Stillwater

Stillwater, a city and the county-seat of Washington (disambiguation)|Washington county, Minnesota, U.S.A., at the head of Lake St Croix, on the west bank of the St Croix river, 20 m. above its mouth, and about ,20 m. N.E. of St Paul. Pop. (1890) 11,260; (1900)12,318; (1905 state census) 12 ,435, 35 86 being foreign-born (1189 Swedes, 849 Germans, 828 Canadians); (1910 U.S. census) 10,198. It is served by the Northern Pacific, the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha, and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railways, and is connected by electric line with St Paul and Minneapolis. The city is picturesquely situated on bluffs rising from the St Croix and commanding fine views. Among the public buildings are a handsome public library, the city hall, the county court-house, the Federal building, an auditorium, and the city hospital, and the city is the seat of the Stillwater business college, and of the Minnesota state prison, established in 1851, in which a system of parole and of graded diminution of sentences is in force, and in connexion with which is maintained a school and a library. Commercially Stillwater is important as a centre of the lumber trade and as a shipping point for cereal products. The valuable water-power is utilized by its varied manufactories. In 1905 the value of the factory products was $2,784,113 an increase of 54.6% since 1900. Stillwater, the first town platted in Minnesota, was permanently settled in 1843, and was laid out in 1848 by Joseph Renshaw Brown (1805-1870), a pioneer editor and soldier. Here met in 1848 the "Stillwater Convention," famous in Minnesota history as the first step in the erection of Minnesota Territory. Stillwater was chartered as a city in 1854. The first electric railway in the state was completed here in 1889, but failed later.