“New England of the West” is an old nickname for Minnesota. In the first half of the 19th century, many new areas of the west wanted to be compared to the success of New England. The “New England of the West” moniker was used to describe Western Pennsylvania (in 1828), Illinois (in 1829), Missouri (in 1837) and Wisconsin (in 1846).
 
Minnesota’s claim to the nickname comes from the book, Sketches of Minnesota, the New England, of the West, with incidents of travel in that territory during the summer of 1849 (1850) by E. Sandford Seymour. The nickname was only infrequently used and is of historical interest today.
 
   
Wikipedia: Minnesota
Minnesota (/mɪnᵻˈsoʊtə/; locally About this sound [ˌmɪnəˈso̞ɾə]) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Minnesota was admitted as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858, created from the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory. The name comes from the Dakota word for “clear blue water”. Owing to its large number of lakes, the state is informally known as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. Its official motto is L’Étoile du Nord (French: Star of the North). Minnesota is the 12th largest in area and the 21st most populous of the U.S. States; nearly 60 percent of its residents live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the “Twin Cities”), the center of transportation, business, industry, education, and government and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now partially cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.
     
Google Books
A Condensed Geography and History of the Western States: or the Mississippi Valley
By Timothy Flint
Cincinnati, OH: Published by E. H. Flint
1828
Pg. 224:
Western Pennsylvania is a manufacturing region, and along with Ohio, is the New England of the West,
 
13 August 1829, Boston (MA) Recorder and Religious Telegraph, “Illinois,” pg. 129, col. 4:
The climate resembles extremely that of N. England; and if our friends in your part of the Union will aid us, this will become the New-England of the West.
 
18 August 1837, Liberator, “Slavery in Missouri,” pg. 136, col. 2:
Southern Missouri is destined to be another New England. (...) But despite of all, Washington County, St. Francis, and several of the adjoining counties, of right should be termed, and known as the New England of the West.
(Letter from “A Citizen of Missouri.”—ed.)
 
17 June 1846, Daily Sentinel and Gazette (Milwaukee, WI), pg. 3, col. 3:
In consequence of the wise, liberal and highly successful efforts of this Society to take possession of Wisconsin in its infancy, I expect to see that rich territory become the New England of the West.
(Address of Rev. J. J. Miter, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in New York.—ed.)
   
OCLC WorldCat record
Sketches of Minnesota, the New England, of the West, with indicents of travel in that territory during the summer of 1849 ...
Author: E Sandford Seymour
Publisher: New York : Harper & Bros., 1850.
Series: Western Americana, frontier history of the trans-Mississippi West, 1550-1900, reel 485, no. 4852.
Edition/Format:   Book   Microform : Microfilm : English
Google Books
Pg. XII (Introduction):
The reasons for designating Minnesota as the New England of the West, will appear in the course of the following narrative. Its northern latitude and healthy climate are calculated to foster habits of industry and enterprise. Its extensive water power; its beautiful scenery; its forests of pine; its relative situation to the remaining portion of the Mississippi valley; its superior advantages for manufacturing enterprise, naturally suggest, as an appropriate name for this country, “The New England of the West.”
 
Google Books
Annual Statistician—1876
Compiled by John P. Mains
San Francisco, CA: L. P. McCarty, Publisher
1876
Pg. 90:
NICKNAMES OF STATES AND THEIR INHABITANTS.
(...)
MINNESOTA—New England of the West. Gophers.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The Puritan Tradition in a “New England of the West”
Author: Donald B Marti
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Minnesota History, v40 n1 (19660401): 1-11
Database: JSTOR Arts & Sciences V Collection
 
OCLC WorldCat record
New England of the West : the emergence of American mind in early St. Paul, Minnesota, 1849-1855
Author: James K Benson
Publisher: 1970.
Dissertation: M.A. University of Minnesota 1970
Edition/Format:   Thesis/dissertation : Thesis/dissertation : Manuscript   Archival Material : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Osceola: yesterday and today : a narrative of the Little New England of the West
Author: Grace Pilgrim Bloom
Publisher: 1972.
Dissertation: M.S. University of Wisconsin-River Falls 1972
Edition/Format:   Thesis/dissertation : Thesis/dissertation : Manuscript   Archival Material : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
The New England of the west : a survey of historic properties associated with early American settelment in Cottage Grove, Minnesota (1838-1870)
Author: Robert C Vogel
Publisher: Cottage Grove, MN : Advisory Committee on Historic Preservation, 1990.
Edition/Format:   Print book : English
   
Google Books
The Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms
By Robert Hendrickson
New York, NY: Facts on File
2000
Pg. 274:
New England of the West An old nickname for Minnesota, after the many New Englanders who settled there.