# Jonathan Carver *18th-century explorer and writer whose name attaches to a rejected land-grant claim and to Carver County, Minnesota* Jonathan Carver (1710–1780) was an explorer and author from colonial Massachusetts who had held a captain's rank in a Massachusetts unit.[^1][^2] In 1766–1767 he travelled through country now in Wisconsin, [[Minnesota]] and Iowa, chiefly along the upper [[Mississippi River]]. His account of the trip, *Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768*, appeared in 1778 and found a wide readership.[^1][^2] Carver's name is also attached to a land claim. A deed said to have been signed by two Sioux chiefs, conveying a large tract east of the Mississippi to him, was first put forward in the 1781 third edition of his book, the year after he died.[^3][^4] According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, Sioux elders told congressional investigators in St. Paul in 1817 that no chiefs bearing the names on the deed had ever existed. Congress rejected the claim on January 29, 1823, and portions of "[[Carver's Grant]]" continued to be sold for roughly another half century.[^5] [[Alexander Ramsey]] proposed naming a town for Carver in 1854. The county organized in March 1855 took the name as well, 32 years after the congressional rejection and during the period in which portions of the grant were still being sold.[^6][^7][^5] The [[Carver County Historical Society]] states that [[Carver County, Minnesota]] was "named in honor of the explorer, Jonathan Carver."[^7] The record treats the man and the deed differently. A 1767 letter and Carver's original journals, located in 1909, verified the journey,[^8] while the grant claim "has never been confirmed by other sources."[^3] ## Who Carver was born on April 13, 1710, at Weymouth in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, to David and Hannah (Dyer) Carver. He was raised in Canterbury, Connecticut, where the family moved while he was small. He wed Abigail Robins on October 20, 1746, and the couple had five children. In about 1748 they settled in the frontier town of Montague, Massachusetts, where he served as a selectman.[^9] His military record begins in 1755, when he entered the Massachusetts colonial militia at the opening of the French and Indian War. He enlisted with Burke's Rangers in 1757, a unit folded into Rogers' Rangers in 1758, and he held a captaincy in a Massachusetts regiment by 1761. In 1766 Robert Rogers contracted him to lead an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage.[^10] Later research, as Wikipedia summarizes it, holds that Carver did make the tour he described, but left out that he made it as Rogers' hired agent rather than on his own account.[^11] Others named in the grant record include John Coakley Lettsom, who acquired the book's copyrights after Carver's death, and Carver's descendants, who petitioned Congress in 1804.[^4] The Rev. Samuel Andrew Peters ran a ratification campaign for the grant, which is the subject of a 2008 University of Wisconsin study.[^12] Alexander Ramsey, a former territorial [[governor]], proposed the town name in 1854.[^6] ## What *Travels* sold well on first publication in 1778. A Dublin edition followed the next year, and more than thirty editions and versions in several languages have appeared since.[^11] In the twentieth century scholars questioned the narrative's reliability, and comparison with Carver's manuscript journal shows that the two differ in important respects.[^11] The manuscript record was published by the [[Minnesota Historical Society]] Press in 1976 as *The Journals of Jonathan Carver and Related Documents, 1766-1770*, edited by John Parker. Carver also wrote *A Treatise on the Culture of the Tobacco plant* (London, 1779).[^13] The land claim first reached print in the book's third edition. After Carver died, Lettsom bought the copyrights and in 1781 issued a third edition "for the relief of the widow and children." In it Lettsom asserted that he held a deed by which two Sioux chiefs had conveyed to Carver roughly 10,000 square miles of present-day Wisconsin and Minnesota. After the death of Carver's London widow, the deed was never found.[^4] MNopedia records that the grant claim appears only in that posthumous edition: "It has never been confirmed by other sources, however, despite later claims by Carver's descendents."[^3] ## When - **May 20, 1766**: Carver departed Boston. On December 7, 1766, he reached the [[Minnesota River]], and he spent the winter with a [[Dakota]] band.[^14] - **May 1, 1767**: the date the deed reportedly bore, given as "Great Cave, May the 1st, 1767."[^4][^5] - **1769–1770**: after sailing to England in 1769, Carver petitioned the British government twice to be reimbursed for his Mississippi expedition. Copies of the petitions are among his papers.[^2][^15] - **1778**: *Travels* was published.[^14] - **January 31, 1780**: Carver died in London, in poverty.[^14][^11] - **1781**: Lettsom's third edition was published, the first appearance of the grant claim.[^3] - **1804**: Carver's descendants petitioned Congress for the tract.[^4] - **1817**: Sioux elders in St. Paul told congressional investigators that the chiefs named on the deed had never existed.[^5] - **January 29, 1823**: Congress rejected the claim, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.[^5] Sara Falch's 2008 University of Wisconsin study instead dates the dissolution of the case by the Committee on Private Land Claims to 1825.[^12] - **1854**: Ramsey proposed naming a town for Carver.[^6] - **March 1855**: Carver County was organized under his name.[^7][^16] - **1856**: the county seat moved to Chaska.[^7] - **1909**: a 1767 letter and Carver's original journals were located, verifying the journey.[^8] ## Where The expedition's farthest reach lay in present-day Minnesota. By late summer of 1766 Carver had reached the [[Falls of St. Anthony]], in what is now [[Minneapolis]], before heading downriver to find winter quarters. On that stretch he also visited Waḳaŋ Ṭípi, a place held sacred by the Dakota and since known among European-Americans as Carver's Cave.[^17] The descendants' petition