Library of Congress Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 12 COLLECTIONS OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOLUME XII. ST. PAUL, MINN. PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. DECEMBER, 1908. No. 2 F601 .M66 2d set HARRISON & SMITH CO., PRINTERS, LITHOGRAPHERS, AND BOOKBINDERS, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. Nathaniel P. Langford, President. William H. Lightner, Vice-President. Charles P. Noyes, Second Vice-President. Henry P. Upham, Treasurer. Warren Upham, Secretary and Librarian. David L. Kingsbury, Assistant Librarian. John Talman, Newspaper Department. COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS. Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 12 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.0866g Library of Congress Nathaniel P. Langford. Gen. James H. Baker. Rev. Edward C. Mitchell. COMMITTEE ON OBITUARIES. Hon. Edward P. Sanborn. John A. Stees. Gen. James H. Baker. The Secretary of the Society is ex officio a member of these Committees. PREFACE. This volume comprises papers and addresses presented before this Society during the last four years, from September, 1904, and biographic memorials of its members who have died during the years 1905 to 1908. Besides the addresses here published, several others have been presented in the meetings of the Society, which are otherwise published, wholly or in part, or are expected later to form parts of more extended publications, as follows. Professor William W. Folwell, in the Council Meeting on May 14, 1906, read a paper entitled “A New View of the Sioux Treaties of 1851”; and in the Annual Meeting of the Society on January 13, 1908, he presented an address, “The Minnesota Constitutional Conventions of 1857.” These addresses are partially embodied in his admirable concise history, “Minnesota, the North Star State,” published in October, 1908, by the Houghton Mifflin Company as a volume of 382 pages in their series of American Commonwealths. Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 12 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.0866g Library of Congress It is expected, and is most earnestly hoped by his fellow members of this Society and by all interested in Minnesota history, that Dr. Folwell will later develop his researches in our state history to a much larger publication, for which he has gathered very extensive notes from many original sources. Professor Newton H. Winchell, in the Council Meeting on February 11, 1907, gave an address, “The Prehistoric Aborigines of Minnesota and their Migrations,” which is published in the Popular Science Monthly for September, 1908 (vol. lxxiii, pp. 207–225, with a map). It will also be embodied, in its main arguments and conclusions, in the large quarto work on the Archaeology of Minnesota, now in press. which Professor Winchell has in an advanced condition of preparation, for publication by this Society, based largely on the surveys and collections of the late Hon. J. V. Brower and the late Alfred J. Hill. vi Professor Oswald T. Denny, of the Central High School, St. Paul, read a paper, “The Battle of Kaposia, between the Ojibways and the Sioux, 1842,” in the Council Meeting of March 9, 1908, which is mostly published in the High School World for December, 1907 (vol. xxiv, No. 3, pp. 9–12). Warren Upham, secretary of this Society, read in the Council Meeting of March 13, 1905, an address entitled “Explorations of Verendrye and his Sons, from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains, 1728 to 1749, related in the Margry Papers.” This is published in the Bulletin of the Minnesota Academy of Sciences (vol. iv, No. 2, 1906, pp. 277–281). It is more amply presented also in a new history of this state, in four volumes, published in October, 1908, entitled “Minnesota in Three Centuries,” forming Chapter IX (pages 267– 278) in Volume I. It seems proper to state here that the work last noted, written by Warren Upham, R. I. Holcombe, Gen. L. F. Hubbard, and Frank R. Holmes, under an editorial board of four members of this Society, Gen. L. F. Hubbard, Hon. William P. Murray, Gen. James Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 12 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.0866g Library of Congress H. Baker, and Warren Upham, though not issued by this Society, and not receiving its patronage nor guarantee of accuracy, was compiled mostly in its Library and by its members as the authors and editors. Another paper by Dr. Upham, “The San Francisco and Valparaiso Earthquakes and their Causes,” read in the Council Meeting on September 10, 1906, is published in the Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, London (vol. xxxix, 1907, pp. 43–54, with a map), followed by discussion (pages 54–60). Several addresses presented in recent meetings of this Society are reserved, because of the large size of this volume, for a later volume of this series, including “Anecdotes and Views Illustrating the Growth of Minneapolis in Fifty Years,” given by George A. Brackett, of Minneapolis, with many stereopticon views, in the Council Meeting on April 13, 1908; “Recollections of the Political History of Minnesota,” by Captain Henry A. Castle, in the Council Meeting on May 13, 1907; an account of “The Discovery last Summer of the Site of Verendrye's Fort St. Charles, on the Minnesota Area west of the Lake of the Woods,” by Prof. Francis J. vii Schaefer, of St. Paul Seminary, read November 9, 1908; and a paper on “Mounds in Goodhue, Rice, and Dakota Counties,” by Prof. Edward W. Schmidt, of Red Wing, read December 14, 1908. The first of the two papers last noted is expected to be published in the third number of Acta et Dicta, the publication of the recently organized St. Paul Catholic Historical Society; and the second, relating to aboriginal mounds, will be mostly included in the archaeologic work by Professor Winchell before mentioned. Volume XIII in this series, “Lives of the Governors of Minnesota,” by Gen. James H. Baker, received from the bindery in November, 1908, is distributed to members of this Society, and to exchanging societies and public libraries, at the same time with the present volume. It may be added that another volume of these Collections, “Minnesota Biography,” is nearly ready for publication, comprising short sketches of about 10,000 of the founders, Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 12 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.0866g Library of Congress pioneers, and leading citizens of this state, compiled by Mrs. Rose Barteau Dunlap, an assistant in the Library of this Society. Still another work by Mrs. Dunlap, designed for this series of Historical Collections, is well advanced in preparation, on “The Life and Times of Alexander Ramsey,” the first Territorial governor and the second State governor of Minnesota, who, in two prolonged terms, was during twenty-six years the president of this Historical Society, and who is recognized as the foremost of Minnesotans. The secretary of this Society has also a work in progress of compilation giving the origin and meaning of “Minnesota Geographic Names.” A small part of this work has been published in the Magazine of History, New York, for September, October, and November, 1908, on the names of our eighty-five counties. For two of these proposed publications, the aid of all members of this Society, and of others interested in our territorial and state history, is earnestly solicited. Any members or others having letters written by Governor Ramsey, or having other letters, journals or any manuscript records concerning his life and work, and the political, social and industrial history of Minnesota during the half century of his life here, are invited and urged to loan or to viii donate such papers to the Library of this Society, to be used in the biographic work noted. Likewise, any information from such persons, and from the pioneers of agricultural settlement and occupation of all parts of Minnesota, relative to the date and origin of all place names, as of villages, townships, lakes, creeks, rivers, bluffs, hills, etc., is very respectfully requested to be sent to the Secretary of this Society, to be placed in his alphabetic manuscript catalogue noting the derivations and meanings of these names, to be published as a volume of these Historical Collections. ERRATUM. Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 12 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.0866g Library of Congress On page 660, in the third and second lines from the bottom, read: The daily difference is greater in summer than in winter, etc. CONTENTS. A History of the Capitol Buildings of Minnesota, with some Account of the Struggles for their Location, by Hon. William B. Dean 1–42 Temporary location of the capital by Congress and by the state constitution 1 Action by the first Territorial Legislature 3 The second Legislature and the Building Commission 6 Later Legislatures and the first capitol 9 Attempt to remove the capital to St. Peter 9 Proposed changes of boundaries of Minnesota 15 Attempts to remove the capital to Kandiyohi county 17 Changes of the first capitol 18 Burning of the first capitol 19 Historic review to the time of the capitol fire 19 Occupation of the Market House 21 The second capitol 21 Work of the senate committee for the new capitol 23 Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. Volume 12 http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbum.0866g Library of Congress Legislation for building the new capitol 31 Work of the State Capitol Commission 33 The architect and the new capitol 35 Laying the corner stone 38 Difficulties overcome and the building completed 40 History of the University of Minnesota, by Hon. John B. Gilfillan 43–84 Schools and colleges in the American colonies 43 Early legislation by Congress for education 51 Legislation by the Territory of Minnesota for schools and a university 54 The regents erect a university building 56 Great financial difficulties surmounted 61 Additional land grants by Congress 65 The Board of Regents under the charter of 1868 67 Presidency of William W.