The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1898-04-07

| o mine came ana confessed she had
committed the crime O orderin' bon
net at milliner' . that it couldn't be
| got for the charges; and pitifully
! pleaded that we wat the next boat, a
week later, that money might be earn
ed and that pesky bonnet got. roar
ed like anything, but let her have her
own way. We got the bonnet but
I'm afeared made that wee womans
life little short of hell till news came
in few days that the boat we were
first going on blew up. and every soul
on board was lost. An I tell We my
little song -singin' wife had her way
about bOnnets ever sincei'
Arrived at Chicago, their fate for a
time was much as that of so many un.
sophisticated emf grants in a new
country. The unfortunate couple were
lured across the dreary prairies to
Warsaw, ILL.,, robbed of everything
they possessed, but succeeded to walk
back to Chicago, where good "auld
Bobbie Fergus" was found. lie gave
them shelter and divided his own
scrimped food with them. A little
work was gotby P;nkerton at his trade
of Lill, the first Chicago maltster. But
they were rueful days these. This
was in the summer Of 1912. A tenn
perance revival, conducted by her
culean Scotchman who sung old
country ballads with marvellous effect.
was in progress. The little printing
shop of Fergus q Ellis collected and
printed these songs Mrs. Pinkerton
folded the little volumes. Allan Pink
erton trimmed them with shoemak
er's knife, punched the holes for the
stitches with shoemaker's awl, and
Pinkerton cnu wife together, with a
darning needle, stitched every copy of
this. the first song book ever printed
in Chicago.
But this was only trit1ing make
shift at best. The indomitable spirit
idleness or TIE semblance or charity
from a friend. A half dozen Scotch
families had formed a settlement on
the banks of the beautiful Fox river,
some fifty miles northwest of Chicago,
to day the richest and most prosper
Gus section of Illinois, known as Chi
cago's dairy" They called the ham
f Dundee after their own "bonnle"
Scotch city, and it is as fair and love
ly a spot. with its murmurous river,
splendid forests, noble hills, sunlit
valleys, and opulent herds as all
Scotland can boast. Pinkerton had
heard of dundee and the Scotch set
tiers about it. Pm going there, Jean,
he suddenly announced one August
morning.
III make their barrels, churns, and
tubs. You bide here wi Fergus. Ill
get roof Ger our heads first. Then
I'U SEN for We, wife" Joan walked
| with him to the village bridge, for
Chicago was then but village, and
an old boat, or pontoon bridge, at
Lake street led oyer a mud road to
the trackless and then almost unknown
west. She stood at the bridge, and
the dauntless cooper, with his tools
slung over his shoulder, bade his little
wife good-by and trudged away
through the mud between the tall
reeds and grasses and was soon lost
from sight My heart was broakln'
Quite 1 once heard Mrs. Pinkerton
saw. Il could na bear it when the
great grass swallowed him up like, SO
Quick. But l kenn'd from the brave
whustle l could hear, long after |
could ma see him longer, that there'd
be a wee home soonw And SO there
was. Not stones throw from the
pretty river bridge at Dundee. there
stands to this day little brown cabin
that was built then; and long after
the cooper of Dundee had unalded
driven the coLfeiters from Illinois.
the fame of which literally forced his
subsequent career upon him, long at.
ter a palatial home and fame had
come. have heard Allan Pinke-ton's
sweet Scotch wife say with mists OF
loving memory IN his kindly eyes:
'An' in the little shop at Dundee, vi
the blue river purlin' doom the valley,
the auld Scotch farmers trundlin' doom
the road with their grists TO the mill,
or their loads to market; an Allan
wi his rata ta-tatr on the barrels
a. whustlin', keepin' time wi both to
my ain singin', were the bonniest days
the guide Fayther e'er gae in a my
hfer'