s of militia were organized
and officers duly appointed, the last being in Otter Tail county, with a
Swedish count, Ragnar Kalling, as captain. This prompt action stopped
the panic, and all has been quiet since that time. The rumor of the
Indian depredation proved to have originated with some settlers who, in
the disguise of Indians, had tried to scare away a Norwegian from a
claim which he had taken from another man.

During this year one of the greatest railroad enterprises in the world
was commenced, namely, the building of the Northern Pacific, extending
from Lake Superior to the Pacific coast, a distance of over two thousand
miles. The celebrated financier Jay Cooke, of Philadelphia, who had
acquired a great reputation as the financial agent of President
Lincoln's administration during the war, was at the head of the
enterprise. The Northern Pacific Company had received a government grant
of many millions of acres of land along the proposed railroad, and it
required millions upon millions of dollars to build the road. One of the
important financial questions with Jay Cooke was how to derive a revenue
from the sale of lands, and how to get settlers and communities started
along the line of the road. So ignorant were the people of this country
about the region lying within the limits of the Northern Pacific
railroad that it was generally supposed to be either barren or too far
north for successful agriculture; yet that very region has since proved
to be the greatest wheat producing country in the world. Mr. Cooke
himself had been all over it with a small party, under the escort of
United States cavalry, on an exploring tour, and he was perhaps the
only man of that day who foresaw the future greatness of the Northern
Pacific region.

Late in the fall of 1870 I received a letter from Mr. Cooke, in
Philadelphia, inviting me to come and spend a week with him and talk
over the new Northwest. Upon the advice of ex-Gov. Marshall, who had
spoken of me to Mr. Cooke, the then Gov. Austin and other prominent men,
I repaired to Philadelphia, and spent some days at Mr. Cooke's palatial
residence near that city. He had also for guests a delegation of French
and German bankers, who had just arrived from Europe. Mr. Cooke
impressed me as one of the greatest and noblest men I had ever met. His
enthusiasm and eloquent arguments carried everything before him. The
millions were raised, largely in Europe, and the road was built, as
we