The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier Part 19

The United States government concluded to withdraw its refusal, and send troops to the front, and several companies of the Fourteenth were dispatched to the line of the Fosston branch railroad, and distributed along the line of that road.

In the meantime the commissioner of Indian affairs had arrived at Walker, and was negotiating with the Indians, and when it became known that matters were arranged to the satisfaction of the government and the Indians and no outbreak was expected the soldiers were all withdrawn, and the incident, so far as military operations were concerned, was closed. There were some surrenders of the Indians to the officers of the court, but nothing further of consequence occurred.

POPULATION.

One of the most interesting features of a new country is the character and the nativity of its population. The old frontiersman who has watched the growth of new states, and fully comprehended the effect produced upon their civilization and character by the nativity of their immigrants, is the only person competent to judge of the influences exerted in this line. It is a well known fact that the immigration from Europe into America is generally governed by climatic influences. These people usually follow the line of lat.i.tude to which they have been accustomed. The Norseman from Russia, Sweden, Germany and Norway comes to the extreme Northwestern States, while the emigrants from southern Europe seek the more southern lat.i.tudes. Of course, these are very general comments, and only relate to emigration in its usual directions, as the people of all parts of Europe are found in all parts of America.

It is generally believed that the emigrants from northern Europe are more desirable than those from further south, and a presentation of the status of our population in point of nativity will afford a basis from which to judge of their general attributes for good or bad. There is no nation on earth that has not sent us some representative. The following table, while it will prove that we have a most heterogeneous, polyglot population, will also prove that we possess vast powers of a.s.similation, as we are about as harmonious a people as can be found in all the Union.

Our governor is a Swede, one of our United States senators is a Norwegian, and our other state officers are pretty generally distributed among the various nationalities. Of course, in the minor political subdivisions, such as counties, cities and towns, the office holding is generally governed by the same considerations.

I give the various countries from which our population is drawn, with the numbers from each country, and the number of native born and foreign born, which, aggregated, const.i.tute our entire population. These figures are taken from the state census of 1895:

England 12,941 Scotland 5,344 Germany 133,768 Denmark 16,143 Norway 107,319 Canada 49,231 Poland 8,464 Iceland 454 Ireland 26,106 Wales 1,246 France 1,492 Sweden 119,554 Russia 6,286 Bohemia 10,327 Finland 7,652 All other countries 11,205 --------- Total native born 1,057,084 Total foreign born 517,535 --------- Total population 1,674,619

The total native born of our population is very largely composed of the descendants of foreign emigrants. These figures afford a large field for thought and future consideration, when emigration problems are under legislative investigation.

The census from which these figures are taken being five years old, I think it is safe to add a sufficient number of increase to bring our population up to two millions. The census of 1900 will demonstrate whether or not my estimate is correct.

THE STATE FLAG.

Up to the year 1893 the State of Minnesota had no distinctive state flag. On April 4, 1893, an act was pa.s.sed by the legislature ent.i.tled, "An act providing for the adoption of a state flag." This act appointed by name a commission of six ladies, to adopt a design for a state flag.

Section 2 of the act provided that the design adopted should embody, as near as may be, the following facts:

"There shall be a white ground with reverse side of blue. The center of the white ground shall be occupied by a design substantially embodying the form of the seal employed as the state seal of Minnesota at the time of its admission into the Union.... The said design of the state seal shall be surrounded by appropriate representations of the moccasin flower, indigenous to Minnesota, surrounding said central design, and appropriately arranged on the said white ground shall be nineteen stars, emblematic of the fact that Minnesota was the nineteenth state to be admitted into the Union after its formation by the thirteen original states. There shall also appear at the bottom of the flag, in the white ground, so as to be plainly visible, the word 'Minnesota.'"

The commission prepared a very beautiful design for the flag, following closely the instructions given by the legislature, which was adopted, and is now the authorized flag of the state. The flag-staff is surmounted by a golden gopher rampant, in harmony with the popular name given to our state. May it ever represent the principles of liberty and justice, and never be lowered to an enemy! The original flag, artistically embroidered in silk, can be seen at the office of the governor at the state capitol.

THE OFFICIAL FLOWER OF THE STATE, AND THE METHOD OF ITS SELECTION.

On the twentieth day of April, 1891, the legislature of the state pa.s.sed an act ent.i.tled "An act to provide for the collection, arrangement and display of the products of the State of Minnesota at the World's Columbian Exposition of one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, and to make an appropriation therefor." This act created a commission of six citizens of the state, to be appointed by the governor, and called "The Board of World's Fair Managers of Minnesota." The women of the state determined that there should be an opportunity for them to partic.i.p.ate in the exposition on the part of Minnesota, and a convention of delegates from each county of the state was called, and held at the People's Church, in St. Paul, on Feb. 14, 1892. This convention elected one woman delegate and one alternate, from each of the seven congressional districts of the state. There were also two national lady managers from Minnesota, nominated by the two national representatives from Minnesota and appointed by the president of the United States, who were added to the seven delegates so chosen, and the whole was called "The Woman's Auxiliary to the State Commission." The women so chosen took charge of all the matters properly pertaining to the women's department of the fair.

At one of the meetings of the ladies, held in St. Paul, the question of the selection of an official flower for the state was presented, and the sentiment generally prevailed that it should at once be decided by the a.s.semblage; but Mrs. L. P. Hunt, the delegate from Mankato, in the second congressional district, wisely suggested that the selection should be made by all the ladies of the state, and they should be given an opportunity to vote upon the proposition. This suggestion was approved, and the following plan was adopted: Mrs. Hunt was authorized to appoint a committee, of which she was to be chairman, to select a list of flowers to be voted on. Accordingly she appointed a subcommittee, who were to consult the state botanist, Mr. Conway MacMillan, who was to name a number of Minnesota flowers from which the ladies were to choose. He presented the following:

Lady Slipper (Moccasin Flower--_Cypripedium Spectabile_).

Silky Aster.

Indian Pink.

Cone Flower (Brown-eyed Susan).

Wild Rose.

The plan was to send out printed tickets, to all the women's organizations in the state, with these names on them, to be voted upon, which was done, with the result that the moccasin flower received an overwhelming majority, and has ever since been accepted as the official flower of the state. That the contest was a very spirited one can be judged from the fact that Mrs. Hunt sent out in her district at least ten thousand tickets, with indications of her choice of the moccasin flower. She also maintained lengthy newspaper controversies with parties in Manitoba, who claimed the prior right of that province to the moccasin flower, all of whom she vanquished.

The choice was a very wise and appropriate one. The flower itself is very beautiful, and peculiarly adapted to the purposes of artistic decoration. It has already been utilized in three instances of an official character, with success and approval. The Minnesota state building at the Columbian Exposition was beautifully decorated with it.

It is prominently incorporated into the state flag, and adorns the medal conferred by the state upon the defenders of Fort Ridgely.

The botanical name of the flower is _Cypripedium_, taken from Greek words meaning the shoe of Venus. It is popularly called "Lady's Slipper," "Moccasin Flower" and "Indian Shoe."

About twenty-five species of _cypripedium_ are known, belonging to the north temperate zone and reaching south into Mexico and northern India.

Six species occur in the northern United States and Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains, all of these being found in Minnesota, and about a dozen species occur on this continent. They are perennial herbs, with irregular flowers, which grow singly or in small cl.u.s.ters, the colors of some of which are strikingly beautiful. The species adopted by the women of the State of Minnesota is the _Cypripedium Spectabile_, or the showy lady slipper.

The ladies naturally desired that their choice should be ratified by the state legislature, and one of their number prepared a report of their doings, in a pet.i.tion to that body, asking its approval. Whoever drew the pet.i.tion named the flower chosen by the ladies as "_Cypripedium Calceolous_," a species which does not grow in Minnesota, but is purely of European production. The pet.i.tion was presented to the senate on the fourth day of February, 1893. The journal of the senate shows the following record, which is found on page 167:

"Mr. Dean asked the unanimous consent to present a pet.i.tion from the Women's Auxiliary to the World's Fair, relative to the adoption of a state flower and emblem, which was read.

"Mr. Dean offered the following concurrent resolution, and moved its adoption:

"'Be it resolved by the senate, the house of representatives concurring, that the wild Lady Slipper, or Moccasin Flower ('_Cypripedium Calceolous_'), be, and the same is hereby, designated and adopted as the state flower or emblem of the State of Minnesota,' which was adopted."

In the Legislative Manual of 1893 appears, on page 606, the following:

"THE STATE FLOWER.

"On April 4, 1893 [should be February], a pet.i.tion from the Women's Auxiliary to the World's Fair was presented to the senate, relative to the adoption of a state flower. By resolution of the senate, concurred in by the house (?), the Wild Lady Slipper, or Moccasin Flower (_Cypripedium_) was designated as the state flower or floral emblem of the State of Minnesota."

The word "_Calceolous_" means a little shoe or slipper; but, as I said before, the species so designated in botany is not indigenous to Minnesota, and is purely a foreigner. As we have in the course of our growth a.s.similated so many foreigners successfully, we will have no trouble in swallowing this small shoe, especially as the house did not concur in the resolution, and while the mistake will in no way militate against the progress or prosperity of Minnesota, it should be a warning to all committees and Western legislators to go slow when dealing with the dead languages.

We now have the whole body of cypripediums to choose from, and may reject the calceolous.

If the house of representatives ever concurred in the senate resolution, it left no trace of its action, either in its journal or published laws, that I have been able to find.

Among the many valuable achievements of the Women's Auxiliary one deserves special mention. Mrs. H. F. Brown, one of the delegates at large, suggested a statue for the Woman's Building, to be the production of Minnesota's artistic conception and execution. The architect of the state building had disallowed this feature, and there was no public fund to meet the expense, which would be considerable. The ladies, however, decided to procure the statue, and rely on private subscription to defray the cost. Mrs. L. P. Hunt thought that sufficient funds might be raised from the school children of the state, through a penny subscription. Enough was raised, however, to secure a plaster cast of great beauty, representing Hiawatha carrying Minnehaha across a stream in his arms, ill.u.s.trating the lines in Longfellow's poem:

"Over wide and rus.h.i.+ng rivers In his arms he bore the maiden."

This statue adorned the porch of the Minnesota building during the fair.

It was designed and made by a very talented young Norwegian sculptor, then residing in Minneapolis--the late Jakob Fjelde. It is proposed to cast the statue in bronze and place it in Minnehaha park, Minneapolis, at some future day.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME "GOPHER STATE."

Most of the states in the Union have a popular name. New York is called the "Empire State," Pennsylvania the "Keystone State," etc. As you come west they seem to have taken the names of animals. Michigan is called the "Wolverine State," Wisconsin the "Badger State," and it is not at all singular that Minnesota should have been christened the "Gopher State." These names never originate by any recognized authority. They arise from some event that suggests them, or from some important utterance that makes an impression on the public mind. In the very early days of the territory--say, as early as 1854 or 1855,--the question was discussed among the settlers as to what name should be adopted by Minnesota, and for a time it was called by some the "Beaver State." That name seemed to have the greatest number of advocates, but it was always met with the objection that the beaver, although quite numerous in some of our streams, was not sufficiently so to ent.i.tle him to characterize the territory by giving it his name. While this debate was in progress the advocates of the beaver spoke of the territory as the beaver territory, but it never reached a point of universal adoption. It was well known that the gopher abounded, and his name was introduced as a compet.i.tor with the beaver; but being a rather insignificant animal, and his nature being destructive, and in no way useful, he was objected to by many, as too useless and undignified to become an emblem of the coming great state,--for we all had, at that early day, full confidence that Minnesota was destined to be a great and prominent state. Nothing was ever settled on this subject until after the year 1857. As I have before stated, in that year an attempt was made to amend the const.i.tution by allowing the state to issue bonds in the sum of $5,000,000 to aid in the construction of the railroads which the United States had subsidized with land grants, and the campaign which involved this amendment was most bitterly fought. The opponents of the measure published a cartoon to bring the subject into ridicule, which was very generally circulated throughout the state, but failed to check the enthusiasm in favor of the proposition. This cartoon represented ten men in a line, with heads bowed down with the weight of a bag of gold hung about their necks, marked "$10,000." They were supposed to represent the members of the legislature who had been bribed to pa.s.s the act, and were called "Primary Directors." On their backs was a railroad track, upon which was a train of cars drawn by nine gophers, the three gophers in the lead proclaiming, "We have no cash, but will give you our drafts."

Attached to the rear of the train was a wheelbarrow, with a barrel on it, marked "Gin," followed by the devil, in great glee, with his thumb at his nose. In the train were the advocates of the bill, flying a flag bearing these words: "Gopher train; excursion train; members of extra session of legislature, free. We develop the resources of the country."

Over this was a smaller flag, with the words: "The $5,000,000 Loan Bill."

In another part of the picture is a rostrum, from which a gopher is addressing the people with the legend: "I am right; Gorman is wrong." In the right hand corner of the cartoon is a round ball, with a gopher in it, coming rapidly down, with the legend: "A _Ball come_ from Winona."