To-day, the only vestige left there of the Indian are
his burying-grounds. Hereafter the rudeness of pioneer life shall be
exchanged for a more genial civilization, and the present, then the
past, will be looked back to as trivial by men still yearning for the
future.
LETTER III.
CITY OF ST. PAUL.
First settlement of St. Paul Population Appearance of the city
Fuller House Visitors Roads Minneapolis St. Anthony
Suspension Bridge.
FULLER HOUSE, ST. PAUL, October, 1856.
THE circumstance of finding a good spring of water first led to the
settlement of Boston. It would not be unreasonable to suppose that a
similar advantage induced the first settler of St. Paul to locate
here; for I do not suppose its pioneers for a long while dreamed of
its becoming a place even of its present importance. And here let me
mention that St. Paul is not on the west side of the Mississippi, but
on the east. Though it is rather too elevated and rough in its natural
state to have been coveted for a farm, it is yet just such a spot as a
pioneer would like to plant himself upon, that he might stand in his
door and have a broad and beautiful view towards the south and west.
And when the speculator came he saw that it was at the head of
navigation of what be thought was the Upper Mississippi, but which in
reality is only the Middle Mississippi.
