country from the Wisconsin river to the St. Croix. In 1841 he removed
his family from Ohio to St. Croix Falls. He came by way of St. Louis,
from that point embarking on the steamer Indian Queen for the Falls.
The steamer was three weeks making the trip. Above Prairie du Chien
crew and passengers were obliged to cut wood to run the boat. Mr.
Northrup had married Betsey Edwards, daughter of widow Edwards, one of
the pioneers of Stillwater. Charles H., their eldest son, was the
first white child born at St. Croix Falls. In the spring of 1844 he
moved to Stillwater, where he built and kept the first hotel in that
place. From 1847 to 1848 he was part owner of the Osceola saw mill
along with Mahony and Kent. In 1849 he removed to St. Paul, and built
the American Hotel on Third street, east from Seven Corners. In 1851
he removed to St. Anthony Falls and built there the St. Charles Hotel.
In 1853 he removed to Minneapolis, and built the Bushnell House, the
first brick building in the city. Subsequently he became a resident at
Long Prairie, Swan River and Duluth. Although Mr. Northrup's genius
tended chiefly in the direction of hotel building, his abilites in
other directions were beyond question. With equal facility he turned
his hand to lumbering, steamboating and statesmanship. His great
steamboat enterprise was the attempted transfer of the steamer North
Star by water from the Mississippi to the Red River of the North. The
boat was one hundred feet long by twenty wide, and of light draught.
Starting from St. Cloud in the spring of 1859 he performed the
wonderful feat of ascending the Mississippi as far as Pokegama Falls,
hoping to ascend further, and during a high stage of water to float
the boat over the height of land into some of the tributaries of the
Red river. The water was not sufficiently high. The winter following
he took the boat to pieces, and removed it by land to Red river,
opposite the mouth of the Cheyenne, where it was reconstructed and
launched, taken to Fort Garry and afterward sold to Mr. Burbank. This
boat, its name being changed to Anson Northrup, was the first
steamboat on the waters of Red river.
Mr. Northrup's political career commenced and closed with the first
Minnesota legislature, 1857-58, he representing the counties of
Morrison, Crow Wing and Mille Lacs in the senate.
During the Rebellion he served as wagon master. He lived in Texas
three years, returned to St. Paul, where he lived in 1874-75-76, and
now lives in Bismarck, Dakota.
ROBERT KENNEDY.--Mr. Kennedy, in 1839, located at Holmes' Landing, now
Fountain City, on the banks of the Mississippi, above Winona. In 1844
he removed to Dakotah, where he kept a hotel in the old tamarack court
house, built by Joseph R. Brown. In 1846 he kept a hotel in the
Northrup House, Stillwater; in 1848 he kept the American Hotel,
Shakopee. Subsequently he returned to St. Paul and kept a boarding
house, and for three years the hotel known as "Moffett's Castle."
Afterward he kept the Snelling House, and last the Bernard House.
From 1853 to 1856 he was collector of customs for the port of St.
Paul, and during that time the fees amounted to the enormous sum of
forty six dollars and forty-two cents. Mr. Kennedy spent about thirty
years as a landlord, in which capacity he was very popular.
HARVEY WILSON.--Mr. Wilson was born in Corinth, Saratoga county, New
York, December, 1815. He resided in his native county twenty-five
years, then removed to St. Louis, where, for three years, he engaged
in surveying. He came to St. Croix Falls in 1843 and to Stillwater in