s first duty was to provide for his wife
and family.

A number of them made their wills before departing, as they thought
the whole of Wright county was in open rebellion. After being absent
for about a week they proudly marched back to the city without ever
firing a gun or seeing an enemy. The late J. Fletcher Williams was
city editor of the Minnesotian, and he wrote an extended account of
the expedition, and It was profusely illustrated with patent medicine
cuts and inverted wood type and border, the only available material at
that time that could be procured.

* * * * *

The year 1859 was a memorable one in the political history of
Minnesota. Alexander Ramsey and George L. Becker, both now living in
this city, were the rival candidates for governor. The Republicans
made extraordinary efforts to elect their state and legislative
tickets, as both governor and United States senator were at stake.
Among the speakers imported by the Republicans were the Hon. Galusha
A. Grow of Pennsylvania and Hon. Schuyler Colfax of Indiana. Mr. Grow,
then as now, represented the congressional district in Pennsylvania in
which I formally resided, and I was very anxious to hear him, as the
first political speech I had ever heard was made by him in a small
village in Pennsylvania. The speakers were announced to speak at the
old People's theater, on the corner of Fourth and St. Peter streets,
and I was among the first to enter. The theater was packed to
overflowing. Mr. Grow had made a very interesting speech of about an
hour's duration, and Mr. Colfax was to follow for an equal length of
time. After Mr. Colfax had spoken about ten minutes an alarm of fire
was sounded and in less than fifteen minutes the entire structure was
burned to the ground. This happened about 9:30 o'clock in the
evening, and, strange to relate, not one of the morning papers had an
announcement of the fact the next day. The morning papers at that time
were something like an evening paper of to-day. They were set up and
made up in the afternoon and generally printed in the early part of
the evening. The result of that election was very gratifying to the
Republicans. I can see old Dr. Foster now writing a double column
political head for the Minnesotian, the first two lines of which were:
"Shout, Republicans, Shout! We've Cleaned the Breech Clouts Out!"

Dr. Foster was the editor of the Minnesotian and was quite a power in
the Republi