gone up the river the day before. So my father left us there
for the winter and came up by the stage.

The end of his journey found him in the little town of Harmony, which
was afterwards changed to Richfield, and is now within the city limits
of Minneapolis.

Here he was able to buy for $100 a claim of two hundred and sixty acres,
with a house upon it, which was only partly finished, being, however
entirely enclosed. This particular claim attracted his attention on
account of the house, as his family was so soon to follow. It began at
what is now Fiftieth street and Lyndale Avenue and continued out Lyndale
three quarters of a mile. The house (with some addition) is still
standing on Lyndale Avenue between Fifty Third and Fifty Fourth streets.
Minnehaha creek ran through the farm and the land on the north side of
the creek (part of which is now in Washburn Park) was fine wooded land.

When the first boat came up the river in the spring it brought my mother
and us boys. My father had sent us word to come up to Fort Snelling on
the boat, but we had not received the message and so got off at St.
Paul and came up to St. Anthony by stage and got a team to take us to
our new home. We found it empty, as my father and an uncle who was also
here, had gone to the fort to meet us. As we went into one of the back
rooms, a very strange sight met our eyes. My father and uncle had set a
fish trap in the creek the night before and had poured the results of
their catch in a heap on the floor and there was such a quantity of fish
that it looked like a small haycock. This was done for a surprise for
us, and as such, was a great success, as we were only accustomed to the
very small fish that lived in the creek that ran through our home town
in Maine, and these long pickerel and large suckers were certainly a
novelty.

We salted them down and packed them in barrels and for a long time had
plenty of fish to eat, to sell and to give away.

Our house soon took on the character of a public building, as my father
was made Postmaster, Town Treasurer and Justice of the Peace, and all
the town meetings were held there, as well as church and Sunday school.
My father gave five acres down at the creek to a company who erected a
grist mill and the settlers from fifty or sixty miles away would come to
have grain ground and would all stop at our house to board and sleep
while there. Then the house would be so full that we boys would have to
sleep on