very
thick and if anyone was out doors they would literally be eaten alive.
Mother's boarding house would be filled and people would be begging to
be allowed to come and sleep under the tables--anything to get in away
from the pests.

Mr. J. W. Huckins.

I enlisted from Minneapolis in Captain Strout's company which was sent
to guard the frontier at the time of the Indian outbreak. We went up the
Mississippi, then west to Litchfield, then to Glencoe and Hutchinson and
were finally at Acton, where the first blow fell. The place was
thirty-five miles northwest of the Lower Sioux agency, in Meeker county.

We soldiers found that our cartridges were not the right calibre. Some
of the men had personal rifles, and one was found who had a pair of
bullet molds of the right size. We took the bullets from the cartridges
and busied ourselves, making them over the right size, using the powder
and balls separately. During the engagement near Acton, the Indians
managed to completely surround the soldiers. The captain ordered his men
to dash through the Indian lines. The men ran for their lives, and those
on horseback were ordered, at point of guns, to wait for men on foot.
This sudden action took the Indians unawares and they were so surprised
they forgot to keep up the fire. Most of us effected an escape. Out of
sixty men but three were killed, though some twenty were wounded. We
fell back to Hutchinson where there was a stockade. The Indians were
getting quite fearless and would come in closer and closer to the
stockade. One man had a very rare, long range gun and killed an Indian
at the distance of a mile, after which the Indians kept a better
distance.

Mrs. C. W. Gress--1855.

We landed in St. Paul in April '55, making the trip in about three
weeks. We started on the boat, Minnesota Belle, but because of low water
our household effects had to be transferred at Davenport, Iowa, to a
small boat. There was a siege of cholera on the first boat, and two
bodies were taken ashore and buried in the sand.

During the time of transferring the baggage, I had to carry the money
for safe keeping. I made a wide belt with pockets of different lengths
suspended from it. Here, and in the pockets of my skirt was gold of all
denominations and some silver, of such weight that for three days I was
ill from carrying it. After spending a few days in St. Paul we moved to
Minnetonka Mills where we bought a relinquishment for $600 and paid $200