0
Beans or peas, per bushel, 1.80
Vinegar, per gallon, 22
Corn meal, per pound, 2 2-1/2

Soon after the establishment of the fort, my father, as Commissary,
was requested by General Gibson to learn by experiment if wheat could
be raised in this part of the world, and the result proving that it
was a possibility, he was ordered to supply the garrison, at least in
part, with flour of their own raising. A letter bearing date August
5th, 1823, informs him that, "having learned by a letter from Colonel
Snelling to the Quartermaster General, dated April 2d, that a large
quantity of wheat may be raised this summer," the Assistant Commissary
of Subsistence at St. Louis had been directed to send to St. Peters
(as the fort was often called) such tools as should be necessary to
secure the grain and manufacture the flour, adding, "if any flour is
manufactured from the wheat raised, please let me know as early as
possible, that I may deduct the quantity manufactured at the post from
the quantity advertised to be contracted for," and here follows the
bill for the articles ordered for the purpose specified above:

One pair burr mill-stones, $250.11
337 pounds plaster of Paris, 20.22
Two dozen sickles, at $9, 18.00
-------
$288.33

This, then, was the outfit for the first flour mill in that part of
the great Northwest which was to be named "Minnesota" in later years,
and to become the greatest flour manufactory in the world. Remembering
clearly the great complaint of the destruction of grain by black
birds, I cannot think that the amount of wheat raised ever made the
command independent of outside supplies; but, having played around the
old mill many times, I know it was used for the purpose for which it
was fitted up.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: Mackinaw.]

_CHAPTER V._

Soon after we took possession of the fort, a post school was
established and some will remember the old school house just beyond
the main entrance, which has been used for various purposes, in later
years. It was there we children assembled day after day to learn to
spell in Webster's spelling book and to read in that time-honored
volume, of the "boy who stole the apples;" of the conceited "country
milk maid" who spilled her milk with a toss of her head; and of the
good "dog Tray," who fell in