Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators: Entrepreneurial Culture and the Rise of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 1849-1883In 1849, when settlers arrived in the newly formed Minnesota Territory, they disembarked at the rough shantytown known as St. Paul, home to fur traders and a handful of merchants. Nearby was Fort Snelling, its soldiers charged with keeping peace in the wilderness, its territory later transferred to the burgeoning settlement at Minneapolis. Less than four decades later, St. Paul had emerged as a mercantile, banking, and railroading center, and Minneapolis had matured into the world's largest flour-milling center. The story of how this came to be involves assorted visionaries, savvy entrepreneurs, and government-supported expansion that combined to make St. Paul-Minneapolis the region's undisputed business, political, and educational center. Historian Jocelyn Wills offers a business and entrepreneurial study of the Twin Cities during its early years, with particular focus on the individuals who took chances on and promoted the Cities' development. Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators shares the successes and failures of a host of colorful characters who saw in the Twin Cities opportunities for financial gain and regional fame: early fur trader Norman Kittson, who built a lucrative trading network reaching to the Red River Valley; speculator Franklin Steele, who over-reached at the Falls of St. Anthony and was virtually bankrupt after the panic of 1857; milling visionary William D. Washburn, whose confident investments catapulted Minneapolis's milling district to international renown; railroad magnate James J. Hill, whose calculated business decisions helped him realize his dream of building a rail line to the Pacific. Most arrived with limited means, and only some managed to realize their dreams, but all contributed to the development of Minneapolis and St. Paul as the region's leading manufacturing, banking, and transportation center. This exhaustively researched book provides a firm foundation for understanding the role the Twin Cities have played in the development of the region and the nation from their earliest days. |
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Contents
| 11 | |
| 40 | |
| 68 | |
| 99 | |
The PostCivil War Boom and the Rise of the Cities | 120 |
Industrial Depression and the Survival of St Paul Minneapolis | 149 |
The Triumph of Minnesota s Metropolitan Complex | 178 |
Conclusion | 211 |
Notes | 217 |
Bibliography | 259 |
Index | 281 |
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Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators: Entrepreneurial Culture and the Rise of ... Jocelyn Wills No preview available - 2017 |
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Page 47 - It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our , dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.
Page 47 - ... in this art does not always keep pace with their improvement in manufactures. The most opulent nations, indeed, generally excel all their neighbours in agriculture as well as in manufactures; but they are commonly more distinguished by their superiority in the latter than in the former.
Page 7 - Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, contiguity, etc. The American claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federative self-government entrusted to us.
Page 185 - I may express her feelings in words which our neighbours understand, wishes to be their friend, but does not desire to become their food. She rejoices in the big brother's strength and status, but is not anxious to nourish it by offering up her own body in order that it may afford him, when over-hungry, that happy festival he is in the habit of calling a "square meal.
Page 265 - LIFE OF THOMAS HAWLEY CANFIELD HIS EARLY EFFORTS TO OPEN A ROUTE FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE PRODUCTS OF THE WEST TO NEW ENGLAND, BY WAY OF THE GREAT LAKES ST. LAWRENCE RIVER AND VERMONT...
Page 153 - They stand, to use again the language of their counsel, in the very gateway of commerce, and take toll from all who pass. Their business most certainly tends to a common charge, and is become a thing of public interest and use.
Page 159 - ... age of mutual trust, of unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: " I wasn't worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two millions of dollars.
Page 57 - I know not how much he has; but I do know that I shall take nothing from him as he has a large family to care for. In America, though, any one who will work and be economical can earn money for themselves.
Page 151 - Minneapolis has advantage enough in her enormous yet most facile water power, which may be made to give employment to a population of 100,000 souls. It has no superior but Niagara, and surpasses that inasmuch as the pineries above and the wheat lands all around are calculated to supply it with profitable employment.
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Boosters, Hustlers, and Speculators: Entrepreneurial Culture and the Rise of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 1849-1883 |
| Author | Jocelyn Wills |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005 |
| ISBN | 0873515102, 9780873515108 |
| Length | 290 pages |
| Subjects | › › › Business & Economics / Economic History Business & Economics / Entrepreneurship History / United States / 19th Century History / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI) |
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