Part 18 (1/2)

Mrs A M Pfeffer--1858

My father, Miner Porter had been closely connected with the early history of Fox Lake, Wis He had conducted the leading hotel and store for years, was Postmaster, and did much by his enterprise and liberality for the town He went to bed a wealthybut a small stock of merchandise swept away by the State Bank failures of that state Selling that, he came to Mankato in 1857 and pre-empted a tract of land near Minneopa Falls, now our State Park It was one halfbend of the Minnesota River

The following year, 1858 father started to build on our claim There were sawmills in our vicinity where black walnut and butternut for the inside finishi+ng could be bought, but the pine that was needed for the other part of the building had to be hauled froet the lumber down

After our house was finished it ca and breakfast for settlers traveling over the territorial road towards Winnebago and Blue Earth City

Pigeon Hill, a round for the Sioux all of that winter We could see the sh they were supposed to stay on their reservation at Fort Ridgely they were constantly cooes roved at will over the entire country

One night mother akened by an unusual noise She called father, who got up and opened the bedrooh to strike terror to the heart of any settler of those days

The roooes--htened than ere They had had some encounter with the Sioux and had fled in terror to our house After o down to a small pond where the ti for two days We were in constant terror of the Sioux All the settlers knew they were a blood thirsty lot and often an alar the settlement Mother would take us children and hurry to the old stone ht

They becaht it unsafe to reer and took us back to our old home in Wisconsin

Mr I A Pelton--1858

I came into the State of Minnesota in April, 1858 and to Mankato May 1, 1858 from the State of New York, where I was born and raised This was a pretty poverty stricken country then The panic they had in November 1857 had struck this country a very hard blow It stopped iood tiood ti Everyone was badly in debt and uns, town lots, basswood luroceries Money was loaned at three to five per cent per month, or thirty-six to sixty per cent per year I knew of people who paid sixty per cent a year for a short time Three per cent a month was a common interest I hired money at that myself

The farmers had not developed their farms much at that time A farmer who had twenty to twenty-five acres under ploas considered a big farmer in those days The summer of 1858 was a very disastrous, unprofitable one It co the summer until North Mankato was all under water and the river in places was a ust

The grain at the tiht, ruining the crop Wheat at this tireat rain because there was nothing in it for therain but he had little or nothing, and that which he did get was soft and sround into flour and the bread the flour made was almost black, as they did not at that time have mills to take out the smut

The people in the best condition financially were lad if they had Johnny cake, pork and potatoes and ht they were on the ”top shelf”

At this tiuns, or protect them with scarecrows and have the children watch them to keep them clear from the blackbirds, which were an awful pest There were millions of these birds and there was not a ti over the fields These birds would alight in the corn fields, tear the husks from the corn and absolutely ruin the ears of corn; also feed on the oats and wheat when it was not quite ripe and in a o south, but co when they would be considerable bother again, by alighting on fields that had just been sown and taking the seed frorain in the fields This waswheat and oats in a solution of strychnine It was ten years before these birds were exter a profitable occupation

Far was more successful after that, for the reason that these birds did not need watching During the su the suable St Paul boats came up often and sometimes a Mississippi boat from St Louis We had no railroads in the state at that ti the year of 1859 State Banks were put into the state but these did not last long I know at that time my brother sent out 150 that I had borrowed of Harry Lamberton He sent this money by a man na and left State Bank ave ht when I came home and told me about what it was for I started for St Peter the next day to pay the debt and during the time the money was left and when I arrived at St Peter it had depreciated in value ten per cent and it kept on going down until it was entirely valueless Money was very scarce at that tiold and a little silver

In the year of 1859 we had the latest spring I ever experienced We did not do any far of any kind until the first week in May and this rain We had a short season, but the wheat was very good We had an early frost that year about the third of Septe I saw killdeers frozen to death the third day of that month Corn was not ripe yet and was ruined It would have been quite a crop It was dried up afterwards and shrunk, but was not good

Oats and wheat however were good and itIn the spring of 1860 we had an early spring The bees flew andon the sixteenth of March I brought down potatoes that spring and put them in an open shed and they did not freeze This suh as forty bushels to the acre, No 1 All crops were good

The fall of 1860 was the time they held presidential election and Lincoln was elected that fall We had very h General Baker, Governor Ramsey, Wm Windom, afterwards Secretary of the Treasury and other prominent men spoke

After the war commenced and the volunteers were called out, most of the able bodied men joined the aran to get better and conditions iust of 1862 Lincoln called for five hundred thousand men and those men in this immediate vicinity who had not already joined, went to war, leaving only those not able to join to protect their ho the very earliest settlers in the vicinity of Mankato and came from Wisconsin I had come in April and pre-eeon Hill Two other fa across country, we and our teams and live stock made quite a procession We had five yoke of oxen, several span of horses, and about forty head of cattle, aons, in which we rode and in which we carried our household goods were the real ”prairie schooner” of early days We found our way by co over the soft earth in which deep ruts wereteaet stalled in the ruts ons

Weall rivers and streams on the way At La Crosse we hired both ferries and took all day to cross