Editing Watonwan County, Minnesota (section)

==History==
In 1849, the new territorial legislature of the recently organized [[Minnesota Territory]] authorized the creation of nine large counties across the Territory. Four years later, in 1853, one of those original counties of [[Dakota County, Minnesota|Dakota]], had a large area separated and partitioned off to create [[Blue Earth County, Minnesota|Blue Earth County]]. Only two years later, by 1855, the western part of Blue Earth was then partitioned to create [[Brown County, Minnesota|Brown County]]. Five years later, on February 25, 1860, the southern part of Brown was partitioned to create the county of Watanwan, with the town of [[Madelia, Minnesota|Madelia]] as the original designated county seat. The county was named for its eponymous river ([[Watonwan River]], which flows into the [[Blue Earth River]], then the [[Minnesota River]], then eventually into the "Father of Waters" - the [[Mississippi River]], which drains the entire middle of the [[North America]]n continent), whose name reflects the [[Dakota language|Dakota]] native word "watanwan," meaning "fish bait" or "plenty of fish."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chicago and North Western Railway Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OspBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA165 |title=A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways |year=1908 |page=165}}</ref> The word first appears in the modern written record on an 1843 map of the area so naming the river.

In 1869, the first European white settlers arrived in the area of the future town of [[St. James, Minnesota|Saint James]], and the area began growing. In 1870, an extension of the [[St. Paul and Sioux City Railway]] was terminated at the village, and railway officials decided to name the terminus Saint James. By 1878, that town had grown to the extent that a vote was taken in the county to move the county seat and courthouse there from Madelia.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ShcLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA574 Upham, Warren. Minnesota Geographic Names (1920), pp. 547-76 (accessed April 22, 2019)]</ref>