Part 9 (1/2)

Mrs Mary E Dowling--1855

As Miss Watson I came from Pennsylvania in 1855 and took a school to teach back of Marine I got 3600 in gold a month and so ell paid

Had from five to twenty-five children who came to learn and so behaved well

When I would walk through the woods I would so around When I did, my movements were not like his

All kinds of wild animals were very plenty The foxes were the cutest little ani at you

A band of Indians was encamped at a lake near One brave all dressed in his Sunday best used to come and sit in the kitchen day after day He used to talk to the lish One day the chief came in and went for him Said he had been away fro he crossed the rooot Winnebago squaw Me hite squaw You go?” I was very earnest in declining

Mrs Robert Anderson--1854

I was the first white woman in Eden Prairie I came in 1854 with my husband and s houses built We paid for our far on our land and which we sold for 100 a bushel

I had never seen Indians near to, and so was veryhideously painted brave marched in, seated hi a sound His long knife was sticking in his belt I was overpowered with fright and for a fewMy children, one two years old and the other a baby, were asleep behind the curtain Realizing that I could do nothing for theht be aroused if he saw me run aith them, I fled precipitately in the direction whereI had run about a quarter of a ht not be in time if I waited for my husband, so I turned and fled back towards the cabin Entering, I sawby the Indian's side playing with the things in his belt while the Indian carefully held the baby in his arms In his belt were a tobacco pouch and pipe, two rabbits with their heads drawn through, two prairie chickens hanging from it by their necks, a knife and a toave him bread and milk to eat and ever after he was our friend, oftentis and ave ht ame

One day Mr Anderson was at work in the field, a long distance frorain with a scythe and toldhim his supper I had never been over on this knoll which was on the other side of a s all the dishes and food in a basket and carrying a teapot full of tea inand could see squaws at work picking berries As I came to a clump of trees, ten or twelve Indians with their faces as usual hideously painted, the whole upper part of their bodies bare and painted, rose fro, but threw ot to the top of the hill I looked back and could see the Indians feasting on my husband's supper Upon his return hoht the dishes and the teapot with him

We had been in Eden Prairie about six years and had never been to church as there was no church near enough for us to attend We heard there was to be preaching at Bloo people and had felt the loss of services very keenly We had nothing but an ox teao to church with, so, carrying my baby, I walked the six ain The next Sunday, however, we rode nearly to church with the ox team, then hitched them in the woods and went on foot the rest of the way

Mr Anderson was always a devoted friend of Mr Pond, the missionary and attended his church for many years One of Mr Anderson's sons took up a claim in the northern part of the State When Mr Pond died, he came down to the funeral Upon his return, he saw a tepee pitched on the edge of his farm and went over to see what it was there for and as in it As he neared it, he heard talking in awhat it could ed in prayer He asked theht us” He told them Grizzly Bear, which was the Indian name for Mr Pond, was dead and would be seen no more He took from his pocketbook a little white flohich he had taken from the casket, told them what it was and each one of them held it reverently with much lamentation This enty years after these people had been taught by Grizzly Bear

Mrs Wilder--1854

We settled on a fare near

We always used to play with those Sioux children and always found theo in their tepees There was a depression in the o out of the hole in the top of the tent An Indian always had a same, they just drew it a little--never took off the feathers ot into a fuss with a band from Faribault and one of our Indians killed one of the with and gave it to my father all uncleaned as it was

He said it was ”seechy” knife, , my father took it just as it was and stuck it up in a crack above our front door in our one roohten out the fight He had lived ae He brought them to time Later they caive it to them

Geese and ducks covered the lakes Later we had the most wonderful feather beds made from their feathers We only used the small fluffy ones, so they were as if they were made from down Wild rice, one of the Indians' principal articles of diet, when gathered was knocked into their canoe It was often unhulled I have seen the Indians hull it

They would dig a hole in the ground, line it with a buffalo skin, hair side down, then turn the rice in this, ju up and down on it with their moccasined feet until it was hulled I could never fancy it reat quantities of wild pluether and were so much alike ays called them the twins

Those trees had the e as a small peach We used to peel the could have a finer flavor

Just before the outbreak, an Indian runner, whom none of us had ever seen, went around to all the Sioux around there Then with their ponies loaded, the tepee poles dragging behind, for three days our Indians went by our place on the old trail going west Only a few of Bishop Whipple's Christian Indians remained

Mr Warren Wakefield--1854

My father ca where the Sam Bowman place now is We had lived over a year in southern Minnesota As the hail took all our crops, we had lived on thin prairie chickens and biscuits made of sprouted wheat It would not make bread The biscuits were so elastic and soft that they could be stretched way out These were the first playthings that I can remember