Old Rail Fence Corners: The A.B.C.'s of Minnesota History : Authentic IncidentsThis is an anthology of anecdotes about the Minnesota frontier, dating primarily from the 1840s and 1850s. The material seems to have been collected directly from original settlers who were still alive in the early twentieth century. There are abundant descriptions of early logging operations, agriculture, building practices, plagues, infestations, flora and fauna, and floods. Accounts of local culture range from descriptions of Indian-white relations to boarding-house life, foodways, dances and other festivities. Several settlers were attracted to Minnesota for the celebrated health of its climate; others recall its life-threatening cold. |
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Anthony baby barrel Blue Earth River boat brother brought built cabin called camp canoe cattle Chippewa corn dance dians door early Eden Prairie Falls Faribault farm father feet fire floor flour Fort Ridgely Fort Snelling Franklin Steele gave Gideon Pond girl gone heard horses hundred husband Indians killed knew Lake land Little Crow lived load looked Mankato miles mill Minneapolis Minnesota River Mississippi Mississippi River morning mother neighbors never night once oxen papoose Paul pony pork potatoes prairie Red River carts returned road Rum river scalp seen settlers Shakopee Sibley side Sioux Snelling soldiers soon spring squaws started stay Street thought told took town trail trip wagon walked wanted weeks wild Winnebago winter women woods
Popular passages
Page 115 - I built my own home in St. Peter and made my garden. The year before I had gone into a clump of plums when they were fruiting and tied white rags to the best. I had moved them into my garden and they were doing fine. One day I took off my vest as I was working and hung it on one of these trees. Suddenly my attention was attracted to the sky and I never saw a more beautiful sight. A horde of grasshoppers were gently alighting. Nothing more beautiful than the shimmering of the sun on their thousands...
Page 64 - ... tail at the back of mine. She knit our shoes and sewed them to buckskin soles. I was twelve, when I had my first pair of leather shoes. They were cowhide and how they did hurt, but I was proud of them. None of the country boys wore underclothing. I was nineteen before I ever had any. Our pants were heavily lined and if it was cold, we wore more shirts. I never had an overcoat until I went in the army. Before we left Vermont, my mother carded and spun all the yarn and wove all the cloth that we...
Page 258 - ... one neighbor and then another would extend to every family in the vicinity an invitation to spend an afternoon or an evening. Someone would hitch his oxen to his wagon or sled, and, going from house to house, gather up a full load, and then, at the usual gait for such conveyances, we rode and visited until we reached the appointed place, where perhaps eight, ten or a dozen persons spent the afternoon or evening in the one little room where the meal was being prepared and the table spread. In...
Page 120 - ... and they had the courage to survive repeated failures that came through no fault of their own. In the summer of 1873, grasshoppers again invaded the valley. The insect army caught the homesteaders by complete surprise. "The men came home to dinner," said a woman describing that unforgettable midday, "and the talk was all in praise of this new country and the crops. While we were talking it gradually darkened.
Page 169 - Several hundred citizens started south along Front Street for the Indian camp, straggling for a distance of several blocks. When the head of the column reached West Mankato it halted until the rear came up, and while a rambling discussion was going on as to what they should do and how they should do it, Capt. (since governor) Austin with his company of cavalry, surrounded the whole squad and ordered them to move on towards Colonel (since governor) Miller's headquarters, right at the Indian camp....
Page 285 - This he refused to do and drove them out. The next morning the tribe came by dragging the bodies of those two Indians. They had been caught just after leaving the house. The bodies were tied over poles with the heads, arms and legs trailing in the dust. Mrs. John C. Turner. The Nutting Hotel was the scene of many a dance when settlers came from miles around to take part in quadrilles and reels to the music of violin. We used to bring an extra gown so that after midnight we might change to a fresh...
Page 133 - We lived just as we had in Sweden, as we were in a Swedish settlement. We were Lutheran, so there were no parties. Going to church was our only amusement. The prairies were perfectly lovely with their wild flower setting. There had been a fire two years before and great thickets of blackberry vines had grown up. I never saw such blackberries. They were as large as the first joint of a man's thumb.
Page 168 - ... persons, who would proceed for a few hundred feet and then halt, finally returning for more refreshments. Nearly at midnight the supply of refreshments must have become exhausted, for the army moved. Several hundred of the citizens started south along Front Street for the Indian camp, straggling along a distance of several blocks. When the head of the column reached West Mankato, it halted until the rear came up, and while a rambling discussion was going on as to just what they should do, and...
Page 208 - One day back in my old home in Machais, Maine, when I was six years old and my sister Mary nine, my father said to her, "I will give you ten cents for your little tin trunk." This trunk was one of her most treasured possessions, and she asked him what he MRS. MARGARET KING HERN (ST. PAUL) Medal presented to Margaret King Hern by the State in 1896. (See page 143.) Late type Red River Cart, taken in the Fifties. Earlier Carts had tires eight inches -wide. (See pages 14-22-218) wanted it for. He answered,...
Page 153 - The education the children received in those days had to be paid for either by their parents or by someone else who picked out a child and paid for his or her tuition.