Mower County, Minnesota - Chapter 15: Anecdotes and Adventures, 1911

Chapter 15: Anecdotes and Adventures

First Marriage - Hunting and Trapping - -Early Days in Cedar City - Pioneers of Frankf ord - Frontier Experiences by- Jacob S. Decker - Independence Celebration - Early Days in Lansing by 0. J. Rhoades.

To some historians cold facts and exact dates alone are interesting. Others study the great underlying causes of the world's movements, and are interested in detailed events only as they constitute a visible effect of these eternal causes. But to tlie reader of local history nothing is so interesting as the reminiscences of the old settlers, in which real actors in the stirring adventures of frontier days relate for the benefit of posterity llioso stories and anecdotes that form so intimate a jKU-t of the life of the pioneer, but which liiid no ))iacc in wi-itlen records. In preparing the "Hi.story of .Mower County" it has been the aim to gather as many ol' llusc I'cminiscences as possible, and tliey are here presented for the perusal of the present and future generations, that they may learn here the sunshine and shadows ill tlie lives of those wlio l)l;izc(l 1li(> trail for civilization to follow.

First Marriage

The first mari'iage in Mower county was that of Caleb Stoek and Mary Watkins, Avigust 24, 1856. The golden anniversary of this event was celebrated in Austin, August 24, 1906, and on that occasion was read an address prepared by Mr. Stock. The address, in part, Avas as folloAvs : In i\Iay, 1856, a company was getting ready to go to IMinnesota, and among them were my friends from Burlington, AVis.. conspicuous among them being Mary Watkins. The AYatkins family, father and mother, five boys and three girls, were starting then to Mower county, Minnesota, overland with prairie schooners. I took the railroad to the Mississippi, then the steamboat to Brownville, then the stage to Elliota and Frankford, and then on foot over the prairie to Austin. "VYe crossed Dobbin's creek and the Cedar river and found Austin, only a few log houses and a store, Yates & Lewis', with no hotel. I took my first meal with Father Brown, who was living in a tent and a Avagon. This was early in June, 1856. Mv. Lewis showed me around and took me down to see friends, Phelps and Chandler, who were boarding with Uncle Eben JMerry. Inquiring for the friends who were coming by schooner, I learned that they had not arrived. Soon, however, we heard that the caravan was in camp on Rose creek. The next morning after, we surprised them by an early call. They were glad to find a haven of rest after six weeks, with ox team over wild prairies, crossing creeks and rivers without bridges. There were tvrenty-seveu in the company. Their hotel had been their campi;]g ground, and their bill of fare their own cooking by the camp fires. We all crossed the Cedar river at Tiff's ford, and here we built our first log house. There were no shingles in the country and we had hard work to find boards for our roof. We found some at Otranto, Iowa. We could get no lime to plaster with, but our house was up, and the next move was to get a wife. I went to Austin to find a minister, but the one who had been there was gone. This fact was a great setback to me. I learned there was a justice of the peace in town, 'Squire Smith. I found him and told him my business. He thought he could do the job correctly. The day was settled, Augvist 24, 1856, and 'Squire Smith tied the loiot so tight it was never broken. Father Watkins settled on the farm now owned by David Watkins. Caleb Stock and John PJielps erected a saw mill at Cedar City in 1856, and in 1857 Ave added a run of burrs to grind Avheat and corn.

In 1856 the AvintiT Avas the most severe I can remember. In 1856 and the early ])art of 1857, times were good but money failed, and the iHttcr part of 1857 it Avas hard to get it at from 25 to 40 pel- cent interest. The crop of 1857 Avas a failure.

Scarcely any wheat was raised, and the corn was frost-bitten. Supplies came mostly from West Union and Auburn, Iowa, where Ave secured our first stock for housekeeping. We brought the outfit with two ox teams over the prairies and through the streams. In 1858, the spring and most of the summer were very wet, and in August our mill Avas washed down the river. Provisions were very scarce. Streams were high, and we could not get out for supplies. We were nearly destitute. I remember well Avheu we started with five teams for flour and corn meal. Those who were to share in the supplies left their bags with old Mr. Brown at the store. He numbered them and arranged them in order to be filled when the goods came. We had to go nearly to Mississippi for our goods, and some families lived on little but fish until we returned. There were a few Indians about during our first years, and my wife was very much alarmed lest they should take away our little babe, Ella.

Our early markets were LaCrosse and McGregor. We had to pay $1 a bushel for potatoes, oats, corn or Avheat. The first wheat Avo sold we drcAV to the ]\Iississippi and sold for fifty cents per bushel. Eggs brought four cents a dozen, dressed pork .$2.50 per hundred in ]\Ic6regor. Cows Avere worth $10 to $20 each. Men's AA-ages Avere from fifty cents to $1 a day. Money still brought 25 per cent interest in 1858-59.

But those pioneer days have passed and the ox cart is supplanted by more modern vehicles. The market of the world is at the end of our telephone. We have battled Avith fate and with the elements and avc noAV enjoy the moniunents that our struggles have builded.

Hunting And Trapping

Tlie folloAving i'l'oiu tlic pen of S. D. ^lead, Avhile difl:'ering from generally accepted historical accounts, is nevertheless interesting as coming in evident sincerity from one Avho claimed to have visited the present site of Austin in 1853. The "Austin Nickles" spoken of therein is evidently the Austin Nichols Avho Avas the first settler on the present townsite of Austin.

'The first Avintc innii tliat came to Aiistin was Austin Nickles, wlio <'niii(' as a Imiitcr in 1lii' fall of 1852 from his home in Clayton county. Towa. 'I'lie next fall, 1853. he came back to this locality, and 1 caiuc with him. T Avas then fourteen years old. Nickles sflecti-d a claiui enihracing a part of Avhere Austin now stands. Thai a\ inter we look nine ])uft"alo skins and many deer, mink, otter and hcavei', but F do not knoAv hoAV many. I do remember that Avhat T killed Nickles gave me, and I sold them Avhen T reached home for $190 in gold. I got one elk near Avhere the Mihvaukee station now stands that measured nine feet from tip to tip. I have hunted some in my life, but I was never in a place where the game was so plentiful and where such a great variety was to be found. At that time we could get out and kill a deer in an hour any tin\e in the morning or evening, and we did kill all that we wanted. Prairie chickens were plenty, and geese and ducks could be found in any place on the river. Mink, otter and beaver were plenty, with now and then a panther, but the latter were scarce. Prairie wolves were everywhere.

"The next year (1854) Nickles sold his claim and went to Blue Earth. The next year (1855) my step-father (Horace Silver) with four other families moved to Austin. Robert Autis, Lym. Gifford, Wilson King and the widow Lockwood, each with their families, comprised the company, but the latter did not settle here. The rest took claims along Turtle creek, Autis and King near the mouth, Gitford about due south of the present fair grounds, and my step-father, Horace Silver, took his claim farther up the creek, near the large boiling spring on the west side. My step-father worked for Chauncey Leverich that summer in a saw mill which stood about ten rods down the river from wliere the grist mill now stands, and on the same side of the liver.

"My step-father owned oxen, as did also Autis, and with these I helped break the first ground ever broken in or near Austin, O. "W. Shaw's residence stands on the east side of the first twenty acres of land ever broken in Austin. There was considerable heavy timber along the Cedar, and a little south of where the packing liouse now stands there was a maple sugar camp where the Indians made sugar. The Sioux Indians Jmd their camp on the ])ank in front of the 0. W. Shaw residence, a little to the south. In the winter of 1855 and 1856 there Avere about 200 Sioux Indians wintered on the bottom lands in back of the Gibson hotel. There was heavy tiniber there then. The Indians and the whites were always friendly."

Early Days In Cedar City

In regard to early d^iys in Slower '-ounty, my wife and I drove from Burlington, Racine county, Wis., with a team of liorses, to find a home in the territory of ^linnesota. "We arrived at David Chandler's farm, October 13, 1856. In the spring of that year I was married to Hannah Phelps, the daughter of -Jerimiah and Margarette Phelps, who moved to iMower county, from Burlington, Wis., with tlie following families: Thomas Bormella, George and AVilliam Phelps, Diadamy and ]\Iary Phelps and John "Watkins and family, composed of eight sons and daughters. John Phelps had preceded them and was on the ground with E. Merry and family, David and John Chandler, John Osborne and family, Caleb Stock and a Mr. Smith. The two last named with John Phelps composed the mill company. Next came Welcome Osborne and his family, also Joshua Welch and Abijah Pinkham with their families. These with a Mr. McKee and Means comprised the neighborhood settlement in the winter of 1856-57. In the spring came Welcome Chandler and Andrew Gemmel and tlioir families. Before my wife and I arrived, Caleb Stock and Mary Watkins had spent their honeymoon. After their marriage John Phelps went back to Racine county, AVisconsin, and tliere married a INIiss Lyon, which made another very valuable addition to our young but growing society. Then Timothy Gosley won the affections of Ann Watkins. These three were the first on the list of marriages of Cedar City. Cedar City mill Avas pushed to completion and began grinding in due time. But alas, the June freshet took the pioneer mill down with its rapid current and our young city grew no more and like many western towns ceased to live.

Several houses were erected by these families. The first covering for houses were indeed novel, hay, bark, rails and sod. Abraham Dickerson and father built the first good frame liouse and barn in the community. A school house was built on land owned by Caleb Stock. The logs and other timber were donated by the settlers, and it was built in the spring of 1857. Diadamy Phelps was the first teacher; she afterward married John B. Niles, who owned Tefts mill property. Stephen and David Chandler, Solomon Custer, and John and Evan Watkins also married early school teachers of Cedar City.

The earliest birth, I think, was a son born to ]\Ir. and Mrs. «Tohn Osborne. The second, a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Cressey, and perhaps the third to Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Stock.

Perhaps it may be of interest to record the style of preparing breadstuff in those early times - no mills, no railroads and pretty nearly no food at times. Personally, I went to Austin three times, with money in my pocket, to buy flour, and finally succeeded in getting eleven pounds of flour of old Mr. Brown of the Log Store. When corn was nearing maturity the settlers took tin pans and punched holes through the bottom, and upon these circular graters managed to get enough corn grated to furnisli bread Un- a time till they could do better. Welcome Chandler hollowed out a Iol''. i)ut it in the ground, attached a sweep similar to a well swcc]) and by means of a pounder, working like a druggist "s nioi'tjM-, succeeded in pounding out corn, wbicli irood Sistei- ( 'Imiullei- iiiiide into a first-rate "Johnny

The settlement saw close times financially as the days one by one rolled away. Money was hard to obtain, and the money loaners often charged as high as three or four per cent a month for loans on the very best of security.

Among the first of the good men to preach the gospel were Eevs. Beach and Loomis. The traveling peachers of that time Avere Revs. Mapes and J. L. Dyer, of the Methodist denomination. Rev. Dyer held a "protracted meeting" in the log school house which his own hands helped to make. He had a voice which could be readily heard a half mile away. Most of the neighborhood were converted and a grand reformation followed. I did not like him, he was too rough ; a sample of his talk, by way of introduction to me, was: "You are going to hell, ain't you?" However, I attended his meetings afterward, and now honor him for his work's sake. In those early times we were building and found it best to use oxen and carts for drawing logs, etc. One night I took my young wife and babe on one of these rude carts and went to meeting. On going home we had to cross the creek, and my wife with her babe in her arms slipped off the cart, but she held on to the babe with one hand and to the cart with the other, the oxen drawing her and the infant to the shore.

I can testify to the good, honest work of Brother John L. Dyer, the pioneer preacher. God honored him by his brethren of a frontier conference sending him as a delegate to the general conference. I joined afterwards under another preacher in charge.

Such are a few of the notes in early days. Jeremiah and M. Phelps had four sons in the Civil war. Mr. AVatkins two, Essler two and Chandler one. So I think Cedar City and her people have done something for God and our country worthy a place in the history of Mower county. - Alfred Cressy.

Pioneers Of Frankford

]\Iy father, James B. Glover, Avith his family of four children, three daughters and one son, moved to the then far "West, from Skancatels, Onondaga county, N. Y., arriving at Frankford Minn.. June, 1856. There were but few houses to be seen here at that time, but new arrivals were quite frequent and houses went up as if touched by magic hand. AYhere in early morning would be a bare clearing at nightfall the gleam of a lighted candle could l)e seen from the windows of some rude yet cosy cabin home, showing the progress of a single day.

year, the principals in the work being Elders Reeves and Waldron. The following Avinter it was formally dedicated as a house of worship. About the same time Frank Teabout built the first public hall. This was 24x60 feet. It was used that Christmas day and evening for a ball, over 100 couples being present. Mrs. Heidel, an aunt of the proprietor, and Henry Metzgar provided the bountiful supper for the gay and happy company.

The company was composed of all classes, from Fillmore and i\rower counties. Goodly numbers came from Austin and Chatfield. The music was furnished by our own home pioneer band, the greater part of Avhom were married men living near here, George Hunt, Samuel ]Metcalf, Hazard Titus and Gideon Sherman being among the number who constituted this band.

We had a good and large school at this point that winter. It numbered about seventy pupils. Professor Hotehkiss, of Oberlin, Ohio, was the teacher, with myself as his assistant. At that time we had the county seat at this place and felt quite important. But the county seat honors were taken away from us, and our dreams were not realized. - Mrs. Matilda Lamb.

Frontier Experiences

At the time of my arrival in Minnesota, and settlement east of Austin, in 1856, there were but two stores in Austin. J. B. Yates and V. P. Lewis were the proprietors of one and A. B. Vaughan of the other. One was located on the corner of Mill and Chatham streets and tlie other was south of where J. F. Fairbanks now has his warehouse. A. B. Vaughan was postmaster. Mr. Day had a blacksmith shop built of logs on the corner of Main and Water streets. Chauncey Leverieh, commonly called "Chance," liad a saw mill located about where A. S. Campbell's mill is now standing. George H. Beemis had a shoe store on the corner of Chatham and ]\Iill streets. Frank Blank had a shingle machine located where the electric light and pumping station is now located. There was a log hotel located on Water street, between Franklin and Chatham streets. At the time T ai'i-ivcd there were no clnirches or schoolhouses.

Til 1h(' moiiUi of June, on a beautiful Sunday morning, we lieard the iir.st sermon in Austin preached by a ^Methodist minister iiauicd Erastus Mapcs. Tlic meeting Avas held in a frame house which I\lr. Levciidi was l)uilding for a hotel. In August, Rev. Stephen Cook arrived in vVustin from 01)erlin, Oiiio, with a commission from tlie American Home Missionary Society to organize a Congregational eluirch. He held meetings in private houses nntj] Avinter. Ijate tliat fall the town people erected a

The second trip I made from home after arriving in Austin was to "Winona with two yoke of oxen for lumber for this "Headquarters" building. I arrived home October 34 and found that the prairie fires had sAvept the whole county in my absence.

During the summer of 1856 I joined ox teams with one of my neighbors and broke about fifteen acres, on Avhieli I raised some buckwheat. In December, John "Willson, one of my neighbors, joined teams with me, took my wood-shod sled and started Avith my buckwheat for Preston, Fillmore county. Arriving at Carrimona, we found a grist mill and exchanged the buckwheat for flour. "\Ve obtained wheat flour, corn meal and shorts, and started for home. Ours was the last team to cross the prairie between Frankford and Austin that winter. The road between Austin and High Forest and thence to ^\"inoua was kept open all winter. The county seat Avas then at Frankford.

In the spring of 1857, I sold my two yoke of oxen and took up a note I had given to pre-empt my land. Consequently I had no team. I raised corn enough that season to trade for a yoke of oxen with John Phelps. In the summer of 1857 I exchanged work with mj"- neighbors and had sixteen acres broken. In the winter of 1857-58 I cut and split oak rails enough to exchange with George N. Coukey for fourteen bushels of seed wheat. T sowed the wheat in the spring of 1858. In the fall I cradled and bound, threshed and cleaned, and thus secured seven bushels of wheat all told. In the spring of 1859 I sowed that seven bushels and never raised better wheat. That same spring a party consisting of James T. Sargent, Hugo ]\Iills, John Whalasky, "William Baker and myself went to Ilesper, a Quaker settlement in Iowa, and secured flour, corn meal and middlings. In the fall of 1860 I went to Mitchell county, Iowa, for flour. This time I took wheat of my own raising. That same fall I exchanged my yoke of oxen and a small stack of wild hay for a three-year-old Arabian horse. I also exchanged 120 bushels of wheat for a three-year-old mare. The first trade was made with James Carver and the latter with Abraham Lott. Then I had no harness. I worked for a neighbor, John "Watkins, and took a muleiron tug harness for pay. This harness had no lines, but I bought a bell cord and made a pair of lines which I used two years. In the latter part of December, 1862, I loaded forty bushels of wheat and a 400-pound dressed hog for a merchant of Austin, George B. Hayes, and started for Winona, our nearest wheat market. "When about luilf way between Brownsdale and Beaubien Grove the tire on one of the wheels of my wagon liroke. I stopped immediately. There 1 was. all alone. The around was frozen hard and there "was no snow. But fortune favors the brave. The porker was on top of my load. I took the end boards out of my wagon box, piled up the wheat sacks as high as the bottom of my box, slid the hog out on sacks, unleaded the balance of the wheat, and then took the broken tire and returned to Brownsdale, where I had it set. Then I went back as far as Mr. Tanner's, the last farm house, and there stayed all night. The next morning after breakfast I started for my load of wheat and pork. "When I reached the spot everything was as I had left it, and the prairie Avolves had not scented the feast. I backed up to the pile of wheat, slid the hog in the box, reloaded the pile of wheat and made another start for Winona, Avhich place 1 reached Avithout further mishap.

In the winter of 1865-66, I think it was in January, Obadiali Smith, A. V. Ellis and myself planned to start on a Friday morning for Casson with wheat. In the morning it looked very stormy, so I was the only one that started. I arrived in Casson in time to sell and unload my wheat. That night it snowed all night. I started for home the next morning. The roads were badly drifted. When I came to the last farm house I had the farmer go with me and start me across the lone prairie. After looking around, he advised me to go back with him and stay until Monday morning. This was Saturday afternoon. I did so. Monday morning was cloudy and it looked like snow. There was nothing to guide me, no sun Avas visible, and it Avas not less than fifteen miles to the settlement north of BroAvnsdale. However, I started. There Avas no evidence of the summer road to guide me. The grass, weeds and hazel bushes Avere all snoAved under. The railroad had been finished to Casson the fall ])efore. After I had gone about tAvo miles, it w^as apparent that the team was lost. I stopped, tied the lines to the box, dropped on my knees and prayed to the Lord to guide, the horses to the settlement on the other side of the prairie. I did not touch the lines, but let the team go as thej' pleased, and did not hurry them. In the afternoon T came to the settlement about one mile north of the right road. I Avas very happy after striking tlie right road. That is the only time I Avas ever lost.

In February, 1865, James T. Sargent, George N. Conkey, Henry Carter, Isaac N. Peterman, Hugh IMills, James Mills and myself started for St. Paul Avith loads of oats. The Avheeling was good, and all the ground, except the roads, Avas about covered Avith snow. We sold our oats in St. Paul and drove across the country to Minneapolis. That Avas my first trip to the TAvin Cities. The rest of tlie parly loaded tlicir wagons Avith lumber for a Methodist chui'di. 1 loaded mine Avith pine siding and flooring to finisli an addilioii to my lionse.

May 5. my house was destroyed by fire and we lost everything except AA'^hat we had on our backs. The building was insured with the Madison Mutual of Wisconsin for $300. In August of the same summer, I took a load of wheat to Winona, accompanied by our oldest son, Calvin. We camped out along the way and slept under our wagon nights, except when in the city. At AYinona we sold our wheat, purchased a carload of lumber, and shipped it by rail to Rochester. We followed the train to Rochester, unloaded the lumber, brought a load home and finished the house in time to move in November 16.

My wife helped me in all my work until the boys were old enough to take her place. With heroic fortitude she loaded and stacked hay and grain, cut corn, dug potatoes, milked the cows and did her housework. My Avife and I are charter members of the Congregational church of Aiistin, Avhich we helped to organize July 6, 1857. We also had the pleasure of assisting in the celel)ration of the fiftieth anniversary, July 6, 1907. I am a life member of the American Board of Foreign Missions, a life member of the American Home IMissionary Society, a member of the JMinnesota Territorial Pioneers' Association; helped to organize the Austin Co-operative Creamery Association, and Avas its first president; was president of the Mower County Old Settlers' Association eighteen years, and have been a member of the Austin toAvn board for a number of terms, as well as town treasurer and a justice of the peace. - Jacob S. Decker.

Independence Celebration

M. J. Slaven has furnished this Avork AA'ith an interesting account of an early Fourth of July celebration in Rose Creek. '"What an event our first Fourth of July celebration was to those of us who had knoAvn no play for a year! It was the people along Rose Creek Avho took the lead. A fcAV days before the Fourth we called our neighbors together to prepare for the coming of the great day. Mrs. Aaron Draper and i\Irs. Catherine Slaven were appointed as a flag committee. They procured their OAvn material and experienced something of the satisfaction and joy of Betsy Ross at the wonderful results accomplished. Mrs. Patrick 0']Malley, Mrs. Thomas Smith, Mrs. Stephen Sutton and ]\Irs. AndrcAv Robertson planned the feast and the men AA'ent at their Avork Avith zeal. At sunrise on the Fourth the sound of Draper's anvil awoke the echoes and people began to gather at the O'Malley farm, near the site of the i)resent village of Rose Creek. People came from Austin, BroAvnsdale, Frankford, Le Roy, Nevada, and in fact from the whole length of Rose Creek. AVhat a jolly crowd it was that greeted our tiag, Avhich floated from the top of an oak tree which had been stripped of its branches. There was a program, of course. Thomas Smith read the Declaration of Independence. James Slaven delivered the oration and then came a bountiful dinner, followed by games and races. Then the tables were spread again, for we were a healthy, hungry race, and though not epicurean in our tastes the joys of the table certainly appealed to us. As evening came on the older people prepared to go home. Not so the younger ones, who clamored for a dance. The Fourth did not end for them until the dawn of the following day, when after a hot breakfast they were obliged to start for home. Perhaps it was this gathering more than any other which promoted a feeling of interest in one another among the people, and that interest has not entirely died out, as witnessed by the yearly gathering of the steadily decreasing circle of those who are privileged to call themselves old settlers."

Early Days In Lansing

Clymer, Chautauqua county, N. Y., was the place of my birth, September 17, 1845. From there I moved with my parents to Warren county, Pennsylvania, and stayed six years. Then, in the fall of the year, our family started for Iowa with a team. After a long journey we reached Maquoketa, Jackson county, the night before Christmas. Then we went to a farm near where Delmar Junction is now located. There we stayed four years. Then we changed our horses for two yoke of oxen, and made our way to Gundy county, Iowa. We arrived there in May, 1856. We did not like the place, however, and in August of that year we started for Minnesota. We found a place that suited us and on August 25, 1856, we pitched our tent in what is now section 22, Udolpho township. There we started to make a home. When we reached here father had two yoke of oxen, one cow, and thirty-five cents in money. The third day after we arrived father was taken ill with malaria and rheumatism and had to be helped to get out of bed. We badly needed some hay cut for the winter use of the cattle. I mowed what I could, but I was barely eleven years old, my eleventh birthday coming in September of that year. Mother bunched up what hay I could mow and then we hauled it and stacked it around some crotches and poles, thus making a place to sleep in. We had the stove in a tent made of the wagon cover. We had an early frost and this killed the grass, so I could cut no more hay. Then I started to cut logs for a house, father being just well enough to get out and show me how. Our first visitors were five Indians on horseback, who seemed mucli interested in al! tluit we were doing. Later the forest fires began to run. I secured a plow and plowed some guards. I thought this made us safe, but one windy day a fire came and while mother and I were getting father where it was safe the fire jumped the guards and burned everything we had, except the clothes on our bodies, and even those clothes were of the very poorest. I went out and found the frightened oxen and took father and the rest to one of the neighbors, where we spent the night. The next day we went to Austin and sold one pair of oxen, thus securing money to buy provisions and clothes. While we were gone the neighbors had been about and gathered some bedding and clothing for us, so with what we purchased we managed to get along. Some of the men from Lansing came and cut logs, with which they built us the body of a house, one story high. We laid some poles across and a neighbor loaned us a tent to put over for a roof. We chinked the cracks and plastered the logs with mud, and in this edifice we lived, keeping the cattle in the other end. In November I went to Brownsdale and got a load of oak timber for floors and doors. Provisions were scarce and high. Corn meal was $5 a hundred and pork $15 a hundred. Flour we did not dare even think of. Winter set in early and very cold. We had to sell our last team and wagon to get food and clothing for the winter. In the spring we wanted to get some breaking done. It cost us $5 an acre. Wages were fifty cents a day, when one was fortunate enough to get work. Father secured the use of two yoke of oxen for br,eaking ten acres each. Then he joined with another man who had two yoke and secured a twenty-four-inch grub plow and broke all summer. Thus we lived through the summer. I drove four yoke of oxen and father worked out when he could find anything to do, in the meantime doing things to make the house more comfortable. Our clothes wore out and mother colored cotton meal sacks with bark and made dresses for herself and the girls, and trousers and jumpers for father and me. We killed game and caught fish for food, and had one cow to furnish milk. The second winter father worked at burning charcoal. He also had some traps made and caught animals, from which he sold some fur. W^ith this money we purchased a little flour and some clothing. In the spring I worked four days for a bushel of potatoes, so small that each one would go through an inch tiole. But they made good seed and we raised good potatoes, [n the spring of 1859 father had $15, which he had received from curs. With this he hoped to buy a hog, but the man who brought ihem in from Iowa wanted fourteen cents a pound and would not cut one up. So we could not buy. But a man said he Avould sell a three-year-old cow for $15, so we brought the cow home. This we traded for a four-year-old bull. Soon avo j)urchased another bull at Brownsdale for $17 and broke in the pair to work together. We had a wagon, so we made a wooden sled, which had to answer for freight and pleasure. Then we joined with two of our neighbors and broke ten acres apiece. One of the neighbors had a stag and a cow for his team, the other had a good yoke of oxen, and we had the bulls. In the spring of 1862 we sowed fifteen acres to wheat and broke some more land. August 9 we commenced to harvest. Father cut with a cradle, mother raked in the sheaves, and I bound, while the two girls placed it in shocks. That day father enlisted in Company C, Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantrj', and went to Ft. Snelling, from which place he went out after the Indians. Mother and I harvested the crop. I cradled, mother raken in, and then would carry the cradle back and I would bind it. This took a long time. Father came home on a furlough and helped stack it. Then I secured a threshing machine and threshed it. We had no granary, so I laid iip a rail pen and thatched the sides and roof with straw and put the wheat in. We needed some clothing and desired to change the wheat into money. So we had to get it taken to Winona. I could not haul with my team, so we hired a neighbor to take a load for us. He charged twenty-five cents a bushel. When we reached Winona all he could get for it was thirty cents a bushel. It cost seven cents to get it threshed. So he took it to the Stewartville mill and had it ground into flour. He gave me half the flour and kept the bran and the shorts to feed his team. That is the way I made money. But I got enough to eat and managed to get along. Father went south with his regiment and was taken prisoner at the battle of Guntown. Pie was starved to death by the rebels in Milan prison. I stayed in Udolpho, paid for the place and took care of mother and furnished a home for the girls until they were married and had homes of their own. Mother died January 1, 1910. I have never had time to get married, so I am still single. - 0. J. Rhoades.