Part 72 (1/2)

JOHN W BLAKE was born in Foxcroft, Maine, in 1839 His parents ood education in the common schools, in Milton Acadeineer He served as a soldier during the war of the Rebellion In 1872 he came to Minnesota, located at Marshall, Lyon county, and the saislature He was athe years 1875, 1876, 1882, and 1884

KNUTE NELSON, born in Norway, came to America, studied law at Wisconsin University, and was admitted to the bar He came to Alexandria in 1870, where he practiced law He was a senator in the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth legislatures, and was elected representative to Congress from the Fifth Minnesota district in 1884 and 1886 Mr Nelson is aRepublican, and an enthusiastic advocate of a modified tariff

W R DENNY was born at Keene, New Hampshi+re, in 1839; received an acadeht years in Wisconsin, caislatures of 1874, 1876, 1879, and 1881 He was appointed United States marshal from 1882 to 1886 He was Grand Master of the Masonic fraternity in 1884-5 He was married in Wisconsin in 1863, and has a family of four children

[Illustration: PRESENT HOME OF THE AUTHOR ERECTED BY HIM AD 1855]

APPENDIX

MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS, ITEMS AND STATISTICS, INCLUDING AN ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS TREATIES BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND THE INDIAN TRIBES INHABITING THE TERRITORIES OF WISCONSIN AND MINNESOTA

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY UNTIL THE CREATION OF WISCONSIN TERRITORY IN 1836

SPANISH CLAIMS

The Spaniards havethe Atlantic coast, the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and up the valley of the Mississippi, basing their claims on discovery and conquest

In 1512 Juan Ponce de Leon, a companion of Columbus, discovered Florida, and planted on its shores the standard of Spain

In 1539 Hernando de Soto visited Florida and having strengthened the Spanish claim adventured west to the Mississippi, on which river he died and in which he was stealthily buried by his surviving followers, who returned to Florida broken and dispirited with the loss of half their number By virtue of De Soto's discovery of the Mississippi, the Spaniards now laid clai that river and its tributaries They also clai the Atlantic coast, without lie and somewhat indefinite empire was by them styled Florida, after the naained their first foothold Unable to defend or enforce their clai up tract after tract, until the peninsula of Florida alone remained to theovernment of the Territory was vested in the discoverers Ponce de Leon was governor froovernor of Florida and Cuba until 1541 Melendez, by co him a life tenure The history of the Spanish possessions is by no reed for gold

FRENCH CLAIMS

The French early disputed the claiuese to the possession of the New World, and accordingly in 1524 sent a Florentine, Jean Verrazzani, who explored the coast from Carolina to Nova Scotia, took possession of it, and called it New France Ten years later Cartea continued the work, sailing around New Foundland and ascending the St Lawrence as far as the site of Montreal In 1564 a French colony located in Florida, but were al the following century the French pushed their explorations to the regions of the Mississippi and the great lakes In the year 1603 Chaed in the exploration of the St Lawrence, and in 1609, he, with two other Frenchmen, explored Lake Champlain and the country of the Iroquois and took possession of it in the name of Henry IV of France In 1611 and 1612 he explored Lake Huron, entered Saginaw bay, passed down Detroit river, exploring Lake Erie, and laid the foundation of French sovereignty in the valley of the St Lawrence Champlain for many years prosecuted the fur trade where Boston now stands, prior to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock

We have not space for a colish, but will give the boundaries of New France as defined by French and English authorities at different times: 1609--L'

Escartot, in his ”Histoire de la Nouvelle France,” defines the French boundaries as extending ”on the west to the Pacific ocean, on the south to the Spanish West Indies, on the east to the North Atlantic, and on the north to the Frozen Sea” 1683--Baron La Honton says, ”All the world knows that Canada reaches frorees of north latitude and froitude” [More accurately frorees west, or froovernlish to any territory west of the Alleghanies The great Northwest, therefore, was for a long time under French rule and influence We ress in civil government in the Northwest They made many permanent settle the Indian tribes that they were able to hold their positions on the frontier at will They were early and persistent explorers, and, under the guidance of pious and devoted Jesuit missionaries, planted settlements in thefro the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and along the chain of the great lakes, colish colonies and disputed with thelish War of 1689 to 1697 failed to decide satisfactorily the question of the interior domain

In 1712 New France was divided into two provinces, that of Canada and that of Louisiana, the dividing line being the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the Mississippi boundary line extending from the mouth of the Ohio to the mouth of the Missouri river Mobile was made the capital of the southern province The patent or commission of the new province was issued to Crozat, Marquis du Chatel The Illinois country was afterward added, and it seems probable that the country east of the Wabash was also included in it All north of the boundary named formed part of the province of Canada Other boundaries than these have been given by geographers, but these boundaries are sufficiently established by official documents

In 1763 all of the territory clai east of the Mississippi river was ceded to the English, the territory lying west to Spain Virginia, by three royal charters, given in 1606, 1607 and 1611, by the English government, held a part of the Northwest Territory, and in 1776 established three counties north of the Ohio river, naahela, but in 1787 ceded this territory to the United States Its settlement was somewhat impeded by the perils of the wilderness, not the least of which was the doubtful and often unfriendly attitude of the Indians, resulting in es in the tenure of the lands, and the influence of French or English eenerally hostile to American claims The history of these early settle adventures

The first settlement made in the newly ceded territory was at Marietta, Ohio, in 1788, under the supervision of Gen Rufus Putnaeneral of the Northwest Territory The settlement was named Marietta, in honor of Queen Marie Antoinette, who had been a firle Gen Arthur St Clair was appointed governor July 15, 1788, of the newly organized Ohio Territory

The country claiinia under the royal charters included the land lying between the sea shore on the east, and the Mississippi on the west, the Ohio river on the south, and the British possessions on the north It will be seen, therefore, that that part of the Northwest Territory lying i the eastern banks of the Mississippi now comprised in the state of Wisconsin and part of Minnesota, has been successively claiinia, and the United States, and under the territorial governan and Wisconsin territories That part of Minnesota lying west of the Mississippi belonged to the French by right of discovery, but passed into the hands of Spain, thence back again into the hands of France, by whom, with the territory known as Louisiana, it was sold to the United States in 1803 The original grant to Virginia included far more than the area of the State and that of the Northwest Territory, but was subsequently reduced by grants inia, and vexatious disputes arose as to titles, a circumstance calculated to retard rapid settle the early history of the territory included in the present states of Wisconsin and Minnesota, tabulated for more convenient reference:

1634 Jean Nicollet ventured into Wisconsin, and explored the country froan for a considerable distance down the Wisconsin river

1658 Two fur traders penetrated to Lake Superior and wintered there, probably on Wisconsin soil