ome on my back. I was three days making the
journey on foot.

The wages for a carpenter at this time were $30.00 a month and found.

Mrs. Rebecca Plummer--1854.

We came to Brooklyn Center in 1854. Mr. Plummer's father had come in '52
and had taken a claim.

We did enjoy the game, for we had never had much. Pigeons were very
thick. We used to stake nets for them almost touching the ground. Under
these we scattered corn. They would stoop and go in under and pick up
the grain. When they held their heads erect to swallow the corn, their
necks would come through the meshes of the net and they could not
escape.

I saw the Winnebagoes taken to their river reservation. They camped a
night on the island in the river and went through all the dances they
knew and made every noise they knew how to make. The most wonderful
sight though was to see that vast flotilla of canoes going on the next
morning. There were hundreds of them with their Indian occupants,
besides the long procession on foot.

Mrs. C. A. Burdick--1855.

We came to what is now St. Cloud settling near the junction of the
Little Sauk and Mississippi. The Sauk was a beautiful little river. The
strawberries were very sweet, a much nicer flavor than tame ones. The
prairie was covered with them.

The Winnebagoes who had lived on Long Prairie were transferred to their
new home and we went to take care of the agency buildings they had left.
There were from seventy-five to a hundred of these buildings. Franklin
Steele and Anton Northrup owned them. We were awfully lonesome but we
braved it out. The Indians were always coming and demanding something to
eat. They were always painted and had bows and arrows with them. They
would everlastingly stand and look in the windows and watch us work. We
were so used to them that we never noticed them, only it was troublesome
to have the light obscured.

Have I ever seen the Red River carts? My! I should say I have! Seen them
by the hundred. My husband had charge of a fur store for Kittson at
Fort Garry, now Winnipeg and we lived there. I used to go back and forth
to St. Cloud where my parents lived with this cart train for protection.
The drivers were a swarthy lot of French half breeds. Likely as not
their hair would be hanging way down. They wore buckskin and a fancy
sash. Sometimes a skin cap and sometimes just their hair or a wide hat.
A tame enough lot of men, fond of jigging at night. They could hold out
dancing. S