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Agriculture |
Education |
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first settlers to the area were, of course, American Indians. The
Indian trail that led to their ricing and fishing areas in Forest
Lake and Hugo ran across Rose Township. Dakota tribes used this
trail extensively, which increased their contact with the
Euro-American settlers. A reunion occurred when Cloudman's
(Dakota) band was traveling on the trail and discovered that their
childhood friend, Jane Gibbs, who, with her foster missionary
family, had lived with them as a small child near Lake Harriet,
now lived near the trail. Following the abandonment of
treaty-promised payments (food rations, supplies, and money) and
then the Uprising of 1862, the Indians were forced from the area. |
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"The last time these good friends came was in May,
1862. A large body of them on horseback camped on the little
knoll across from our house...They were sullen and
despondent. Well do I remember the dramatic gestures of
their chief as he eloquently related their grievances." Abbie
Gibbs Fischer, daughter of Jane and Herman Gibbs, c. 1915
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| Roseville
was settled by farmers in the 1840s. In the spring of 1843,
Stephen Desnoyer settled with his family in what would soon be
known as Rose Township. Later that year Isaac Rose and his family,
arriving by boat from Illinois, settled near Desnoyer. In 1849,
Heman and Jane Gibbs settled at the present-day corner of
Cleveland and Larpenteur in the newly-named Ramsey County and and
Minnesota Territory. In 1850 the federal government ordered a land
survey, Isaac Rose was the surveyor, and the township in which he
lived received his name. |
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Isaac Rose, daguerreotype c. 1850 ...for whom Township and
subsequently Roseville was named
"We went to St. Paul on the Otter... When mother
saw 'Pig's Eye,' as St. Paul was then called, she did not like it
at all...On landing, we climbed up a steep path...We found only
six houses there." Missouri Rose Pratt, daughter of
Isaac Rose, c. 1870 |
| In 1849, Rose
Township was composed of an area, which today are the cities of
Roseville, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale, and some land in
Minneapolis, St. Anthony, and St. Paul. The boundaries of Rose
Town in 1853 were from Rice Street to Stinson Boulevard and from
County Road D to Marshall Avenue. As the years went by, the
boundaries changed and decreased the township's size. |
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| As a
community, the settlers established a town government. In 1858
Rose Township organized a voting precinct, elected town officers,
and levied taxes. Early settlers such as D. Baker, E. Larpenteur,
W. Hendrickson, and W. Aldrich, held government offices. The
population of the township in 1860 was 499, by 1880 it had risen
to 877. Early immigrants to the area moved from the eastern United
States, Germany, Prussia, Ireland, Canada, and Norway. |
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Rose Township Farmer and Pioneer, Lt.
Adam Lindig (age 28) Civil War, 1865. |
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