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This Day in Minnesota History

January 5, 1806

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John McDonald, the first European American immigrant to live permanently in Wright County, is born in Maine. In 1847 he moved to St. Anthony and helped build the dam at the falls. He worked in the mills there until July 31, 1852, when he took a land claim in Otsego, where he established a ferry and served as postmaster, county commissioner, and justice of the peace.

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