d the Winnebagoes roved at will over the entire
country.

One night mother was awakened by an unusual noise. She called father,
who got up and opened the bedroom door. The sight that met their eyes
was enough to strike terror to the heart of any settler of those days.
The room was packed with Indians--Winnebagoes--men, women and children,
but they were more frightened than we were. They had had some encounter
with the Sioux and had fled in terror to our house. After much
persuasion, father induced them to leave the house and go down to a
small pond where the timber was very heavy and they remained in hiding
for two days. We were in constant terror of the Sioux. All the settlers
knew they were a blood thirsty lot and often an alarm would be sent
around that the Sioux were surrounding the settlement. Mother would take
us children and hurry to the old stone mill at South Bend, where we
would spend the night.

They became more and more troublesome until father thought it unsafe to
remain any longer and took us back to our old home in Wisconsin.

Mr. I. A. Pelton--1858.

I came into the State of Minnesota in April, 1858 and to Mankato May 1,
1858 from the State of New York, where I was born and raised. This was a
pretty poverty stricken country then. The panic they had in November
1857 had struck this country a very hard blow. It stopped immigration.
Previous to this panic they had good times and had gone into debt
heavily, expecting to have good times right along. Everyone was badly in
debt and money was hard to get. Currency consisted of old guns, town
lots, basswood lumber, etc. These things were traded for goods and
groceries. Money was loaned at three to five per cent per month, or
thirty-six to sixty per cent per year. I knew of people who paid sixty
per cent a year for a short time. Three per cent a month was a common
interest. I hired money at that myself.

The farmers had not developed their farms much at that time. A farmer
who had twenty to twenty-five acres under plow was considered a big
farmer in those days. The summer of 1858 was a very disastrous,
unprofitable one. It commenced very wet and kept raining during the
summer until North Mankato was all under water and the river in places
was a mile wide. The river was the highest about the first of August.
The grain at the time of this heavy rain was ripening causing it to
blight, ruining the crop. Wheat at this time was worth from $2 to $3 per
bushel. A