to the end of the
line. I came up on the Sentinel with Captain Steve Hanks. He was captain
of a raft boat then. It took ten days to come from Albany, Illinois.
There was nothing to parade over in those days. We took it as it come
and had happy lives. Stillwater was a tiny, struggling village under the
bluffs--just one street. A little later a few people built in the bluffs
and we would climb up the paths holding onto the hazelbrush to help us
up. Stillwater was headquarters for Minnesota lumbering then. We would
all gather together and in about two minutes would be having a good
time--playing cards or dancing. The mill boarding house had the largest
floor to dance on and we used to go there often. We used to waltz and
dance contra dances. None of these new jigs and not wear any clothes to
speak of. We covered our hides in those days; no tight skirts like now.
You could take three or four steps inside our skirts and then not reach
the edge. One of the boys would fiddle awhile and then someone would
spell him and he could get a dance. Sometimes they would dance and
fiddle too.

We would often see bears in the woods. They were very thick.

When we staged it to St. Paul down the old Government Road, we would go
down a deep ravine and up again before we really got started. We paid a
dollar each way. Once they charged me a dollar for my little girl
sitting in my lap. We used to pass Jack Morgan's.

Once we moved out on the Government Road, three miles from Morgan's. It
was a lonesome place. The Chippewas and Sioux were on the warpath as
usual. A large party of Sioux camped right by us. They were dressed for
what they were going after, a war dance, and were all painted and
feathered. They were looking in the windows always. It used to make me
sick to see their tracks where they had gone round and round the house.
My husband was on the survey most of the time so I was there alone with
my baby a great deal. One Sunday I was all alone when a lot of bucks
come in--I was so frightened I took my baby's little cradle and set it
on the table. She had curly hair and they would finger it and talk in
their lingo. When they left I took the baby and hailed the first team
going by and made them come and stay with me. It was the Cormacks from
St. Anthony. I made my husband move back to Stillwater the next day.

The Sioux killed a Chippewa father and mother and took the son, twelve
years old, captive. They had the scalp dance in Stillwater