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

HOME BUILDING IN MINNESOTA 243
Perhaps it may be of interest to state here that he lost this
cannon ball down by the shore of Lake Pearl some time during
his residence there, and many years afterward, when he and I
went back to Maine Prairie to see to the removal of our moth-
er's remains from the grave by the lake shore to Wmona, lie
found his long-lost cannon ball.
After they left Cairo, while journeying on the Mississippi,
Brother Joe was taken with sciatica, and the care of the horses
fell upon our father, which was difficult for him on the boat
because of his blindness. Had it not been for the assistance
of Will Hughes this would have been still harder, as the horses
were on the lower deck next to the side wheel, and father ran
some risk, with his linfited sight, in finding his way among the
machinery. Brother Joe was taken with sciatica very sudden-
ly in the night and suffered intensely; when he got out in the
morning his face was so drawn and white that Ida did not at
first recognize her brother, ravaged by pain as he was. Here
our people were, taken by surprise without medicine or doctor.
Mother was a practical nurse and got hot water and flat-
irons and by the time they reached St. Paul, with the aid of
a cane and a crutch our brother got on shore. It is recalled to
me that father met Dr. William Hall on board, who gave Joe
some medicine.
When they reached Lake Pippin all ice had disappeared
and they entered St. Paul with hearts of thankfulness. Father
was ever a man of strong faith, nightly committing all to the
keeping of his Heavenly Father and each morning receiving
the renewal of His mercies with gratitude. Through all our
lives in our parents' home we children depended on their strong
faith. At Carnelian Lake I was getting ready for the glad
day when our loved parents and brother and sister and Will's
wife and baby should be with us. Homesick as I was for Ohio,
I felt that with these dear ones near us I might be satisfied to
live almost anywhere.
I shall never forget the coming of the spring of 1 862. Never
before in my life had I seen so slow a dawning of the green.
Our first wedding anniversary (May 5, 1862) was without the
signs of springtime in Minnesota that we had always enjoyed