 When the New Englanders arrived, they laid out farms, established post routes, and built schools and government buildings out of locally available materials.The New Englanders and their descendants made up the great majority of Goodhue County's inhabitants until the late 19th and early 20th century, when immigrants from Germany and Norway began arriving in the Minnesota-Wisconsin border region in large numbers.There were small numbers of immigrants from Germany, Norway and Sweden during the first several decades of Goodhue County's history as well.