Fts.\NcE. The city had in 1902 a funded debt of $8,269.000. which was partially covered by a sinking fund of $1,634.331. The charter limits the municipal debt to 5 per cent. of the assessed valuation. The assessed valuation of real and personal property in 1902 was $121.279,537. The legal basis for assessment of property is 100 per emit.. or the full market value, but in practice the basis is about GO per cent. The tax rate for 1903 was 2.533 per cent. The total receipts in 1902 were $1.559,505. The expenditures for maintenance and operation were $2,9.14,208; the main items being: for schools, ?-:805.289; for the tire department. $346.999; for interest on debt, 5310,085; for the police department, 8224.999. Minneapolis owns and operates its water-works. which represent an outlay of 84.602.708.
Minneapolis is the largest of the .\uu•rican (dile`, which have developed wholly since the middle of the nineteenth century. Its population by decades has been as follows: 1860. 2564: 1870. 13.066; 1880. 16.887; 1890. 164.738; 1900. 202,718. The total population in 19(10 in cluded more than 61,000 persons of foreign birth, or 30.1 per cent.. while the persons of foreign parentage represented 69 per cent. of the total. Scandinavians compose the majority of the for eign-born element. The negroes numbered 1518.
Ills-nun% Father Hennepin visited the Falls of Saint Anthony in 1680 aml gave tlu•nl their name.
Though the United States Government in 1819 built Fo•t Snelling at the month of the Min nesota. and in 1822 erected a large mill within the present limits of .Minneapolis (then ineluded in the 'Military Reservation of Fort Snelling'), no real settlement on the west side of the river was made until 1850, when Colonel .T. it. Stevens established a claim overlooking the falls. Owing largely to the uncertainty of land titles. few set tlers came until after 1855, when Congress first granted a right of prci;mption. The settlement, having previously borne several names in suc cession. was incorporated in 1856 as the town, and in 1867 as the city of Minneapolis. In 1872 the city of Saint Anthony, directly across the river, whiell had been settled in 1837. and incorporated in 1855, was annexed. After ISO the growth of the city was exceedingly rapid. From 1850 to 1893 a large Industrial Exposition was held here. and in 1892 the Republican National Con vention met in the Exposition Building. On Sep tember 23, there was a notable. 'Harvest Festival' to celebrate the return of agricultural prosperity in the Northwest after a period of poor crops and general depression. Consult At water. HiRtory of air Oily of Minneapolis (New York. 18931.