Part 16 (1/2)

Early in the afternoon the long expected fighting began We were all sent up stairs to stay and obliged to sit on the floor or lie prone All the ere shot in and the glass and spent bullets fell all around us I picked up a wash basin heaping full of these and Mrs Dunn astheir ahoops

Thursday there was very little fighting as the rain wet the Indians'

powder Mrs Dunn, Mrs Sweatt and I spent the ti feet We also melted the spent bullets from the day before and ran thely

Friday was the terrific battle A short distance froe eant Jones understood their method of warfare, so trained cannon loaded with shell on the barn At a signal these were discharged, blowing up the barn and setting the hay on fire The air was full of legs, arms and bodies, which fell back into the flames We were not allowed to look out, but I stood at theall the time and saw this Later I saw vast nurass and flowers bound on their heads creeping like snakes up to the fort under cover of the cannon suns blew the, though eternal vigilance was the ord It was those hundred and sixty men who saved even Minneapolis and St Paul, and all the towns between If Fort Ridgely had fallen, the Sioux warriors would have coet there with reinforcements until the next Thursday after the last battle

You can iine the sanitary condition of all those people cooped up in that little fort No words I know could describe it

Note--Mrs Hern has athe fort

Mrs Mary Ingenhutt--1858, Minneapolis

Mrs Ingenhutt, now one hundred years old, for ninety years has made ”Apfel Kuchen,” ”Fist Cheese” and wine as follows:

Apfel Kuchen--Mix a rich dough using plenty of butter and rich milk

Line a pan with this, cut in squares and cover with apples sprinkled thick with sugar and cinnahly cooked

Fist Cheese--Take a pan of clabbered milk Set over a slow fire When the whey comes to the top, strain off and shape in balls Let stand in war

Wine--Grape, currant, rhubarb and gooseberry wine: Mash horown fruit with a hoh a coarse cloth, add sugar and place in wars and allow to stand at least two years

I used to love to go to the picnics in the early days Everyone had such a good ti to have everyone else have one, too Then, all were equal Nowadays, each one is trying to be prouder than the next one

Captain L L McCoretown on the Red River was the Hudson Bay post After the railroad was built to St Cloud the Red River carts crossed there on a ferry and then on the Dakota side went from point to point on the river in the timber to camp The river is very crooked A days journey with one of these carts elve miles The first stop was at Elk River, now Dalyrimple, then to Goose River, the present site of Caledonia and then to Frog Point and froht was teamed to and fro--1860

On the 20th day of September 1860, I reached Minneapolis with my wife and little son, and went to the Nicollet Hotel where I ements for board for the winter The hotel was kept by Eustis & Hill They fixed the price at 600 a week including fire and laundry for the family, i e 200 a week for each person Mr Loren Fletcher occupied the roo and paid the sa there were but two in his family, but his roo on the corner of Hennepin and Washi+ngton Avenues

The cook at the hotel was a Mrs Tibbets fro the famous dishes of that section of our country, and in the many years that have elapsed since that ti was so appetizing

Our first winter in Minnesota was passed in thespring, I rented the house on the corner of what is now Third Avenue and Sixth Street, for the su and is a coland house At that time it stood alone on the prairie with not more than three or four houses south of it One of these is still standing at the corner of Tenth Street and Park Avenue and is occupied as a ”Keeley Cure”

There were few luxuries in the ood and cheap There was but one meatshop which was kept by a Mr Hoblet He kept his place open in the forenoon only, as his afternoons were spent in driving over the country in search of a ”fat critter” The best steaks and roasts were 8c a pound and chickens 4 to 6c a pound Eggs, we bought at 6c a dozen and butter at 8 to 10c a pound In winter, we purchased a hind quarter of beef at 3 and 4c a pound, chickens 3c and occasionally pork could be bought at 6c a pound, but this was rarely in es, ducks and venison was very plentiful in the season and very cheap We used to purchase these in quantities after cold weather came, freeze them and pack them in snow This worked well provided we had no ”January thaw” and then we lost our supplies

The only fruit we had for winter use was dried apples, wild plums, wild crab apples and cranberries In the season, we had wild berries which were very plentiful There was a cranberry marsh a half mile west of Lake Calhoun, on what is now Lake Street, where we used to go to gather berries One day a party of four drove to the e buck had taken possession of our field We did not dispute his claim, but silently stole away That saarden of W D Washburn, who lived on Fifth Street and Eighth Avenue and ate all of his sweet corn

About this ti their clai most of the timber, but some of the hard maple was cut as cordwood and hauled to Minneapolis and sold for from 200 to 250 a cord

The winters were cold but clear and bright The few neighbors were hospitable and kind and I doubt if there has been a time in the history of Minneapolis when its citizens were happier than they were in the pioneer days of the early sixties