4/10/2011:
For over twenty-five years, traders and settlers moved steadily into the Northern Plains, and on this date in 1882, Federal Census Bulletin 276 provided a breakdown of the population in Dakota Territory. Norwegians led the way with 13,215 people – forty percent of the population. Canadians came next, representing thirty-one percent, and Russians third with almost 19%. Other immigrants in statistical order came from Germany, Ireland, Sweden, England, Demark, Bohemia and Scotland.
Of the 16,519 Dakota Territory residents born in the United States, most hailed from Wisconsin, followed by New York, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In only a few years following this census, the population would double and triple as a tide of immigration swept over the prairie.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Source:
The Northern Express (Pembina) April 14, 1882