Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

242
ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
up at Green Tree who offered about $75 for Lucy, which, by the way,
is all she is worth. I am in no hurry about investing in horses,
however. Would like to hear from you on the subject first. I will
have between two and three hundred bushels of corn for which I
expect to get at least 28 cents per bushel.
I haven't made up my mind much about Minnesota. I imagine
that the surface of the land is not hilly but gently rolling, not in long
hills and swales as in Illinois and Iowa but in more moundlike hills
and "winding vales" diversified by distant patches of tamarack and
underbrush. ... I am not speculating in cranberries or wild
rice culture nor even laying plans to be pursued when I get there.
"Thefactof the bill is," I don't know how to speculate on nothing nor
lay a plan without a foundation. It is going to cost so much to get
to Minnesota that I have resolved to like it if it don't come up to my
expectations.
This old letter gives one just a glimpse of a young man
who started with means little and plans vague who was to
develop a great business in the Northwest and make his small
capital "the fortune you read about."
Mother's old friends parted with her as friends part who
do not expect to meet again in this world. They expected
her children might return, and father being a traveler, they
thought it very possible that they might look on his face
again, but not upon mother's; and true indeed it was the last
time. The names of those dear old Carthage friends linger
with me still as unforgotten music in the chord of friendship
— Dill, Ludlow, Southwell, Sheehan, were among the names
often repeated in our new home. Brother William's wife and
baby were to go on the boat with them and a young man. Will
Hughes, the son of an old friend of father's. He was desirous
of testing the climate of Minnesota for his health, and would
make his home with our parents for the first summer.
Nothing of note occurred until they came to the confluence
of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at Cairo, Illinois. This
place was reached about the time of the noted battle of Shiloh
and they found great excitement prevailed. The dead and
wounded were being brought in, and crowds of excited people
filled the streets. Our people talked with the soldiers and
Brother Joe was given a cannon ball from the battleground
while he was in Cairo, which he brought with him to Minnesota.