Journals of the House of Representatives of the Legislature of the Territory/State of Minnesota: 1849–, St. Paul, var. state printers, series continues. Few states can match the fissiparous path of Minnesota’s evolution to statehood. Portions of the area went through periods of French, British and Spanish rule prior to the American Revolution. In 1787 what for convenience could be called “Minnesota East,” the area east of the Mississippi river, became part of the U. S. Northwest Territory. Meanwhile, between 1762 and 1800 “Minnesota West,” the area west of the Mississippi river, bounced rapidly from French to Spanish and then back to French jurisdiction. Purchase of the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803 finally brought Minnesota West into the Northwest Territory also. However, the northern boundaries of the Minnesota territories were not established until a post-War of 1812 treaty between the U.S. and the British Empire delineated the forty-ninth parallel as the northern boundary of both the U.S. and the” two Minnesotas”. Thereafter, “Minnesota East” was shuffled successively into the Indiana Territory in 1800, the Illinois Territory in 1809, the Michigan Territory in 1818, and the Wisconsin Territory in 1836. Meanwhile Minnesota West, which had far fewer people, remained more or less ungoverned until 1834, when Congress joined it with Minnesota East under the Michigan Territory. When the Wisconsin Territory was carved from the new State of Michigan in 1836, Minnesota East was given to Wisconsin, while some parts of Minnesota West fell under the jurisdiction of the new state of Iowa, other parts remaining ungoverned. Finally, in 1849, the people of both “Minnesotas” achieved limited, but at least united, self-governance as the Minnesota Territory. The first Territorial Legislature met in Sept, 1849. Formal statehood came in 1858, although the first session of the State Legislature began meeting on 3 December 1857. (Documents which were part of the Early State Records collection were digitized from a microfilm copy of titles originally held by University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill).
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