took my sister over on the logs to pick strawberries on the end
of what is now Eastman Island. They were large, very plentiful and
sweet. Almost every tree that grew anywhere in the new territory grew
there. Black walnut grew there and on Nicollet Island.

Mrs. Silas Farnham--1849.

Mrs. Silas Farnham says: I came to St. Anthony in 1849. My husband had a
little storehouse for supplies for the woods, across from our home on
the corner of Third Avenue and Second Street, Southeast. A school house
was much needed so they cleared this out and Miss Backus taught the
first school there. It was also used for Methodist preachin'. Our first
aid society was held there in '49.

I well remember the first Fourth of July celebration in 1849. The women
found there was no flag so knew one must be made. They procured the
materials from Fort Snelling and the flag was made in Mrs. Godfrey's
house. Those working on it were Mrs. Caleb Dorr, Mrs. Lucien Parker,
Misses Julia and Margaret Farnham, Mrs. Godfrey and myself. I cut all
the stars. Mr. William Marshall who had a small general store was orator
and no one could do better. That reminds me of that little store. I just
thought I'd laugh out loud the first time I went in there. There were
packs of furs, all kinds of Indian work, hats and caps, tallow dips and
more elegant candles, a beautiful piece of delaine for white women and
shoddy bright stuff for the squaws, a barrel of rounds of pork most used
up, but no flour, that was all gone. There was a man's shawl, too, kind
of draped up. You know men wore shawls in them days; some hulled corn
the Indians done, too, I saw. But to return to that first Fourth--it
seemed a good deal like a Farnham Fourth, for the music which was just
soul stirrin' was sung by them and the Gould boys. When the Farnhams all
got out, it made a pretty big crowd for them days. Perhaps their voices
wan't what you call trained, but they had melody. Seems to me nowadays
some of the trained high-falutin' voices has just got that left out.
Seems so to me--seems so. All the Farnhams just sung natural, just like
birds. Old Doctor Kingsley played the bass viol so it was soul stirrin'
too. Margaret Farnham, the president of our first aid society married a
Hildreth--Julia a Dickerson.

In '49 my husband paid a ten cent shin plaster for three little apples
no bigger than crabs. I tried to make these last a long time by just
taking a bite now and then, but of course, they c