The Transition of a Typical Frontier

Excerpt from The Transition of a Typical Frontier: With Illustrations From the Life of Henry Hastings Sibley, Fur Trader, First Delegate in Congress From Minnesota Territory, and First Governor of the State of Minnesota This account of frontier transition is a study in the history of the West. If the West be thought of as a period rather than a place, then the study of a limited area which passed through the successive stages in the evolution of society on the frontier should be typical of what was repeated over and over again in the conquest and settlement of the continent. And, in the same way, if a study be made of an individual who lived through and participated in, or at least witnessed, the various steps vivid illustrations of the significant features of the westward movement may be found. In the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century that part of the upper Mississippi Valley which became Minnesota passed through the evolution of society from frontier to statehood, and the most prominent man in that region during the period was Henry Hastings Sibley, fur trader, first delegate in Congress from Minnesota Territory, and first governor of the State of Minnesota. This region and this individual'ha've been selected, therefore, as types in this study of frontier transition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.