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This Day in Minnesota History

This Day in Minnesota History

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  January 16
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1874

Willmar Village is incorporated. Platted (surveyed and mapped) in 1869, the township was named for Leon Willmar, a Belgian agent for European investors in the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company. Willmar would become a city in 1901.

1958

The Winona Daily News announces that thirty-six chinchillas, along with feed, cages, and other supplies, have been donated by a student and his father to the biology department of St. Mary's College, to be used in research on improving the breed, whose fur is often made into expensive coats for women.