Carver land grant papers

Jonathan Carver was born in Massachusetts in 1710. He joined the colonial militia in 1755 and fought in the French and Indian War, but left the Army when peace was concluded in 1763. In August 1766 he traveled to Fort Michilimackinac, where Major Robert Rogers, the fort commander, contracted him to explore and map the territory to the west as far as the upper Mississippi River. In this endeavor, Carver traveled to Green Bay, and along the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. In the winter of 1766-1767 he lived near the upper Mississippi River among the Naudowessie (also known as the Sioux, or Dakota) Indians. Carver later claimed that two Naudowessie chiefs had given him a deed to the land in question.

After Rogers came under suspicion of treason against England, Carver sailed for London to petition the government for payment to cover his expedition to the upper Mississippi. In 1775 Carver sent a copy of the deed to Richard Whitworth, a member of the British Parliament. Other documents relating to Carver’s expedition to the upper Mississippi River are part of the Richard Whitworth papers (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsmss/umich-wcl-M-2250whi?view=text), held by the Clements Library of the University of Michigan.

In 1778, Carver published Travels through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767 and 1768, based on the journals he kept during his journey. Carver died in 1780. The United States Congress in 1825 refused to accept the validity of Carver’s land grant. (For more information see: Parker, John, ed. The Journals of Jonathan Carver and Related Documents, 1766-1770. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1976.)