After the lapse of five years from this futile attempt the first court
actually held within the bounds of Minnesota was presided over by Judge
Dunn, then chief justice of the Territory of Wisconsin. The court
convened at Stillwater in June, 1847, and is remembered not only as the
first court ever held in Minnesota, but on account of the trial of an
Indian chief, named "Wind," who was indicted for murder. Samuel J.
Crawford of Mineral Point was appointed prosecuting attorney for the
term, and Ben C. Eastman of Plattville defended the prisoner. "Wind" was
acquitted. This was the first jury trial in Minnesota.

It should be stated that Henry H. Sibley was in fact the first judicial
officer who ever exercised the functions of a court in Minnesota. While
living at St. Peters (Mendota), he was commissioned a justice of the
peace in 1835 or 1836 by Governor Chambers of Iowa, with a jurisdiction
extending from twenty miles south of Prairie du Chien to the British
boundary on the north, to the White river on the west and the
Mississippi on the east. His prisoners could only be committed to
Prairie du Chien. Boundary lines were very dimly defined in those days,
and minor magistrates were in no danger of being overruled by superior
courts, and tradition asserts that the writs of Sibley's court often
extended far over into Wisconsin and other jurisdictions. One case is
recalled which will serve as an illustration. A man named Phalen was
charged with having murdered a sergeant in the United States army in
Wisconsin. He was arrested under a warrant from Justice Sibley's Iowa
court, examined and committed to Prairie du Chien, and no questions
asked. Lake Phalen, from which the city of St. Paul derives part of its
water supply, is named after this prisoner. Whatever jurisdictional
irregularities Justice Sibley may have indulged in, it is safe to say
that no injustice ever resulted from any decision of his.

The first court-house that was erected within the present limits of
Minnesota was at Stillwater, in the year 1847. A private subscription
was taken up, and $1,200 was contributed. This sum was supplemented by a
sufficient amount to complete the structure, from the treasury of St.
Croix county. It was perched on the top of one of the high bluffs in
that town, and much private and judicial blasphemy has been expended by
exhausted litigants and judges in climbing to its lofty pinnacle. I held
a term in it ten years after its completi