A crowd of an estimated 10,000 people attended a Groundswell rally for family farm support at the state capitol on January 21,1985. Photo by Paul Battaglia.

St. Stanislaus Church, Winona, ca. 1973

Henry Mower Rice in 1863. Rice was the archetypal "Moccasin Democrat," emerging from the fur trade as a capable and often unscrupulous treaty negotiator and politician. Rice authored the bill enabling Minnesota's statehood, became its first senator, and was instrumental in the development in St. Paul. At the same time, he used his position to enrich his friends from the fur trade and railroads through land speculation, often at the expense of the indigenous people who launched his career in the first place.

Franklin Steele was Fort Snelling's sutler, and made a fortune by staking claim to the eastern side of St. Anthony's Falls and building sawmills and a toll-bridge on the site of what would soon be Minneapolis. With the help of Congressman Henry Rice, his former assistant sutler, he purchased the 8,000 acres of land surrounding the recently decommissioned Fort Snelling from the federal government for $90,000 in 1857, hoping to make a profit selling prime land situated between Minneapolis and St. Paul. While the Panic of 1857 put these hopes on hold, he made more than $100,000 by renting the property back to the government during the Civil War.

Henry H. Sibley in 1865.

St. Paul at the intersection of Fifth and Wabasha Streets. Construction of the Cathedral of St. Paul is visible at center. Photograph by Benjamin Franklin Upton, 1857.

Groundswell farm activist group button, ca. 1985.

Minnesota House of Representatives Agriculture Committee meeting, 1981. Photograph by Tom Olmscheid.

Farmers demonstrating at the State Capitol, 1985. Photograph by Dona Sieden.