Old Rail Fence Corners: The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History
History
Old Rail Fence Corners: The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History
Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota; Minnesota -- Biography; Minnesota -- History, Local; Pioneers -- Minnesota -- Biography
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 remained for ten or twelve years marrying my mother there in
1842.
In 1852 he returned to Minnesota, coming up the river in the old "War
Eagle." His family consisted of my mother, myself and my four brothers
and sisters, the youngest an infant of six months.
We arrived at St. Paul on June 8. Being a child of but seven years, my
memory of the appearance of the town at that time, is very indistinct.
In fact the only clear remembrance of anything there, is of a large sign
upon a building directly across the street from the little inn or tavern
where we stopped for the night. It was "Minnesota Outfitting Company."
On account of our large 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 came from St. Paul to St. Anthony in the stage of the Willoughby
Company, which was the first stage 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 my father had
engaged 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 him to understand
and speak the Indian language and so the Indians were frequent visitors
at our house on one errand or another, generally, however to get
something to eat. The first time they came, my father was absent, and my
mother, never having seen any Indians before, was very much frightened.
Not being able to understand what they wanted, she imagined with a
mother's solicitude, that they wanted the baby, and being actually 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
from the motions the Indians made, it occurred to her to give them
something to eat, which was what they wanted and they then went
peaceably away. The rest of the children, like myself, did not appear to
be at all frightened, but instead, were very much entertained by the
novel sight of the Indians in their gay blankets and feathered head
dress. After that they were frequent visitors but always peaceable ones,
never committing any misdemeanor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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