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

LIFE IN THE 'SIXTIES 255
it all a horrible dream of the night; but the morning only
showed us the hurried path toward Fort Snelling! The next
day we reached the Heath Settlement, where our church
friends had a preaching point and there we decided to stay for
a time with good and kind people we knew. Father preached
on Sunday, and the next Monday we heard that the Chippewas
were restless and that an outbreak of this tribe was also feared,
so we thought it better to go on toward Fort Snelling. We
who had thought to find homes and prosperity and to join in
building up a young state were now being forced day by day
farther from our hopeful beginnings and leaving behind us
three of our own—to what fate we dared not consider, nor
could we hope to hear the outcome for them very soon.
A history of the Indian massacre speaks of our part of the
country as follows:
At Maine Prairie, a point southwest of St. Cloud and distant
about fifteen miles, a determined band of farmers united together
with minds firmly fixed that they would not be driven out by an
inferior force. This locality was a small prairie entirely surrounded
by timber and dense thickets, a circumstance that seemed to favor
the near approach of the stealthy savages. By a concerted action
they soon erected a substantial fortification constructed of a double
row of timbers. Tamarack trees were brought from a near-by
swamp and set firmly in the ground. The building was two stories
in height, the upper story being for the women and children, while
the lower was intended to be of a more strictly military character.
The government furnished them with arms and supplies, and provisions
were laid m for a possible siege. People from other small
places came in until there was a small garrison. They kept up military
drill and had out their pickets.
Sister Ida tells us that Freeland Dam was the young
architect and contractor, and that his selection was wise and
all gladly worked under his direction. She also speaks of the
casks of drinking water kept with the stores in the lower story
of the fort. While it was being constructed Brother Joe was
stopping at a neighbor's each night. One time he was awakened
by the noise of horses' hoofs coming up to the log house
where he was staying. He got up and leaned out of the
window and saw some ponies with packs on their backs but