Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 6: Claim of Title, 1916

The history of the early governmental jurisdiction of the valley of the Minnesota river is formulated with some difficulty, as, prior to the nineteenth century, the interior of the country was so little known and the maps upon which claims and grants were founded were so meager, as well as incorrect and unreliable, that descriptions of boundaries and locations as given in the early treaties are vague in the extreme, and very difficult of identification with present-day lines and locations.

The Hon. J. V. Brower, a scholarly authority upon this subject, says ("The Mississippi River and Its Sources") : "Spain, by virtue of the discoveries of Columbus and others, confirmed to her by papal grant (that of Alexander VI, May 4, 1493), may be said to have been the first European owner of the entire valley of the Mississippi, but she never used this claim as a ground for taking formal possession of this part of her domains other than incidentally involved in De Soto's doings. The feeble ob- jections which she made in the next two centuries after the discovery to other nations exploring and settling North America were successfully overcome by the force of accomplished facts. The name of Florida, now so limited in its application, was first applied by the Spaniards to the greater part of the eastern half of North America, commencing at the Gulf of Mexico and proceeding northward indefinitely. This expansiveness of geographical view was paralleled later by the definition of a New France of still greater extent, which practically included all the continent.

"L'Escarbot, in his history of New France, written iu 1617, says, in reference to this : ' Thus our Canada has for its limits on the west side all the lands as far as the sea called the Pacific, on this side of the Tropic of Cancer; on the south the islands of the Atlantic sea in the direction of Cuba and the Spanish land; on the east and the northern sea which bathes New France ; and on the north the land said to be unknown, toward the icy sea as far as the arctic pole.'

"Judging also by the various grants to individuals, noble and otherwise, and 'companies,' which gave away the country in latitudinal strips extending from the Atlantic westward, the English were not far behind the Spaniards and French in this kind of effrontery. As English colonists never settled on the Mississippi in pursuance of such grants, and never performed any acts of authority there, such shadowy sovereignties may be disregarded here, in spite of the fact that it was considered necessary, many years later, for various states concerned to convey to the United States their more or less conflicting claims to territory which lay far to the westward of their own actual borders.

"Thus, in the most arbitrary manner, did the Mississippi river, though yet unknown, become the property, successively, of the Iberian, Gaulish and Anglo-Saxon races - of three peoples who, in later times, by diplomacy and force of arms, struggled for an actual occupancy. Practically, however, the upper Mississippi valley may be considered as having been in the first place Canadian soil, for it was Frenchmen from Canada who first visited it and traded with its various native inhabitants. The further prosecution of his discoveries by La Salle, in 1682, extended Canada as a French possession to the Gulf of Mexico, though he did not use the name of Canada nor yet that of New France. He preferred to call the entire country watered by the Mississippi river and its tributaries, from its uttermost source to its mouth, by the new name he had already invented for the purpose - Louisiana. The names of Canada and New France had been indifferently used to express about the same extent of territory, but the name of Louisiana now came to supersede them in being applied to the conjectural regions of the "West. Al- though La Salle has applied the latter expression to the entire valley of the Mississippi, it was not generally used in that sense after his time; the upper part of the region was called Canada, and the lower Louisiana; hut the actual dividing line between the two provinces was not absolutely established, and their names and boundaries were variously indicated on published maps. Speaking generally, the Canada of the eighteenth century included the Great Lakes and the country drained by their tributaries; the northern one-fourth of the present state of Illinois - that is, as much as lies north of the mouth of the Rock river; all the regions lying north of the northern watershed of the Missouri, and finally the valley of the upper Missouri itself." This would include Redwood county.

But it is now necessary to go back two centuries previous and consider the various explorations of the Mississippi upon which were based the claims of the European monarchs. Possibly the mouth of the Mississippi had been reached by Spaniards previous to 1541, possibly Hibernian missionaries as early as the middle of the sixth century, or Welsh emigrants (Madoc), about 1170, discovered North America by way of the Gulf of Mexico, but historians gave to Fernando de Soto and his band of adventurers the credit of having been the first white men to actually view the Mississippi on its course through the interior of the continent and of being the first ones to actually traverse its waters. De Soto sighted the Mississippi in May, 1541, at the head of an expedition in search of gold and precious stones. In the following spring, weary, with hope long deferred, and worn out with his adventures, De Soto fell a victim to disease and died May 21, 1541. His followers, greatly reduced in number by sickness, after wandering about in a vain searching, built three small vessels and descended to the mouth of the Mississippi, being the first white men to reach the outlet of that great river from the interior. However, they were too weary and discouraged to lay claim to the country, and took no notes of the region through which they passed.

In 1554 James Cartier, a Frenchman, discovered the St. Lawrence, and explored it as far as the present site of Quebec. The next year he ascended the river to Mont Real, the lofty hill for which Montreal was named. Thereafter all the country drained by the St. Lawrence was claimed by the French. Many years later the King of France granted the ' ' basin of the St. Lawrence and all the rivers flowing through it to the sea," to a company, whose leader was Champlain, the founder of Quebec, which became the capital of New France, whose then unexplored territory stretched westward to well within the bouudaries of what is now Minnesota. In 1613-15 Champlain explored the Ottawa river, and the Georgian bay to Lake Huron, and missions were estab- lished in the Huron country. Missionaries and fur traders were the most active explorers of the new possessions. They followed the shores of the Great Lakes and then penetrated further and further into the wilderness. As they went they tried to make friends of the red men, established trading posts and raised the Christian cross. In 1641 Jogues and Raymbault, Jesuits, after a long and perilous voyage in frail canoes and bateaux, reached the Sault Ste. Marie, where they heard of a large river, the Mishis-ip-e, flowing southward to the sea, and of a powerful Indian tribe dwelling near its headwaters. Stories of vast fertile plains, of numberless streams, of herds of buffalo, and of many people, in regions far to the west and south, roused missionaries and traders anew, and the voyages and trips of the explorers became more frequent.

In 1659-60 Radisson and Grosseilliers, proceeding westward from Lake Superior, possibly entered what is now Minnesota. They spent some time in the "forty villages of the Dakotas, " possibly in the vicinity of Mille Lacs, and were, it has been contended, the first white men to set foot on the soil of this state. The contention that these adventurers spent a part of the years 1655-56 on Prairie Island, in the Mississippi just above Red "Wing is disputed by some historians, but still forms an interesting subject for study and conjecture.

Some writers also claim that the Frenchman, Sieur Nicollet, who should not be confused with the Nicollet of a later date, reached the Mississippi in 1639.

Rene Menard, a Jesuit missionary, reached the Mississippi in 1661 by way of Wisconsin. This was twelve years prior to its discovery by Marquette and Joliet, and to Menard historians in general give the honor of the discovery of the upper waters of the great river. Menard ascended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Black river, Wisconsin, and was lost in a forest near the source of that stream while attempting to carry the gospel to the Hurons. His sole companion "called him and sought him, but he made no reply and could not be found." Some years later his camp kettle, robe and prayer book were seen in the possession of the Indians.

In the summer of 1663 the intelligence of the fate of Menard reached Quebec, and on August 8, 1665, Father Claude Allouez, who had anxiously waited two years for the means of conveyance, embarked for Lake Superior with a party of French traders and Indians. He visited the Minnesota shores of Lake Superior in the fall of 1665, established the Mission of the Holy Spirit at La Pointe, now in Wisconsin, and it is said "was the first to write 'Messipi,' the name of the great river of the Sioux country," as he heard it pronounced by the Chippewas, or rather as it sounded to his ears.

May 13, 1673, Jaques Marquette and Louis Joliet, the former a priest and the latter the commander of the expedition, set out with five assistants, and on June 17 of the same year reached the Mississippi at the present site of Prairie du Chien, thence continuing down the river as far as the mouth of the Illinois, which they ascended, subsequently reaching the lakes.

In 1678, the Sieur De Luth, Daniel Graysolon, under commission from the governor of Canada, set out from Quebec, to explore the country west of the Lake Superior region. He was to take possession of it in the name of the king of France, and secure the trade of the native tribes. De Luth entered Minnesota in 1679, reaching the great Sioux village of Kathio at Mille Lacs, on July 2. "On that day," he says, "I had the honor to plant His Majesty's arms where a Frenchman never before had been."

La Salle, however, was the first to lay claim to the entire valley in the name of his sovereign. After achieving perpetual fame by the discovery of the Ohio river (1670-71), he conceived the plan of reaching the Pacific by way of the Northern Mississippi, at that time unexplored and supposed to be a waterway connecting the two oceans. Frontenac, then governor-general of Canada, favored the plan, as did the king of France. Accordingly, gathering a company of Frenchmen, he pursued his way through the lakes, made a portage to the Illinois river, and, January 4, 1680, reached what is now Lake Peoria, in Illinois. From there, in February, he sent Hennepin and two companions to explore the upper Mississippi. During this voyage Hennepin and the men accompanying him were taken by the Indians as far north as Mille Lacs. He also discovered St. Anthony Falls. Needing reinforcements, La Salle again returned to Canada. In January, 1682, with a band of followers, he started on his third and greatest expedition. February 6 they reached the Mississippi by way of Lake Michigan and the Illinois river, and March 6 discovered the three great passages by which the river discharges its waters into the Gulf. Two days later they reascended the river a short distance, to find a high spot out of the reach of inundations, and there erected a column and planted a cross, proclaiming with due ceremony the authority of the king of France. Thus did the whole Mississippi valley pass under the nominal sovereignty of the French monarchs.

The first definite claim to the upper Mississippi is embodied in a paper, still preserved, in the colonial archives of France, entitled "The record of the taking possession, iu his majesty's name, of the Bay des Puants (Green bay), of the lake and rivers of the Outagamis and Maskoutins (Fox river and Lake Winne- bago), of the river Ouiskonche (Wisconsin), and that of the Mississippi, the country of the Nadouesioux (the Sioux or Dakota Indians), the rivers St. Croix and St. Pierre (Minnesota), and other places more remote, May 8, 1689." (P. B. 0 'Callahan's translation in 1855, published in Vol. 9, page 418, "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York.") This claim was made by Perrot, and the proclamation is supposed to have been issued from Fort St. Antonie on the northeastern shore of Lake Pepin, about six miles from its mouth.

The previous proclamations of St. Lusson in 1671 at the outlet of Lake Superior, of De Luth, in 1679, at the west end of the same lake and at Mille Lacs, strengthened the French claims of sovereignty.

For over eight decades thereafter, the claims of France were, tacitly at least, recognized in Europe. In 1763 there came a change. Of this change A. N. Winchell (in Vol. 10, "Minnesota Historical Society Collections") writes: "The present eastern boundary of Minnesota, in part (that is so far as the Mississippi now forms its eastern boundary), has a history beginning at a very early date. In 1763, at the end of that long struggle during which England passed many a mile post in her race for world empire, while France lost nearly as much as Britain gained - that struggle, called in America, the French and Indian War - the Mississippi river became an international boundary. The articles of the definite treaty of peace were signed at Paris, on February 10, 1763. The seventh article made the Mississippi, from its source to about the 31st degree of north latitude, the boundary between the English colonies on this continent and the French Louisiana. The text of the article is as follows (Published in the "Gentleman's Magazine," Vol. 33, pages 121-126, March, 1763) :

"VII. In order to re-establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and to remove forever all subjects of dispute to the limits of the British and French Territories on the continent of America; that for the future the confines between the domains of his Britannic majesty and those of his most Christian majesty (the king of France) in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevocably by a line drawn down the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence, by a line drawn along the middle of this river, and the Lake Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea." The boundary from the source of the river farther north, or west, or in any direction, was not given ; it was evidently supposed that it would be of no importance for many centuries at least.

This seventh article of the definite treaty was identical with the sixth article in the preliminary treaty of peace signed by England, Spain and France, at Fontainebleau, November 3, 1762.

On that same day, November 3, 1762, the French and Spanish representatives had signed another act by which the French king "ceded to his cousin of Spain, and his successors forever * * * all the country known by the name of Louisiana, including New Orleans and the island on which that city is situated. ' ' This agreement was kept secret, but when the definite treaty was signed at Paris the following year, this secret pact went into effect, and Spain at once became the possessor of the area described.

At the close of the Revolutionary War, the territory east of the Mississippi and north of the 31st parallel passed under the jurisdiction of the United States. By the definite treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, ratified at Paris, September 3, 1783, a part of the northern boundary of the United States, and the western boundary thereof was established as follows: Commencing at the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods, and from thence on a due course west to the Mississippi river (the Mississippi at that time was thought to extend into what is now Canada), thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of said Mississippi river until it shall intersect the northernmost part of the 31st degree of north latitude. (U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 8, page 82.)

In 1800, by the secret treaty of San (or Saint) Udefonso (signed October 1), Spain receded the indefinite tract west of the Mississippi to France, which nation did not, however, take formal possession until three years later, when the formality was made necessary in order that the tract might be ceded to the United States. Napoleon, for France, sold the tract to the United States, April 30, 1803. The region comprehended in the "Louisiana Purchase," as this area was called, included all the country west of the Mississippi, except those portions west of the Rocky mountains actually occupied by Spain, and extended as far north as the British territory.

By an act of congress, approved October 31, 1803, the president of the United States was authorized to take possession of this territory, the act providing that "all the military, civil, and judicial powers exercised by the officers of the existing government, shall be vested in such person or persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct." (United States Statutes at Large, Vol. 2, page 245.)

December 20, 1803, Louisiana was formally turned over to the United States at New Orleans, by M. Laussat, the civil agent of France, who a few days previous (November 30) had received a formal transfer from the representatives of Spain. Redwood county was included in the Louisiana purchase.

to Redwood county was first embraced in the paper grant to Spain, May 4, 1493. It was subsequently included in the indefinite claims made by Spain to lands north and northwest of her settlements in Mexico, Florida and the West Indies; by the English to lands west of their Atlantic coast settlements, and by the French to lands south, west and southwest of their Canadian settlements. The first definite claim to territory now embracing Redwood county was made by La Salle at the mouth of the Mississippi, March 8, 1682, in the name of the king of France, and the second (still more definite) by Perrot, nor far from the present site of Winona, May 8, 1689. This was also a French claim. France remained in tacit authority until February 10, 1763, when, upon England's acknowledging the French authority to lands west of the Mississippi, France, by a previous secret agreement, turned her authority over to Spain. October 1, 1800, Spain ceded the tract to France, but France did not take formal possession until November 30, 1803, and almost immediately, December 20, 1803, turned it over to the United States, the Americans having purchased it from Napoleon April 30 of that year.

March 26, 1804, the area that is now Redwood county was included in the widely spreading area of the Louisiana district, and so remained until March 3, 1805. From March 3, 1805, to June 4, 1812, it was a part of Louisiana territory. From June 4, 1812, until August 10, 1820, it was a part of Missouri territory. From August 10, 1821, until June 28, 1834, it was outside the pale of all organized government, except that congress had general jurisdiction. From June 28, 1834, to April 20, 1836, it was a part of Michigan territory. From April 20, 1836, to June 12, 1838, it was a part of Wisconsin territory. From June 12, 1838, to December 28, 1846, it was a part of the territory of Iowa. The admission of Iowa as a state left what is now Redwood county without territorial affiliation until March 3, 1849, when Minnesota was admitted as a territory. In the meantime, however, important events were transpiring.

December 18, 1846, Morgan L. Martin, delegate for Wisconsin territory, gave notice to the house of representatives that at an early day he would ask leave to introduce a bill establishing a territorial government of Minnesota. The name which was the Sioux term for what was then the river St. Peter (Pierre) and has now become the official designation was, it is believed, applied to the proposed territory at the suggestion of Joseph R. Brown. It is a composite word and while there is some difference of opinion as to the exact meaning, the most generally accepted is "sky tinted water," which is a very satisfactory and poetical even if not accurate interpretation. The real meaning is blear water or cloudy water or milky water, the river at cer- tain stages in the early days having the appearance of what we now call a "mackerel sky." The bill was introduced in the lower house on December 23, 1846, by Mr. Martin. This bill was left to the committee on territories of which Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois was the chairman. During its consideration by congress, the bill underwent various changes. After reported back to the house the name Minnesota had been changed by Mr. Douglas to Itasca! a word formed by taking syllables from the Latin words Veritas caput, meaning the true head. Mr. Martin immediately moved that the name Minnesota be placed in the bill in place of Itasca. Congressman Winthrop proposed the name Chippewa, another from the word Ojibway, a tribe of Indians then inhabiting the northern part of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Congressman Thompson of Mississippi was opposed to all Indian names and wished the new territory named for Andrew Jackson. Congressman Houston of Delaware spoke strongly in favor of giving to the new territory the name of Washington. Of these proposed names only one, Washington, has been preserved as the name of a state or territory. After many months, counter motions and amendments, Minnesota was retained in the bill which with a minor change passed the house. In the senate it was rejected.

A second attempt was made two years later. January 10, 1848, Stephen A. Douglas, who having in the meantime been elected to the United States Senate from Illinois, became chairman of the committee on territories in that body as he had previously been in the house, gave due notice to the senate that "at a future day" he would introduce a bill to establish the territory of Minnesota. He brought in the bill February 23. It was several times read, was amended, referred to committee and discussed, but congress adjourned August 14 without taking ultimate action on the proposition.

In the meantime Wisconsin was admitted to the Union May 29, 1848, and the western half of what was then St. Croix county was left outside the new state. The settled portions of the area thus cut off from Wisconsin by its admission to statehood privileges were in the southern part of the peninsula of land lying between the Mississippi and the St. Croix.

The people of this area were now confronted with a serious problem. As residents of the territory of Wisconsin they had enjoyed the privileges of citizenship in the United States. By the creation of the state of Wisconsin they were disfranchised and left without the benefits of organized government. Thus, Stillwater, which had been the governmental seat of a growing county (St. Croix), was left outside the pale of organized law. Legal minds disagreed on the question of whether the minor civil officers, such as justices of the peace, created under the territorial organization, were still qualified to exercise the authority of their positions. At a meeting held at St. Paul, in July, 1848, the citizens of that (then) village considered the question of the formation of a new territory. August 5 a meeting of citizens of the area west of the St. Croix was held at Stillwater, and it was decided to call a general convention at that place, August 26, 1848, for a three-fold purpose: 1 - To elect a territorial delegate to congress. 2 - To organize a territory with a name other than Wisconsin. 3 - To determine whether the laws and organization of the old territory of Wisconsin were still in effect now that a part of that territory was organized as a state. In the call for this meeting, the signers called themselves, "We, the undersigned citizens of Minnesota territory." The meeting was held pursuant to the call. Action was taken in regard to the first proposition by the election of H. H. Sibley, who was authorized to proceed to Washington and use such efforts as were in his power to secure the organization of the territory of Minnesota. In regard to the second proposition, a memorial was addresstd to the President of the United States, stating the reasons why the organization of Minnesota territory was necessary. The third proposition presented technical points worthy of the attention of the wisest legal minds. The state of Wisconsin had been organized, but the territory of Wisconsin had not been abolished. Was not, therefore, the territory still in existence, and did not its organization and its laws still prevail in the part of the territory that had not been included in the state? A letter from James Buchanan, then secretary of state of the United States, expressed this view in a letter. If the territorial government was in existence would it not give the residents thereof a better standing before the nation in their desire to become Minnesota territory? Might not this technicality give the delegate a seat in congress when otherwise he must, as simply the representative of an unorganized area, make his requests in the lobby and to the individual members? John Catlin, who had been secretary of the territory of Wisconsin before the organization of that state, declared that the territory still existed in the area not included in the organized state and that he was the acting governor, Territorial Governor Henry Dodge having been elected United States Senator. Accordingly, the people of the cut-off portion organized as the "Territory of Wisconsin," and named a day for the election of a delegate, John H. Tweedy, the territorial delegate from Wisconsin, having gone through the form of resigning in order to make the new move possible. In the closely contested election held October 30, 1848, Sibley won out against Henry M. Rice and accordingly made his way to Washington, technically from the "Territory of Wisconsin," actually as a representative of the proposed terri- tory of Minnesota. As a matter of fact, indeed, Sibley, living at Mendota, had ceased to be a citizen of the territory of Wisconsin in 1838, when Iowa territory was created, and was a resident of the part of Iowa territory which the organization of the state of Iowa had left without a government, rather than of that territory in question (between the Mississippi and the St. Croix) which the admission of Wisconsin as a state had left without a government. Sibley was, however, after much opposition, admitted to congress and given a seat January 15, 1849, but not without much discussion as to whether excluded territory was entitled to continued political existence and representation, after a state has been created out of part of a territory.

Mr. Sibley devoted himself assiduously to securing the passage in the United States senate of the bill for the creation of the territory of Minnesota which had been introduced at the previous session and met with gratifying success. His efforts in the house of representatives were less satisfactory, political questions entering largely into the matter, and it was not until March 3, 1849, the very last day of the session - and then only through the strenuous work of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, that "he succeeded in securing the passage of the bill. This was finally done under suspension of the rules, the previous opposition having been unexpectedly withdrawn.

As passed the act read as follows: "Be it enacted, * * * That from and after the passage of this act, all that part of the territory of the United States which lies within the following limits, to-wit: Beginning in the Mississippi river at a point where the line of 43° and 30' of north latitude crosses the same, thence running due west on said line, which is the northern boundary of the state of Iowa, to the northwest corner of the said state of Iowa; thence southerly along the western boundary of said state to the point where said boundary strikes the Missouri river; thence up the middle of the main channel of the Missouri river to the mouth of the White Earth river; thence up the middle of the main channel of the White Earth river to the boundary line between the possessions of the United States and Great Britain; thence east and south of east along the boundary line and between the possession of the United States and Great Britain to Lake Superior; thence in a straight line to the northernmost point of the state of Wisconsin, in Lake Superior; thence along the western boundary of the state of Wisconsin to the Mississippi river; thence down the main channel of said river to the place of beginning, and the same is hereby erected into a temporary government by the name of the territory of Minnesota."

At the time of the organization of Minnesota as a territory the country was described as being "little more than a wilderness." That which lay west of the Mississippi river, from the Iowa line to Lake Itasca, had not yet been ceded by the Indians and was unoccupied by the whites save in a very few instances. On the east side, in this more immediate vicinity, were trading posts with the cabins of a few employes at Sauk Rapids and Crow Wing. Away up at Pembina was the largest town or settlement within the boundaries of the new territory, where were nearly a thousand people, a large majority of whom were "Metis" or mixed bloods, French Crees or French Chippewas.

In "Minnesota in Three Centuries" attention is called to the fact that at this time the east side of the Mississippi, as far north as Crow Wing, was being settled here and there by people who had come to the country when it had been announced that the territory was organized. The settlers were almost entirely from the Northern States, many being from New England. The fact that the state which would succeed the territory would be a free state, without slavery in any form, made it certain that the first settlers would be non-slaveholders, with but few people from the Southern States interested or in sympathy with Southern ideas.

The people of the territory of Minnesota were not long content with a territorial government. In the words of A. N. Winchell, "December 24, 1856, the delegate from the territory of Minnesota introduced a bill to authorize the people of that territory to form a constitution and state government. The bill limited the proposed state on the west by the Red River of the North and the Big Sioux river. It was referred to the committee on territories, of which Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, was then chairman. January 31, 1867, the chairman reported a substitute, which differed from the original bill in no essential respect except in regard to the western boundary. The change there consisted in adopting a line through Traverse and Big Stone lakes, due south from the latter to the Iowa line. The altered boundary cut off a narrow strip of territory, estimated by Mr. Grow to contain between five and six hundred square miles. Today the strip contains such towns as Sioux Falls, Watertown and Brookings. The substitute had a stormy voyage through congress, especially in the senate, but finally completed the trip on February 25, 1857."

The enabling act, as passed and approved February 26, 1857, defined the boundaries of Minnesota as follows: "Be it enacted - - * That the inhabitants of that portion of the territory of Minnesota which is embraced within the following limits, to-wit:

Beginning at the point in the center of the main channel of the Red River of the North, where the boundary line between the United States and the British possessions crosses the same; thence up the main channel of said river to that of Bois des Sioux river; thence (up) the main channel of said river to Lake Travers ; then up the center of said lake to the southern extremity thereof ; thence in a direct line to the head of Big Stone lake ; thence through its center to its outlet ; thence by a due south line to the north line of the state of Iowa ; thence east along the northern boundary of said state to the main channel of the Mississippi river; thence up the main channel of said river and following the boundary line of the state of Wisconsin, until the same intersects the St. Louis river; thence down said river to and through Lake Superior, on the boundary line of Wisconsin and Michigan, until it intersects the dividing line between the United States and the British possessions; thence up Pigeon river and following said dividing line to the place of beginning; be and the same are thereby authorized to form for themselves a constitution and state government, by the name of the state of Minnesota, and to come into the Union on an equal footing with the original states, according to the federal constitution."

Authority and Authorship. The principal portions of this article were compiled by Hon. Francis M. Crosby and the editor of this work, from the sources mentioned in the text, and also from the United States Statutes at Large, and the "Charters and Constitutions of the United States," for publication in the "History of Dakota and Goodhue Counties," H. C. Cooper, Jr., & Co., 1910. To this has been added material compiled from various sources by Return I. Holcombe. for "Minnesota in Three Centuries."