FREDERICK P. LEAVENWORTH:
An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
Part or all of this collection is restricted.
For
details, please see restrictions.
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Leavenworth, Fr. (Frederick Peabody), 1833- , | |
| Title: | Frederick P. Leavenworth papers. | |
| Dates: | 1855-1883. | |
| Language: | Materials in English. | |
| Abstract: | Correspondence (1856-1862), financial papers, two diaries (1855-1860), survey notes (1858-1860), account books (1856-1858, 1867-1870), maps, a brief Dakota-English vocabulary book, and other miscellany of Leavenworth, a surveyor and civil engineer. They pertain largely to his years in Minnesota (1856-1860) surveying and mapping areas in Le Sueur County and in the upper Minnesota River Valley. | |
| Quantity: | 0.4 cubic feet (1 partial box, including 11 volumes) and 2 oversize items. | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description for shelf locations. |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Frederick Peabody Leavenworth worked as a surveyor for railroads and traveled into Georgia and other parts of the South in pursuit of his duties. In 1855 he was residing at his family home in Petersburg, Virginia, where his father A. J. and his aunt Mary Peabody also lived. In July, 1856, he came to Minnesota and settled in St. Peter, Nicollet County. He was a member of the Elysium Company which founded the townsite of Elysium [Elysian] in Le Sueur County, surveyed claims and townsites, surveyed the Sioux Reserve (Yellow Medicine), and prepared plats and maps. He married Carrie Porter in 1859 in St. Peter, Minnesota. He remained in Minnesota until 1860, when he went to Van Buren, Arkansas. His wife died in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1863.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
Leavenworth's diaries, survey notes, and letters include sketches of buildings, landscapes, Dakota Indians, and comments on Dakota culture, the Spirit Lake massacre (1857), his life and business dealings in St. Peter (Nicollet County), community development of St. Peter and Elysian (Le Sueur County), and his surveying work. A few items pertain to his surveying activities in the South in 1855 and to his residence in Arkansas after 1860.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Frederick P. Leavenworth papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Accession Information:
Accession number: 3770; 4004; 4060; 5617; 9030
Processing Information:
Digitized by: Minnesota Historical Society, April 2019
Catalog ID number: 990017197600104294
Access Restrictions:
Originals are closed. Access and use requires the curator’s permission.
Some of these files are located off site in Remote Storage. Advance arrangements are required in order to view the files.
Please consult reference staff for more information.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| 308.B.8.1B | Correspondence and miscellaneous, undated. | ||||||||||
| Includes sketches of a Red River cart and unidentified Indians; receipts and memoranda on land entries; a cabin passage ticket on the steamer Frank Steele; surveyors' notes; a Franklin Pierce autograph; a letter and receipt regarding the Elysium Company; and a letter by Leavenworth to Joseph R. Brown regarding a survey of the Sioux Indian reservation (specific location not given). | |||||||||||
Undated
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| Correspondence and miscellaneous, 1856-1862, 1883. | |||||||||||
| Includes letters written by Leavenworth to his father, A. J. Leavenworth, and his aunt, Miss Mary Peabody, both in Petersburg, Virginia; receipts; indentures; agreements; warranty deeds; and memoranda. | |||||||||||
| Included in the letters are information on: Leavenworth's business arrangements with Governor Willis A. Gorman (not specific); building an office in St. Peter; the visits of large groups of Dakota to St. Peter; Leavenworth's attitude towards New Ulm ("an infernal Dutch town"); a Dakota war party bearing Ojibwe scalps which he met on one of his surveying trips; harvest of cranberries by the Dakota; his acquisition of a Dakota vocabulary; his joining an expedition against the Indians during the 1857 massacre; the siege of the town of St. Peter; the expedition of soldiers from Fort Snelling against the Indians; smoking kinnick-kinnick with Little Crow and other Indians at Yellow Medicine; surveying the reserve; troubles between the Dakota and the superintendent of the reservation; the heroic conduct of the surgeon's wife during the 1857 massacre; society and business opportunities in St. Peter; church services at Traverse des Sioux; the Saint Peter Company; purchase of stock in the Cordova Company; the bill for the removal of the state capital from St. Paul to St. Peter; the incorporation and organization of the Elysium Company; jobs he wanted to secure; building a bridge over the Minnesota River; and a drainage project near St. Peter that would create water power and reclaim marshland; his business and personal association with Richard N. Venable; detailed specifications for building a basement wall; subscriptions to build a road between St. Peter and Elysium; laying out a townsite for the Dakota Land Company on the north fork of the Cottonwood River; the search for Ink-Pah-duh-tah; a sketch of Red Owl; lots he owned in Red Stone, Nicollet County; a trip to the Red River in 1859 to lay out townsites; transportation of a steamboat from Crow Wing on the Mississippi overland to the Red River; his hopes to secure the commission to survey the western boundary of the state; the two constitutional conventions drafting Minnesota's constitution; and the Van Buren Female Academy (physical description, history, and invitation to Leavenworth to come). | |||||||||||
1856
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January-April 1857
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May-December 1857
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1858
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1859
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1860-1862
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1883, 1935
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| Plats and maps. 1 folder: | |||||||||||
| French Fortification, Chateau Bay, Labrador, undated. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| G. C. Rainey's addition to Camden, Arkansas, undated. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Part of Township No. 109 N, Range 33 W, January 4, 1859. | |||||||||||
| Diagram of manner in which Pratt and Dodd laid half-breed scrip in village of Leavenworth, Brown County, Minnesota. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Part of Township No. 111, Range No. 26, undated. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Township No. 42, Range No. 20, undated. | |||||||||||
| Includes Kettle River and Kettle River Railroad. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Published items. 1 folder: | |||||||||||
| Ewing House, St. Peter. 1 card. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Geo. L. & E. A. Otis, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law, St. Paul. 1 card. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| J. B. Sackett, Real Estate Agent, St. Peter. 1 card. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Reeds Improved Steam Pump. 1 card. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Norman Wiard's Steam Ice-Boat, January 1860. 1 news clipping. | |||||||||||
| A detailed article, with pictures, of Norman Wiard's ice boat built to run on the Mississippi River from Prairie du Chien to St. Paul, from the United States Journal. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Boomerangs--A Remonstrance, undated. | |||||||||||
| Article in The Minnesotian about the Grand Consolidated Lapland and Timbuctoo Railway Company's project to manufacture boomerangs in 1857-1858. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 1. Survey notes, 1858, 1860. | |||||||||||
| Notes of surveys in and around St. Peter, Minnesota. Includes sketch of an unidentified Indian on the inside front cover. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 2. Survey notes, 1859. | |||||||||||
| Notes of surveys in the Indian Reserve of Yellow Medicine. Includes sketches of Indians and scenes in the final pages of the volume. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 3. Survey notes, 1859-1860. | |||||||||||
| Surveys in the Sioux Reserve. Includes sketches of Indians and one scene in the final pages of the volume. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 4. Dakotah dictionary and survey notes, undated. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 5. Survey notes, undated. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 6. Abstract of Kent's Commentaries on American Law, undated. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 7. Accounts, 1856-1858. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 8. Accounts and notes, 1857-1858. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 9. Shreveport house expense account, 1867-1870. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 10. Diary, June 11, 1855-October 13, 1857. | |||||||||||
| Includes sketches of the Church of the Atonement in Augusta, Georgia; the court house in Lynchburg, Virginia; Iron Elk; Fort Snelling; a travois; Indians; horses; and landscapes. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Volume 11. Diary, June 27-September 1856; April 16, 1858-January 17, 1860. | |||||||||||
| Includes sketches of Maiden's Rock, Wisconsin; Dubuque, Iowa; the pipestone quarries at Pipestone, Minnesota; the portage between Big Stone Lake and Lake Traverse; and others. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| 105.F.4.2 | Oversize material: | ||||||||||
| Elysium, Minnesota Territory, undated. 1 map. | |||||||||||
| Issued by the Elysium Company. Drawn by W. Leavenworth C. E. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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| Township No. 112 N, Range No. 26 W, circa 1854. 1 map. | |||||||||||
| Surveyed in 1854 by A. D. Anderson; certified by Warner Lewis, Dubuque, September 16, 1856. | |||||||||||
Digital version
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CATALOG HEADINGS
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:
- Cranberries -- Harvesting.
- Dakota Indians -- Annuities.
- Dakota Indians -- Government relations.
- Dakota Indians -- Wars.
- Dakota language.
- Indian reservations -- Minnesota.
- Land titles -- Registration and transfer -- Minnesota.
- Ojibwa Indians -- Minnesota.
- Railroads.
- Sioux half-breed scrip.
- Spirit Lake Massacre, Iowa, 1857.
- Steam-navigation -- Minnesota River (S.D. and Minn.)
- Steam-navigation -- Mississippi River.
- Steam-navigation -- Red River of the north.
- Surveying -- Minnesota.
- Townsite law.
- Persons:
- Brown, Joseph Renshaw, 1805-1870.
- Gorman, Willis Arnold, 1816-1876.
- Inkpaduta, -approximately 1879.
- Leavenworth, Abner Johnson, 1803-1869.
- Little Crow, -1863.
- Peabody, Mary Ann.
- Venable, Richard N.
- Wiard, Norman, 1826-1896.
- Organizations:
- Cordova Company.
- Dakota Land Company.
- Elysium Company.
- Frank Steele (Steamer)
- Minnesota. Constitutional Convention
- Saint Peter Company (Saint Peter, Minn.)
- Van Buren Female Academy (Van Buren, Ark.)
- Places:
- Arkansas.
- Augusta (Ga.)
- Camden (Ark.)
- Crow Wing (Minn.)
- Dubuque (Iowa)
- Elysian (Minn.)
- Fort Snelling (Minn.)
- Le Sueur County (Minn.)
- Leavenworth (Minn.)
- Lynchburg (Va.)
- Maiden Rock (Wis.)
- Minneapolis (Minn.)
- Minnesota -- Capital and capitol.
- New Ulm (Minn.)
- Nicollet County (Minn.)
- Petersburg (Va.)
- Pipestone County (Minn.)
- Red River of the North.
- Red Stone (Minn.)
- Saint Peter (Minn.)
- Traverse (Minn.)
- Virginia.
- Yellow Medicine City (Minn.)
- Document Types:
- Diaries.
- Field notes -- Minnesota.
- Maps.
- Occupations:
- Civil engineers -- Minnesota.
- Surveyors -- Minnesota.
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