rs, a dark-eyed handsome Scotch lass, to
whom he expected to be married in a few months. But, alas, ere the
close of summer, he was waylaid, by a savage Sioux, shot full of
arrows, his arm broken and his entire scalp carried away. Mr. Tanner
secured permission to bury him in the Roman Catholic Cemetery in the
corner reserved for suicides, heretics and unbaptized infants. Thus
ended in blood, the first effort to establish a Protestant mission in
the Pembina country.

June 1, 1853, a band of Presbyterian missionaries arrived at St. Joe.
It was composed of the Reverends Alonzo Barnard and David Brainard
Spencer, their wives and children. They came in canoes and in carts
from Red and Cass lakes, Minnesota, where for ten years, they had
labored as missionaries among the Chippewas. They removed to St. Joe,
at the earnest request of Governor Alexander Ramsey, of Minnesota, and
others familiar with their labors and the needs of the Pembina natives.
Mrs. Barnard's health soon gave way. Her husband removed her to the
Selkirk settlement, one hundred miles to the north, for medical aid.
Her health continued to fail so rapidly that by her strong desire they
attempted to return to St. Joe. The first night they encamped in a
little tent on the bleak northern plain in the midst of a fierce
windstorm. The chilling winds penetrated the folds of the tent. All
night long the poor sufferer lay in her husband's arms, moaning
constantly: "Hold me close; oh, hold me close." They were compelled to
return to the settlement, where after a few days more of intense
suffering, she died, Oct. 22, 1853, of quick consumption, caused by ten
years exposure and suffering for the welfare of the Indians.

Mrs. Barnard was first interred at the Selkirk settlement, in Prince
Rupert's Land (now Manitoba). In the absence of other clergymen, Mr.
Barnard was compelled to officiate at his wife's funeral himself. In
obedience to her dying request, Mrs. Barnard's remains were removed to
St. Joe and re-interred in the yard of the humble mission cabin, Dec.
3, 1853.

In 1854, Mr. Barnard visited Ohio to provide a home for his children.
On his return, at Belle Prairie, Minnesota, midway between St. Paul and
St. Joe, he met Mr. Spencer and his three motherless children,
journeying four hundred miles by ox-cart to St. Paul. There in the rude
hovel in which they spent the night, Mr. Barnard baptized Mr. Spencer's
infant son, now an honored minister of the Congregationa