Bio of STEVENS, John H. (b.1820), Hennepin Co., MN ========================================================================= USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find the submitter information or other files for this county. FileFormat by Terri--MNArchives Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Laura Pruden Submitted: June 2003 ========================================================================= Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ======================================================== submitted by Laura Pruden, email Raisndustbunys@aol.com ======================================================== EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical Vol I, pg 88-92 JOHN H. STEVENS On April 24, 1849, John II. Stevens arrived at Fort Snelling. He was born in Lower Canada, June 13, 1820, though his parents were natives and citizens of Vermont. Before he reached his majority he came west and at the beginning of the Mexican war was employed in the lead mines at Galena, Illinois. lie enlisted and served through the war as captain and quartermaster. Soon after his arrival at Fort Snelling he entered the employ of Franklin Steele as a clerk. In a short time he became his employer's confidential agent and intimate friend. Mr. Stevens in his book, "Minnesota and Its People/' tells how he came to be the first actual settler on the west side. He says: "June 10, 1849, Mr. Steele asked me to accompany him on a little trip from Fort Snelling to St. Anthony Falls. I was then his chief bookkeeper in his counting room at the Fort. On our way up Mr. Steele said that in a year or two the Fort Snelling reservation would be reduced in size; that many valuable claims could be secured on the lands which would be left out by the reduction by securing permission from the Secretary of War to go immediately upon them; that he wanted me at once to secure the claim immediately above the Government Mill, then controlled by Hon. Robert Smith, and he thought there would, not be much difficulty in securing the desired permission from the Secretary of War, then Hon. William L. Marcy." Up to that time Secretary Marcy had been firm in his policy that no would-be settlers should be permitted to occupy any portion of the reservation. But a way was found to overcome his objections. For some time after the old Government mill was built and the first settlements were made on the east side, the only means of crossing the Mississippi at the falls was by fording on the ledge at the foot of Nicollet Island. This could be done only at low water and before the dam was built, and even then the crossing was attended by considerable risk. In 1847 Mr. Steele established a ferry between the upper end of Nicollet Island and the west bank. In order to induce the secretary of war to change his mind and grant Mr. Stevens permission to locate on the reservation, immediately above the old mill, a pleasing fiction was invented. At that time the road from Fort Snelling to Fort Gaines (later Fort Ripley) ran on the east side of the Mississippi. There was no question that a ferry at the Falls of St. Anthony would be a great convenience to the garrisons of the two posts. It was urged that Mr. Stevens be allowed to take up a claim and live on the west side on condition that ho would establish and operate a ferry; that he would transport across the river, free of charge, all Government agents, soldiers, army wagons, etc. Stevens' application, with this condition attached, was indorsed by Lieut.-Col. Gustavus Loomis, then commandant at Fort Snelling, Franklin Steele, Henry H. Sibley and other influential persons and Mr. Marcy yielded to the pressure. Several months passed before all the formalities were concluded and it was October, 1849, before Mr. Stevens began work on his house. The following spring he went to Rockford, Illinois, where on May 10, 1850, he married Miss Frances H. Miller. On August 6, 1850, he moved into his new house and in his book he says: "On the bank of the river, just above the rapids, I commenced building my humble home, to which when finished, I brought my wife, as a bride, and in it my first children were born, the eldest being the first-born white child in Minneapolis proper." Mr. Stevens was desirous of clearing a portion of his claim and placing it under cultivation, but his duties as bookkeeper for Mr. Steele at the fort kept him busy the greater part of the time. With the assistance of John Tapper-the ferryman-about forty acres were cleared and planted in 1851. Mr. Stevens says: "The yields that were produced upon this land in after years were so heavy that it encouraged immigrants who saw the fields to settle in the Territory." The house built by Mr. Stevens-the first residence of an actual settler on the west side-was a story-and-a-half frame building with a one-story wing used for a kitchen. It stood on the bank of the river immediately above the present Hennepin Avenue. When the Union Railway Station was built in 1881, it became necessary to remove this old dwelling to make room for the railroad buildings. It was finally located on Sixteenth Avenue south, near Fourth Street. In the reduction of the military reservation in 1855, Mr. Stevens was permitted to retain his claim and received a clear title therefor. He was the first register of deeds in Hennepin County and was several times elected to the State Legislature.