Minnesota’s Newcomers
(Coordinates with Chapter 7
Northern Lights textbook)
People came to Minnesota for the
same push and pull reasons that people
moved to any new place during this era.
Pull Reasons:
•Land for farming or speculation
•Business opportunities in
•Government
•Service (teacher, missionary)
•Industry (logging, milling, building)
•Small Business
•Store, barber shop
•Family members already established here
•Brought with family as a child
•Adventure
•Religious, political, or ethnic freedom
Push Reasons:
•War
•Famine
•Overcrowding, no land
left
•Religious, political, or
ethnic persecution
People came to
Minnesota for the
same push and pull
reasons that people
moved to any new place
during this era of immigration.
Push Reasons:
•War
•Famine
•Overcrowding,
no land left
•Religious, political,
or ethnic persecution
Pull Reasons:
•Land for farming or speculation
•Business opportunities in
•Government
•Service (teacher, missionary)
•Industry (logging, milling, building)
•Small Business (store, barber shop)
•Family members already established here
•Brought with family as a child
•Adventure
•Religious, political, or ethnic freedom
•In 1860*, a total (non-Indian) population of 172,023:
•34,305 MN. residents had been born in MN.
•78,990 had been born in the U.S. , but not in MN.
*21,574 stated New
York as their birth
place.
*7,533 stated birth
in Ohio
*6,603 stated
*7,606 stated
birth in
birth in
Wisconsin
Pennsylvania
*U.S.Census figures from 1860 in MN.
•Of Minnesota’s 172,023 residents in 1860:
•113,295 stated they were American born
•58,728 claimed birth in a foreign country
* 18,400 were from
Germany
* 8,425 were from
Norway
* 12,831 were from
Ireland
* 3,462 were from
England
•8,023 were from
“British America”
(Canada)
* 3,178 were from
Sweden
Chest of Hans Mattison, Swedish immigrant
•By 1900 Minnesota had 1,751,394 residents
•505,318 claimed birth in another country.
•Many Minnesotans also had foreign-born parents.
* 117,007 were from
Germany
*16,299 were from
Denmark
* 115,476 were from Sweden
*12,063 were from
French Canada
* 104,895 were from
Norway
*12,022 were from England
* 35,515 were from
English Canada
*11,147 were from Bohemia
(now the Czech Republic)
* 22,428 were from Ireland
*10,727 were from Finland
Source: U.S. Census
 1. Using your calculator, find the percentage
of people during 1900 in Minnesota who were
born in other countries:
 Divide the number of foreign-born residents
(505,318) by the total number of people
living in Minnesota during 1900 (1,751,394)
 (505,318 ÷ 1,751,394) =_______________
Your answer should be:
.2855
Using your calculator, multiply
this answer by 100.
Your answer should be:
28.55 which is 28.55%
So, more than one in four
Minnesotans in 1900 were
born in other countries.
 2. Using your calculator find the
difference between the population
of people in Minnesota from 1860 –
1900.
 1860 = 172,023 people
 1900 = 1,751,394 people
 Using your calculator find the
difference between the population
of people in Minnesota from 1860 –
1900.
1,751,394 - 172,023 = _______
 Your answer should be:
1,579,371
 3. Using your calculator, divide
your answer to the last question
(1,579,371) by the number of
people living in Minnesota during
1900 (172,023) and round your
answer to the nearest hundredth
 (2 decimal places).
 Or, written in an other way:
(1,579,371 ÷ 172,023 =
)
 Then round your answer to the
nearest hundredth (2 decimal
places).
Your answer should be:
9.18
 Using your calculator, multiply
the last answer (9.18) by 100.
(9.18 x 100)
What’s your answer?

________________
Your answer should be:
918
Your answer is the % of
increase in Minnesota’s
population from 1860 to 1900.
Minnesota’s population
increased by 918% between
1860 and 1900!
 This 1860 to 1900 918% increase in the
number of Minnesotans was huge
compared to population growth today.
 The increase from 1849 to 1860 was even
greater, 3,445%!
 This growth came largely
from people moving to
Minnesota from other
states and countries.
Key state and national events during this time:
 1858 Minnesota becomes a state
 1861-65 American Civil War
 1862 Dakota Conflict
 1863 Slaves freed by Emancipation Proclamation
 1886 American Federation of Labor founded
 1890 Minnesota State Federation of Labor founded
 1886-1907 MN State Capitol Building built