What is the history of St. Cloud, Minnesota?
The City of St. Cloud was incorporated in 1856. It developed from three distinct settlements, known as Upper Town, Middle Town and Lower Town that were established beginning in 1853 The remnants of deep ravines that separated the three are still visible today. Middle Town was settled primarily by German Catholics. Lower Town was founded by settlers from New England and mid-Atlantic states. Upper Town was platted by a slave-holding southerner. Minnesota had previously been organized as a territory in 1849. The area had been opened to legal ownership by non-Native Americans following treaty negotiations with the Ho Chunk Winnebago tribe in 1851 and 1852. St. Cloud was named after Saint-Cloud, the Paris suburb, by John L. Wilson, a native of Maine with French Huguenot ancestry and an interest in Napoleon. In its early years it was a major trading post and transportation hub for oxcarts on the Red River Trail to Canada. Steamboats docked at St. Cloud although river levels were not reliable
