Part 33 (1/2)

I had enlisted and ithsworn in when ain to tell us the Indians were on the war path We were ordered to St Peter at once and found the fa the toith cord wood and digging rifle pits in the bluffs But none of the families was molested within a radius of about seven miles Everyone as left in town had to help All the lead pipes were taken out of the wells and slugs were cut froe of the cattle at the Agency, waiting for the Indians to receive their pay, said to me when I came up on my last trip, ”Ji ugly They shot an ox and skinned it and we can't say a word” When the outbreak caency Five Indians shot at hio down to the ferry He would not go, so Jim slipped off and ran for the ferry

The boat had started across to Fort Ridgely, but he swam out and climbed on He went across, then the twelve miles to the fort and enlisted

Before this the Indians were driven to beg for food, their rations had been so slow in coovernment

I often think there is many a man that should have a monument to commemorate his brave deeds There was Duncan Kennedy of St Peter, one of the bravest es back and forth froely, alone When asked why he did not take someone with him, he said it was safer alone for if he saw an Indian he would knohat to do; he would lie down and be quiet If some one ith him, he would have to tell them to be quiet

Mrs John Crippen[4] was an early settler in the country, co here by way of the Morris trail There were two trails, one by way of Hutchinson, and the other following along the Minnesota River, the latter being the trail used during the Sibley Expedition

[Footnote 4: Mrs Kaercher's work begins with Mrs Crippen]

Mr and Mrs Crippen, with a baby about a year old, ca Stone lake where they endured rasshoppers took all the garden and grain After the first year new settlers began to co claied to live until another crop was raised In relating some of the experiences Mrs Crippen states that they had a house 10x12 and the first shi+ngled roof in this country at that tientlemen from Minneapolis, Messrs Hyde and Curtiss, had occasion to stay over night with the one on the floor for the breakfast she heard one of the gentle with one over to their bed It was over a year before they had any chickens or cow; she used to hunt plover's eggs and several tirind wheat and corn in a coffee mill The nearest railroad toas Morris forty miles northeast

The first 4th of July celebration was held near the lake at a place now called ”Point Co staff is still where they placed it A Mrs Tyler roasted a s, which they used as a center piece at the picnic dinner, entlemen, whose father was a minister in Minneapolis, had him send him sermons which he read on the Sabbath in the schoolhouse

C K Orton, the founder of Ortonville took a ho he returned for his faether with several neighbors They started in thethe old trail via New Ulm, thence to Montevideo When they reached Montevideo they discovered the bridges had washed away, so they were obliged to ford the Chippewa river which was very deep and rapid Mr and Mrs Orton rode side by side, he carrying a sack of flour which he lost while endeavoring to hold her, but which he afterward recovered It took the party several days to get their belongings, which consisted of cattle, horses, oxen, etc, on the west side of the river

They were badly frightened a few months later, which was after they had settled in their new ho Stone City, who came to them with a report that the Indians, five hundred in number, from the Sisseton reservation were on the war path and were headed their way

Mrs Orton and another wo alone with the children, say that they had a flat bottoet out into the middle of the lake and that if overtaken by the Indians, rather than be tortured as they had seen other people near New Ulm and other toould drown themselves and children, but luckily it was a false report

Mr Orton was the first postht once a week from Appleton, twenty-five on train hauled by oxen by which he carried flour and provisions to the settlers along the lake shore

There is a log cabin still standing in Big Stone City, which was built in the year 1857

A B Kaercher has in his possession the Governned by Franklin Pierce to his father, John Kaercher, for 160 acres of land in Fille of Preston, and erected the second flouring mill in the Territory of Minnesota

Lyman R Jones of Ortonville has a stove door taken from the ruins of the Presbyterian mission, built in 1838 and which was destroyed by fire March 3, 1854

Mr Roberts, an old tih the Sioux massacre

DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY CHAPTER

Duluth

FRANCES ANGELINE POOLE WOODBRIDGE (Mrs W S Woodbridge)

Mrs Nettleton

My husband and I caion in 1854 At first we lived in Superior, Wis, but in September of that year ent down to Madeline Island to the Indian payht the Duluth property froot title to the best of Minnesota Point This was the saave Chief Buffalo his four square miles of land in Duluth

Minnesota Point is a narrow neck of land sevenfro Lake Superior from St Louis Bay One day we had a picnic party of Superior people over on Minnesota Point A them were Mrs