Franklin Steele

Franklin Steele (1813 – September 9, 1880) was an early and significant settler of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. Born in Chester County, Pennsylvania of Scottish descent, Steele worked in the Lancaster post-office as a young man, where he once met James Buchanan.

With encouragement from his future brother-in-law Henry Hastings Sibley, Steele saw opportunities in the western frontier and traveled to Fort Snelling via the steamboat Burlington, arriving June 18, 1838; he soon became a storekeeper at the fort. At that time, the land on both sides of the Mississippi River at St. Anthony Falls was controlled by the U.S. Government as part of the Fort Snelling Reservation. However, by 1837 over 150 squatters had staked unofficial claims on fort property. In 1838, the fort commander, Joseph Plympton convinced the government to release the east bank of the river for settlement, hoping to stake a personal claim on the valuable land closest to the Falls. But Steele surreptitiously staked the first claim on the choicest land before sunrise on the first day of legal settlement. He claimed a half-mile of east-bank riverfront, controlling half of the water power of St. Anthony Falls; adjacent property was claimed by Pierre Bottineau (1817–1895), a Métis, of French-Canadian, Ojibwe, and Dakota descent.

Steele's sister, Abbian, would marry a prominent physician, Thomas R. Potts in 1847. Potts would become the first Mayor of St. Paul.

Eventually, in 1847, Steele secured financing, in the form of $12,000 for a 9/10 stake in the property. On May 18, 1848 president Polk approved the claims made in St. Anthony, and Steele was able to build his dam on the east side of the river above the Falls, blocking the east channel. The dam extended diagonally into the river 700 feet (210 m), was 16 feet (5 m) high, and was secured to the limestone riverbed. Its thickness tapered from 40 feet (12 m) wide at its base to 12 feet (4 m) wide at the top. Steele dispatched logging crews to the Crow Wing River in December 1847 to supply pine for the his sawmill, and by September 1, 1848 sawing commenced using two up-down saws. He was able to sell the lumber readily, supplying construction projects in the booming town. The new community at the Falls attracted entrepreneurs from New England, many of whom had experience in lumber and milling. He had hired Ard Godfrey to help build and run the first commercial sawmill at the Falls. Godfrey knew the most efficient ways to use natural resources, like the falls, and the great pine forests, to make lumber products. Godfrey built the first home in St. Anthony, Steele had the town platted in 1849, and it incorporated in 1855.

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