Minnesota,
The first Europeans who trod its soil were two Huguenots, Sieur Groselliers and Sieur Radisson, who, in search of a northwest passage to
China, passed through this region in 1659.
Returning to
Montreal in 1660 with sixty canoes laden with skins, they excited others to go in search of peltries, and this was the beginning of the
French furtrade which afterwards interfered with the Hudson Bay Company.
To secure this trade, which the
English were grasping,
Daniel Greysolon du Luth, a native of
Lyons, left
Quebec in September, 1678, with twenty men, and entered
Minnesota.
The next year
Father Hennepin and two others, who were a part of
La Salle's expedition, penetrated the country far above the falls of
St. Anthony.
The territory was formally taken possession of in the name of the
French monarch, by
Perrot and his associates, in 1689.
They built a fort on the west shore of
Lake Pepin; and Le Seur built another fort, in 1695, on an island in the
Mississippi, just below the mouth of the
St. Croix River, after which the fur-traders flocked into that region.
In 1763,
Jonathan Carver visited
Minnesota and published a description of the country.
In 1800, a part of
Minnesota lying west of the
Mississippi was included in the
Territory of Indiana.
The purchase of
Louisiana, in 1803, gave the
United States possession of the whole country west of the
Mississippi, and in 1816 Congress passed a law excluding foreigners from the fur-trade in that region.
Fort Snelling was built and garrisoned in 1819, and active trade with
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the Indians was carried on there.
In 1820 that region was explored by a party under
Gen. Lewis Cass, and by
Major Long in 1821. A third exploring party went there in 1832, led by
Henry R. Schoolcraft, who discovered the main source of the
Mississippi River.
In 1837, some lumbering operations began in
Minnesota, upon the
St. Croix River.
The town of
St. Paul was founded in 1842, and in 1849 the
Territory of Minnesota was ereated.
At that time one-half the lands ineluded in the
Territory belonged to the Indians, and the white population was less than 5,000.
Emigrants flocked in, and at the end of eight years (1857) the number was 150,000.
In 1851 the
Sioux ceded to the
United States all their lands in
Minnesota.
In 1857 application was made by the people for the admission of
Minnesota into the
Union as a State.
This was effected May 11, 1858.
Minnesota furnished to the
National army and navy during the
Civil War 25,034 soldiers.
The population in 1890, a little more than fifty years after the first settlement, was 1,301,826; in 1900, 1,751,394.
The people of the
State were faithful to the old flag in 1861; so was the governor,
Alexander Ramsey.
The legislature that assembled Jan. 26 passed a series of loyal resolutions, in which secession was denounced as revolution, and the acts of the South Carolinians in
Charleston Harbor as treasonable; and said that the full strength of the national authority under the national flag should be put forth.
It gave assurance that the people of
Minnesota would never consent to the obstruction of the free navigation of the
Mississippi River “from its source to its mouth by any power hostile to the federal government.”
At midsummer, in 1862, Little Crow, a saintly looking savage in civilized costume, leader of
Sioux warriors, began war on the white people, and in August and
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 |
A Sioux massacre. |
September butchered inhabitants at three points in
Minnesota, and at posts beyond the boundary of the
State.
For nine days the
Sioux besieged Fort Ridgely.
Fort Abercrombie was also besieged, and twice assaulted; and in that region the Indians murdered about 500 white inhabitants, mostly defenceless women and children.
Gen. H. H. Sibley was sent with a body of militia to crush the Indians.
He attacked a large force under Little Crow at
Wood Lake, and drove them into
Dakota, making 500 of their number prisoners.
Tried by court-martial, 300 of them were sentenced to be hanged.
The President interfered, and only thirty-seven of the worst offenders were executed, Feb. 28. 1863.
The “Sioux War” was not ended until the summer of 1863, when
General Pope took command of that department, picketed the line of settlements in the far Northwest with 2,000 soldiers, and took vigorous measures to disperse the hostile bands.
Generals Sibley and
Sully moved against them in June, 1863, fought the Indians at different places, and finally scattered them among the wilds of the eastern slopes of the spurs of the
Rocky Mountains.
An outbreak by the Pillager band of Chippewas at
Leech Lake occurred in October, 1898, because of continued impositions by the whites; but it was quickly suppressed by a detachment of the regular army.
See
United States, Minnesota, in vol.
IX.
State governors.
Henry H. Sibley | elected | 1857 |
Alexander Ramsey | elected | Oct. 1858 |
Stephen Miller | elected | Oct. 1863 |
William R. Marshall, Rep | elected | Nov. 7, 1865 |
Horace Austin, Rep | elected | Nov. 1869 |
Cushman K. Davis, Rep | elected | Nov. 1873 |
John S. Pillsbury, Rep | elected | Nov. 2, 1875 |
Lucius F. Hubbard, Rep | elected | Nov. 1881 |
Andrew R. McGill, Rep | elected | Nov. 2, 1886 |
William R. Merriam, Rep | elected | Nov. 1888 |
William R. Merriam, Rep | term begins | Jan. 1891 |
Knute Nelson, Rep | term begins | Jan. 1893 |
Knute Nelson, Rep | term begins | Jan. 1, 1895 |
David M. Clough | term begins | Jan. 24, 1895 |
John Lind | term begins | Jan. 1, 1899 |
Samuel R. Van Sant. | term begins | Jan. 1, 1901 |
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