all told, for two or three years. The first settlers were as happy in their poverty as those now are who have their great mansions, their costly furniture and furnishings. In the cabin, rude and homely as might have been its conveniences and surroundings, peace dwelt. Those who have been cradled in the lap of luxury and reclined on the couch of ease, can form no adequate idea of the fortitude of mind necessary to undertake the trials which have to be borne by the pioneer of a new country. The getting used to it by the ladies is the worst; but when broke in, the life of a pioneer is charming. It makes us better women and better men; we are all on a level; we are not cursed with frivolous fashions. All of us can exclaim "Happy days of primeval simplicity!" We had no schools or ministers of the gospel at first, but we had the Sabbath. Far away from the sound of the churchgoing bell, we observed that day. Our wives were particular in having us neat and tidy. Our clothing, though coarse, was sufficiently fashionable, substantial and comfortable. Compared with the more ample dress of modern date, they might have been considered behind the times; but it is much to be doubted whether the mothers of the present age would, if thrown upon their own resources and industry, be willing to make the efforts to sustain themselves and their families respectably in honest poverty. To the untiring industry and intelligence of the first ladies of Hennepin county we are greatly indebted for all the blessings of domestic happiness. In looking back upon the events of the past eigh

teen years in Minnesota, we seem to awake from a dream. The transformation of the country can hardly be realized. Everything is changed. Instead of an unbroken but beautiful wilderness, solid blocks with brown fronts, villas, mansions, cottages, elegant residences abound. The whistling of the railway locomotive and the clicking of the telegraph are heard in our midst. Fabrics of a costly and difficult texture are made here. The arts and sciences are patronized. Splendid structures, with their spires rising up towards the heavens, afford our people such temples to worship in. And yet all of these things have been brought here in the last decade. If the possibility of such changes had been suggested on the morning of the tenth day of October, 1852, think you we should not have said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, then might these things be?

The fact of Fort Snelling being in Hennepin county affords a great field for some one to write its history. With no town of moment nearer than St. Louis, the fort was nine hundred miles in the wilderness. By the aid of steam power, however, matters were made much more pleasant, for we find that early in May, 1823, the Virginia, the first steamer that ever passed through Lake Pepin, landed under the wall of the fort with supplies for the garrison. This was the commencement of a new era in the affairs of the upper country.

The reduction of the reservation of Fort Snelling was attended with difficulties and vexations of no small magnitude. It required the united energies

of our best men, together with the aid of the most influential of the Nation, to accomplish it. To Messrs. A. E. Ames, Edward Murphy, H.T. Wells and Franklin Steele, our own citizens, we owe much. They were strongly backed by Honorable H. M. Rice, Governor Sibley, Governor Ramsey and other public men. The present chief-justice of the United States wanted the land opened for float purposes.

Our claim societies were overflowing with conflicting claimants and counter claims. The jumping process was not for a moment tolerated, and in some instances severe examples were made, which had the tendency to prevent further intrusion.

As soon as there were children enough a school was established. The services of Miss Mary Miller, now Mrs. Marshall Robinson, were secured, and the school was opened on the third day of December, 1853, with an attendance of twelve scholars, and two of those were borrowed from Oak Grove. However, the other ten were all the children in the region round about here at that time. The twenty-five hundred we have now would at that time been considered more than the place could even contain. Miss Mary A. Scofield, now Mrs. A. S. Kissell, was also a successful teacher here at a very early period. The city and country have always taken deep. interest in schools.

The first white child born in this city was on the thirtieth of April, 1851-but true to its principles then as now, a week later another made its appearance, and so long, so rapidly, that children

soon became the great staple of the place.

The selection of a name caused us a good deal of difficulty. The lamented Goodhue of the Pioneer insisted that we should christen our town All Saints. He wrote me a host of letters urging me to adopt that name before others came. Miss Scofield, who was then a member of my family, wrote letters east for publication under the name of All Saints. When there were enough of us here, so that we could afford a name for our town, Lowell was selected; but 1851 had not passed before that name did not suit, and subsequently Albion was selected. This did not answer, and finally George D. Bowman, editor of the St. Anthony Express, bestowed upon us the name of Minneapolis, which Charles Hoag, esq., insisted should be final; and Mr. Hoag carried the point and gave us the name by which henceforth we are to be known. Minneapolis is derived from "minne," the Dakota term for water, and "polis, the Greek for city.

Edwin Hedderly, our first justice of the peace, had the honor of uniting in the holy bonds of matrimony the first candidates for such favors in Minneapolis-Andrew J. Foster and Mrs. A. E. Averill, who were married the fourth day of September, 1853.

As it is the intention of the society to collect biographical notices of all the early pioneers, it is thought best that they should be contained in another paper. In closing this, it will be proper to say that the first settlers in Minneapolis were Messrs. John H. Stevens, Cal

vin A. Tuttle, John P. Miller, Dr. H. Fletcher, John Jackins, Warren Bristol, Allen Harmon, Dr. A. E. Ames, Edward Murphy, Charles Hoag, Joel B. Bassett, Colonel E. Case, Waters Stimpson, Edwin Hedderly, C. W. Christmas, Judge Isaac Atwater, with others. Simon Stearns and Henry Chambers came here in the fall of 1850, but made no claims.

The settlements of the other parts of the county will be a subject matter for another paper at some future day. It is the intention of the society to gather everything of a historical character relating to this county, to publish the same, and file in the archives of the society.

JOHN H. STEVENS.

D. H. JOHNSON.

JUDGE D. H. JOHNSON, who has been elected by the people of his chosen home to one of the highest and most honorable positions within their gift, has for so many years been a force in the legal and law-making life of Wisconsin, and has performed so many public services to the credit not only of himself but of those by whom he was commissioned, that he deserves more than a passing notice in the history of the Milwaukee bench and bar. Because of his success in the one field of labor, and the arrival of the time when he enters upon the other, we feel justified in such outline of his life as follows:

Judge Johnson has worked his way upward to position and success by his own exertions, and with no aids but those that came in the shape of high natural gifts, a character set firmly in the direction of honesty and the incentives of an honorable ambition. He was born near Kingston, Canada West,

now Ontario, on July 27, 1825, and was left an orphan when but two years of age. His father was a sergeant in the British army, who had served under Wellington for fourteen years, and was member of a regiment sent to America during the War of 1812; while his mother was the daughter of a soldier who had served on the American side in the War of the Revolution. This old patriot had settled in Canada, near Prescott, soon after the conclusion of that war, in response to the very liberal offers in the way of homesteads held out by the Canadian government to settlers; while the United States, which had no lands to give except those in the then far west, was less able to make terms of advantage to those who were on the outlook for homes.

Upon the death of his father the child was transferred to the care of a sister of his mother's, who resided near Kemptville, some miles from Kingston. His early days were passed as are those