SAMUEL ANDREW PETERS:

The Jonathan Carver heirs claimed after his death that Naudowissee (Dakota) chiefs Hawnopawjatin and Otohtongoomlisheaw had granted Carver a tract of some four million acres of land on the east side of the Mississippi River running from St. Paul to the mouth of Wisconsin's Chippewa River to points east and northeast. A grant document or deed signed by the two chiefs at Carver's Cave at present-day St. Paul on May 1, 1767, is said to have subsequently disappeared. Some scholars question whether or not such a document ever existed.

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The originals consist of handwritten copies of documents dealing with the Reverend Samuel Peters' claim to part of the Jonathan Carver land grant, from a volume in the William H. Bell Papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Among them are Peters' correspondence with the Carver heirs and agents for the estate in England and New England, petitions to Congress, a journal of Peters' expedition to Prairie du Chien (1817-1818), and a few maps and original letters. The photocopies were made from a microfilm copy of the Peters materials, at two pages per sheet. The Minnesota Historical Society also holds a negative copy of this microfilm.

The collection also includes a typewritten transcript on Minnesota Historical Society letterhead of a letter written at Albany, New York, that was published in the Illinois Intelligencer, December 30, 1818, describing Peters' arrival on a trip to the East from his colony at St. Anthony Falls and mentioning his claim to 60 square miles of land around the Falls.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Samuel Andrew Peters Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Microfilm Production:

Papers of Samuel Peters in the William H. Bell Papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Madison, Wisconsin: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1969.

Microfilm available for interlibrary loan from the Minnesota Historical Society.

Location of Originals:

Original papers relating to the Carver Grant are in the William H. Bell Papers: Wisconsin Historical Society; Madison, WI

Accession Information:

Accession number: 11,568

Processing Information:

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Catalog ID number: 990017198590104294

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Carver Grant.

Land grants -- Mississippi River Valley.

Land speculation -- Mississippi River Valley.

Persons:

Carver, Jonathan, 1710-1780.

Places:

Prairie du Chien (Wis.)

Document Types:

Maps.

Microforms.

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