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| John McKusick | Stillwater looking south on South Main Street ca. 1865 photograph taken by E.F. Everitt. |
Stillwater’s Early History
In 1836 the St. Croix River was included in the new Wisconsin Territory, but the land between that river and the Mississippi was still unceded Indian land. Lumbering interests put pressure on the U.S. government to purchase the pine lands of the St. Croix. In July of 1837 Governor Henry Dodge of Wisconsin Territory met with the Chippewa, or Ojibwe, at Fort Snelling, where a treaty was made whereby all lands of the Chippewa, between the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers up to the 46th parallel were ceded to the United States. Another treaty was signed in Washington D.C. that September with the Sioux, or Dakota, who had claimed the lands now included in Washington County. The treaties were ratified in 1838.
Even before ratification, white settlers began pouring into the newly ceded triangle of land between the two rivers. Among them was a former soldier, Indian trader, promoter, and Justice of the Peace named Joseph Renshaw Brown. Joe Brown had been in the area since 1820, when he was shipped out from Philadelphia as a private in the frontier army that built Fort Snelling. Brown set up a store and farm at Grey Cloud Island, but kept a small warehouse at the head of Lake St. Croix to supply upriver fur trading operations. This warehouse, which was in what is now North Stillwater, or “Dutchtown,” became the nucleus of a new village that he called “Dacotah,.” Brown’s claim became the county seat of St. Croix County, Wisconsin Territory in 1840. That same year another fur company employee, Hypolite Dupuis, received a license to operate the first ferry across the St. Croix at “Battle Grounds.”
“Battle Grounds” refers to the ravine that later housed the Territorial Prison. It got its name from an Indian battle fought there in July 1839, when the Sioux pursued a Chippewa party to the river that both nations used as a highway and fired into their camp in the ravine. Thereafter the ravine, now in downtown Stillwater, was known as “Battle Grounds” or “Battle Hollow.”
Stillwater’s First Settlement
In 1841 Brown brought several of his family members from the Chicago area to Minnesota. Among these were his half-sister, Lydia Ann Carli, her husband, Paul, and three children. The men built a house in Dacotah of tamarack logs, and the Carlis moved in. Brown also hired some men from the St. Croix Falls Lumbering Company to build a courthouse and jail at Dacotah., but few settlers arrived.
The Tamarack House, better known as “Mrs. Carli’s,” became a favorite stopping place on the St. Croix River. Jacob Fisher, a carpenter and millwright, and Sylvester Statelar, a blacksmith, formerly with the St. Croix Mills, spent the winter of 1842 at Dacotah. The following spring, Fisher claimed unsurveyed lands at the head of Lake St. Croix, immediately south of Dacotah. Jake had noticed that the stream running by the trading post was fed by a lake on top of the bluff [McKusick Lake]. Further study revealed a large ravine running in the opposite direction of the water flow. With an easy diversion and dam, Fisher determined it could provide enough water power to drive a sawmill.
Seeing this as an employment opportunity, Fisher offered to turn over his claim to Elias McKean and Calvin F. Leach if they would build a mill on the land. At that time there were only two other mills on the St. Croix, one at the falls [St. Croix Falls] and one at Marine Mills.
Stillwater’s Start as a Lumber Town
At that time, two eastern lumbermen, John McKusick and Elam Greeley, were passing through and stopped off at the Tamarack House. They were looking for a good site to build a sawmill and soon learned of Fisher's offer. After some negotiations the four men agreed to build on Fisher's claim. McKusick went to St. Louis for machinery and provisions. On his return in October, the company was formed as the Stillwater Lumber Company. A few years later, McKusick became the sole owner.
It was John McKusick who is credited with naming Stillwater because of fond memories of Stillwater, Maine, near his hometown, and because of the stillness of Lake St. Croix.
By April 1, 1844, the mill was finished and operated a short time until the spring floods. This was the first framed building erected in Stillwater and was located east of Main Street, on lot 8, block 18. The second building was McKusick's boarding house, up the hill from the mill on what became Myrtle Street. McKusick also constructed a company store at what is now the corner of Main and Myrtle Streets. Sylvester Statelar set up a blacksmith shop nearby.
As word spread of the new mill, settlers began arriving. The John Allen family was the first to settle in the new village, followed by Anson Northrup's family. Northrup, whose claim covered everything south of Chestnut Street, built a hotel south of the mill only to sell the building in the fall to William Willim. Northrup soon built the Cosmopolitan Hotel between his original hotel and the mill.
A missionary, the Rev. William T. Boutwell, traveled the St. Croix River and would gather the people together at McKusick's boarding house to give sermons. Boutwell located permanently in the Stillwater area in 1847, and became one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church.
As the mill prospered, Dacotah was all but abandoned. Brown’s courthouse was never completed and most of the settlers of Dacotah moved south to Stillwater. In January 1846 Stillwater was made the new seat of St. Croix County. More mill workers called for their families to join them and by that summer at least ten married couples, as well as dozens of single men, made Stillwater their home. The first court was held in Stillwater in June 1847 in McKusick’s store.
Stillwater Instrumental in Organizing Minnesota Territory
After Wisconsin became a state in May, 1848, all the ceded lands west of the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers were left without government. Joseph R. Brown and others called together settlers in this unorganized territory to meet at Stillwater on August 26, 1848, in what has become known as the “Stillwater Convention.” At this convention, held in John McKusick’s store, the delegates drafted a Memorial to Congress that a new territory be created and this territory be named “Minnesota,” and elected Henry Sibley to deliver this citizen’s petition to the U.S. Congress. Sibley’s actions in Washington helped speed the formation of Minnesota Territory, which was organized in March, 1849. Because of this convention, Stillwater calls itself the “Birthplace of Minnesota.”
Meanwhile, land sales were taking place at St. Croix Falls, and on September 12, 1848, the village of Stillwater, Wisconsin Territory, was officially surveyed and platted by Harvey Wilson. Minnesota became a Territory in March 1849. The first legislature named Stillwater the county seat of the new Washington County. A courthouse was built at the corner of Chestnut and Fourth Streets on land deeded by John McKusick and was finished in August 1849, just in time for the first Minnesota Territory District Court, which was held in Stillwater on August 13, 1849.
Within a year of Minnesota becoming a territory, the decision was made to locate the territorial prison in Stillwater. The site selected was the natural ravine north of downtown called Battle Hollow. Construction began on the prison in 1851, and in 1853, the Minnesota Territorial Prison opened. The first warden was Frances R. Delano, who would later serve as Stillwater's Mayor and for whom the city of Delano, Minnesota, is named.
On March 4, 1854, the same day as St. Paul, Stillwater was incorporated as a city. John McKusick, the man who named the community, was elected Stillwater's first Mayor.
