J. Morehart
Mrs. E. C. Chatfield
Mrs. S. R. Van Sant
Miss Beatrice Longfellow
Miss Rita Kelly
Mrs. F. W. Little
Mrs. O. H. Shepley
Mrs. Alonzo Phillips
Mrs. Guy Maxwell
Miss Marion Moir
Mrs. E. A. Welch
Miss Ida Wing
Mrs. Mary E. Partridge
Mrs. Ell Torrance
Miss Stella Cole
Mrs. C. A. Bierman
Mrs. Chas. Keith
Miss Emily Brown
Mrs. G. C. Lyman
Mrs. A. B. Kaercher
Mrs. W. S. Woodbridge
Miss K. Maude Clum

The Reason

When I was a child my grandmother, Lucy Leavenworth Sherwood, used to
show us a little map drawn on the back of a cotillion invitation, by her
cousin Henry Leavenworth, the first officer at Fort Snelling. He was
there in 1819.

It was yellow with age, but showed Fort Snelling, Lake Harriette, named
for his wife, other lakes and two rivers. That yellow bundle of letters
read to us and the stories she told of this, her favorite cousin, as he
had told them to her never failed in breathless interest. Few of them
remain with me. The painted Indian in his canoe on the river, the Indian
runner, stand out vividly, but the valuable stories contained in those
old letters are gone. Nothing was ever a greater surprise than the loss
of those stories when I tried to recall them years later. The Bible with
the map and all those letters were burned when the home was destroyed by
fire.

These valuable data have disappeared. The knowledge that this was so,
made me listen with the greatest attention to stories told by the old
settlers and record them. All at once the realization came that they,
too, were fast disappearing, taking their stories with them. It was
impossible for me to get all these precious reminiscences before it was
too late. It must be done at once by a large number of interested women.
These were found in our committee who have gathered these data most
lovingly and financed this book. The proceeds are for patriotic work in
Minnesota as deemed best by the committee.

It is hoped that our first work will be the raising of a monument to the
Pioneer Women of our State. Those unsung heroines should not their
heroism be heralded while some still live?

We thank these dear friends who have made this little volume possible by
their warm interest. Every item in this book has been taken personally
from a pioneer.

Each one is a mesh in a priceless lace fabric, that fabric Minnesota
History.

If each mesh is not flawless, if a