Goodhue County, Minnesota - Chapter 6: Under European Kings, 1909

French and English Claims - Spanish Rule - The Louisiana Purchase - A Part of Louisiana Territory - Under Successive Jurisdiction of Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa - No Man's Land - General Sibley's Duties - Minnesota a Territory - In Statehood Days - A Full-Fledged County.

To trace the earl}' political history of Goodhue county, from the time of the undisputed possession by the Indians, is a somewhat difficult task, owing to the fact that in the early days boundaries, as given in treaties, and sometimes even in territorial acts, were rather indefinite, and sometimes obviously incorrect. The French and the English, who for so long, and for so many varied reasons, had caused Europe to flow with the blood of their rivalries, early became contestants for supremacy on the newly explored continent. By reason of the early explorations of De Soto, La Salle and others, both from the Gulf up the Mississippi, and from the St. Lawrence down the Great Lakes, and thence overland, the French claimed as their possession the entire Mississippi valley, extending as far east as the Alleghany mountains, and westward indefinitely. The British claims to sovereignty was based on the fact that the early English explorers along the Atlantic coast had, in planting the English standard, laid claim to the country "from sea to sea," as was the recognized custom among the explorers sent out by the civilized nations of that day. This claim was further strengthened by the activities in the disputed territory of the Hudson Bay and Northwest Fur companies, more or less connected with the English government, who had established outposts to their Canadian trading stations, extending well into the Mississippi valley. These rival claims were the cause of the early French and Indian wars of the New England colonies, and it will be remembered were the cause of Braddock's memorable trip to Fort Duquesne, in which is now western Pennsylvania, upon which occasion Washington took a part, and which has now become a portion of the annals of early United States history. At 'the close of these wars, 1763, the Mississippi became the dividing line, and France ceded the entire tract west of the river to Spain. By the treaty following the American Revolution, practically all of what is now that portion of the United States lying east of the Mississippi, with the exception of Florida, which was later purchased from Spain, was virtually acknowledged as a part of the new American republic, Spain retaining her claim to the territory west of the Mississippi. In 1800, Spain restored the territory to France, and in 1803 Napoleon ceded it to the United States. This tenure of nearly forty years by Spain made no impress upon what is now Minnesota. The precarious grip of the French kings left no political or racial influence, but the brave and courageous French explorers have bequeathed their names, written in fearless characters in the cognomens applied to cities and rivers; and their deeds, set forth in manuscripts still preserved, will form a romantic page in the history of the state for all time to come. During these changes of possession, which were but moves in the game played on the checkerboards of European polities, the territory now known as Goodhue county remained in the practical possession of the Indians, and untrod by white men, save as here and there an adventurer or trader landed upon the Mississippi shore; or a band of hardy soldiers established for a time their stockades. The task of dividing the great Louisiana purchase, of which the present Goodhue county was a part, became an important one. In 1812, Louisiana was admitted as a state, and the rest of the purchase was reorganized as Missouri territory. In 181!). Missouri framed a slate constitution, and in 1834 the district north of Missouri and west of the Mississippi river was a pari of the land placed under the jurisdiction of Michigan territory. When "Wisconsin territory was organized, from the western part of Michigan, in 1836, the present states of Iowa and Minnesota were a part of it, and the seat of government was fixed at Burlington, dune 12, 1838, Congress passed 4n act separating Iowa from Wisconsin, what is now Minnesota, west of the Mississippi, being included in the territory of Iowa. In Iowa territorial days the greater part of southern and southeastern Minnesota was within the jurisdiction of Clayton county. Henry II. Sibley was a justice of the peace in that county. The county seat was 250 miles distant, and his jurisdiction extended over a region of country, which, as he expressed it, was "as large as the empire of France." General Sibley lived in Mendota, from 1835 to 1862, and in that time, without leaving home, he had lived in the territories of- Michigan, AVisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and in the state of Minnesota. From 1846 until March 3, 1849, when Minnesota was admitted as a territory, the state was practically a no-man's land, being in a vague way attached to Prairie du Chien, of Crawford county, Wisconsin, for judicial purposes, and having such law and order as could be enforced from Fort Snelling. Various bills were presented to Congress calling for the organization of the territory, all of which failed until 1849. Goodhue county, being in the possession of the Sioux Indians, was little affected by the various changes in state and territorial ownership. With the inauguration of President Zachary Taylor, March 5, 1849, the land now known as Goodhue county, having successively passed under the rule of France, Spain- - and then France again - Louisiana, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, became a part of the territory of Minnesota, of which political division it was designed later, in statehood days, to become so important a part. Mention of the fact that in the earliest days of Minnesota territory, Goodhue county was a part of the county of Wabasha, completes the territorial claim of title.