to prove up--making $800 for one hundred and sixty acres or $5 an acre;
that land fifty years later was well worth $100 an acre. For three years
we were eaten out by grasshoppers.

While here at Minnetonka Mills I often had Indians come to my house. On
one occasion I stood churning when an Indian stepped in and took the
dasher from me indicating that he wanted some of it. I was not afraid of
him and took the dasher from him and pushed him aside with my elbow. I
had just finished baking and so gave him a large slice of bread,
spreading it generously with butter. He dug the center out of the piece
crowding it into his mouth, throwing the crust on the hearth. This
angered me as my crust was soft and tender and I picked up a broom and
started toward him yelling "puck-a-chee" (get out) and he rushed for the
door and disappeared.

We then concluded, after such bad luck with our crops, we would move
back to St. Paul, where Mr. Gress could work at his trade, that of a
shoemaker.

Mr. Gress would bring home work at night when I would assist him. We
made a very high, cloth, buttoned shoe, called a snow shoe. I would
close the seams, front and back, all by hand, as we had no machine; open
seams and back, stitch down flat, and would bind the tops and laps and
make fifteen or twenty buttonholes, for 50c a pair. The soles would then
be put on in the shop. For slippers I received 15c for closing and
binding the same way. During the war I made shirts and haver-sacks for
the soldiers. The shirts were dark blue wool and were well made and
finished. I broke the record one day when I made six of these garments
and took care of four small children.

Mr. Alvin M. Olin--1855.

We came to Minnesota in 1855. We brought with us four yoke of oxen,
thirty-five head of cattle and three hogs. We, with a family of three
sons and a daughter, were four weeks on the way. We crossed the river on
a ferry at Prairie du Chien and came up through Rochester and Cannon
Falls and camped at Stanton while I went to a claim near Kenyon, that I
had taken up the fall before, to find it had been jumped so I came on to
Northfield and took up a claim on the Cannon River. We had with us two
covered wagons--known as prairie schooners. In these we had our
provisions, composed of flour, smoked meats and a barrel of crackers. We
also had our furniture, chairs and chests and two rocking chairs for the
mother and daughter. Here all of their leisure time, while on the