Geographical Position and History of Reading.—Manufacturing Interests.—Population, Streets, Churches and Public Buildings.—Boating on the Schuylkill.—White Spot and the View from its Summit.—Other Pleasure Resorts.—Decoration Day.—Wealth Created by Industry.
Geographical Position and History of Reading.—Manufacturing Interests.—Population, Streets, Churches and Public Buildings.—Boating on the Schuylkill.—White Spot and the View from its Summit.—Other Pleasure Resorts.—Decoration Day.—Wealth Created by Industry.
Reading, the seat of Justice of Berks County, Pennsylvania, is beautifully situated near the junction of the Tulpehocken with the Schuylkill River, and is midway between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. It was named after the ancient borough of Reading, a prominent market town of Berkshire, England, which it is said to resemble in some of its geographical surroundings. Attention was first called to Reading in the fall of 1748, by the agents of Richard and Thomas Penn, who represented it as "a new town with great natural advantages, and destined to become a prosperous place." It was incorporated as a borough in 1783, and as a city in 1847. The original settlers were principally Germans, who gave character to the town, both in language and customs. For many years the German tongue was almost exclusively spoken, and it is still used in social intercourse and religious worship by more than one-half the present population.
The manufacturing interests of Reading are second to no city of like population in the United States; while it is the third city in Pennsylvania in its manufactures,Pittsburg and Philadelphia alone exceeding it. Among these manufactures the working of iron holds the first rank. Much of the ore is obtained from Penn's Mountain, on the east of the town. Rolling mills, machine shops, car shops, furnaces, foundries, cotton mills and hat factories, from their number and extent, establish beyond question the claim of Reading to be considered one of the first manufacturing towns of America. The shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad alone employ two thousand men. From an early hour in the morning the eastern bank of the Schuylkill rings out the discordant music of numberless factories, betokening the enterprise of her productive industries.
Reading has, at the present time, a population numbering not far from fifty thousand. It is delightfully situated on an elevated and ascending plain, which rises to the eastward into Penn's Mountain, and to the southward into the Neversink Mountain. The city is abundantly supplied with pure water, by streams flowing from these mountains. It is surrounded by a rich farming country, which looks to it for supplies. The streets cross each other at right angles, and the chief hotels and stores are built around Penn's Square, which occupies the centre of the city. It contains thirty-one churches, most prominent among which is Trinity, German Lutheran, an antique building with a spire two hundred and ten feet in height. Christ Church, Episcopal, is a handsome Gothic edifice of more recent date, and with a spire nearly as high. The Grand Opera House and Mishler's Academy of Music furnish amusements for the pleasure-seekers of the city.
The Schuylkill River is one of the most charmingly picturesque in America. Taking its rise among the rockyheights of the Blue Ridge, when it reaches Reading it has left all the ruggedness of the mountain region behind, and flows between gently sloping banks, which, though sometimes rising in the background to considerable elevations, never lose their softness of outline and their pastoral beauty. One evening we strolled down to this river, and took a most delightful boat ride from the Lancaster bridge to the dam opposite the White House and Neversink. Two boats were placed at the disposal of our party. It was a lovely May evening, the air soft and warm, yet with all the freshness of spring. We glided down the stream, the trees upon the banks overhanging the water, and catching reflections of themselves in its depths. Our downward progress was easy and pleasant. The current aided our efforts, while the tranquil waters, rippled only by a passing boat, offered no resistance to us in our course. When we turned and headed up stream, we found it quite another matter. Then we had to bring all our energies and wills to aid us in the labor of rowing. This is something that a man is apt to discover many times in his life, that, in both material and moral matters, it is easier to float with the current than to make headway against it.
A call from Mr. W. H. Zeller, of the ReadingEagle, paid me early one day, before the sun was up, was an indication that that gentleman was ready to pilot me to "White Spot," the famous resort of Reading. Starting as soon as possible, we walked up Franklin street, crossed Perkiomen avenue, and took a "bee line" for our destination. Up and up and up we walked, ran and jumped, over gulches and stones, and from log to log, halting occasionally for breath, and to discuss the city andlandscape at our feet. It was but half-past five o'clock when we reached the goal of our walk. Taking in a view from its elevated heights, I felt that my visit to Reading would have given me a very indefinite idea of its natural beauties, had I not seen it from this point. White Spot is upon Penn's Mountain, one thousand feet above the river. I would but mislead the imagination of the reader, were I to attempt to convey a faithful impression of the magnificent panorama which, for a while, almost bewildered me. But let him imagine, if he can, a vast girdle of far-off, misty, blue hills, faintly defined by the horizon; against them to the north and west jut rows of towering but withal gently sloping mountains, purple, black, or darkly blue, just as each drifting cloud shadows them; within these encircling hills and mountains scatter the loveliest landscape features of which the human mind can conceive; green meadows, wooded hills, enchanting groves, dotted here and there with the most charming irregularity; farmhouses and farms, in themselves a little Arcadia; roads diverging from a common centre, and winding about until in the distance they look like the tiny trail which a child's stick makes in the sand; a clear, silvery river, looking in the sunshine like liquid light, reproducing on its mirrored surface the wonderful beauty which clothes either bank, studded with green isles that "blossom as the rose," spanned by splendid bridges as delicate in their appearance as lace work or filigree, yet supporting thousands of tons daily; in the heart of all a city, whose factories, furnaces, churches, majestic public buildings, handsome private residences, and attractive suburbs betoken prosperity, intelligence, culture, wealth and constant improvement; over the whole throw thatpeculiarcouleur de rosewith which the heart in its happiest moments paints all it loves, and he will have a faint conception of the aspect of Reading and its surroundings as seen from White Spot.
After resting on the summit, and taking in, to the full, this magnificent view, we returned to the city by the way of Mineral Spring, another delightful resort, which lies surrounded by charming natural beauties, about a mile and a half east of Reading. White House Hotel, a mile and a half to the southeast, on the Neversink Mountain, three hundred feet above the river, is still another favorite visiting place, from which a fine view of the city and surrounding country may be obtained, though not equal to that of White Spot.
I was particularly fortunate in finding myself still in Reading on Decoration Day, that day which has become a national holiday, and is universally observed throughout the northern States. The occurrence of this anniversary is hailed by the "Boys in Blue" as affording a blessed opportunity for doing honor to their dead comrades, and renewing their devotion to the flag which they followed through a four years' war for the preservation of the Union. Reading manifested her patriotism by a parade of all her civic and military organizations, and by invitation I was permitted to participate in the decoration exercises, at the Charles Evans Cemetery. The people of Reading are truly loyal, as industrious and order-loving people are sure to be. The perpetuation of the Union means to them the protection of their homes and the encouragement of their industries.
Although the manufacturing interests of Philadelphia and Pittsburg are exceedingly large—those of thelatter without parallel on the continent, if, in the world—a visit to Reading is, nevertheless, desirable, for one who would gain a comprehensive idea of the industries of Pennsylvania. The city is not a large one, but it is almost wholly a city of workers. With the great coal and iron regions of the State at its back, their products brought to it by river, railroad and canal, its manufacturing enterprises are multiplied in numbers, and are almost Cyclopean in their proportions. Here the brawn of the country, with giant strength united with surprising skill, hammers and fashions the various devices of an advanced civilization, which its brain has already imagined and planned. Here wealth is created by the sturdy strokes of industry, and the permanent prosperity of the State secured.
Arrival in Richmond.—Libby Prison.—Situation of the City.—Historical Associations.—Early Settlement.—Attacked by British Forces in the Revolution.—Monumental Church.—St. John's Church.—State Capital.—Passage of the Ordinance of Secession.—Richmond the Capital of the Confederate States.—Military Expeditions against the City.—Evacuation of Petersburg.—Surrender of the City.—Visit of President Lincoln.—Historical Places.—Statues.—Rapid Recuperation After the War.—Manufacturing and Commercial Interests.—Streets and Public Buildings.—Population and Future Prospects.
Arrival in Richmond.—Libby Prison.—Situation of the City.—Historical Associations.—Early Settlement.—Attacked by British Forces in the Revolution.—Monumental Church.—St. John's Church.—State Capital.—Passage of the Ordinance of Secession.—Richmond the Capital of the Confederate States.—Military Expeditions against the City.—Evacuation of Petersburg.—Surrender of the City.—Visit of President Lincoln.—Historical Places.—Statues.—Rapid Recuperation After the War.—Manufacturing and Commercial Interests.—Streets and Public Buildings.—Population and Future Prospects.
On the morning of October twenty-third, 1863, a large company of Union prisoners, including the author, made an entry into Richmond, which was the reverse of triumphant, we having been, four days before, made prisoners of war in the cavalry fight at New Baltimore, in Northern Virginia. A brief stay in Warrenton jail, a forced march on a hot day, for a distance of thirty miles, to Culpepper, and then a transfer by march and rail, landed us at last at Libby Prison, Richmond. The "chivalry" and the descendants of the F. F. V's did not impress us very favorably, as we marched from the depot, through some of the principal streets, to the James River. Contemptuous epithets were bestowed freely upon us, while the female portion of the community was even more bitter in its expressions of hatred, and a troop of boys followed in our rear, hooting and yelling like young demoniacs.
Libby Prison was situated at the corner of Fourteenthand Cary streets, and was an old, dilapidated three-story brick structure, which still bore upon its northwest corner the sign "Libby & Son, Ship Chandlers and Grocers." The windows were small and protected by iron bars. The story of my stay in this prison-house I have recorded in "Capture, Prison-Pen and Escape." It was my abiding place until the seventh of the following May, when, in a filthy, rough box-car, a number of prisoners, including myself, were shipped to Danville. It is needless to say that my prolonged stay in Richmond did not materially alter or improve my impressions in regard to the city. True, our view of the city from our prison windows was limited, but memories only of suffering, privation and unnecessary barbarity, prompted by the cruel nature of those who had us in charge, are associated with it. The city was at that time the heart and centre of the then Southern Confederacy, the seat of the Rebel government, the rendezvous of troops, and the hatching place of treason and rebellion.
Yet one who views Richmond at the present day, unbiased by the untoward circumstances which threw their baleful influence over us, will see much to admire in and about the city. It is situated on the north bank of the James River, about one hundred miles by water from Chesapeake Bay, and the same distance a little west of south of Washington. It is built upon several eminences, the principal ones being Shockoe and Richmond hills, separated by Shockoe Creek. Like so many other Southern cities, its residences are surrounded by gardens, in which are grass plots, shrubbery and flowers; and in the business quarter are many substantial edifices.
The Richmond of to-day is very different from the Richmond of war times. The loyal city has beenliterally reconstructed upon the ruins of the rebellious one. There are few cities around which so many historical associations cluster, as around Richmond. It is on the site of a settlement made as early as 1611, by Sir Thomas Dale, and in honor of Prince Henry called Henrico, from which the county afterwards took its name. An early historical account says it contained three streets of framed houses, a church, storehouses and warehouses. It was protected by ditches and palisades, and no less than five rude forts. Two miles below the city a settlement had been made two years previously. In 1644-5 the Assembly of Virginia ordered a fort to be erected at the falls of the James River, to be called "Forte Charles." In 1676 war was declared against the Indians, and bloody encounters took place between the aborigines and their white neighbors. Bloody Run, near Richmond, is so named, according to tradition, on account of a sanguinary battle which one Bacon had there with the Indians; though it is stated on other authority that its name originated from the battle in which Hill was defeated and Totopotomoi slain.
In 1677 certain privileges were granted Captain William Byrd, upon the condition that he should settle fifty able-bodied and well armed men in the vicinity of the Falls, to act as a protection to the frontier against the Indians. Richmond was established by law as a town in May, 1742, in the reign of George II, on land belonging to Colonel William Byrd, who died two years later. The present Exchange Hotel is near the locality of a warehouse owned by that gentleman. In 1779 the capital of the State was removed to Richmond, from Williamsburg, the latter, its former capital, being in too assailable a position. In 1781 the traitor Arnoldinvested the city with a British force. As soon as he arrived he sent a force, under Colonel Simcoe, to destroy the cannon foundry above the town. After burning some public and private buildings, and a large quantity of tobacco, the British forces left Richmond, encamping for one night at Four Mile Creek. The village at that time contained not more than eighteen hundred inhabitants, one-half of whom were slaves. In 1789 it contained about three hundred houses. At that period all the principal merchants were Scotch and Scotch-Irish. Paulding describes the inhabitants as "a race of most ancient and respectable planters, having estates in the country, who chose it for their residence, for the sake of social enjoyments. They formed a society now seldom to be met with in any of our cities. A society of people not exclusively monopolized by money-making pursuits, but of liberal education, liberal habits of thinking and acting; and possessing both leisure and inclination to cultivate those feelings and pursue those objects which exalt our nature rather than increase our fortune." In 1788, a convention met in the city, to ratify the Federal Constitution.
At the corner of Broad and Thirteenth streets stands the Monumental Church, in commemoration of a terrible calamity which once befell the city. On the twenty-sixth of December, 1811, a play entitled "The Bleeding Nun" was being performed in the little theatre of the city, and proved such a great attraction that the house was crowded, not less than six hundred people being present on the eventful night. Just before the conclusion of the play the scenery caught fire, and in a few minutes the whole building was wrapped in flames. The fire falling from the ceiling upon the performerswas the first notification the audience had of what was transpiring. A scene of the wildest confusion ensued. There was but one door through which the entire audience, composed of men, women and children, could make its exit. The fire flashed from one portion of the interior to another, catching on the garments of the frantic people. All pressed in a wild panic toward the door. People jumped and were pushed out of the windows. Many were rescued with their clothing literally burned off from them, and no less than sixty-nine persons perished in the flames, among them George W. Smith, Governor of the State, and many other prominent men and women. A great funeral was held in the Baptist meeting-house, and the entire population of the city attended, as mourners. The remains of the unfortunates were interred beneath a mural tablet which is now in the vestibule of the church that was subsequently erected on the site of the theatre.
St. John's Church, on Church Hill, at the corner of Broad and Twenty-fourth streets, dates back to ante-Revolutionary times, and in it was held, in 1775, the Virginia Convention, in which Patrick Henry made his famous speech, containing the words "Give me liberty or give me death!" It was subsequently the place of meeting of the Convention which, in 1788, ratified the Federal Constitution. Among the members of this Convention were James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, George Nicholas, George Mason, Edmund Randolph, Pendleton and Wythe. Rarely has any occasion in a single State presented such a list of illustrious names as we find here. This church is a plain, unpretending edifice, built in the style of a century ago, to which has been added a modern spire.
The State Capitol stands on the summit of Shockoe Hill, in the centre of a park of eight acres. It is of Graeco-Composite style of architecture, with a portico of Ionic columns, planned after that of theMaison casséeat Nismes, in France, the plan being furnished by Thomas Jefferson. Beneath a lofty dome in the centre of the building is Houdon's celebrated statue of Washington, of marble, life size, representing him clad in the uniform of a revolutionary general. Near by, in a niche in the wall, is a marble bust of Lafayette. This building has been the scene of many noted political gatherings. In it, on January seventh, 1861, was read Governor Letcher's message to the Legislature, in which he declared it was "monstrous to see a government like ours destroyed merely because men cannot agree about a domestic institution." Nevertheless, on the seventeenth of the same month, the Capitol Building witnessed the unanimous passage of the following resolution:—
"Resolved, That if all efforts to reconcile the unhappy differences between sections of our country shall prove abortive, then every consideration of honor and interest demands that Virginia shall unite her destinies with her sister slaveholding States."
"Resolved, That if all efforts to reconcile the unhappy differences between sections of our country shall prove abortive, then every consideration of honor and interest demands that Virginia shall unite her destinies with her sister slaveholding States."
And on the thirteenth of February, the same edifice saw a State Convention meet within its walls; on the sixteenth of April, Governor Letcher refused the requisition of the Secretary of War for troops to assist in putting down the Rebellion in South Carolina; and the next day the Ordinance of Secession was passed, two months having been given to an active discussion of its expediency, pro and con. The Confederate flag, with eight stars, was raised from the dome of the Capitol, and the Custom House, which stands on Main street, betweenTenth and Eleventh, had the gilt sign on its portico, "United States Court," removed. A citizen writing from Richmond, on April twenty-fifth, says: "Our beautiful city presents the appearance of an armed camp. Where all these soldiers come from, in such a state of preparation, I cannot imagine. Every train pours in its multitude of volunteers, but I am not as much surprised at the number as at the apparent discipline of the country companies. * * But the war spirit is not confined to the men nor to the white population. The ladies are not only preparing comforts for the soldiers, but arming and practicing themselves. Companies of boys, also, from ten to fourteen years of age, fully armed and well drilled, are preparing for the fray. In Petersburg, three hundred free negroes offered their services, either to fight under white officers, or to ditch and dig, or any kind of labor. An equal number in this city and across the river, in Chesterfield, have volunteered in like manner."
A resolution was passed by the Convention inviting the Southern Confederacy to make Richmond the seat of government. The Ordinance of Secession having been submitted to the people, the vote in the city stood twenty-four hundred in favor and twenty-four against, being less than half the vote polled at the Presidential election in November previous. Richmond became a general rendezvous for troops.
The Confederate Congress met in Richmond, in the hall of the House of Delegates, on the twentieth of July, 1861, and the seat of government continued there until the taking of the city marked the fall of the Confederacy. A school-house in the vicinity of the rear of Monumental Church, was at that time known asBrockenburg House, and was the residence of Jefferson Davis, president of the Southern Confederacy. Two tobacco warehouses, under their former titles of Libby & Son and Castle Thunder, together with Belle Isle, were military prisons during the war, and in the former of these, as already narrated, the writer was confined for several months.
About the middle of May, 1862, the Federal forces having passed Yorktown and Williamsburg, began to move directly upon Richmond. Consternation seized the city, all who could get away packed up everything and fled southward. Even President Davis took his family and hastened to North Carolina. It was resolved to destroy the city by conflagration as soon as the Union troops reached it. The Federal army was, however, compelled to abandon the Peninsula, and Richmond was safe for the time being. On February twenty-ninth, 1864, General Kilpatrick, with his division of cavalry, commenced his march upon the city, and came within six miles, when he was compelled to withdraw to Mechanicsburg. The next day he made a second attempt, advancing by the Westham or river road, but was confronted by superior forces, and again compelled to fall back, and shortly after he returned down the Peninsula.
From the beginning of the war Richmond had been the objective point of a series of formidable expeditions for its capture, under Generals McDowell, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade and Grant. The strong earthworks which were drawn around the city for its protection still remain as mementoes of the great struggle. On July thirtieth, 1864, the Union forces advanced as far as Petersburg, and after destroying onefort, were repulsed. It was not until April second, 1865, that the Rebel forces were obliged to surrender that outpost, and on the following day, General Weitzel, with his troops, entered the city of Richmond.
President Davis was attending church at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, at the corner of Grace and Ninth streets, when a messenger brought him a dispatch from General Lee, announcing that Petersburg was about to be evacuated. The officers of the Southern Confederacy stood not on the order of their going, but went at once. Jefferson Davis took his family and left the city immediately. The Rebel authorities took with them what stores and treasures they could convey away, burned what they had to leave behind, and set fire to the warehouses, public buildings, and bridges across the James River. The flames communicated to adjacent structures, and it was thought the entire city would be destroyed. A large portion of its business section was thus laid waste; the number of buildings destroyed being estimated at one thousand, and the entire loss at eight millions of dollars.
On the fourth of April, President Lincoln reached Richmond, and entered the house which had but two days before been occupied by Jefferson Davis, but which was now the headquarters of General Weitzel. He came unattended, and walked up from the river into the city, without parade, as any ordinary citizen might have done. The news of his presence soon spread, and the colored people flocked around him, with strong demonstrations of joy. "God bless you, Massa Linkum!" was heard on every hand, while the tears rolled down the cheeks of some, and others danced for joy. And here, perhaps all unconsciously, the second father of hiscountry emulated the first. It is told of Washington, that, a colored man having bowed to him, he returned the bow with stately courtesy. Being remonstrated with for bowing to a colored person, he replied that he did not wish to be outdone in politeness by a negro. At Richmond a colored man bowed to Lincoln, with the salutation, "May de good Lord bless you, President Linkum!" Lincoln returned the bow with cordiality, evidently, like Washington, determined not to be outdone in politeness by a negro. But that bow not only indicated the noble nature of the man who recognized a humanity broader than a color line, and over whom already hung the dark shadow of martyrdom; but it also was a foretoken of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and the Civil Rights act, which so quickly followed the quelling of the Rebellion.
In the soldiers' section of the Hollywood Cemetery, in the western limits of the city, overlooking the James River, are the graves of hundreds of Confederate dead, from the midst of which rises a monumental pyramid of rough stone. In the same cemetery, on a hill at its southern extremity, a monument marks the resting-place of President Monroe. General J. E. B. Stuart, commander of Lee's cavalry, is also buried here.
The Tredegar Iron Works, which are still in active operation, and whose buildings cover thirteen acres of ground, were the great cannon manufactory of the Confederacy. Several battle fields and national cemeteries are within a few hours' drive of the city. The old African Church, a long, low building in Branch street, near Monumental Church, is famous as a place of political meetings, both before and during the war.
Crawford's equestrian statue of Washington, in the esplanade leading from the Governor's house to the Capitol Square, will recall the early days of the Republic. The statue is of bronze, representing a horse and rider of colossal size, the horse thrown back partly upon its haunches, on a massive granite pedestal, and around it are grouped bronze figures of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, George Mason, Thomas Nelson, and Andrew Lewis, all illustrious sons of Virginia. In the Capitol Square, north of the Capitol Building, is Foley's statue of General "Stonewall" Jackson, of heroic size, on a granite pedestal, and near it a life-size marble statue of Henry Clay. In the State Library, which contains forty thousand volumes, are many historical portraits.
Richmond has rapidly recuperated since the war. Her streets have been rebuilt, and, in common with many other Southern cities, she has, since the abolition of slavery, and the consequent elevation of labor and attraction of Northern enterprise and capital, developed many industrial interests. The Gallego and Haxall flour mills are among the largest in the world. It has a large number of cotton, and a still larger number of tobacco factories; and contains also forges, furnaces, paper mills, and machine shops. Its chief exports are, however, tobacco and flour. Richmond owes its present flourishing condition to its river facilities, and the immense water power supplied by the falls. It is alike the manufacturing and the commercial metropolis of the State. Vessels drawing ten feet of water can come within a mile of the centre of the city, those drawing fifteen feet, to three miles below. A canal around the falls gives river navigation two hundred miles further into theinterior. Steamboat lines connect it with the principal Atlantic cities, and railroads and canals open up communication with the North, South, and West.
The city is regularly laid out, the streets crossing each other at right angles. Those parallel with the river are named alphabetically, A street being on the river. The cross streets are named numerically. The principal thoroughfare is Main or E street, which is the centre of business. The fashionable quarter is on Shockoe Hill, in the western part of the city, where are also the chief public edifices. The Penitentiary is in the western suburbs facing the river, and is a massive structure three hundred feet long and one hundred and ten feet deep. The Almshouse is one of the finest buildings in the city. There are a large number of churches, thirteen colleges, and an orphan asylum. Five bridges across the James River connect it with Spring Hill and Manchester, the latter a pretty town containing two cotton mills.
The population of Richmond, by the census of 1880, was 63,803, which showed an increase of more than ten thousand persons in ten years. Unlike Charleston, S. C., it is surrounded by a populous rural region, whose products find a market here, and whose population look largely to the city for their supplies. It will never attain the commercial consequence of Savannah or of Norfolk, but as the centre of the tobacco region, and the seat of large manufacturing interests, it will always possess a certain importance and prosperity.
Early History of Saint Paul.—Founding of the City.—Public Buildings.—Roman Catholics.—Places of Resort.—Falls of Minnehaha.—Carver's Cave.—Fountain Cave.—Commercial Interests.—Present and Future Prospects.
Early History of Saint Paul.—Founding of the City.—Public Buildings.—Roman Catholics.—Places of Resort.—Falls of Minnehaha.—Carver's Cave.—Fountain Cave.—Commercial Interests.—Present and Future Prospects.
The first white man who ever visited the locality where Saint Paul now stands, was Father Hennepin, who made a voyage of discovery up the Mississippi, above the Falls of Saint Anthony, in 1680. But for more than a century and a half after his visit the entire section of country remained practically in the possession of the Indians. Eighty-six years afterwards Jonathan Carver made a treaty with the Dakotas, and in 1837 the United States made a treaty with the Sioux, throwing the land open to settlement.
The first building in Saint Paul was erected in 1838, but for a number of years afterwards it remained merely an Indian trading-post. In 1841 a mission was established on the spot by the Jesuits, and a log chapel dedicated to Saint Paul, from which the city afterwards took its name.
The land upon which Saint Paul is built was purchased in 1849, at the government price of one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. The same year the town was made the capital of the State, while it was yet a hamlet of a few log huts. Four years later it had nearly four thousand inhabitants, with handsome public buildings, good hotels, stores, mills, factories, and otherconstituents of a prosperous town. In 1846 the town had but ten inhabitants. In 1856 it had ten thousand. Steamers were coming and going; loads of immigrants were arriving; drays and teams were driving hither and thither; carpenters and masons were hard at work; yet could not put up houses fast enough; shops and dwellings were starting out of the ground, as if by magic. In 1880 the population had increased to fifty thousand, and was steadily and rapidly multiplying.
Saint Paul originally occupied the western bank of the Mississippi, but has now extended to the eastern bank as well. It is divided into a lower and upper town, the former lying on the low shore between the bluff and the river, and containing the wholesale houses, shipping houses and factories. The latter occupies no less than four plateaus rising one above another, in a semicircle around the bend of the river, the first plateau being nearly a hundred feet in height. Here are the retail stores, public buildings, churches and private residences. The streets in the central portions of the city cross one another at right angles, but become irregular as they approach the boundaries. They are graded and paved and lighted by gas. Two bridges connect the opposite shores of the river, and horse cars traverse all sections of the city. Its general appearance is pleasing in the extreme. Many of the houses are built of blue limestone, which is found underlying one of the terraces in great quantities.
The State Capitol building is now in process of construction, and will, when completed, be a very handsome edifice, occupying an entire square. The United States Custom House, an opera house, a large number ofhandsome churches, and several public school buildings are among the objects worthy of note in the city.
Although Saint Paul is settled largely by people from New England and New York State, the Roman Catholics still hold an important place in the city. The first to take possession of the spot, they will be the last to relax their hold. They have a number of large and handsomely finished church edifices, and have established an orphan asylum. There is also a Protestant orphan asylum, and three free hospitals.
The city boasts an Academy of Sciences, which has a very full museum, a Historical Society and a Library Association, each of the latter having fine libraries.
Saint Paul is in the midst of a charming and romantic country, and the throngs of people who seek a transient home within its borders during the heat of summer find abundance of delightful drives and places for picnics and excursions. White Bear Lake and Bald Eagle Lake, but a short distance away by rail, furnish boating, fishing and bathing for pleasure seekers, as well as most enchanting scenery for the lovers of nature. The city park is but two miles away, on the shores of Lake Como, and is also an attractive place.
All lovers of the romantic should thank Longfellow that by means of his exquisite poem of Hiawatha he has rescued the beautiful Falls of Minnehaha, meaning in the Dakota language "laughing water," from being known as Brown's Falls, a name which some utilitarian egotist had bestowed upon it. From a high bank, covered with shrubbery, the clear, silvery stream makes a sudden leap of about fifty feet into the chasm beneath. A veil of mist rises before the falls, and the sun shining upon it spans the cataract with a rainbow.
On the eastern side of the city, in Dayton Bluff, near the river, is Carver's Cave, so named after Jonathan Carver, already referred to, who, in this cave, in May, 1767, made his treaty with the Indians, by which he secured a large tract of land. The cave contains a lake large enough to have a boat upon it.
Two miles above Saint Paul, on a beautiful clear stream that flows into the Mississippi, is Fountain Cave, a most wonderful and interesting production of nature. It seems to have been formed by the action of the stream which finds an outlet through it. It has an arched entrance with a vaulted roof, the entrance being twenty feet in height by twenty-five in width, while roof, sides and floor are of pure white sandstone. This cave contains a number of chambers, the largest being one hundred feet in length by twenty-five feet in width, and twenty feet in height. The cave has been penetrated for a thousand feet or more, and still has unexplored recesses.
Saint Paul stands at the head of navigation of the Mississippi River, the Falls and Rapids of Saint Anthony, a short distance above, effectually barring the further upward progress of craft from below, though above the falls small steamboats thread the waters of the youthful Mississippi to the furthest outposts of civilization. At this point the immense grain fields of the northwest find an outlet for their annual products, and to this point comes the merchandise which must supply the needs of an already large and constantly increasing agricultural, mining and lumbering population. Numerous railroads connect it, not only with the great trade centres of the east and south, but with a hundred thriving towns and villages in Minnesota and Wisconsin, wholook to it for supplies; and when the Northern Pacific is completed, the entire northwest will be brought into communication with Saint Paul, and as the Mississippi will share with the lakes the transportation of produce, manufactures and ores of an inexhaustible but now scarcely populated region, Saint Paul will derive immense advantages from this gigantic enterprise.
Saint Paul is already a town of the greatest importance on the Upper Mississippi. Her streets teem with business, and boats of all descriptions lie at her wharves. Already a populous city, what she is to-day is but the beginning of what the future will behold her. A generation hence she will count her inhabitants by hundreds where now she counts them by tens; her business will have increased in like proportion; and in the no distant future she will be known as the great metropolis of the Northwest.
The Mormons.—Pilgrimage Across the Continent.—Site of Salt Lake City.—A People of Workers.—Spread of Mormons through other Territories.—City of the Saints.—Streets.—Fruit and Shade Trees.—Irrigation.—The Tabernacle.—Residences of the late Brigham Young.—Museum.—Public Buildings.—Warm and Hot Springs.—Number and Character of Population.—Barter System before Completion of Railroad.—Mormons and Gentiles.—Present Advantages and Future Prospects of Salt Lake City.
The Mormons.—Pilgrimage Across the Continent.—Site of Salt Lake City.—A People of Workers.—Spread of Mormons through other Territories.—City of the Saints.—Streets.—Fruit and Shade Trees.—Irrigation.—The Tabernacle.—Residences of the late Brigham Young.—Museum.—Public Buildings.—Warm and Hot Springs.—Number and Character of Population.—Barter System before Completion of Railroad.—Mormons and Gentiles.—Present Advantages and Future Prospects of Salt Lake City.
Of all the cities which have sprung into being and grown and prospered, since the discovery of the American continent, there is not one with which is associated so much interest, and which attracts such universal curiosity as Salt Lake City. From the time of the so-called discovery of the Book of Mormon, in 1827, by Joseph Smith, through all the wanderings of the adherents of Mormonism, beginning with the organization of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," in Manchester, New York, including its removal to Kirtland, Ohio, and the establishment of a branch church in Jackson County, Missouri; its transplanting to Nauvoo, Illinois; the temporary sojourn of its adherents in Iowa; and the final exodus, in 1847, over the then almost unknown and unexplored plains and mountains of the great west, until they reached the Land of Promise, lying between the Wasatch Range and the Sierra Nevadas, and there settled themselves permanently, to build up literally a "Kingdom of Christ upon the earth," the Mormons have been in more senses than one a peculiar people.They have been unpleasantly peculiar in their advocacy and practice of polygamy, and during their early sojourn at Salt Lake, in their defiance of the United States Government. In some other respects they have challenged the admiration of the world, and have set patterns in industry, and in a system of government, which seems to consider the well-being of all, both of which might be imitated to advantage by the "Gentiles" who affect to despise them.
After a weary pilgrimage through a wilderness far greater than that traversed by the Israelites in days of old, the Mormons found their Canaan in an immense valley, from four thousand to six thousand feet above the level of the sea, and walled in by mountain ranges which seemed to furnish natural barriers against the incroachments of an antagonistic civilization. This valley, the geologist said, was the bottom of a great, pre-historic sea, which by some mighty convulsion of nature had been lifted up from its original level, and its outlet cut off, and, like the Caspian Sea and others, was left to shrink by evaporation. In the deepest depression of this valley still remained all that was left of this ancient inland ocean, reduced now to seventy-five miles in length and thirty in breadth, with an average depth of but eight feet. Still holding in solution a large proportion of the salts of the greater sea, its waters form one of the purest and most concentrated brines in the world, containing twenty-two per cent of chloride of sodium, slightly mixed with other salts. All through the valley of the Great Salt Lake there are salt and alkaline deposits, evidencing the former presence of water. The valley seemed barren and uninviting; yet in it, as offering a refuge from the persecutions which they hadsuffered in the east, the Mormons decided to establish their church and build their homes. They found the soil, barren as it looked, would grow grass, grain and fruits; and though the climate is changeable, the winter cold, with deep snows, and the heat of summer intense, they had faith to believe that they could endure whatever natural disadvantages they could not overcome, and that they should in time receive the reward of their piety and industry.
Their chief town and ecclesiastical capital was located on the eastern bank of the river Jordan, between Lake Utah, a beautiful body of fresh water lying to the southward, and Great Salt Lake, lying twenty miles to the northward. The new settlement was eleven hundred miles west of the Mississippi, and six hundred and fifty miles east-northeast of the then scarcely heard of city of San Francisco. Its site extended close up to the base of the great mountains on the north, while to the southward its view spread over more than a hundred miles of plain, with a range of rugged mountain peaks, snow-capped and bold, lying beyond. A grander outlook could scarcely be imagined.
MORMON TEMPLE AND TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY.MORMON TEMPLE AND TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY.
In the laying out of the city the fact was kept in view that it was for a people of workers, each one of whom must be self-sustaining. In truth, the great success of these people is due to the fact that no class of drones has been recognized and provided for. All, from the highest to the lowest, were expected to work, church officials as well as laymen; and prosperity has attended industry, as it always does. The wilderness and solitary place were glad for them, and the desert was made to rejoice and blossom as the rose; and a mighty nation within a nation has been built up in the valley of Utah,protected by its mountain fastnesses. The Mormons have become a strong and prosperous people, and have not only possessed themselves of Utah, but have sent out colonies to Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, Idaho and Arizona, which have prospered and increased, until they now practically control those Territories.
It is not my province to speak of the Mormons from either a religious or political standpoint. Their material prosperity one cannot fail to see, and a truthful historian must note it. The "City of the Saints," as Salt Lake City is sometimes called, is doubly interesting, from its history and from its peculiar features, so unlike those of any other city. The streets are one hundred and twenty-eight feet wide, crossing each other at right angles, an eighth of a mile apart, each square thus formed containing ten acres. Each square is divided into eight lots, measuring ten by twenty rods, and containing one-fourth of an acre. Several of the squares in the business quarter of the town have been cut across since the original laying out, forming cross streets. The streets are lined with trees, while streams of running water course down each side of every street, being brought from the neighboring mountains, ten thousand feet high, furnishing a pure water supply, and irrigating the gardens. Almost every lot has an orchard of pear, apple, plum, apricot, and peach trees, and Utah furnishes large quantities of fresh and dried fruit for the eastern markets. Apricots, which in the east are almost unknown, sometimes grow as large as eastern peaches, from six to eight inches in circumference. Locust, maple and box-elder are the favorite shade trees, and these grow luxuriantly. When, however, their rootsstrike soil from which the alkali has not yet been washed, their leaves turn from a dark green to a sickly yellow. But irrigation washes out this alkali, and the trouble from it grows less every year.
Salt Lake City is divided into twenty wards, nearly every one of which has a square. Every ward has its master, who superintends the public improvements, and sees that every man does his share without shirking. The houses are generally of adobe (sun-dried bricks), though a few of the newer business blocks are handsome and commodious stone structures. Most of the dwelling houses are small, and but a single story in height, having separate entrances when there is more than one wife in the family. The city is not an imposing one. The wide streets, large grounds around each dwelling, and low, small houses, give it more the appearance of an overgrown village than that of a city. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the plan upon which it is built secures to its inhabitants the maximum of comfort, health and cleanliness. There are no narrow and stifling streets, overshadowed by tall buildings; no dirty alleys; no immense crime and pestilence-breeding tenement houses. Each little dwelling has its garden and orchard, securing to each family the blessings of fresh vegetables and fruit, and making each in a measure self-dependent. The air is pure, blowing down the valley from the mountain heights; and no foul vapors from half protected sewers or reeking courts poison it.
The chief business thoroughfares are Main and Temple streets. The former is entirely devoted to trade, while church edifices are found in the latter. The Tabernacle is, of course, the most prominent object which meets the eye of the traveler as he arrives in Salt Lake City,standing out, as it does, in all its huge proportions, surrounded by the tiny homes of the people. It is on Temple street, in the heart of the city, and is entirely without architectural beauty, its predominant features being its hugeness and its ugliness. It is an enormous wooden structure, oval in form, with an immense dome-like roof, supported by forty-six sandstone pillars. It will seat fifteen thousand persons, and is used for the services of the church, lectures and public gatherings. It contains one of the largest organs in America. It is inclosed within a high wall, and a little to the east of it, within the same inclosure, are the foundations of a new temple, estimated to cost ten millions of dollars, but which will not probably be finished for many years to come. An inferior adobe building, also within the walls, is the celebrated Endowment House, where are performed those sacred and mysterious rites of the Mormon Church which no Gentile may look upon, and where the Saints are sealed to their polygamous wives.
On South Temple street, east of the Tabernacle, is the group of buildings known as Brigham Block, inclosed, like the former, by a high stone wall, and comprising the Tithing House, the Beehive House, the Lion House, the office of theDeseret News, and various other offices and buildings. The Beehive House and the Lion House constituted the residences of the late Brigham Young and eighteen or twenty of his wives. A handsome structure nearly opposite, the most pretentious structure in Salt Lake City, and known as Amelia Palace, was built by Brigham Young, for his favorite wife, Amelia. The theatre is a large building with a gloomy exterior, but handsomely fitted up inside. It is a favorite resort of the Saints, who make it a source ofinnocent recreation, and entertain no prejudices against it, permitting their wives and children to appear upon its boards. One of the daughters of Brigham Young was at one time an actress at this theatre.
On South Temple street, opposite the Tabernacle, is the Museum, containing interesting products of Mormon industry; specimens of ores from the mines of Utah, and precious stones from the desert; a fair representation of the fauna of the Territory; relics of the mound builders; articles of Indian use and manufacture, and other curiosities, which the visitor may behold on the payment of a small admission fee. The City Hall, which is at the present time used by the Territorial Government, is a handsome building, erected at a cost of sixty thousand dollars. In its rear is the city prison. A co-operative store in successful operation will be found occupying a handsome building on East Temple street. The Deseret National Bank, at the corner of East Temple and South First streets, is also a fine building. The two principal hotels of Salt Lake City are the Walker House, on Main street, and the Townsend House, at the corner of West Temple and South Second streets. With all its quaintness and want of resemblance to other cities, it has adopted the system of horse cars, which run on the principal streets, and make all parts of the city accessible.
About one mile distant from the city are the Warm Springs, issuing from the limestone rock at the foot of the mountains. The water of these springs contains lime, magnesia, iron, soda, chlorine, and sulphuric acid, and their temperature is lukewarm. A bath in them is delightful, and beneficial, if not prolonged. Private bathing apartments are fitted up for the use of bathers. A mile further north are the Hot Springs, also stronglysulphurous, and with a temperature of over 200°. Eggs may be boiled in these springs in three minutes, ready for the table. The water from these springs forms a beautiful lake, called Hot Spring Lake, which practically destroys all agriculture and vegetation for hundreds of yards within the vicinity. Strange as it may seem, the hot water does not prevent the existence of some kinds of excellent fish, among which have been seen some very fine, large trout.
The population of Salt Lake City is something over twenty thousand persons, of whom about one-third are Gentiles and apostate Mormons. This population is made up of all nationalities, apostles and missionaries being continually sent out to nearly every part of the civilized world, to make proselytes, and bring them to the fold. These converts to the faith are usually from the lower classes, ignorant and superstitious; and as a consequence the intellectual and social standards of Salt Lake City are not high. But with their new faith these people acquire habits of industry, if they never possessed them before; and the conditions of the city are favorable for growth in certain directions. Their children are educated and brought up to a higher position than that occupied by their parents; so that whatever may be our opinion as to the advantages or disadvantages, from a religious point of view, in their conversion to the Mormon faith, materially, intellectually and socially they have many of them undoubtedly made a change for the better. They are taken away from the stationary conditions of life in the old world, and transplanted into a new and growing country, where there is plenty of room and incentive for progress and expansion. Though the first generation do not always avail themselves of thisroom, nor even the second, to its fullest extent, ultimately these people will come to compare favorably with other classes of American citizens.
The completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, although it deprived the Mormons of that isolation which they sought, has been of vast benefit to them in material ways. It is said that when the city was first settled the whole community could not have raised one thousand dollars in cash. And up to the completion of the railroad nine-tenths of the business of the Mormon people was conducted on a system of barter. A writer thus facetiously describes the condition of things at that period: "A farmer wishes to purchase a pair of shoes for his wife. He consults the shoemaker, who avers his willingness to furnish the same for one load of wood. He has no wood, but sells a calf for a quantity of adobes, the adobes for an order on the merchant, payable in goods, and the goods and the order for a load of wood, and straightway the matron is shod. Seven watermelons purchased the price of a ticket of admission to the theatre. He paid for the tuition of his children seventy-five cabbages per quarter. The dressmaker received for her services four squashes per day. He settled his church dues in sorghum molasses. Two loads of pumpkins paid his annual subscription to the newspaper. He bought a 'Treatise on Celestial Marriage' for a load of gravel, and a bottle of soothing syrup for the baby with a bushel of string beans."
There are not the most harmonious relations existing between the Mormon and Gentile people of Salt Lake City. Each regards the other with suspicion. The former look upon the latter as hostile to their faith, and determined to destroy it. The Gentiles regard certainpractices of the Mormons with abhorrence, and themselves as at heart rebellious to the government to which they have been compelled to submit. The leading papers of the two factions are very hostile, and keep alive the feeling of antagonism.
Lying between two prominent mountain chains, the chief city in a vast valley which the enterprise of man has demonstrated to be fertile; furnishing a depot of supplies, and a mart and shipping place for produce and manufactures; Salt Lake City is destined to become an important point in the western section of our country. Her future is assured, even though the people who founded her, together with the faith to which they cling, should disappear from the face of the earth, and be forgotten, like the lost tribes of Israel, which they believe themselves to represent. Essentially American in all her features—since no city of the Old World, either ancient or modern, furnishes a prototype—and in her very plan including certain sure elements of success, as our Western States and Territories become filled up with a thriving and industrious people, she will find herself the natural centre of a vast agricultural and mining population, and continue to increase in importance and prosperity.