Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. The Arrival of my Father and Brother—Journey to Illinois—Work on a Railroad—The Ague—Doctor Ober—Religious Impressions—The Arrival of my Mother, Sister and her Husband—A Burning Railroad Train—We go to Minnesota—Our Experience as Wood Choppers and Pioneers
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of an Emigrant.
dozen families, among whom was the Rev. J. W. Hancock,
who for several years had been a missionary among the
Indians. The other settlers were Wm. Freeborn, L)r. Sweeney,
H. L. Bevans, and John Day. Besides these we also met
two Swedes, Peter Green, and Ncls Nelson, and a Norwegian
by the name of Peterson. On the bank of the river the Sioux
Indians had a large camp. The country west of Red Wing
was then practically a wilderness, and our little party was
the first to start in to cultivate the soil and make a
permanent settlement.
At Red Wing we supplied ourselves with a tent, a cook
stove, a 3roke of oxen, carpenter’s tools, provisions and other
necessaries. Having hired a team of horses, we then packed out
goods on a wagon, tied the cattle behind, and started for the
new settlement. The first four miles we followed the
territorial road; after that we had nothing but Indian trails to
guide us. Toward evening we arrived at a grove on Belle
Creek, now known as Jemtland. Here the tent was pitched
and our evening meal cooked, and only pioneers like
ourselves can understand how we relished it after our long day’s
tramp. The team was taken back the next day, and we
were left alone in the wilderness.
After a day’s exploration we moved our camp two miles
further south, to another point near Belle Creek, where Mr.
Roos had taken his claim.
It was now late in September, and our first care was to
secure enough hay for the cattle, and in a few days we had a
big stack. Having read about prairie fires, we decided to
protect our stack by burning away the short stubble around
it. But a minute and a half was sufficient to convince us
that we had made wrong calculations, for within that time
tliestaek itself was burning with such fury that all the water
in Belle Creek could not have put it out. Still, this was not
the worst of it. Before we had time to recover from our
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