In past blogs on Mahala (and William) Felton’s early years as original settlers in Hastings, Minnesota, USA, we have discovered Mahala and William’s travel to the west led them to the future Hastings, Minnesota, USA area, that they were invited to rent the Buckhorn (a trading post) and run it as a hotel for the fellow early settlers that were expected to be coming, and that their hospitality was welcomed and well respected by prospective settlers, travelers, and natives. We discovered that William was very busy with business outside the home, and that it was not unusual for Mahala to be alone in her running of the Buckhorn. We also discovered that Mahala did not bring a cook, she was the cook, often had to harvest game, and definitely was cooking from scratch, even churning butter, all while working in very modest quarters. Worth reiterating is that she cooked for the first three families to come to the area. The very modest Buckhorn truly was the only place to stay, indeed the only home, for the early years, definitely through 1853, and became a truly multi-purpose dwelling and gathering place.
So, what became of the Buckhorn? Where is the historical building today? The answer is … As much as I was hoping to find it was preserved somewhere, I have not discovered anything to support that. The most likely scenario is it was dismantled, eventually used for fencing and hog pens, and most likely has returned to the ground.
To understand this, we first remember it belonged to the Bailly family, and it was not on Felton land.
“The first dwelling in the permanent settlement was “The Old Buckhorn.” As indicated above, although Henry Bailly was located, ostensibly as a trader, his real purpose was that of a settler. He selected as the site of his trading house, or dwelling, a spot not far from the junction of Second and Vermillion streets, as they are to-day. Here he built, with assistance, a log hut, twelve by sixteen feet in dimensions. Subsequently, a “kitchen” was attached to this “main” part, and its dimensions were ten by twelve feet …
The trading house was occupied afterwards as the first hotel of Hastings, and from the fact that the antlers of a stag had been nailed up over the door, it was known, and is known in memory only to this day, as the “Buckhorn Hotel.”
The old “Buckhorn” was removed in 1856, by Mr. Dixon, to his farm on the Vermillion, but not until it had been the witness of many changes as well as of many kindly deeds and mirth provoking scenes enacted within its walls.”
Next we might ask – Who is Mr. Dixon? In my research I could only find a remote reference to him having a claim in 1851 in section 20, but beyond that there is no mention. Part of me wonders if it was a name error and Dixon was really Felton, but William and Mahala’s homestead was on section 19, not 20. Perhaps there is more information on Dixon out there, but I looked for quite some time and could not find anything more.
Since William and Mahala were established on their homestead in 1855, I am guessing the more likely scenario is this preserved account:
“Memories of early Hastings…
103 years ago
THE HASTINGS GAZETTE
Published March 19, 1921
Indian Trading Post at Oliver’s Grove
By John H. Case of Nininger, Minnesota, 1856
This trading post was built of lots and was one story in height. It was put up by Abraham Truax, of Pt. Douglas, in 1850 for Henry G. Bailley. It stood on what was afterwards platted as lot five, block four of the original town site of Hastings Minnesota, then known as Oliver’s Grove, sometimes called Olive Grove by mistake.
It was located on the extreme north end of the lot in the northwest corner. Mr. Truax showed me the spot where this trading post stood. The lot is now (in 1921) occupied by Davis Bros. grocers, on the northeast corner of second and Vermillion Streets.
Elijah Wilson, father of A.W. Wilson, who came to Hastings in 1853 took me to the same place where Mr. Truax died, and said that when he came the old trading post was called the Buckhorn Tavern, that is was kept as a tavern by William Felton and his wife Mahala. He boarded with them and afterwards married their daughter Demlia and moved to his preemption claim in Nininger township adjoining his father-in-law’s claim which was north of his on Section 19, town 115, Range 17.
Mr. Wilson said that on the west end of this building, nailed to the gable was a fine set of deer horns, that he helped to take the building down and that it was taken out to a ten acre piece of land on section 19, of William Felton’s land, afterwards owned by J. K. Frear. He thought Felton first gave this ten acres to his son Silas Felton. The logs from the old Buckhorn were finally used to build a log fence and hog pen by William Felton back of his home in the oak grove, close to the present house of E. H. Chamberlain’s, a great grandson of William Felton.
Some of the later pioneers supposed that the Buck Horn Tavern was formerly Joe Brown’s Indian Trading Post, but this is not true. It was Bailey’s Indian Trading Post built by Abe Truax in (illegi-ble) Caleb and James Truax… (speculation that building was constructed as a means to keepland claim, more history).”
https://zeta.creativecirclecdn.com/paperboy/files/20241219-110009-877-hj-2024-12-19.pdf
To backup that the Buckhorn was a different log cabin than “Brown’s magazine” we see:
“Major Joseph R. Brown, Indian trader, has the honor of being the first white man to settle at Oliver’s Grove. He was here under a trader’s license in 1833-’34. He built a trading house of logs and having a stone chimney, on the brow of the second bench of land above the Mississippi, near the site of the present City hotel. Major Brown was a man of rare ability and rendered important aid and played an important part in the early development of Minnesota.
He came into the country as a drummer-boy, with the detachment of troops that came in 1819 for the purpose of erecting what is now Fort Snelling. He was distinguished as an Indian trader, as a member of the Wisconsin legislature, as founder of the first settlement at the head of Lake St. Croix, as founder of the town of Henderson, as clerk of the first territorial council, and a member of succeeding territorial and state legislatures; as editor and publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer, and in nearly all the public affairs of the early days. He represented Dakota county in the legislatures of 1854 and 1855, and as lumberman, politician, editor and soldier during the outbreak of 1862, founder of cities, and later in life as an inventor, he became one of the most widely-known of Minnesota’s public men. The state has attempted to do honor to his memory by affixing his name to one of her counties. Major Brown was born in Harford county, Maryland, in 1805, and died in New York city in 1870.
Such was the career, in brief, of the first white settler of Oliver’s Grove. He was a man in every respect worthy of the city which has since arisen on the spot he once inhabited. He is reported by the oldest surviving settler of Minnesota to have been holding his post at Oliver’s Grove in 1839-’40.
For some years after this the old log-house stood lonely and deserted. Indeed, it was not occupied continuously, at all, from 1834 to the latter dates, as will be seen by the extracts from Featherstonhaugh’s journal given below. Mr. David Hone, who crossed the river from Point Douglas in 1845, on a fishing excursion to the Vermillion, reports the building as standing at that time untenanted. He and his companion, Hertzell, were lost among the burr-oaks and the dense growths of alder, hazel and Kinnickinnic bushes, and “Brown’s Magazine,” as the old trading-house was long called, served them as a land-mark in recrossing to their homes. In 1850 the “old magazine” had either decayed or been burned down, but the stone chimney was still standing. This chimney, or the stones of which it was composed, tradition says were a part of the contents of the first lime-kiln operated at that spot, by a Mr. Tripp, in 1856; and further, tradition says that the last vestige of this first white man’s dwelling on the site of Hastings is preserved in the mortar with which the foundations of the City Hotel were cemented.”
Also as collaboration of the Case account above is the documentation of the Felton daughters’ spouses that arrived in 1853 and stayed at the Buckhorn for a time.
“P. T. Chamberlain, a son-in-law of the Feltons, came from Pennsylvania, and Elijah Wilson, a pilot on the Mississippi, and afterwards son-in-law of the Feltons, came about the same time. The latter settlers made claims in Nininger, but for a time boarded at the Buckhorn, which had become a general resort.”
Finally, the claim mentioned, on section 19, was part of the farmland tract mentioned here:
“FIRST AGRICULTURAL ATTEMPTS-“THE FARM CLAIM.”
In the year 1853, Henry G. Bailly had built him a private residence, of logs, principally, now in use by J. A. Ennis, as a constituent part of the beautiful edifice which marks its place in addition 13.
“The Farm Claim” was the east 160 acres of what is now that addition. Sixty-five acres were broken, in 1853, and Mr. William Felton attended to the land, raising from it, various of the ordinary crops. This was the first “farming,” in the region, west of the river, except we consider an acre or more of potatoes and vegetables which had been cultured by the Baillys in 1852, as coming under that head.”
Final collaboration lies in the cessation of use of the Buckhorn as a hotel, and a new hotel and proprietor being established.
“With the opening of navigation, settlers came in greater numbers than previously. The Buckhorn tavern refused to serve longer, as church, court of justice, hotel and private dwellings. It seems incredible that forty-three people could remain of a night, in the pent-up compass of its walls. Nevertheless, such is the fact. Men slept under the table, on the floor, and on the table. Accordingly, in the spirit of the “agreement articles,” the town proprietors proceeded to erect the New England house. Mr. Knox was again the contractor and the first legitimate “tavern,” was located at the corner of what are now Sibley and Second streets on the site of the post-office building. It was a frame building of two stories and is at present occupied by John Van Slyke as a residence, it having been removed to Ninth street. It had no sign except the word, “Hotel,” but was called the Dakota House, but, soon after, the New England house; by which name it is universally known. In June, 1854, David Barker and family came to Hastings from Prescott, Wisconsin, and took up quarters as the first exclusive hotel keepers. They occupied the Dakota House until the following year, when M. O. W. Truax succeeded them. Hotels never lacked for custom, and during the years ’54, ’55 and ’56 it was often an exceedingly difficult matter to find lodgings, there was such an influx of all castes, conditions, and characters, in search of business, homes and land.”
My educated guess is permission was given to remove the Buckhorn log home, as logs, from the original site and Elijah Wilson and maybe some helpers, maybe Dixon being one, moved them to the 10 acre site in question, but that they eventually went to the Felton’s property, as stated, to be used as fencing and hog pens. I am guessing that somewhere in the dirt at that property is the decomposed remnant, however small, of the Buckhorn.
Next week we will wrap up the series with a brief discussion on the family members that followed William and Mahala Felton on their move west.
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