The
Proprietor Hardly Assumes To Keep A Public-House, And Yet Provides His
Guests With Very Good Entertainment; And I Cannot Refrain From Saying
That There Is No Public-House This Side Of St. Paul Where The
Traveller Will Be Better Treated.
Mr. Morrison for that is the
proprietor's name came here fifteen years ago, having first come
into this region in the service of John Jacob Astor.
He married one of
the handsomest of the Chippewa maidens, who is now his faithful wife
and housekeeper, and the mother of several interesting and amiable
children. Mr. M. is the postmaster. He has been a member of the
territorial legislature, and his name has been given to a large and
beautiful county. I judge that society has been congenial in the town.
The little church, standing on an eminence, indicates some union of
sentiment at least, and a regard for the higher objects of life.
Spring and summer and autumn must be delightful seasons here, and
bring with them the sweetest tranquillity. Nor are the people shut out
from the world in winter; for then there is travel and intercourse and
traffic. So are there pleasures and recreation peculiar to the season.
But the serene and quiet age of the settlement is near its close.
Enterprise and speculation, with their bustle and turmoil, have laid
hold of it. The clank of the hammer, the whistle of steamboats, the
rattling of carts, heaps of lumber and of bricks, excavations and
gratings, short corners and rough unshapen walks, will usurp the quiet
and the regularity of the place. Indeed a man ought to make a fortune
to compensate for residing in a town during the first years of its
rapid building. The streets appear, on the map, to be well laid out. A
number of purchasers of lots are preparing to build; and a few new
buildings are already going up. As near as I am able to learn, the
things which conduce to its availability as a business place are
these First, it is the beginning of the Upper Mississippi
navigation. From this point steamboats can go from two to three
hundred miles. But they cannot pass below, on account of the
obstructions near Fort Ripley, at Little Falls, and at Sauk Rapids.
This of course is a great element in its future success, as the
country above in the valley of the river is destined to be thickly
settled, and boats will run between this point and the settlements
along the river. It will also be a large lumber market, for the pine
forests begin here and extend along the river banks for hundreds of
miles, while the facility of getting the logs down is unexceptionable.
The territory north of Crow Wing is now open for settlers to a great
distance, the Indian title having been extinguished. Two land
districts have also been established, which will be an inducement for
fresh emigration. There is no other place but this to supply these
settlements; at least none so convenient.
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