The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-06-28

CRAY
persons spent the afternoon or even
ing in the one little room wher
the meal was being prepared an,
the table spread. In this way man,
warm friendships were formed, new
en- TO be broken. Such neighbors
are as a rule, neighbors in fact a.
we'll as in name
Where They Are Neighbors.
a man was asked: "Why did vol
return to the west, after having gone
back to New York, and having spen
two years there?" His answer was:
"Neighbors Would you want tt
spend your life where the people
twenty feet away do not know your
name, or care whether you live or die
We used 10 have neighbors in the
west, but when our baby died in
! New York not a person came neal
us, and we went to the cemetery
alone. We thought we would come
back home"
How very many have had nearly
the same experience.
On the frontier a settler becomes
i'll and his grain is sown, planted and
harvested; widow buries her hus.
band and her experience is the same
Why is this? Because they have
neighbors
1t is no light thing for one to
leave his harvest and go miles to
save the crop of another, but it has
been done times without number,
and the neighborly sentiment which
prompts such kindly acts, counts for
something in making up the sum
total of human happiness in this
short life of ours
What did we have to eat that year?
Potatoes an corn. No flour, no
meat, some milk. I doubt whether
there was barrel of flour within
three miles of our home. No wheat
had been raised, no hogs had been
fattened; corn and potatoes were
the only food.
In 1S59-1S60 and 1861, the Blue
Earth valley was supplied with mail
by a weekly stage route from Man.
ville Winnebago and Blue Earth
City.
The postoffice for our country for
miles around was Shelbyville then
quite a promising village about two
miles south of the present village of
Amboy
The first religious service in our
neighborhood was conducted in a
little log schoolhouse near our home
in the early summer of 1860 and
was attended by very nearly the
entire settlement. The men were
nearly all in bare feet; the women
were dressed in drills and denims;
the children We're compelled to stand
for want of seats.
Birds Destroy Corn.
In 1860 large flocks of black-birds,
such as | think were never since
seen in this country attacked the
corn crops and destroyed much corn
This was general over all southwest
ern Minnesota. 1t is no eXaggera.
ton, whatever, when | say that
dense fiocks would consume an en-
tire day and even longer in flying
ed forty cents per hundred for their
heads, many were poisoned, but ap-
parently no good was accomplished.
The same year sand hill cranes
were so numerous, voracious and
bold that they could scarcely be
driven from the fields.
In the spring of 1862, the waters
in the Blue Earth river raised TWEEN
ty-siX feet in a few days. | believe
breaking the record for that eccentric
stream. flooding the bottoms. float
ing away much wood and fencing
material gotten out by the farmers,
and drowning several persons. One
family living in the bottom lands.
whose shanty was surrounded by
water in the night, losing several
children.
Soon came the war of the rebellion.
My older brother at once returned
to Wisconsin and enlisted in the
Third Wisconsin Volunteers.
In 1861, a state war tax of 81
for each legal voter was levied. My
heavy emergency tax to be sure.
but my brother-in-law and myself
worked an entire day and late into
the night, with two teams of oxen,
cutting large saw log and hauling
it to the mill at Shelbyville, which
log we sold for ST in order to pay
this tax.
] enlisted on August II, 1862. and
on August 18th the Sioux Indian
troubles began.
No Railroads in Those Days.
There were no railroads, telegraph
or telephone lines, but one stage
line. and I could never understand
how the reports of these troubles
spread as rapidly as they did. AL
though the troubles began about
sixty miles from US, yet on August
10Th, our whole country had reason
ably reliable information of the up
rising. A neighbor came to our
house in the night, neighbor went to