Minnesota

Northeastern Minnesota, east of the Mississippi River and a line drawn northward from its source to Canada, was part of the Northwest Territory (1787) and later of Indiana Territory (1800), Illinois Territory (1809), Michigan Territory (1818), and Wisconsin Territory (1838). Most of the rest of the State was part of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and included in Louisiana Territory (1805), renamed Missouri Territory in 1812. Both these parts of the present State were included in Michigan Territory from 1834 to 1836, and then in Wisconsin Territory until 1838. The portion west of the Mississippi then became part of Iowa Territory, until Minnesota Territory was established in 1849, including the whole present-day State and the Dakotas generally east of the Missouri River. Minnesota was admitted as a State on May 11, 1858 with essentially its present boundaries.

There was only limited census coverage of the present area of the State prior to 1850. In 1830 a few persons near Lake Superior may have been enumerated in Chippewa County, Michigan Territory; in 1840 some persons in northeastern Minnesota were enumerated in St. Croix County, Wisconsin Territory, and two settlements on the Mississippi River were enumerated as part of Clayton County, Iowa Territory. In 1850 coverage of Minnesota Territory did not extend beyond the present State except for a few settlers near the Red River in what is now North Dakota. In 1860 the census covered virtually the whole State.