The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-03-10

lodge with his squaw wife on the
river bottoms just above Fort Smell
ing. The second night they passed
with Thomas Holmes at his new cab
in which he had just built at Shak-
opee. The third night they reached
the trading post of Louis Robert near
Belle Plaine, and here Jackson was
taken suddenly i'll and returned in
the cutter with one of the men the
next morning. The rest of the party
pushed ahead and camped the fourth
night on the present site of LeSueur.
The fifth day they reached Traverse
Des Sioux and put up at the cabin OF
Louis Provencelle, commonly known
as Leblanc" which stood near
where the st. Peter asylum now
stands. This man was the son of an
old trader at Traverse Des Sioux
and son-inlaw of Sleepy Eye, a
famous Indian chief, and large
village of this chiefs band was STU
ated on the Kasota prairie across
from the cabin. Here the travellers
found their progress arrested, as the
old chief declared that his young
men would not permit any white
settlement at the mouth of the Blue
Earth, as their principal sugar camp
was located there
Pork and Tact.
It took all of Johnson's tact and Il
little more pork than he had, for he
had to give the chief an order upon
Jackson for another barrel, to get
matters adjusted. This done, they
were allowed to proceed, and LIE
Blanc accompanied them with his
pony and sleigh. Arriving at the
Blue Earth, they camped upon its
bank on the south side of the mound,
which even then was known as Slb-
ley mound, from the fact that Gen.
Sibley had had trading post upon
it some years before. Owing to the
land there being subject to overflow,
as was evidenced by the debris
strewn over it from the great food
of the previous summer, the party re-
turned to the east Size OF the big
slough. Here, on a grass covered
prairie, dotted here and there with
clumps of bushes and trees, MankatO
was located. After assisting i'll cut
ting and hauling logs for cabin,
Mr.. Paddock and De Moreau return
ed to st. Paul, while the others re-
mained IN build tLe cabin
Story Told BY Mr.. Paddock.
The Daily Free Press got out a
souvenir edition at the time of the
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary
Paddock made the following contri-
button to it: "In the year 1851,
came to st. Paul, MINI. | was then
quite young man, possessed of not
very much of this worlds goods, and
sought employment, which | found in
that city, and worked there until the
latter part of January, 1852, when ]
was induced by p. K. Johnson and
others to come to the southerly
bend OF the Minnesota river, which
udppeleu W De dDOul WUeIC Mall
kato is now located. We left st.
Paul with six persons in the party,
Henry Jackson, p. X. Johnson, John
James, Dan. Williams, Louis De Nor
eau and myself We made the trip
to Sibley mound in seven days and
camped for the night, and looked
around until about noon the next
day, when we hitched up our team
and came back to where Mankato
now stands and camped for the night.
We then picked out place to build
a shanty and commenced cutting
logs and hauled them directly to the
rear of where o. w. Schmidt's har-
ness shop now stands, and rolled
| them up in the shape of a log
house. l think the shanty was twelve
by fourteen feet. We were four
days at it. When it was finished,
Louis Moreaa, who owned the team,
and myself went back to ST. Paul
All of the feed that we had for the
horses was browse. Either we led
them into thicket or cut down