or the duty assigned him, and the spring of 1820 was a very
busy one for the old Fifth Regiment.

MRS. SNELLING'S LIFE.

Mrs. Abigal Hunt Snelling was born at Watertown, Mass., January 23d,
1797. Her father's name was Thomas Hunt, Colonel of the First Regiment
of Infantry, U. S. A., stationed then at Fort Wayne, Indiana, to which
place his little daughter was taken when only six weeks old. The
journey was performed on horseback, and the little baby was carried on
a pillow, a long, rough trip for so young a traveler, and clearly
indicative of her subsequent experience. She tells in her old age of a
coincidence in her life which impressed her forcibly. Her father died
and was buried at Bellefontaine, Ohio, and some years afterward
Colonel Snelling was at this place with his family waiting orders,
when their youngest child, an infant, named Thomas Hunt, sickened and
died, and was buried by the side of his grandfather. An incident in
her eventful life well worthy of mention in a record of the early
days of our State is that she gave birth to the first white child born
in Minnesota sixty-six years ago, and at the advanced age of ninety
years she is alive to tell of it. Her ninetieth birthday was
celebrated a few months ago in Newport, Kentucky, where, with the
husband and children of a beloved daughter, who died some years ago,
she is "only waiting till the shadows are a little longer grown."

She has been blind for many years, but otherwise her faculties are
unimpaired and her health is excellent. I should like to have seen my
old friend on that occasion, but could only send a congratulatory
letter, recalling the memories of old Fort Snelling, with which she
and I am so thoroughly identified. I am told she looked very lovely,
and was much gratified at the pleasant surprise her friends had
prepared for her, but was somewhat excited, and was carefully watched
by her granddaughter, Miss Abby Hazard, who takes the most tender care
of her precious grandmother.

It is somewhat remarkable that just about that time I learned through
Hon. Fletcher Williams, who has a special gift for finding
antiquities, that an old lady who had been a member of Mrs. Snelling's
family at the fort was visiting her grandchildren at West St. Paul. I
lost no time in calling on her, and found that she was one of the
Swiss refugees who came to Fort Snelling from the Red River country.
Her maiden name was Schadiker. She had married Sergeant Adams, of