the appointment
of a bishop coadjutor to assist him in their performance, which latter
office is filled by the Rev. Mahlon N. Gilbert, who is especially well
qualified for the position.[1]

It would be impossible in a brief history like this to go very deeply or
particularly into the growth of the religious element of the state. A
general presentation of the subject in two grand divisions, Catholic and
Protestant, is enough. Suffice it to say, that every sect and
subdivision of the latter has its representative in the state, with the
one exception of Mormonism, if that can be classified as a Protestant
church. There are enough of them to recall the answer of the French
traveler in America, when asked of his opinion of the Americans. He
said: "They are a most remarkable people; they have invented three
hundred religions and only one sauce." No matter how their creeds may be
criticised, their joint efforts, Catholic and Protestant, have filled
the state with religious, charitable, benevolent and educational
institutions to an extent rarely witnessed out of it, so that if a
Minnesotan goes wrong, he can blame no one but himself.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Bishop Gilbert died within a few months.

RAILROADS.

In the year 1857, on the third day of March, the congress of the United
States made an extensive grant of lands to the territory to aid in the
construction of railroads. It consisted of every alternate section of
land, designated by odd numbers, for six sections in width, on each side
of the roads specified, and their branches. The grant mapped out a
complete system of roads for the territory, and provided that the land
granted for each road should be applied exclusively to such road, and no
other purpose whatever. The lines designated in the granting act were as
follows:

From Stillwater, by the way of St. Paul and St. Anthony to a point
between the foot of Big Stone lake and the mouth of the Sioux Wood
river, with a branch via St. Cloud and Crow Wing to the navigable waters
of the Red River of the North, at such point as the legislature of the
territory may determine.

From St. Paul and from St. Anthony via Minneapolis to a convenient point
of junction west of the Mississippi to the southern boundary of the
territory, in the direction of the mouth of the Big Sioux river, with a
branch via Faribault to the north line of the state of Iowa, west of
range 16.

From Winona via St. Peter to a point on the Big Sio