entrance to the capitol, and was closed from the public.

Mr. Alfred J. Hill was the only person who took any interest in the collection after the room was closed. He was a topographical draughtsman, and was probably employed at that time in the Land Department of the state. He was a man well informed on a variety of subjects. His fondness for gardening led him to plant many trees and shrubs to test their ability to live in our climate. So few proved hardy that he invited friends to visit his garden to see his failures. His interest in the Historical Society continued until his enlistment in the Sixth Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers, in August, 1862.

My acquaintance with the Rev. E. D. Neill commenced at the time of my appointment as Actuary of the Historical Society. When the First Regiment was ordered to join the Army of the Potomac, Mr. Neill was appointed chaplain, and on the 22d of June, 1861, he marched with it down Third street to the levee, where steamboats were ready to convey it on its way to Washington. After his return to St. Paul, some years after the war was over, whenever we met he always had something to say that was of interest. On one occa

sion, when he had a small church at Macalester, he was met walking in from there, and after his usual greeting, he pointed to a small wooden building, about a mile from where we were standing, and said it was his cathedral. Mr. Neill was well known as an educator, a historian, and a public spirited citizen, as well as a minister; and no grand cathedral, of any size or age, ever sheltered a more devoted worshipper than the clergyman of the cathedral on the prairie.

The organization of the St. Paul Library Association, in the autumn of 1863, led the writer to make an effort to awaken an interest in the Historical Society so far as to have its collection placed in charge of the Association. The act allowing five hundred dollars a year to the Society had been left out of the Revised Statutes, but had never been repealed; and both organizations would be benefitted if the allowance could again be obtained. The late D. A. Robertson entered into the project with his usual spirit, and through his efforts the Historical Society was revived, the collection was removed to one of the rooms of the Association, and it was not necessary to put it in charge of the Library Association in order to obtain pecuniary aid. The Society allowed a yearly rent of one hundred and twenty-five dollars, besides ten dollars a month to the Association's librarian for keeping the collection open to the public at such hours as the Association's library was open. Some of the early members of the Society took an active part; and the addition of new members, with the election of Charles E. Mayo as secretary, gave an impetus to the increase of the collection that has continued to the present time.

In my being associated with Rev. John Mattocks on the St. Paul school board for five years, he was found to be all that his friends have said of him; and at times I saw the boy side of the man, which is perhaps the real man, as the every-day work of life makes us artificial and we have to be on our dignity. I was sitting by his side on the occasion of the closing exercises of the Franklin School, previous to the summer vacation, while a pupil was demonstrating a problem in algebra on the blackboard. On my asking him whether he understood what the boy was doing, his reply was, "Not a word of it," with an expression on his face as if he appreciated the joke of members of a school board attending exercises of which they knew noth

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In December, 1864, General Le Duc, while stationed at Chattanooga, sent home to the Historical Society various articles that he thought might be of sufficient interest to be preserved in its cabinet. At the meeting when they were presented by Mr. Driscoll, of the St. Paul Press, there were present, with others, Rev. Mr. Mattocks and Rev. Dr. Sterling Y. McMasters. One of the specimens, resembling some kind of mineral, was handed to Mr. Mattocks for examination, as he was chairman of the committee on mineralogy. Placing his spectacles in position, he scrutinized the article and remarked, "Its formation resembles granite, but it is very light and has evidently been under the action of fire. It is so very light that it would float on water, if it had a large chip under it." Then, passing it to Dr. McMasters, he waited attentively for his remarks upon the subject. Without much apparent examination, his comments were something as follows: "The formation is evidently porphyritic gneiss, its porousness indicates volcanic action, and that action has produced a pumice. It is a valuable specimen and of high interest, as coming from a section of the country where volcanic action has long since ceased to exist. It is of as much interest to the geologist as the remains of the Mastodon or the Plesiosaurus, as it was undoubtedly in existence long before those extinct monsters were created." this point he was interrupted by Mr. Mattocks, who asked for the reading of the letter that came with the specimen. It began as follows: "This piece of corn bread was brought to Atlanta by an exchanged Union prisoner, and is declared by him to be the full daily ration issued to the prisoners."

At

The growth of the society's collection requiring more time than Mr. Mayo could devote to it, Mr. J. Fletcher Williams was elected secretary on January 21, 1867; and, a suitable room having been prepared in the basement of the capitol, the library and cabinet were removed there in November, 1868.

That portion of Minnesota lying west of the Mississippi river was acquired by the Louisiana purchase of December 20, 1803. Thomas Jefferson was president of the United States at that time, and took steps to bring it under the authority of the general government. To this end Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike was detailed to visit this region, drive out the British traders, and make alliance with the Indians.

Pike ascended the Mississippi river in a batteau in the month of September, 1805, and arrived on the 21st of September at the trading house of J. B. Faribault, believed to have been under the bluff a short distance below the present site of

On September 23d he held a council with the Sioux where the town of Mendota now stands, and obtained from them a grant of land embracing 100,000 acres, which Pike valued at $200,000. This land was to be used for military purposes. There seems to have been nothing paid for this large tract of land except $200 worth of presents and 60 gallons of whiskey.

It was designed to establish a military post at the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peter rivers, but for various reasons it was delayed. Among those reasons was the war of 1812-'15 with England. The planting of Selkirk's colony on the northern border of the United States called attention to it again, and resulted in an order issued by the Commanding General of the Army for the concentration at Detroit, Michigan, of the Fifth Infantry, preparatory to its transfer, under the command of Lieut. Col. Henry Leavenworth, to the junction of the two rivers named, for the purpose of establishing a military post in that vicinity.

*Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, March 8, 1897.

After a long and tedious journey, Leavenworth and his command arrived some time in September, 1819, and debarked on the Mendota side of the Minnesota (St. Peter) river, where a cantonment was formed for occupation during the winter of 1819-20. There are some reasons for believing that it was the intention of Leavenworth to place permanent improvements on or near the site of his cantonment; but in the spring of 1820 the river, which had been held in icy chains for months, was unloosed by the floods, and an overflow of the cantonment was threatened. Securing all the boats possible, Col. Leavenworth transported the command across the river and pitched his tents. near the spring from which the present garrison obtains its supply of water. This camp was called "Camp Cold Water."

It was not a difficult matter to determine where the permanent post should be erected, as nature bad fortified two sides of it; and so upon this projecting point the work of construction began. Col. Leavenworth designated it "Fort St. Anthony." All the materials used in its construction were gathered by the soldiers, who performed all of the labor necessary to house themselves, the officers, and the public stores. A saw mill was established at the Falls of St. Anthony, where was manufactured all the lumber used in the construction of the fort. The first federal grand jury ever assembled in the Territory of Minnesota on the west side of the Mississippi river convened in this old mill, and the late Franklin Steele was foreman thereof.

I have in my possession an old military map showing the location of all United States forts in 1840. At that date Fort Snelling was the most extreme northwestern point occupied by white men. All west of a north and south line running through that point was then an unexplored country, known only to the Indians. The Census of 1890 shows a population of ten millions of people west of that line. What growth in a period of fifty years! Away beyond that line cities have been built, churches erected, schools and colleges established; and far beyond all these the reaper is heard in the season of harvest on every plain and in every valley. The iron horse inflates his lungs on the Atlantic seaboard and rushes onward with the rapidity of the winds, through mountain passes, over hills, along the valleys, and in six days quenches his thirst in the