felt compelled to
pass an act to correct their errors. The correction has not yet been
made, but in the cause of true history it is to be hoped that it will be
in the near future. The state also erected a handsome monument, in the
cemetery of Fort Ridgely, to Captain Marsh and the twenty-three men of
his company that were killed at the ferry, near the Lower Sioux Agency,
on Aug. 18, 1862, and, by special act, passed long after at the request
of old settlers, added the name of Peter Quinn, the interpreter, who was
killed at the same time and place. The state also built a monument in
the same cemetery in remembrance of the wife of Dr. Muller, the post
surgeon at Ridgely during the siege, on account of the valuable services
rendered by her in nursing the wounded soldiers.

A LONG PERIOD OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY.

After the stirring events of the Civil and Indian wars Minnesota resumed
its peaceful ways, and continued to grow and prosper for a long series
of years, excepting the period from 1873 to 1876, when it was afflicted
with the plague of grasshoppers. Possessed of the many advantages that
nature has bestowed upon it, there was nothing else for it to do. The
state, as far as it was then developed, was exclusively agricultural,
and wheat was its staple production, although almost every character of
grain and vegetable can be produced in exceptional abundance. Potatoes
of the first quality were among its earliest exports, but that crop is
not sufficiently valuable or portable to enter extensively into the
catalogue of its productions, beyond the needs of domestic use.

INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW PROCESS OF MILLING WHEAT.

The wheat raised in Minnesota was, and always has been, of the spring
variety, and up to about the year 1874 was regarded in the markets of
the world as an inferior article of grain, when compared with the winter
wheat of states further south, and the flour made from it was also
looked upon as much less valuable than its competitor, made from winter
wheat. The state labored under this disability in realizing upon its
chief product for many years, both in the wheat, and the flour made from
it. Many mills were erected at the Falls of St. Anthony, with a very
great output of flour, which, with the lumber manufactured at that
point, composed the chief export of the state. The process of grinding
wheat was the old style, of an upper and nether millstone, which left
the flour of darker color,