ey in this hospitable old mansion, and, together
with its genial, generous and refined proprietor, it contributed much
towards planting the seeds of those aesthetic amenities of social life
that have so generally flourished in the later days of Minnesota's
history and given it its deserved prominence among the states of the
West. The house still stands, and has been occupied at different times
since its founder abandoned it as a Catholic institution of some kind
and an artists' summer school. The word Mendota is Sioux, and means "The
meeting of the waters."

It was the admission of Wisconsin into the Union in 1848 that brought
about the organization of the Territory of Minnesota. The peculiar
situation in which all the people residing west of the St. Croix found
themselves set them to devising ways and means to obtain some kind of
government to live under. It was a debatable question whether the
remnant of Wisconsin which was left over when the state was admitted
carried with it the territorial government, or whether it was a "no
man's land," and different views were entertained on the subject. The
question was somewhat embarrassed by the fact that the territorial
governor, Governor Dodge, had been elected to the senate of the United
States from the new state, and the territorial secretary, Mr. John
Catlin, who would have become governor ex-officio when a vacancy
occurred in the office of governor, resided in Madison, and the delegate
to congress, Mr. John H. Tweedy, had resigned; so, even if the
territorial government had, in law, survived, there seemed to be no one
to represent and administer it.

There was no lack of ability among the inhabitants of the abandoned
remnant of Wisconsin. In St. Paul dwelt Henry M. Rice, Louis Roberts, J.
W. Simpson, A. L. Larpenteur, David Lambert, Henry Jackson, Vetal
Guerin, David Herbert, Oliver Rosseau, Andre Godfrey, Joseph Rondo,
James R. Clewell, Edward Phalen, William G. Carter, and many others. In
Stillwater and on the St. Croix were Morton S. Wilkinson, Henry L. Moss,
John McKusick, Joseph R. Brown, etc. In Mendota resided Henry H. Sibley.
In St. Anthony, William R. Marshall; at Fort Snelling, Franklin Steele.
I could name many others, but the above is a representative list. It
will be observed that many of them were French.

An initial meeting was held in St. Paul, in July of 1848, at Henry
Jackson's trading house, to consider the matter, which was undoubtedly
the first pu