Long Prairie was never a river town like Hartford. In the 1840s it was settled as the administrative headquarters for carrying out the agreement between the U.S. government and the Winnebago (now Ho-Chunk) Indians. The settlement developed along Venewitz Creek and was said to be more populous than St. Paul at that time. In 1855 the Winnebago had been moved to a reservation in Blue Earth County in southern Minnesota, and the lands were sold to investors from Ohio. The settlement was abandoned during the 1862 Dakota uprising. The area was slowly repopulated by settlers passing through the area who stayed, in many cases, because of the availability of the already constructed buildings and homes.