Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/229

 EISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 177 spot his future borne. He took up a tract of land several hundred acres in extent, running for over seven miles along the shore, and over half as far hack from the water. This land was in the famous half-breed tract, and Colonel Garrard obtained it from the old Jean Baptiste Faribault, paying for the half-breed scrip to the old French-Indian, on the spot where the city of Faribault now stands. The original hunting trip was made in the fall of 1854, and the purchase was confirmed in 1857. After the hunting trip in 1854 Dr. Garrard went to Europe for two years, while General Garrard remained at Frontenac with Everett Westervelt. the successor of James Wells, the Indian trader. In 1857, when the half-breed scrip was issued and the purchase of Frontenac was made, the Garrard tract was divided into quarters, Everett Westervelt owning one, Dr. Garrard one, Israel Garrard one, and Kenner Garrard, then in the amy, another. General Garrard at once started the establishment of St. Hubert's lodge. The lodge, now owned by his son, is a quaint mansion, built after the style of the old southern houses of ante- bellum days. A stag's head with a cross between the antlers is the coat of arms of the residence, after the patron of hunters. St. Hubert, who, having as a roysterer dared to desecrate Good Friday by a riotous hunt, was stopped by a spirit stag with a crucifix on his forehead, after which the knight, awe-struck dropped on his knees in the forest, surrounded by his retainers, and devoted his life to the cause of religion, the wild hunters becoming monks, and Hubert their abbot, the castle being con- verted into a monastery. Albert Durer, the father of etching, long ago portrayed the scene, and a heleotype of the etching, from the Gray collection at Harvard, occupies a. place of honor in the library of the Garrard mansion. Around St. Hubert's lodge at Frontenac were gradually erected small cottages, in which were domiciled the working people of the estate. These were brought from Cincinnati by General Garrard and were, almost without exception, Germans. When the Rebellion broke out, General Garrard, faithful to the Union, hurried south. He raised a troop of cavalry at Cin- cinnati, equipped it at his own expense and then presented it to the governor of Ohio. Of this regiment, the Seventh Ohio Cavalry, he was the colonel, having had some previous experi- ence during the siege of Cincinnati, on the staff of Major McDowell, commanding the organization of city and state forces. After the mustering in of his regiment, until the close of the war, he was absent from the field but eight days, and then his command was in camp recruiting. He commanded ;i brigade much of the time, and after the capture of Stoneman on the Macon raid before Atlanta he commanded what remained of the