University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

Page 12 text:

15 years previous was the source, but Schoolcraft proved to him that Itasca was the actual origin. About 1840 the sound of the steam- boat's whistle meant the start of spring ' N . .431 EA The first passenger and freight station in Minneapolis just as the first robin is the telling sign today. It was also about this time that the fabulous period of the fur trader and the explorer was coming to a halt. The Indians were starting to sign treaties. The future capital of Minnesota re- ceived its beginning when all squatters were forced out of Wisconsin. So they moved across the river. Pig's Eye Par- rant was the hrst settler to camp on the spot that is now St. Paul. He built his home at the place where the Union sta- tion is located today. This was the shaky start of St. Paul. Thomas Williamson established the first church in 1841. It was dedicated to St. Paul. So the steamboat men started calling that area St. Paul's Landing. It was shortened to St. Paul's and then to St. Paul. Now Pig's Eye had become a Christian community. Years later St. Paul was chosen as the city to have the state capitol. But then in 1857 a bill came to the floor to move the capitol to St. Peter. A man from Pem- bina by the name of Ioe Rolette took care of that though. He stole the bill and hid until the legislature broke session. Also, the capitol of the state of Minnesota was almost placed on Nicollet Island. It missed by the margin of one vote. Harriet E. Bishop, coming to Minne- sota from Vermont, started the first school. The first school in St. Anthony Falls was established by Electa Backus. But the real boost to education was ad- ministered by Martin McCloud who as- sured the passage of a bill which made education for those between the ages of four and twenty-one free. At the Stillwater Convention in 1848 the people of this area decided to send A bunk house scene in an early lumber camp Henry H. Sibley as a representative of the Territory of Wisconsin. On arriving Sibley was seated after an extended de- bate within the Senate.

Page 11 text:

the old world, so they suspended opera- tions in Minnesota. For the next 50 years there was inter- mittent fierce fighting involving Indians French or English. There was also a great deal of exploring in progress, many of the adventurers traveling the same routes that tourists canoe each summer today. But in 1762 France ceded the territory west of the Mississippi to Spain. And when the French lost the French and Indian wars the land went over to the British. Although the United States received its independence, the British didn't move out of the territory for 30 years because they hadn't heard the news of the treaty. Then in l803 the rest of the state fell to the U.S. under the Louisiana Purchase. Following this acquisition President Thomas-Jefferson sent Lt. Zebulon Pike to inform the British that they no longer were owners of the territory. In his trav- els, which carried him as far north as Leech Lake, he also bought the future sight of the Twin Cities for 60 gallons of whiskey and S200 worth of trinkets. Fort St. Anthony, one of the best forts in this part of the country, and at the same time a great fur trading center, was built in 1820. Four years later its name was changed to Fort Snelling. Although it was an excellent fort, it has become frustrated from the lack of use. There has yet to be a shot fired from the fort. Henry R. Schoolcraft and Lewis Cass sailed up the Mississippi with the inten- tion of finding the source of this high- way of early Minnesota. Cass thought that Cass Lake which he had discovered Minneapolis' first electric st 'c , i889

Page 13 text:

The Nicollet hotel and Washington Avenue in the late I88O's The small population and the small size of the territory proved to be the points against making Minnesota a ter- ritory. But Stephen A. Douglas helped Sibley convince the Easterners that Minnesota was large enough and, by ex- aggerating a little, presented facts to show that the territory boasted a popula- tion as large as most entering territories. The bill making Minnesota a territory was passed just a few hours before the Whigs took over for the Democrats in Washington. Unlike most organic acts Minneso- ta's described boundaries. It designated the new Territory of Minnesota as in- cluding all of the present states of North and South Dakota and as far West as the Missouri and White Earth Rivers. President Zachary Taylor appointed Whigs to almost all of the executive po- sitions in the new government. Alex- ander Ramsey, a Pennsylvanian, was appointed Governor. In later years this devoted Minnesotan went on to become Mayor of St. Paul, Governor of Minne- sota, United States Senator and Secre- tary of War. Following the admission of Minne- sota as a territory, more immigrants came into Minnesota in the next nine years than came to the East coast shores during the first century after coloniza- tion. The first paper in Minnesota, The Minnesota Pioneer, was started by James Goodhue in 1849. While across the river, Minneapolis received its first newspaper from Elmer Tyler. It was called the St. Anthony Express. The first dwelling on the west side of the river was built by John H. Stevens.