Editing St. Cloud, Minnesota (section)

==History==
What is now the St. Cloud area was occupied by various indigenous peoples for thousands of years. [[Voyageurs]] and [[Coureur des bois|coureurs des bois]] from [[New France]] first encountered the [[Ojibwe people|Ojibwe]] and [[Dakota people|Dakota]] through the highly profitable [[North American fur trade]] with local Native American peoples.<ref>[https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2019/06/28/st-cloud-riverside-park-new-historic-marker-dakota-ojibwe-indigenous/1595261001/ New historic marker at Riverside Park honors Dakota and Ojibwe], Jenny Berg, SCTimes, June 28, 2019</ref><ref>William Bell Mitchell (1915), ''History of Stearns County''; Volume I, H.R. Cooper & Co. Chicago. Pages 26-35.</ref>

[[Minnesota Territory]] was organized in 1849. The St. Cloud area opened up to [[homesteading]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13342a.htm|title=Diocese of Saint Cloud|last=Kevin Knight|publisher=New Advent|access-date=April 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130819193054/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13342a.htm|archive-date=August 19, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> after the [[Treaty of Traverse des Sioux]] was signed with the [[Dakota people]] in 1851.<ref>William Bell Mitchell (1915), ''History of Stearns County''; Volume I, H.R. Cooper & Co. Chicago. Pages 35-38.</ref>

John L. Wilson, a [[Yankee]] homesteader from [[Columbia, Maine]], with French [[Huguenot]] ancestry and an interest in [[Napoleon]], named the settlement St. Cloud after [[Saint-Cloud]], the [[Paris]] suburb where Napoleon had his favorite palace.<ref>[https://www.startribune.com/st-cloud-minnesota-saint-cloud-france-clodoald/600072932/ How did St. Cloud get its name? It's a strange story, An inside joke in the 1850s had a lasting impact on central Minnesota's hub], Jenny Berg, Curious Minnesota, Star Tribune, July 23, 2021.</ref><ref>William Bell Mitchell (1915), ''History of Stearns County''; Volume I, H.R. Cooper & Co. Chicago. Pages 645-646.</ref>

St. Cloud was a waystation on the Middle and Woods branches of the [[Red River Trails]] used by [[Métis]] traders between the Canada–U.S. border at [[Pembina, North Dakota|Pembina]], North Dakota, and [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]]. The cart trains often consisted of hundreds of [[Red River ox carts|oxcarts]]. The Métis, bringing furs to trade for supplies to take back to their rural settlements, camped west of the city and crossed the Mississippi in St. Cloud or just to the north in Sauk Rapids.

The City of St. Cloud was incorporated in 1856. It developed from three distinct settlements, known as Upper Town, Middle Town, and Lower Town, that European-American settlers established starting in 1853.<ref>"3 Towns Into 1 City, A Narrative Record of Significant Factors in The Story Of St. Cloud Minnesota."</ref> Remnants of the deep ravines that separated the three are still visible today. Middle Town was settled primarily by [[Germans|German]] Catholic immigrants and migrants from eastern states, who were recruited to the region by Father [[Francis Xavier Pierz]], a Catholic priest who also ministered as a missionary to Native Americans.

Lower Town was founded by settlers from the [[Northern Tier (United States)|Northern Tier]] of [[New England]] and the [[mid-Atlantic states]], including former residents of upstate New York.<ref>The St Cloud Area Bicentennial Commission, "3 Towns Into 1 City, A Narrative Record of Significant Factors in THE STORY OF ST. CLOUD MINNESOTA", Compiled and Narrated by John J Dominik, Jr, Editor Ed L Stockinger, page 3.</ref> Its Protestant settlers opposed slavery.<ref>[https://www.ci.stcloud.mn.us/DocumentCenter/View/685/Newly-Elected-Orientation?bidId=  St. Cloud City website Document Center]</ref>

Upper Town, or Arcadia, was plotted by [[General]] [[Sylvanus Lowry]], a slaveholder and trader from [[Kentucky]] who brought [[slaves]] with him, although Minnesota was organized as a free territory.<ref name="Leg">[http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.aspx?id=13707 "Sylvanus Lowry"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130602030421/http://www.leg.state.mn.us/legdb/fulldetail.aspx?ID=13707 |date=June 2, 2013 }}, Minnesota Legislators Past and Present, accessed July 4, 2012</ref> He served on the territorial council from 1852 to 1853 and was elected president of the newly formed town council in 1856, serving for one year (the office of mayor did not yet exist).<ref>https://www.ci.stcloud.mn.us/DocumentCenter/View/685/Newly-Elected-Orientation?bidId= Newly Elected Orientation, section (9) History of the City</ref><ref name="Leg"/><ref name="Espinoza"/>

[[Jane Grey Swisshelm]], an abolitionist newspaper editor who had migrated from [[Pittsburgh]], repeatedly attacked Lowry in print. At one point Lowry organized a "Committee of Vigilance" that broke into Swisshelm's newspaper office and removed her press, throwing it into the [[Mississippi River]]. Lowry started a rival paper, ''The Union''.<ref name="Espinoza">[http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/05/07/upper-mississippi-slavery/ Ambar Espinoza, "St. Cloud professor unearths history of slavery in Minnesota"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120613174922/http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/05/07/upper-mississippi-slavery |date=June 13, 2012 }}, Minnesota Public Radio, May 7, 2010, accessed July 4, 2012</ref>

The U.S. Supreme Court's 1857 decision in ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford|Dred Scott]]'' ruled that slaves could not file [[freedom suits]] and found the [[Missouri Compromise]] unconstitutional, so the territory's prohibition against slavery became unenforceable. Nearly all Southerners left the St. Cloud area when the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] broke out, taking their slaves with them. The total number of slaves in the community was estimated in single digits at the 1860 census.<ref name="Espinoza"/><ref>Lincoln Mullen,[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/maps-reveal-slavery-expanded-across-united-states-180951452/ These Maps Reveal How Slavery Expanded Across the United States], Smithsonian Magazine, May 15, 2014.</ref> Lowry died in the city in 1865.<ref>''Our Gohman Story: The First and Second Generations'' {{ISBN|978-1-5049-0520-6}} p. 173</ref>

Many young men from St. Cloud and the surrounding area served in the [[Union Army]] during the American Civil War.<ref>William Bell Mitchell (1915), ''History of Stearns County''; Volume I, H.R. Cooper & Co. Chicago. Pages 628-635.</ref> After it ended, many local Civil War veterans remained heavily involved in St. Cloud's chapter of the [[Grand Army of the Republic]], and raised money for the building of a statue in memory of [[U.S. President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] that still stands near the St. Germain Street bridge.<ref>William Bell Mitchell (1915), ''History of Stearns County''; Volume II, H.R. Cooper & Co. Chicago. Pages 1465-1467.</ref>

Beginning in 1864, [[Stephen Miller (Minnesota governor)|Stephen Miller]] served a two-year term as Minnesota governor, the only citizen of St. Cloud ever to hold the office. Miller was a "[[Pennsylvania German]] businessman", lawyer, writer, active abolitionist, and personal friend of [[Alexander Ramsey]]. He was on the state's Republican electoral ticket with Lincoln in 1860.<ref>John J. Dominik Jr., "Three Towns Into One City", St. Cloud, Minnesota: St Cloud Area Bicentennial Commission, 1976, p. 13</ref>

[[Steamboat]]s regularly docked at St. Cloud as part of the fur trade and other commerce, although river levels were not reliable. This ended with the construction of the [[Coon Rapids Dam]] in 1912–14. [[Granite]] quarries have operated in the area since the 1880s, giving St. Cloud its nickname, "The Granite City."

In 1917, [[Samuel Pandolfo]] started the Pan Motor Company in St. Cloud. He claimed his Pan-Cars would make St. Cloud the new [[Detroit]], but the company failed at a time when resources were directed toward the [[World War I]] effort. He was later convicted and imprisoned for attempting to defraud investors.<ref>{{cite web| title =Pan History| publisher =St Cloud Antique Auto Club, Inc.| date =January 1, 2007| url =http://www.pantowners.org/history.html| access-date =June 20, 2007| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070701043119/http://www.pantowners.org/history.html| archive-date =July 1, 2007| url-status =live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.automotivehistoryonline.com/Panmotor.htm |title=Automotive History Online, Pan Motor |publisher=Automotivehistoryonline.com |access-date=November 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929081548/http://www.automotivehistoryonline.com/Panmotor.htm |archive-date=September 29, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to documents at the Stearns History Museum, more than 2,000 residents from the heavily German-American St. Cloud area served in the [[U.S. military]] against their ancestral homeland during [[World War I]].<ref>Dunn, Mary Irene, "[[Stearns County, Minnesota|Stearns County]] in the World War, An Honor Roll of the Men and Women of this Community Who Served Their Country in the Period from 6 April 1917 to 11 November 1918, Compiled From State and National U.S. Military Records",[http://www.mnhs.org/index.htm manuscript dated 1932], [[Minnesota Historical Society]], [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|St. Paul]].</ref> On 26 January 1918, President [[Woodrow Wilson]] wrote a letter to Bishop [[Joseph Francis Busch]] thanking him for his support of the war effort.<ref>[[Woodrow Wilson]], photocopy of letter on [[White House]] stationery with note "Original in Chancery Archive vault", to Rt. Rev. J. F. Busch, Bishop of St. Cloud, 26 January 1918. [http://www.stearns-museum.org/index2.html Stearns History Museum]</ref>