til we reached the
appointed place, where perhaps, eight, ten or a dozen persons spent the
afternoon or evening, in the one little room, where the meal was being
prepared and the table spread. There were no sets or clans, no grades of
society, all belonged to the select four hundred, and all were treated
and fared alike. Friendships were formed which were never broken, and
when recalled always revive tender memories.

August 18th, 1862, the Sioux Indian troubles began. There were no
railroads, no telegraph or telephone lines, but one stage line, and I
could never understand how the reports of these troubles traveled as
rapidly as they did. On August 19th this whole country had reasonably
reliable information of the uprising. A neighbor came to our house in
the night, neighbor went to neighbor and so the news traveled. The men
were in a fury of excitement and anxiety, the women and children were
quaking with fear. Wagons were hastily loaded with women and children,
and a little food, animals were turned loose to provide for themselves;
houses were left unlocked, oxen were hitched to the wagons, and a
general stampede was started toward the east, with all eyes turned
toward the west. No one knew whither they were going, they only knew
that they dare not stay.

A halt was made at Shelbyville, the strongest buildings were selected
for occupancy, the women and children were placed inside, and the men
acted as pickets. In our whole country there were scarcely a dozen guns.
The reports came worse and worse, and another pell-mell stampede began
for the east, some stopping at Wilton, Owatonna and Rochester. After
waiting two or three weeks, and hearing encouraging reports, some of the
more venturesome returned to their homes with their families, only to
remain a few days, and to be again driven away by the near proximity of
the Indians, and the sickening reports of their savage murders.

This condition continued until late in the fall, when, under the general
belief that the Indians would not move on the warpath in the winter, the
greater number of settlers returned to their homes to save what they
could of their nearly destroyed and wasted crops. Some never returned.
With feelings of partial security, and encouraged by their escape from
slaughter thus far, the settlers remained at their homes, under an
intense strain of anxiety, but nearly undisturbed until 1864, when the
rumblings and rumors of Indian troubles were again hea