The Alexander Faribault House

The Alexander Faribault House. . , Alexander Faribault, for whom the city of Faribault was named, was the son of fur trader Jean Baptiste Faribault and his wife, Pelagie. Alexander first entered the area in 1826 to establish a trading post for the American Fur Company on Cannon Lake. He moved the post a few miles east in 1835 and in 1844 finally established it at the present site of the city of Faribault., Like many of the traders, Faribault wielded great influence over the local Dakota Indians with whom he did business. He played a part in persuading them to sign treaties in 1851, opening most of their land in Minnesota to white settlement and assigning some of their treaty money toward payment of fur trade debts. , With his fur trade and treaty profits, Alexander Faribault built this house in 1853. One of the first frame houses in the newly opened land, it served for many years as a community center, chapel, polling place, and meeting hall. It is now owned and interpreted by the Rice County Historical Society.