mportant.

On May 25, 1853, a military reservation for the fort was set off, by the
president, of seven thousand acres, which in the following November was
reduced to six thousand.

In 1857 the secretary of war, pursuant to the authority vested in him by
act of congress, of March 3, 1857, sold the Fort Snelling reservation,
excepting two small tracts, to Mr. Franklin Steele, who had long been
sutler of the post, for the sum of ninety thousand dollars, which was to
be paid in three installments. The first one of thirty thousand dollars
was paid by Steele on July 25, 1857, and he took possession, the troops
being withdrawn.

The fort was sold at private sale, and the price paid was, in my
opinion, vastly more than it was worth; but Mr. Steele had great hopes
for the future of that locality as a site for a town, and was willing to
risk the payment. The sale was made by private contract by Secretary
Floyd, who adopted this manner because other reservations had been sold
at public auction, after full publication of notice to the world, and
had brought only a few cents per acre. The whole transaction was in
perfect good faith, but it was attacked in congress, and an
investigation ordered, which resulted in suspending its consummation,
and Mr. Steele did not pay the balance due. In 1860 the Civil War broke
out, and the fort was taken possession of by the government for use in
fitting out Minnesota troops, and was held until the war ended. In 1868
Mr. Steele presented a claim against the government for rent of the fort
and other matters relating to it, which amounted to more than the price
he agreed to pay for it.

An act of congress was passed on May 7, 1870, authorizing the secretary
of war to settle the whole matter on principles of equity, keeping such
reservation as was necessary for the fort. In pursuance of this act, a
military board was appointed, and the whole controversy was arranged to
the satisfaction of Mr. Steele and the government. The reservation was
reduced to a little more than fifteen hundred acres. A grant of ten
acres was made to the little Catholic church at Mendota, for a cemetery,
and other small tracts were reserved about the Falls of Minnehaha and
elsewhere, and all the balance was conveyed to Mr. Steele, he releasing
the government from all claims and demands. The action of the secretary
of war in carrying out this settlement was approved by the president in
1871.

The fort was one of the best s