Zachary Taylor, led local political opposition to the influence of the Democrats and the fur trade. Through a letter-writing campaign that targeted abolitionist reform newspapers and made use of the Norths' political connections, the Norths encouraged several thousand Eastern settlers to move to St. Anthony. John and Ann North's aggressive and selective promotion doubled the population of St. Anthony, pushing the political character of the community towards temperance and abolitionism and reducing the power of the Democratic Party. Founding Northfield, Minnesota In January 1855, North travelled south from St. Anthony to visit the Cannon River Valley. On that trip, he purchased interests in the town of Faribault and met with nearby settlers along the Cannon River, organizing a plan for the construction of a saw mill, a grist mill, and a bridge at a convenient site. A year later, the construction projects neared completion, a townsite was platted, and John and Ann moved their family to the town. A meeting of settlers named the town Northfield. Political Career North's successful campaign to populate St. Anthony with anti-slavery reformers led to his election to the Minnesota Territorial Legislature in 1851. On March 29, 1855, several hundred men met in the St. Anthony Congregational church to organize Minnesota's Republican Party. North called the meeting to order. John and Ann North prepared the party's resolutions, which John presented at the March party meeting. North's resolutions included the abolition of slavery in new states, the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act, and the prohibition of alcohol, among other resolutions. In 1860, North was a delegate to the Chicago Republican Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency of the United States, and he was a member of the committee that went to Springfield to notify Lincoln of his nomination. Career in Nevada In 1861 President Lincoln appointed North the official surveyor of the new Territory of Nevada, and North moved to Virginia City, Nevada. The territorial surveyor was a sensitive position in a mining region such as Nevada's Comstock Lode, where the boundaries of mining claims were the constant subject of lawsuits. Lincoln may have counted on North to keep Nevada Territory loyal to the Union, and to bring Nevada in as a Republican state, as he had Minnesota. North surveyed, invested in silver mining properties, began building an ore-treatment mill he named the Minnesota Mill, and practiced law. In early 1863, when Justice