Part 19 (1/2)

I worked on the Winnebago agency as carpenter and ht and learned to know the habits of the Indians very well I learned to follow a trail and later during the Indian trouble that knowledge came in very handy

It is very easy for a white man to fall into the habits of the Indian, but almost impossible to raise the Indian to the standard of the white oes ell known to me, and we became fast friends He was a friendly man to all the settlers, but I knew the characteristics of the Indian well enough to trust none of the and trickery in his nature and I learned to know that when he see was the tiaa only at the short cotton skirt they wore

”Crazy Jane” was an educated squaw and could talk as good English as any of us She was very peculiar and one of the funny things she did was to ride her Indian pony,a parasol over her head She had the habit of dropping in to visit the wives of the settlers and would frequently; on these visits, wash her stockings and put the at the agency I caht

Our little three year old girl wasShe had looked everywhere but could not find her I ran to the agency buildings nearby, but no one had seen her They were digging a deep well near our house and I had not dared to look there before, but now Idown into the depths of theher, I looked up and saw Crazy Jane co papoose on her back

When she came nearer I found it was irl away fro outside the door and had carried her away on her back to her tepee, where she had kept her for several hours but had meant no harm

We were ordered to New Ulm after the outbreak We found the place deserted The doors had been left unlocked and everyone had fled for their lives The desk and stamps from the postoffice were in the street and all the stores were open I put out scouting parties froht After two or three days a few came back to claim their property They had to prove their claiain Uncle ”Tommy” Ireland came to us a few days after we arrived there He was thein the swahts He had lain in water in the deep grass When we examined him, we found seventeen bullet holes where he had been shot by the Indians He toldin with Mrs Eastlake and her three children

They had all come from Lake Shetek The settlement there comprised about forty-five people They had been attacked by the Indians under Lean Bear and eight of his band, and the bands of White Lodge and Sleepy Eye, although Sleepy Eye himself died before the massacre

Many of the settlers knew the Indians quite well and had treated thereat kindness Mr Ireland and his family ith the rest of the settlers when they were overtaken by the Indians Mrs Ireland, Mr

Eastlake and two of his children, were a the killed Mrs Eastlake was severely wounded, and wandered for three days and nights on the prairie searching for her two children, hoping they h where the others met their death Finally on the way to New Ulhbor, Mr Ireland, whoh pierced with bullets, but he had revived and ht

Fro children

Later on when she found her children, they were so worn by their suffering she could hardly recognize them The eldest boy, eleven years old had carried his little brother, fifteen months old on his back for fifty miles All the baby had to eat was a little piece of cheese which the older boy happened to have in his pocket When within thirty miles from New Ulm they found the deserted cabin of J F Brown in Brown County, where Mrs Eastlake and children, a Mrs Hurd and her two children, and Mr Ireland lived for teeks on raw corn, the only food they could find They dared not make a fire for fear the Indians would see the smoke Mr Ireland had been so badly injured that he had not been able to leave the cabin to get help, but finally was forced by the extreme need of the women and children to start for New Ulether they came to our headquarters and told their story We started at four o'clock next on with a bed for the injured wohtened and thought it was the Indians after theain On our return to New Ulm we took a different turn in the road It was just as near and much safer One of our men, Joe Gilfillan had not had his horse saddled when the rest started and when he came to the fork in the road, he took the one he had come by and was killed by the Indians Undoubtedly ould have met the same fate had we taken that road as the Indians were on our trail and were in aot safely back to New Ulm and later Mrs Eastlake and her children and Mr Ireland caees The sufferings and hardshi+ps endured by the older Eastlake boy soon carried hirave

COLONIAL CHAPTER

Minneapolis

CARRIE SECOMBE CHATFIELD

(Mrs E C Chatfield)

RUTH HALL VAN SANT

(Mrs S R Van Sant)

Miss Carrie Stratton--1852

My father was Levi W Stratton as born in Bradford, N H, who ca up a claim where Marine now stands

He helped to build the old mill there, the ruins of which are still to be found there After two or three years he removed to Alton, Ill, where he re my mother there in 1842

In 1852 he returned to Minnesota, cole” His family consisted of est an infant of sixa child of but seven years, my memory of the appearance of the town at that time, is very indistinct

In fact the only clear ren upon a building directly across the street froht It was ”Minnesota Outfitting Coe family of little children, I had been put into school when I was between two and three years of age and so was able to read, write and spell, and I have a very vivid recollection of the three long words of that sign

We cahby Coe line in Minnesota The driver stopped to water his horses at the famous old Des Noyer ”Half Way House”

We stopped at the old St Charles Hotel while the house ed was made ready for us It was the Calvin Tuttle home, which was on the river bank at the foot of the University hill

My father's previous residence in Minnesota had taught hie and so the Indians were frequent visitors at our house on one errand or another, generally, however to get so to eat The first time they ca seen any Indians before, was veryable to understand what they wanted, she iined with aactually too terrified to stand any longer, she took the baby and went into her room and laid down upon the bed After a while, either from intuition, or froive the to eat, which hat they wanted and they then went peaceably away The rest of the children, like htened, but instead, were very ay blankets and feathered head dress After that they were frequent visitors but always peaceable ones, never co any misdemeanor