Part 21 (1/2)

Mrs W L Niemann

My mother was Sophia Oakes She was born in Sault Ste Marie in 1823

She was the daughter of Charles Oakes who had charge of a trading post for the American Fur Company Her mother died when she was a very small child and her father removed with his two children, er, to La Pointe, where he had charge of another post of the sa and severely cold and many times they would be shut in by the depth of the snow for weeks at a time One time in particular the snoas so deep and the cold so intense that they had been sobund so long that their supplies were alet a fresh supply They were gone an to suffer for want of food and were obliged to go out and scrape away the snow to find acorns They also ate the bark of trees

Finally randfather concluded that he, too, et solass, with deerskins In getting ready to leave the children, grandfather took down these skins and replaced them with blankets to keep out the cold and boiled the skins to provide a soup for the children to drink while he was gone My mother elve and her sister was ten

Grandfather had not gone far when his feet were both frozen and he lay disabled in the snow So, and carried hi When they reached the house he refused to be carried in, for he kneould surely lose his feet if he went in where it arm He asked for an awl and punctured his feet full of holes and had the ly painful, both at the time and afterwards, saved him his feet

When he and his one all day and all night and into the next afternoon, and they found the little girls locked in each other's arht before

Soon after the little girls were sent to school back in New York andfrom a seminary in Fredonia

On her return to her home, she was married to my father, Jere on an exploring trip He settled first at Edina Mills, but soon went to Marine, where with Franklin Steele and Levi Stratton he built a sawmill, (1838) the ruins of which can still be seen

In '49 he went to take charge of a trading post for the American Fur Company which was located two miles above Sauk Rapids After a few years he purchased the land where Sauk Rapids stands, laid out the town and e hotel which was called the Hyperborean Hotel, which took a prominent part in the history of the town as it was the scene of s It served to shelter the townspeople when they were driven fros Later it was remodeled by neners and rechristened the Russell House in honor of my father

One time, before I was born and while my parents still lived at the post, a band of warlike Indians, each arun came to the house and completely filled the kitchen My brother, as a very small child was attracted by the fire arun This angered the Indian and with a terrible scowl he put his finger on the trigger as if to shootup before him and with a very fierce voice (which was the only way to deal with theun This he did but with bad grace My father then spoke to the chief and told him to keep order, which he did, and they soon went away But ive them up to the authorities, for he found, soon after, that they had killed and scalped three white men, just a short time before they ca in Sauk Rapids, a Chippewa caht My father knew that there was a band of Sioux camped just across the river, in plain view of our house So father surave hi that he would not show hiainst us if they kneere harboring a Chippewa The Indian pro outside, saw hiun across the river She told my father, ent in and made him desist and nailed up theWhen ent to bed that night father did not take pains to lock the Indian in After ere asleep he crept out and slipped away, and beforeSioux and killed every one of them

Christmas in those hard times did not mean to us little pioneer children what it does now There was no spareup our stockings, but got nothing in them but a little cheap candy, and perhaps a few raisins But one year, father detere a little better Christh fire wood to exchange in St Cloud for a barrel of apples Then he divided off one end of our sitting rooed a puppet show behind it And with the village children in one end of the roo the puppets, we celebrated the day in a very happy way

Mrs F Hoefer of Mound was an old settler of Watertown, and gives so information of the prices of food-stuffs after the war, as follows:

”Flour was 15 a barrel, wheat was 5 a bushel, potatoes were 250 a bushel and calico was thirty-five cents a yard My husband's salary for that su the winter months we had barley coffee and pancakes, no bed clothes and no clothes for the children Our bed quilt was a bear skin When , walking twelvethe twelve ain”

Ex-Governor Samuel R Van Sant--1857

My father with his fa on the ”Adventure,” on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers Like most of the early pioneers he was poor and had to work Tickets were sold at a less price if the passenger would help to wood the boat; e of this proposition On board as a passenger, was the old Indian Chief, Black Hawk He was ave her a very fine string of beads The beads, or a part of them, are still in our family

My father took up a claim near Rock Island on the banks of the Rock River While there, the family suffered all the privations of early settlers in a new country Farreat success of it He was a shi+p builder by trade

Once he took a load of pu fifty cents for the a dollar to repair it He often said he never felt so poor in all his life, although he lived to be ninety-two years of age On another occasion ere out of provisions He et 50c worth of cornmeal, but the proprietor would not trust hiet a half dollar that had been laid by for a rainy day He was thus forced to make another trip to secure the purchase; by this tiry

On another occasion, after killing his hogs, he drove with them one hundred miles to the lead mines at Galena, but the market was over stocked so he proceeded to Platteville, Wisconsin, twenty or more miles further, where he sold the pork for two and one-half cents per pound, taking one half in store pay and the other half in a note The note is still unpaid It required a week or reat fondness for the Mississippi River I was born on its banks and for ated its water My first dollar was spent to buy a s on the river My first trip to St Paul was in 1857 I was a boy of thirteen What progress since that tihty factor in the settlerowth and develop the pal, rants, their household goods and stock to this coular lines of steamers, there were also many outside boats which were tero on the Ohio River, or at St Louis and coe profits would result

A story is told of the steamer, ”Fire Canoe” (I will not ot aground a gooders ithout meat but soon there seemed to be a plentiful supply of nice fresh veal--one of the passengers ith his fa to Minnesota, co such fineso, hunted up the Captain and said, ”Captain, if it is all the same to you, I would prefer to dispense withstock when I reach reat strife to be the first boat to arrive at St Paul and h Lake Pepin before the ice had really left the lake Many steae to the first boat was free wharfage the balance of the season in every town and city along the river

Two steaht of each other without a race We owned and operated a good many boats We had a fast one named the ”McDonald” I remember on one occasion my partner, Mr Musser, a well known lu a trip with us We had a very spirited race with another swift boat; after a long, hard chase we passed her, but we had to tri steam to do it After it was over, Mr Musser said to me, ”If I were you, I would not race any reed that he was right and that ould not do so again We had not been in our berths long before another boat was overtaken and a race was on Mr Musser arose, forgot his advice of a few hours previous, and said, ”Pass that boat and I will pay for the extra fuel” The boat was passed, but no bill was presented for the extra fuel