Part 17 (2/2)

There were also on board some Sisters of Charity from St Louis, one of them Sister Victorine, a sister of Mrs Louis Robert They all fell on their knees and prayed and wept and they were not the only ones ept either There were many white faces and no one see tothese children into this wild place where there can be an Indian fight in the biggest town and only ten miles from a fort at that”

The excitement had not subsided when St Paul was reached, but the firstwas ht of hi and ht of the incident of the day before He took us up to the Old Merchants' Hotel, then a large ra house and as soon as we had deposited soo out and see the battlefield” It was in the back yard of our hotel, an is drawn there through the winter for the year's fuel

Theinto St Paul fro the bend below and knowing they would co place, just below Forbes' Store and exactly opposite the hotel, the Chippewasof the Sioux

The landlady, Mrs Kate Wells, was standing on one of the logs, hanging up soht of the Indians running into the yard and hiding behind the logs, she jumped down and started to run into the house Instantly she was o inside The Indians pointed their guns at her, and ht, which she did and none too soon, as just then the Sioux caht and wereJie in Forbes store and opened fire on any Chippeho left his hiding place Pretty soon the inhabitants began to co distance and the Chippewas concluded to beat a hasty retreat but not before they had taken Old Jim's scalp When the Sioux ran into Forbes store, the clerk, thinking his ti hold of the sill, let hie, a distance of over fifty feet

Between the Sioux and Chippewas ran a feud further back than the white man knew of and no opportunity was ever lost to take the scalp of a fallen foe

The Indians mourn for the dead but doubly so if they have lost their scalps, as scalpless Sioux cannot enter the Happy Hunting Grounds

One of the things about this same trip of the old Nominee was the fact that almost every citizen of St Paul ca

Provisions had becos and boxes of crackers and barrels of ha eatable was rolled out on the land and sold at once It didn't take long to es or a box of crackers and everyone went home laden

Mrs J R Beatty--1853

I landed in Mankato on my twelfth birthday, May 26, 1853 We cae Maxfield and his family and my uncle, James Hanna and family and friend, Basil Moreland, from Quincy, Ill We took the Ohio River steaht a cow This cow started very o west after all and in some way jumped off the boat and made for the shore We did not discover her retreat until she had reached the high bank along the river and areat excitement the boat was turned around and everybody landed to capture the cow She was rebellious all along the way, especially e had to transfer to a Mississippi boat at St Louis, and e transferred to a boat on the Minnesota river at St Paul, but she orth all the trouble for she was the only cow in the settle the winter and not a drop of milk could be had for love or money in the town

The want of salt bothered the pioneerselse Game abounded Buffalo herds soh the settlement on the way to the river to drink The streams were full of fish, but we could not enjoy any of these things without salt

However, our family did not suffer as much inconvenience as so to eat but potatoes and maple syrup

They poured the syrup over the potatoes and h the winter So the summer when the water was low and in the winter when the river was frozen and the boats could not coe any price they could get

Our faht at St Louis on the way up We had plenty of bedding and about sixty yards of ingrain carpet that was used as a partition in our house for a long tiht in St Paul at that tiht the only set of dishes to be had in St Paul and the only clock

There were only a few houses in Mankato and the only thing we could find to live in was the fraun to build on the south end of the levee, where Otto's grocery store now stands My uncle purchased the building and we put a roof on and moved in We were a family of twenty-one and I remember to this day the awful stack of dishes we had to wash after eachand in July my cousin, Sarah J Hanna (later Mrs John Q A Marsh) started a day school with twenty-four scholars

It was the first school ever held in Mankato

In 1855, a tract of land twenty fourand twelve iven as a reservation to two thousand Winnebago Indians who took possession in June of that year against the vigorous protest of the people Everyone in the toas down to see them come in The river was full of their canoes for two or three days As soon as they landed, the Indians began the erection of a rude shelter on the levee of poles and bark, perhaps twenty feet long and twelve feet wide The squaere all busy cooking so like a pancake We soon discovered that they were preparing a feast for the Sioux who had coely which was near New Ulan Blankets were spread on the ground and rows of wooden boere placed before the Indians, one bowl to about three Indians The cakes were broken up and placed near the bowls After the feast was over, the peace-pipe was passed and the speaking began The first speaker was a Sioux chief, evidently delivering an address of welconified and iive a return feast on the next day and e got tired of watching the speakers, ent down to the Sioux a on there and found an old Indian squatting before the fire Dog meat seemed to be the main article of food Evidently it was to be a cere beside hie the hair off When we came near, he deftly cut off an ear and offered it to hed very heartily at his little joke

The Winnebagoes were sent to the agency four s here St Clair is now located

One day at noon the school children heard that the Indians were having a squaw dance across the river It was in the spring, just as the snoas beginning toaround in a circle andvoices They danced in the same way that the Indians did, and I had never seen any other foraround in the water The Indians were sitting on logs watching the on a to dinner, about twenty-five Indians came to the house and looked in theThey always did that and then would walk in without knocking They squatted down on the floor until dinner was over and then motioned for the table to be pushed back to the wall

Then they began to dance the begging dance In their dances they pushed their feet, held close together over the floor and came down very heavily on their heels There were so many of them that the house fairly rocked Each Indian keeps up a hideous noise and that with the beating of the tom-tom makes a din hard to describe The tohtly over a hoop and they beat on this with a stick After they were through dancing they asked for a pail of sweetened water and some bread which they passed around and ate This bread and sweetened water was all they asked for It is a part of the cereet

The Sioux were the hereditary foes of the Chippeho lived near the head waters of the Mississippi and during this suely where they were to receive their annuity, pitched their ams near our house They had been on the war path and had taken a lot of Chippewa scalps and around these bloody trophies they held a savage scalp dance We children were not allowed to go near as the howling, hooting and yelling frightened everybody It continued for three nights and the whole settlement was relieved when they went away