A Skeptical View on Movies

Is this a prime example of the old guard disrespecting a new wave? “Oh, movies will never catch on,” “Oh, the Internet is just a fad”.

They say that those who do not study history are doomed to repeat the past’s mistakes. Well, sometimes the past’s mistakes come from not being able to read the future.

Afton News – Stillwater Messenger – August 25, 1906

A traveling show tent has been giving moving picture entertainments in the village [of Afton] of the San Francisco horror. Ten cents was the entrance fee for children and adults twenty cents. They had full houses every evening as the people seemed to take delight in the process of being skinned at 10 and 20 cents per head.

Making Minnesota

from “1848 Stillwater Convention Meeting Minutes” recorded by William Holcomb and David Lambert, Secretaries

The meeting began at 10:00 AM on August 26th, 1848 in the top floor of John McKusick’s store on the corner of Main and Myrtle Streets in Stillwater. Among the sixty-one in attendance were lawyers, farmers, a ferry operator, a doctor of medicine, fur traders, and businessmen from all areas of industry. Earlier in the month, a similar meeting had been cancelled when too few representatives materialized.

After selecting a governing body for the convention, Joseph R. Brown was selected to chair “a committee of seven members [to] be appointed to draft a memorial to Congress for the early organization of the Territory of Minnesota”.

Four and a half hours later, their petition was presented before the convention:

“Whereas by the admission of Wisconsin and Iowa into the Union with the boundaries prescribed by Congress, we the inhabitants of the country formerly a portion of the said Territories, are left without a government or officers to administer the laws:

And whereas by the omission of Congress to organize a separate Territorial Government for the region of country which we inhabit we are placed in the unparalleled position of being disfranchised of the rights and privileges which we guaranteed to us under the ordinance of 1787; and without any fault of our own and with every desire to be governed by laws, are in fact without adequate legal protection for our lives or property;

And whereas having patiently awaited the action of Congress during its late session under the full hope and confidence that before the adjournment of that honorable body a bill would have been passed for the organization for a Territorial Government to embrace our section of the country, we have been disappointed in our hopes, and cannot believe that the omission of Congress to act in the premises can proceed from any other cause than the want of an adequate acquaintance with the position in which we are placed, the character of the country, its population and resources”

In the most diplomatic manner, Brown and his committee had decided that the only reason Congress had not already created Minnesota is because they simply didn’t know enough about this particular frontier land. The delegates offered the following paragraphs as enlightenment on the subject.

“That this region of Country is settled by a population of nearly 5000 persons who are engaged in various industrial pursuits; that it contains valuable pine forests, excellent arable land, mineral treasures, almost unequalled facilities for mills and manufactures, and possessing an exceedingly healthful climate, is capable of sustaining a dense and prosperous population; that its population is now constantly and rapidly increasing, and is characterized by industry, energy, and sobriety.

That having once enjoyed the rights, and privileges of Citizens of a Territory of the United States, they are now, without fault or blame of their own, virtually disfranchised. They have no securities for their lives or property but those which exist in mutual good understanding. Meanwhile all proceedings in criminal cases, and all process for the collection of debts, are suspended; credit exists only so far as a perfect confidence in mutual good faith extends, and all the operation of business are embarrassed.

Your Memorialists [the Delegates] would respectfully represent that even in a well ordered and law abiding community such as they feel pride in declaring their own to be, such a state of affairs is fraught with evils and dangers. Its continuance will tend to prevent the immigration of the more valuable class of Citizens of the United States, while it will open a door of invitation and allurement to the lawless and desperate. It will foster dishonest and disorderly principles and actions among their Citizens, and if suffered to exist for a long period will bring ruin upon a prosperous and fertile region.”

Because of these reasons, the resolution finishes with this plea:

“They now most respectfully lay their case before the highest Executive authority earnestly asking that your Excellency will call the attention of Congress to their situation at the opening of the next annual session, and recommend the early organization for the Territory of Minnesota.”

The petition was unanimously approved by the remaining delegates, who in their next unanimous decision selected Henry Sibley as the man to travel to Washington, D.C. to champion their interests.

Six months later, on March 3rd, 1849, the Delegates’ prayers were answered. Their home was officially recognized when Congress created the Territory of Minnesota. The St. Croix River was established as the eastern border and the new territory extended westward to the Missouri River.

At the time of it’s founding, only one county government had been organized. Naturally, it was Washington County – the Gateway to Minnesota History.