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

HOME BUILDING IN MINNESOTA 247
his broadcloth suit and silk hat. Father wore on dress occasions
black broadcloth and a tall, shining silk hat; he never
seemed well attired otherwise, and it suited his noble appearance
and his unfailing dignity. We women were less dis-
tinguished looking, and it will be enough to say that we all
had "store bonnets" and some of us had silk dresses.
In early days speculators had entered the country and taken
up tracts of land and staked out towns in remote places, perhaps
on some lake shore am.ong timber and brush — it was
such a one wc found on Pearl Lake. This lake was a fine sheet
of water, almost a perfect circle. It was about two miles in
diameter and had one narrow outlet and two inlets. It was
fed largely from marshes; on the east side the beach was sandy
and made a fine place for bathing, while the west side was wet
and marshy. On this west side was a farm with good buildings
for those early times — a frame house with eight rooms and
a large frame barn. Here by the beautiful lakelet was a
staked-out town named Yarmouth. The only improvement
on the new town site was a small house of two rooms. It was
but a short distance from father's house, which was known as
the Cutter Place. The projectors broke up and a merchant
from St. Cloud had the property on his hands; and as fire in
those times was often started by campers, this embryonic new
town was endangered and it seemed quite unlikely to grow after
all. Indeed its one house perished after many years without
an inhabitant. New countries see many an experiment.
Father had found out by this time that the Cutter Place
was to be sold at a bargain, so it came to pass that he went up
to learn more about it, and found it could be bought for one
thousand dollars. There was already on it a large field of
spring wheat which was up and growing, and this he purchased
for an additional hundred dollars. Thus it was that our people
came into possession of a good house and barn and one hundred
and forty acres of new land. Father afterward bought
railroad land adjoining him on the north, which furnished
both woodland and pasture.
How happy we were when we were all settled and together!
Sister Ida in her own vivacious way told us the incidents of