1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Winona

WINONA, a city and the county-seat of Winona county, Minnesota, U.S.A., about 95 m. S.E. of St Paul, on the W. bank of the Mississippi river, here crossed by three steel bridges. Pop. (1880) 10,208; (1890) 18,208; (1900) 19,714, of whom 5000 were foreign-born and 30 negroes; (1910 census) 18,583. There are large German and Polish elements in the population; and German and Polish journals, besides two dailies in English, are published here. Winona is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago Great Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Green Bay & Western, and the Chicago & North-Western railways, and by river steamboat lines. It is picturesquely situated on a broad, level terrace, slightly elevated above the river, and surmounted by steep bluffs rising to 400–500 ft. At Winona are the Winona General Hospital (1894), to which is attached a Nurses' Training School; the first State Normal School (opened in 1860), and Winona Seminary (1894) for girls, conducted by the Sisters of Saint Francis. The city has a public library (about 30,000 vols.), with a mural decoration by Kenyon Cox; a Federal building; a Masonic Temple; and several parks; and it owns its own water supply (operated by the Holly system). In 1905 the total value of the factory product was $7,850,236 (30.5% more than in 1900). The site of the city was frequently used as a landing place in the old fur-trading days, but was not permanently settled until about 1853. Winona was first chartered as a city in 1857. A large part of it was destroyed by fire in 1860. The name Winona is said to be a Sioux word meaning “first-born daughter.”