harge, which
was for sale for $2100.00 or $12.50 an acre. He said, "I'll go and see
it." Two or three hours later as I still sat dreaming, as there was no
other business of any kind for any one to do, the man returned and after
asking about the title of the land which its owner had pre-empted, said
that he would think about it and went into the bank. Having made some
inquiries as to my responsibility, he shortly reappeared with a bundle
of greenbacks of small denominations and counted out the $2100.00. They
were the first government bank notes I had ever seen and such a sum of
money as had not been seen in Faribault in many months. My client then
said, "Now young man, you'll see that land worth $25.00 an acre some
day." Today it is part of the Weston farm and is valued at $150.00 an
acre and is the nicest farm in the county.

The first political machine in the State was organized in Faribault the
year Minnesota became a State. Five or six of us young men decided to
put a little new life into politics and we prepared a slate. It was five
or six against a hundred unorganized voters and we carried the caucus
and were all sent as delegates to the Convention. Here also our modern
method produced a revolution, but such a fight resulted that the
Convention split and some of them went over to vote the Democratic
ticket. However, we elected a fair proportion of our candidates and
defeated those who had been holding the offices by force of habit.

Mrs. Rodney A. Mott--1857.

We came to Faribault, I think, the nicest and easiest way. We drove from
Illinois in a covered immigrant wagon. At first we tried to find
lodgings at night, but the poor accommodations and the unwillingness to
take us in, led us at last to sleep in the wagon, and we came to prefer
that way. After we got away from the really settled country, everyone
welcomed us with open arms and gladly shared with us everything they
had.

We came up through Medford. I begged to stay there, but Mr. Mott
insisted on going to Faribault as they had planned. Our first house was
a little cabin on the site of the present cathedral and later we lived
in a house where the hay market now stands, but this was lost on a
mortgage during the hard times in 1857.

Mrs. Kate Davis Batchelder--1858.

As Kate Davis, a girl of ten, I came with my brother, a lad of eighteen
and a sister fourteen, from New York to Wisconsin. Our father was in
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where his business