The Road to Bagley
By Lorna Benson
April 1999

RealAudio 3.0 | Slide show

In most of America, the era of covered-wagon journeys was over by 1900. But in Minnesota, the availability of Indian land spurred a second wave of pioneer settlement even after the turn of the century.

The Route

THIS MONTH IN OUR MINNESOTA CENTURY SERIES, the story of Maude Baumann and her family's pioneer trek through the state in 1900. Maude was 15 years old when she began keeping a diary of her family's 400 mile journey. The Baumanns traveled by wagon from Waltham, Minnesota, in the southeastern corner of the state, with plans to settle a part of the Red Lake Indian Reservation, just opened up for sale. The trip took the family about three weeks. Today, it is an easy one-day drive. Maude began writing in a brown, leather-bound notebook the day the Baumanns left Waltham. She didn't stop until she ran out of paper, more than a month after the family was settled on their own piece of land.

Maude: April 20th: Well, here we are in Claremont. We started our trip from Uncle John's this morning and we found pretty-good roads most of the way and some very lovely scenery. Now I have to help get dinner ready. Ma says we've got an excellent dinner. Pie to the right of us, cookies to the left of us and fried cakes behind us.

April 25th: We thought we would never ever find our way out of Minneapolis. It is so very large. Minneapolis is a very nice place but they called us "hayseeds" there and I was so dumbfounded I forgot to tell them my name was Baumann.

April 29th: Well, we are in Melrose and it is raining. We got stuck in the mud for the first time yesterday. Pa had to get some posts and pry up on the wagon wheels. It has stopped raining and I guess we will go on the road again today. When we were in St. Cloud, we saw the state reformatory. They had high fencing most of the way around the building. And fixed up high on the fences they had watch towers. We saw lots of the boys out working and the boss stood there watching them with a stick in his hand.

May 7th: We are about 12 miles from the "half way house." That's what they call the place where we stayed overnight and over Sunday. A nice woman showed us the balsam in the trees here and there were spruce trees where we got gum for chewing. They tell me I can have all the gum I want where we are going and I say that is all right. For if I have gum, I won't get homesick. It is raining, so I think we will have to lay over here at Nimrod. This is a very big town and one is liable to get lost. There is one house and store and post office altogether. And one barn , so if you ever come up this way be sure and get a guide. This is a great county, I tell you.

May 8th: We are in Hubbard now and will be in Bagley inside of three days if nothing happens. We are all first rate and are enjoying ourselves. The horses are all right but are coughing some and Pa thinks they have the dysentery. You would be surprised to see Shell City. It has only a post office and a house or two. They have - what they called - corduroy roads out here in the swamps or in the mud holes. It is logs and brush covered over with dirt and I tell you they are awful rough. Its enough to almost shake the wagon to pieces. We saw the biggest mud turtle today I ever saw. It was about two feet long from the nose to the tail and about a foot wide. Elmer said he thought it weighed forty pounds. Wasn't it a big one?

May 10th: Well we have passed Bemidji and are about 20 miles from Bagley so we are about to the end of our journey. Yesterday we passed some awful bad country and some very good country. There is land with Norway Pine on it. You have no idea what big straight trees they are and they make just splendid logs. Just imagine a big pine grove, trees 75 to 90 feet high all around us and then a wagon drawn up on a little clearing and a stove with people sitting around it and you will see us as we are.

May 18th: We are in Bagley and have camped out a little ways from town. Pa and Elmer went out looking again today, but they haven't found any land. The land we like is school land and land we would settle on is already filled in. The Blacksmith told Pa he would give him his right to three 40-acre sections of land if Pa wanted it. He said he wouldn't charge Pa anything either. He says he knows Pa would like the land. The land is down by Four-legged lake and is about 14 miles from here. Pa and Elmer are going out by Black Duck and Clearwater Lake and then if Pa don't like it, he intends to take the three sections.

In the late 19th century, Native Americans on the Red Lake Indian Reservation ceded 2 million acres of their land to the state. In return, the state agreed to sell that land to homesteaders and put the money in a trust for the reservation. The deal opened up millions of acres of land more than a decade after all of the original homestead land was settled, but it cost the tribe two-thirds of their reservation. The trust was established but land surveyors shortchanged the tribe by undervaluing the land.

Maude: May 30th: We have taken a claim and are already on it putting up the house. We're enjoying ourselves, or at least I am. Pa is up overhead putting on the gable ends. Ma's looking at him. Grace is down in the wagon getting the beds ready, Eddie and baby are out in the front yard playing and I am sitting in the door writing. Ma and Pa are going to the swamp for water. I can't hardly write on account of the mosquitoes. They're bigger than elephants here.

The family settled about seven miles from Bagley. They raised money for supplies by cutting wood from their land and hauling it to town. Green cut wood brought a $1.25 a cord and dry wood brought twice that. When the stumps of the trees rotted enough to pull, the Baumanns had a clear field for planting.

Maude: May 31st: We had company again all the afternoon. A very nice man too. In Waltham, we had an idea that the people out here were terrible, but I tell you a nicer, more obliging set of people can't be found. This man offered to let us have his stove to use if we wanted it. He also offered to help Pa with his house. We always heard so much about the rivermen being so rough. I tell you they are all right.

June 1st: Well, here we are this morning in a sorry state. You see, it rained last night and that accounts for our sorrowful appearance. My, the wolves and bears are awful thick now! Mrs. Thayer says this is the worst time of the year for them. Two of Mr. Thayer's hogs are missing. They think the wolves or bears got them. Ma heard the wolves howl last night. She was down to the swamp after water alone today and so was I, but ma says we mustn't go alone anymore. One wolf wouldn't tackle anybody, I don't suppose, but nobody knows what two or three might do. Pa has got his shotgun and revolver loaded and hanging up here in the house. His rifle isn't loaded but you see we are well protected.

July 6th: Well we had a very nice time on our trip,and saw a good many things. Above all we learned that the people out here can't be judged by first appearance. They are very nice. I have left out a good deal but I have tried to give it just as we saw it as near as I could. But we have seen so much that I couldn't put it all in. We enjoyed our trip and are well satisfied with our new home. We are not one bit homesick and everybody is kind and good to us. You need not worry about us.

Three years later, Maude became the first school teacher in Bagley. She was in charge of all 27 pupils in the district, a job that paid $30 a month.

During the depression, the Baumann's lost their farm but resettled in the same county. At age 65, Maude still lived very near to where her family first bought land. In a letter she recalled how much her county had changed.

I have seen this county develop from Indian trails and tote roads to a well-settled county with paved and graveled highways and good roads with school-bus and mail routes-telephones and rural electric lines.

I write this in the electric light in my own home and we run the washing machine, radio, fan and Iron by electricity. 65 years ago, we had no autos, airplanes, submarines, or radar. The world does move.

Maude's diary is on display this month at the Minnesota History Center.