Politics / Military / City history
Henry Hastings Sibley
1811–1891 · fur trader, first governor of Minnesota, army officer
Son of Detroit's first mayor, raised in the frontier town, who became a fur trader, Minnesota's first governor and the commander in the 1862 Dakota War.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan Territory- Died
Saint Paul, Minnesota
aged 79- Also known as
- Henry H. Sibley
- Detroit years
- 1811–1829
- Field
- Politics, Military, City history
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Henry Hastings Sibley was born in Detroit in 1811, the son of Solomon Sibley, the town's first mayor, and Sarah Sproat Sibley. When he was eighteen months old, Detroit fell to the British and Tecumseh in 1812, and the family fled through the forest to Marietta, Ohio, returning after the Americans retook the town. He was educated at the Academy of Detroit and tutored in Latin and Greek by an Episcopal clergyman, then left in 1829 for Sault Ste. Marie, returning to work winters at the Bank of Michigan before signing on with the American Fur Company. He went on to run its trading post at Mendota, became Minnesota Territory's first delegate to Congress and in 1858 the first governor of the state of Minnesota. In 1862 he commanded the forces that suppressed the Dakota uprising and oversaw the military trials that led to the mass execution of 38 Dakota men at Mankato, a chapter now widely condemned. Many Minnesota places bear his name.
Highlights
- First governor of the State of Minnesota, 1858–1860
- Minnesota Territory's first delegate to Congress
- Commanded U.S. forces in the Dakota War of 1862
- Son of Detroit's first mayor, Solomon Sibley