quently the city will long continue to be the largest wheat market in the state of Minnesota. The shipping of cereals will of course only continue in and from any city- unless it is metropolitan like Chicago, New York, and other such vast congregations of humanity—until the population can divert the stream to the maintenance of its own busy hive, engaged in lucrative manufactures, and every year the necessity to employ manual labor on the farm is being confined within narrower limits, by improvements in machinery. Twenty years ago many persons thought that the ultima thule of inventive skill had been reached, and many of the old school protested vigorously against such revolutionary innovations; but if any first class farmer of the present day should be offered a complete set of the agricultural implements then in use, free of cost, on condition that he would use them exclusively on his farm, he would decline the offer with thanks, or if he persisted in their use, he would be beaten out of the market by the better machinery of competitors. Winona has already entered upon its manufacturing stage of growth, and will increase very rapidly within the next ten years without special effort. The site was first settled in the year 1851, and in the sixth year after its birth, in the year 1857, it was incorporated as a city. When the first census was taken, in the year 1860, there were 2,464 persons congregated in the infant city, and ten years later, when the last census was taken, in 1870, the number had increased to 7,192. The present population of Winona cannot be less than from ten to eleven thousand, and the city has the aspect of a busy and prosperous center. Lumber, timber and limestone are among the shipments from the city. The factories established in the place consist of planing mills, saw mills, iron works, carriage making establishments and plow manufactories, besides numerous smaller branches of great importance in the aggregate. There are three newspapers published in Winona, and they enjoy a good circulation throughout the county, being tolerably well supported by advertisers and readers. The average of the matter published is good family reading. The state normal school is located at Winona, and as a rule the attainments of students therein will bear comparison with the best schools in the union, however long established. The management of the institution

has been very much improved within the last five years, and the good feeling which subsists between professors and pupils is an augury of still better results. The public school system in Winona is of course a part of the larger scheme provided for the whole state, and the graded schools answer admirably. The high school is quite a handsome building, and the management of the schools is very good. The state normal school deserves mention as one of the public buildings in Winona. There are some very creditable private schools in the city, and the attendance of children in the several establishments brings the population fully up to the average in that regard. The county buildings are located in Winona, and there are numerous churches, well supported in nearly every instance, many of the structures being ornaments to the rapidly growing city.

DU LUTH was named after the first white man known to have entered the state of Minnesota, or rather the area now comprised in that state. M. Du Luth, a Frenchman, was in this territory the year before Pere Hennepin visited and named the falls of St. Anthony, in company with the friendly Indians, whom he had accepted as his guides, from the area now known as the state of Illinois. Du Luth is the seat of justice for St. Louis county, and it is located at the western extremity of lake Superior, twelve hundred and thirty five miles, by the lakes, west of the city of Buffalo, N. Y. The Jesuits deserved much praise for their courage and constancy, in isolating themselves from civilized society, more than two hundred years ago, when only to cross the ocean was an act of heroism in a Frenchman, with his constitutional horror of the maladi du mer, in pursuing the forlorn hope of converting the Indian races. The worthy fathers were geographers as well as missionaries, as their contributions in the form of good maps amply prove, and altogether in that era they were valuable mem bers of the community. The city of Du Luth is picturesquely situated on a hill, whence a beautiful view of lake Superior can be obtained, and the mouth of the St. Louis river helps to make the outlook more charming. The growth of the city has been and still is extraordinary. Seven years ago a dense forest covered the ground, where the busy hive of industry is now planted,

and in one year from that time when the census was compiled in 1870, there were 3,131 inhabitants in the place, and their intellectual vitality was attested by the flourishing condition of four newspapers. The centennial year will probably close on a population of nearly ten thousand souls, in the rapidly developing city.

The eastern terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad is located in Du Luth, and the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad has here a thriving station. Mining enterprise in the Lake Superior country will tend to develop Du Luth for very many years to come, as there are never ending stores of mineral wealth to be unearthed in almost every section of that grand looking coast. There are many churches in active operation here, some of them quite handsome, and several schools have been established almost from the beginning, but more are required.

DES MOINES was orginally famous as a fort, and was long known as Fort Des Moines, having been selected by officers of the United States army, as an eligible site on which to establish a permanent military post, to preserve peace among the Indian tribes, and to prevent incursions of white settlers into their territory. After the Black Hawk war and the contingent purchase from the Indians of part of their claims in what is now known as the state of Iowa, had been supplemented by additional purchases to the extent of $1,000,000, the red man was cleared from the territory, and at the time fixed for entering upon and settling the country, the scene around Fort Des Moines was exciting in the extreme. The signal gun fired at Fort Des Moines at midnight preceding the 11th day of Oct. 1845, was repeated by hundreds of signal men, stationed in a cordon along the frontier

of the land of promise, and thereupon every man within reach of the sound started on foot, on horseback or in whatever conveyance he possessed, to stake out, mark, blaze, or in some other way indicate the lot upon which it was his intention to locate a claim. Most of the settlers were provided with pitch pine and other torches, and the work was accomplished in a very systematic way, so that in the end when the lands were regularly surveyed and legal titles could be obtained by the population so hastily spread over the land, very few disputes arose as to preemptions and in the only case in which one settler attempted to take advantage of another, the primitive claim committee made it so warm for the intruder that he was compelled to come to terms and foreswear coveting the property that was not his own.

The steamer Ione, with Capt. James Allen in command, was the first steamer that ever ascended the Des Moines river, and the captain made his debarkation at the mouth of the Raccoon river, on the site of Des Moines, in May, 1843. The troops built a fort there, and for more than two years were "monarchs of all they surveyed" in the newly purchased territory. In the year 1850, there were only five hundred and fifty-two people on the ground, but the advantages of the situation were beginning to be appreciated, and in 1860, the census showed an increase to nearly four thousand. The last census, in 1870, enumerated over twelve thousand, and more than twice that number will soon be the estimated population of the city. Brooklyn, now a beautiful suburb of Des Moines, was, in 1846, a vigorous rival for the honor of being the county seat, but Polk county went for Des Moines by a considerable majority, and nine years later, in 1855, the state capital was located at this point, the geographical center of the state. The Des Moines river would have been made navigable by improvements to the point where the city stands but for the rapid development of railroads immediately after the city rose into notice, and now the accommodation in that respect is so complete that the river can be given up to the furtherance of manufactures without loss. There are no less than six lines of railroad competing for the carrying trade of the city: the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific; the Des Moines and Fort Dodge; the Keokuk and Des Moines; the Des Moines, Indianola and Mis