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

LIFE IN THE 'SIXTIES 253
hands divine they turned from that new home, estabhshed in
confidence, to flee for their Hves. Perhaps it may be fitting
to state here that although he never entered that field even to
look it over for four weeks, still the grain stood up well and
was harvested by armed men eight weeks after, the twenty
acres yielding two hundred bushels of as good wheat as we
had ever seen; and the winter following, what fine bread
mother made in the brick oven from the flour of that wheat!
Father's losses were really nothing to record.
The next morning Mr. Frost and I saw the white covered
wagon coming through the brush, with our parents and Sister
Ida and "Aunt" Eliza Vandervort and her daughters, Mary
and Jennie, within it. We had tied up some bundles of bedding
and prepared some things to be sent to the fort which the
citizens of that region were determined to build. I gave direc-
tions for my dishes to be placed in tubs and buried in the garden.
I took along with me the new britannia teapot which
mother bought that day in Cincinnati as a part of my wedding
outfit, also a choice little sauce pan, but we bade farewell to
everything else, believing all we left in the house might be
destroyed. We joined our people in the covered wagon and
turned our backs on home and our first harvest, in the swath
as it was, and passed on for the ferry at Clearwater, twelve
miles distant. Our party of eight with bedding made a pretty
good load, but we did not attempt to go very rapidly.
Meanwhile the residents about Maine Prairie decided to
build a blockhouse and stockade and try in this way to take
care of their harvest while protecting themselves; they also
called upon the government for aid. In less than a week the
fort was up and ready for occupancy. William and Joseph
remained and helped to build the fort, and so they and Julia
and little Rosamond were among those who found refuge there.
At Clearwater we were to cross the Mississippi, and then
we would be in the country formerly owned by the Chippewas,
of whom, although they were a more peaceable tribe than the
Sioux, we entertained some grave apprehensions. However,
we soon found out that they were up at Mille Lac. When we
arrived at Clearwater we found the road lined with people