City of Bloomington history

Founded in 1820, IU is one of the oldest and largest state universities in America.

Seward's blacksmith shop opened in 1821.

Plan to visit that magnificent military complex in southeast Minneapolis, Fort Snelling, now carefully restored, is where the first steamboat landed in 1823, followed by the building of the first military post, the first school and the first church in the state.

A limestone mill was opened in the Stinesville area in 1827.

The settlement was later incorporated as a city in 1831 and boasted a population of 150.

They set out, in the fall of 1836, and in December, reached their destination, a trading post and settlement, in Lord Selkirk's Territory on the Red River, after a long series of hardships, in which they narrowly escaped death, from cold and starvation.

He reached Fort Snelling April 16, 1837, and, although it had been his intention to return home via the Mississippi River and the lakes, H.H. Sibley, who was then stationed at the fort, prevailed upon him to remain.

He first saw the light of day in an Indian village on the banks of Lake Harriet in 1840, having been born on the 17th of March in that year.

WALTER SCOTT MCLEOD. Walter Scott McLeod, the oldest of Martin McLeod's children, was born in Hennepin County, April 16, 1841, and is, therefore, one of the first native born citizens within its boundaries.

The township has never been without a school, or religious worship, since the first white man built his house there, in 1843.

By 1848, the college became a university with 50 students; the new two-story courthouse and majority of the 350 houses in town were built from brick; a stagecoach line provided connections to Indianapolis & Louisville, and several new industries were producing goods for local consumption.

In 1852, a party of settlers came from Bloomington, Illinois, and staked claims near the Minnesota River on the Western prairie.

He was appointed Indian farmer in accordance with a treaty with the Indians and began his work in 1853.

Chambers in the year 1854, where the St Paul and Shakopee road crosses the Minnesota River.

In the summer of 1856, with an emigrant wagon and in company with his brother, he came to Minnesota, reaching Bloomington in July, after having been two weeks on the road.

The records show that the first town meeting was held in May, 1858, when twenty-five votes were cast.

In 1859, he sold out his fur trading posts, and engaged in the real estate business.

Standish was drafted into the army, in 1862, and furnished a substitute.

Of 1864, land was purchased near the center of the town, and the church moved to that place where it still stands.

In 1868, the three brothers took over the Showers Company and eventually expanded into a major industrial complex that covered seven acres.

Until 1870, all supplies and provisions had to be brought to the settlement from Fort Snelling.

No great expense has ever been bestowed upon it, but some care and small expenditures of money have added to its beauty, and it is to Bloomington "The city of the beloved dead." It was enlarged soon after and a parsonage built near it, in the summer of 1875.

A fire in the Showers Company's east side plant led to its move to Morton Street, and the fire that destroyed the original college buildings on South College Avenue prompted the university's move in 1884 to a new campus at Dunn Woods.

The first electric lights glowed from the courthouse roof in 1886.

The town hall (now our museum building) was built in 1892.

A.J. Stead was called to the pastorate, which office he still fills (1893).

The 1900's brought many changes and growth to the area.

A city ordinance in 1910 prohibited the free run of chickens on The Square, and a new commercial district, catering mainly to students, grew along Indiana and Kirkwood Avenues.

The first City parks, Bush Lake Beach and Moir Park were created in 1954.

Lake Monroe, created in the 1960's, has solved the longtime problem of water supply for the county.

Entrepreneur William Cook and his wife Gayle move to Bloomington in 1963 and started a medical device company.

College Mall opened in 1965 and brought a new way of shopping to town.

Bloomington’s population reached 45,000 in the 1970’s and the number of sworn officers approached seventy.

Sporting events brought traffic and revenue to the city, until the teams were relocated to the Metrodome in 1982.

In 1983, Task Force 6, a multi-jurisdictional covert operations unit, was formed to investigate drug and vice offenses.

By 2001, the EJS computer program had been developed to connect all components of the criminal justice system in McLean County.