The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-06-10

! try with a very bosom of destruction
j We came near losing everything We
had Sam was loser; quite a guam
tty of his hay was destroyed. Very
shortly after the fire he made us an
informal call, and in language not the
most polite, but very emphatic, de
claYed his intention to leave the coun
try at once. and offered to sell u bis
claim. We bought it: 100 acres of land
three acres broken a small stack OF
hay not burned, his sod stable and
board shanty. For The purchase price
we gave him shot gun and hauled
two loads of his worldly goods TO Man
kato.
This WAS my first visit to Mankato
and my last visit to Sam TAFT. We
removed our shanty 10 our new pur-
chase at once. Two years ago my
brother and sold the farm for So. 900
and it was well worth it, II seemed
at first i'll those early days impossible
to have social relations with anyone.
"Neiehbors as we had known them,
we had none. The nearest settlers were
Il mile distant from us. ana there were
but four or five families nearer than
two or three miles distant But we
soon learned that we had nei.hbo.s
even through the distance was consd-
cradle. Filst one neiehbor and then
another would extend TO every family
in the vicinity an invitation to spend
an afternoon OF an evening; some one
v ould hitch his oxen TO his wagon or
sled. and going from house to house.
gather up full load, well rounded
up. and then. at the usual gait FOX
such conveyances. we rode and visited
and sang until we reached the appoint
ed place, where perhaps eight ten or
IL dozen persons spent the afternoon or
evening. in the one little room. where
the meal was being prepared and the
table spread. There were 10 sets or
clans. no grades of society, all be-
lon2ed to the select four hundred. and
all were treated and Jared alike Friend
ships were formed which were never
broken. and when recalled always re-
vive tender memories.
"A man was asked: why did you
return to he west. after having gone
back to New York and having spent
two years there His answer was:
would you want to spend
your life where the people twenty feet
away did not know your name or care
whether you live or die? We used to
have nei.hbors in the west, but when
our baby died in New York. not
to the cemetery. We thought we
would come back home How very
many have had nearly the same expert
enee. In the congested districts it
seems to be everyone for himself.
'On the frontier settler becomes
i'll, and his grain is sown, planted and
harvested. Who by? Neighbors. \
widow buries her husband and her ex-
perience is the same.
Kindness of Neighbors.
1T is no light thing for one to leave
his own harvest and go miles to save
the crop of another but il is and has
been done times without number, and
by those who are tried and true neigh
bors, and the sentiment which prompts
such kindly acts counts for something
some time, and it means something in
making up the sum total of happiness
in this short life of ours
''Thc human heart is hungry for so
cial intercourse with fellow beings, it
is hungry for ncishbors, and of all
places on earth u frontier settlement
is where they can be found What
did we have to eat that first year?
Potatoes and corn. No flour, no meat.
some milk. | doubt whether there was
a barrel of -four within three miles
of our home. No wheat had been
raised, no hogs had been fattened; corn
and potatoes were the only food.
"In 1859. 1860 and 1861 the south
west part of the county was supplied
with mail by weekly stage route
from Mankato to Garden City, Vernon
and Shelbyville, thence on to Winnie
bago and Blue Earth City. The post
office for our country for miles around
was Shelbyville. This promising town
was plated in 1856, about two miles
south from the present village of Am
boy, by John w. Powell Father
Powell whom many of you knew
Father Powell started IA general store
and Robert Shannon opened hotel.
soon became quite smart
little village, and in 1859 there was
general store, two sawmills, a black
smith shop and quite number of
residences. Both sawmills for Il por-
ton of the time had facilities for grind J
ing corn to limited extent, and in a
very crude way
We were four miles away from
Shelbyville, and to get our mail we
must 90 this distance, and cross the ;
Blue Earth river. either in canoe or /
by fordiDg. | remember one occasion
in the very early spring, when the
river was scarcely free from ice, and |
was badly swollen, filling its banks, |
five or six of us, neiehbors, started
for Shelbyville on foot to get our mail.
and to hear the postmaster read the
news from weekly st. Paul paper
which came to him, there being at
that time, | think, no newspaper taken
west of the river. We reached the
river, the ice had gone out, and the
boat was on the other side. We agreed
Il 10 thn Oh