Fifty years in the Northwest. With an introduction and appendix containing reminiscences, incidents and notes

William Henry Carman Folsom (1817-1900), Minnesota legislator, businessman, and historian, emigrated from Maine to the Upper Midwest when he was nineteen years old. There he lived the rest of his life, achieving prominence in the lumber business and other related activities. His autobiography provides a detailed history of Minnesota, county by county, with a particular emphasis on the region's most prominent men and the role they played in its economic, political, and cultural development. For the most part, chapters are devoted to the histories of one or more counties and contain capsule biographies as well as significant geographical and institutional features. There are several narratives of early settlement and anecdotes about the relationships between settlers and Indians. Preceding the historical materials is an extensive autobiographical introduction.
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