HISTORY. The European to visit the re gion now included within the State was Duluth, who, in 1678. built a fort at the mouth of the Pigeon River, on the north shore of Lake Superior. In 1680 the Falls of Saint Anthony were discovered by Louis Hennepin, a Fran ciscan priest. Before 1700 there were trading posts on Lake Pepin and on the Minnesota River. A part of Minnesota was included in the extensive territory ceded by France to Great Britain in 1763. In 1766 it was explored by Capt. Jonathan Carver, of Connecticut. In 1783 it became a possession of the United States. The part of the State lying east of the Mississippi belonged in turn to the Territories of Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The region west formed part of the Territories of Louisiana, Mis souri, and Iowa. In 1805 a tract of land at the mouth of the Saint Croix and another at the mouth of the Minnesota were purchased of the Indians, but the number of settlers was small. The exploring expedition of Lieutenant Pike in 1805 was followed by ninny others within the succeeding forty years; and with an increased knowledge of the country came the first impor tant beginning of immigration. Fort Saint An thony (Snelling) was built in 1819-21; in 1822 a clearing was made at the Falls of Saint An thony, and a mill was built, and in 1823 the first steamboat ascended to the falls. The next settlements made were by a colony of Swiss, near Fort Snelling in 1827, and at Stillwater in 1843. Two years before this latter date Father Galtier had erected a log chapel a little southeast of the Falls of Saint Anthony and dedicated it. to Saint Paul. This was the nucleus of the present city of that name. The Indian titles to the lands east of the Mis sissippi were not extinguished until the year 1838, and it was not until March 3, 1849, that the Territory of Minnesota was organized, with the Missouri River as its western boundary. In 1851 the Indian titles to the lands (except reser vations) between the Mississippi and the Red River of the North were extinguished, and immi gration increased rapidly. On May 1858,
?slip n esota was admitted as a State. The excel lent educational institutions for which Minne sota is noted took their rise early in the history of the Territory. Hamline University, at Ham line, was founded in 1854, and Saint John's Uni versity at Collegeville, was established three years later. In 1862 the Sioux Indians, under Little Crow, angered at the continuous inroads made upon their lands, attacked and destroyed many of the frontier settlements. Over 500 white settlers and soldiers were killed and 25,000 people were driven from their homes. The In dians were decisively defeated at Wood I.ake on September 22, 1862, and after engaging in spo radic raids in 1863 were removed west of the Missouri. In spite of the horrors of Indian war, immigration continued undiminished; it was stimulated by the activity of immigration agents in the Eastern States and Europe, and was en couraged by the enactment of liberal homestead laws. From the sale of its extensive public lands, the State obtained a very large school fund, which it employed in building up an ad mirable school system. Legislation after the Civil War was concerned largely with the regu lation of railway corporations, and the most de bated question of policy for a long time was that of the redemption of $2,275,1100 in bonds, which the State had issued in 1558 to aid in the con struction of railways, and had repudiated in 1860. For more than twenty years a large party in the State urged the redemption of the bonds as a measure necessitated by public honor, and in 1881 the Legislature accepted the offer of the bondholders to surrender their bonds at half the face value.
Since 1860 Minnesota has been steadily Re publican. save for the election of 1898, when the Democrats, Populists, and Silver Republican, elected their candidate for Governor. The follow ing is a list of the Governors of Minnesota since it• organization as a Territory: