1812. His father was LOUIS GUERIN, a voyageur by occupation, who died in 1865, at the ripe age of 83. VETAL grew up into the same occupation as his father. In 1832, when he was 20 years of age, a lithe, sinewy young fellow, VETAL enlisted in the service of the American Fur Company, under

He was to join a company bound for the Upper Mississippi, consisting of 134 men, in charge of four barges of goods. They left Montreal, May 5, 1832, and made the entire journey to Mendota by water, through the lakes, Green Bay, the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, and up the Mississippi. The entire season was consumed in this trip, and it was late in the fall when the party reached the company's post at Mendota.

GUERIN served the company his stipulated three years, and,

after that term had expired, worked by odd jobs for the company, and for Mr. FARIBAULT and other traders, at Mendota and Traverse de Sioux, for three or four years longer.

GUERIN'S first investment in Saint Paul real estate had not proved a paying one, but, nevertheless, he soon after determined to repeat the experiment. Looking about, in the fall of 1839, he found the HAYS claim, which PHELAN still pretended to own, by virtue of his partnership with HAYS, unoccupied, and quite likely to be so as far as either of its former owners was concerned-one being dead, and the other in prison 300 miles away, with a good prospect of stretching hemp. As the claim suited VETAL pretty well, he forthwith squatted on it, and proceeded to erect a cabin. This cabin, so he stated to the writer, was a very unpretending affair, about 16x20 feet, built of oak and elm from the woods surrounding it, with a bark roof and a floor of split and hewed puncheons. The door and sash were made by MICHEL LECLAIRE, of the Grand Marais, since called Pig's Eye. This cabin stood on the spot now occupied by Ingersoll's Block, and, with some additions and changes, stood there until 1860, when the buildings occupying the site of said block were removed, to make room for it.

Thus, at the close of the year 1839, there were nine cabins within the present limits of the city of Saint Paul. Patience! We shall have a city yet.

CHAPTER VIII.

EVENTS OF THE YEARS 1840 AND 1841.

ORGANIZATION OF SAINT CROIX COUNTY-EXPULSION OF SETTLERS FROM THE RESERVE-SOME OF THEM COME TO SAINT PAUL-PHELAN RETURNS AND DEMANDS HIS CLAIM - GUERIN CHECKMATES HIM-JOSEPH RONDO - VETAL GUERIN'S SUBSEQUENT HISTORY-PIERRE BOTTINEAU-A CATHOLIC MISSION FOUNDED HERE-FATHER GALTIER AND FATHER RAVOUX, &C.

CRA

RAWFORD county, Wisconsin Territory, had been created and organized, (as noted on page 39,) in 1819. For twenty-two years its boundaries were unchanged. In January, 1840, through the influence of Joseph R. BROWN, a bill was passed creating "Saint Croix County." The boundaries of the new county included all that part of Crawford county lying west of a line running northward from the mouth of the Porcupine River on Lake Pepin to Lake Superior. The county seat was fixed at BROWN's town-site of " Dakota," about the upper end of the present city of Stillwater. In the fall of this year, at the election for Representatives, JOSEPH R. BROWN was elected a member of the Wisconsin Assembly, for two years. Henceforth this region commenced to have a voice in the public affairs of the Territory, to which it had been hitherto a mere unnoticed back settlement. But Saint Paul must have stood for several years to Wisconsin about in the same relation that Pembina used to, to Minnesota. Its representatives, from this date until the organization of Minnesota Territory, are given on page 45.

EXPULSION OF SETTLERS FROM THE RESERVE.

When Marshal EDWARD JAMES, of Wisconsin Territory, received the order for the expulsion of the settlers on the Reserve, he sent it to his deputy, IRA B. BRUNSON, of Prairie du Chien, to execute. As it was now near the end of winter,

and traveling very difficult and insecure, Mr. BRUNSON delayed his journey until the opening of navigation in the spring, when he took the first boat for Fort Snelling, about May 1, and proceeded to execute his unpleasant task.

In an account of the transaction Mr. BRUNSON wrote for me, he says that he gave the settlers several days' notice to remove, but they disregarded the warning, so that he was compelled to call upon Maj. PLYMPTON for a military force to execute the orders vi et armis. On the 6th day of May, 1840, the settlers on the Reserve were dishoused and driven off, and every cabin within the lines destroyed.

In a memorial from the expelled settlers to Congress, praying for indemnity for their losses, presented by Delegate H. H. SIBLEY, in 1849, and again in 1852,* the settlers state that the soldiery fell upon them without warning, treated them with unjustifiable rudeness, broke and destroyed furniture wantonly, insulted the women, and, in one or two instances, fired at and killed cattle. Mr. BRUNSON denies, positively, in general and in particular, these statements. He states that the soldiers acted reluctantly in the matter, but civilly, under the command of a Lieutenant, and under his (BRUNSON'S) supervision, and in their presence. As the settlers refused to budge, they had to carry their household goods out, but none was broken intentionally, and no unnecessary force was used.

ABRAHAM PERRY, the GERVAIS brothers, RONDO, and other of the early settlers, of Saint Paul, were among those whose houses were destroyed. To these poor refugees it was a cruel blow. The victims of floods, and frosts, and grasshoppers, in the Red River valley, and once before expelled from the Reserve, (west side,) it seemed that the cup of disaster was charged to the brim for them. Mournfully gathering up their effects and flocks, they set out once more to find a home.

FINDING NEW HOMES.

On being dishoused, the unfortunate settlers retreated beyond

*No action was ever taken by Congress on this Memorial, beyond referring it to a committee, which never reported on it.

the line of the Reserve, and there made preparations for beginning life once more.

ABRAHAM PERRY and family sojourned for the present in the house of his son-in-law, JAMES R. CLEWETT. Almost broken down by his repeated misfortunes, and by the severe toil and hardships of the past few years, PERRY seemed never to recover from these buffets of hard fortune. His health gradually declined. For some time his lower limbs were so paralyzed that he could not stand. He still endeavored to engage in agricultural labor, and actually cut down trees while sitting on the ground. He died in May, 1849, aged 73 years. His wife, Mrs. MARY ANN PERRY, died in 1859, at an advanced age, at the residence of CHArles Bazille, her son-in-law.

ABRAHAM PERRY had seven children, the three oldest of whom were born in Switzerland, two at Red River, and the two youngest at Fort Snelling. His only son, CHARLES PERRY, born in Switzerland, now lives at Lake Johanna, Ramsey county. Mr. PERRY's daughters all married in this vicinity, as follows: SOPHIA married PIERRE CREVIER, and lives near Watertown, Minnesota. FANNY married CHARLES Mousseau, 1836; residence, Minneapolis. ROSE ANN married J. R. CLEWETT, 1839; residence, White Bear. ADELE married VETAL GUERIN, 1841; residence, Saint Paul. JOSEPHINE married J. B. CORNOYER, 1843; residence, Minneapolis. ANNIE JANE married CHARLES Bazille, 1846; residence, Saint Paul. Nearly every one of PERRY's children have raised large families, and he had over 75 grandchildren.

GERVAIS BUYS PARRANT'S CLAIM.

BEN. GERVAIS, on losing his home near the creek, in upper town, at once proceeded to PARRANT's claim, before mentioned and purchased of that swine-optical individual, all his right, title and interest to said real estate, together with the hereditaments and appurtenances, and so on. Reader, what do you suppose GERVAIS paid to "Old Pig's Eye" for this property, now in the heart of our city? Ten dollars! It is now worth several millions.

PARRANT had an uncompleted cabin on the edge of the bluff,