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 . (188o) 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 186o), 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 186o .