9/28/2011:
Today a North Dakota legislator from Pembina County could hop in a car and drive to the state legislature in about five hours. When Antoine Gingras was elected to represent the Pembina district in the territorial legislature in 1851, it wasn’t so easy. A hundred and fifty years ago, eastern North Dakota was part of Minnesota Territory. Thus territorial legislators had to travel more than 400 miles to St. Paul.
Born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in 1821, Gingras left the Lake Superior region in 1843 to open a fur trading post at St. Joseph in present-day Pembina County, ND. For the next 30 years he specialized in trade with the Métis, establishing trading posts throughout the region as well as operating Red River cart lines from Canada to Minnesota. Due to his business savvy, he became the wealthiest man in the region.
Because of his influence, Gingras was elected in 1851 to represent the Pembina district in the House of Representatives of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature along with Norman Kittson and Joseph Rolette. Unfortunately for the three men, the legislature convened in January. With no railroads, the Pembina representatives had no other choice than to travel overland. In December of 1851, Gingras, along with Kittson and Rolette set out for St Paul by snowshoe and dogsled. Each of the men had a cariole drawn by three dogs to traverse the more than 400 miles. Fighting winter storms, it took eighteen days to reach the territorial legislature.
A fellow attendee later described this legislative session:
“For the first few days of the session it was hard to tell whether it was the dogs or the honorable members who represented Pembina, as the dogs were first in the legislative halls and the last to leave, and it was only when the sergeant at arms was ordered to put the dogs out and keep them out, as Pembina was not entitled to double representation, that the two houses were relieved of their presence. And then there was not an entire riddance of them, for they hung around the outer doors and manifested a disposition to let no one in or out of the halls…”
Antoine Gingras served two terms in the territorial legislature before his death on this date in 1877.
Dakota Datebook by Richard Campbell
Sources:
Collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol XII. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society, December 1908.
The Life of Antoine Gingras (1821-1877). State Historical Society of North Dakota. http://history.nd.gov/historicsites/gringras/gtphistory3.html