MINNESOTA
TO ACCOMPANY
W. W. FOLWELL’S
MINNESOTA in AMERICAN COMMONWEALTHS
Compiled by the author, 1908.
MINNESOTA
THE NORTH STAR STATE
PREFACE
If this compend of Minnesota history shall befound a desirable addition to those already beforethe public, it will be due to the good fortune ofthe writer in reaching original sources of informationnot accessible to his predecessors.
The most important of them are: the papers ofGovernor Alexander Ramsey, in the possession ofhis daughter, Mrs. Marion R. Furness; the letter-booksand papers of General H. H. Sibley, preservedin the library of the Minnesota HistoricalSociety; some hundreds of letters saved by ColonelJohn H. Stevens, and deposited by him in the samelibrary; the papers of Ignatius Donnelly, in thehands of his family; the great collection of GreenBay and Prairie du Chien papers belonging tothe Wisconsin Historical Society; the remarkablegroup of early French documents owned by theChicago Historical Society; and finally, the pricelesscollection of Minnesota newspapers preservedby the Minnesota Historical Society.
Grateful acknowledgments are offered to manycitizens who have given information out of theirown knowledge, or have directed the writer to othersources. Among “old Territorians” who have renderedinvaluable aid must be named Simeon P.Folsom, John A. Ludden, Joseph W. Wheelock,Benjamin H. Randall, A. L. Larpenteur, A. W.Daniels, John Tapper, and William Pitt Murray.The last named has put me under the heaviestobligation.