Historic Memoirs "Early Days in Minnesota" by Ellen (PARKS) PORTER Blue Earth Co., MN ========================================================================= USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. If you have found this file through a source other than the MNArchives Table Of Contents you can find other Minnesota related Archives at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mn/mnfiles.htm Please note the county and type of file at the top of this page to find the submitter information or other files for this county. Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: William Porter ========================================================================= Early Days in Minnesota [Blue Earth County] By Ellen (Parks) Porter Dictated to her daughter, Stella Porter Clague at Washington, D.C. - 1924 I was born at Acworth, New Hampshire on September 30, 1842 to my mother Nancy Gilmore Parks, wife of Elisha A. Parks. Here also were born to them Stella who later married Joseph Dilley of Garden City [Minnesota], a daughter, Anna Parks who married Thomas Edgerton of Garden City and a daughter Eva Parks who married James Engles. I was married to John Porter on March 17, 1861 [at the farm home of E. A. Parks] [John's farm is] where we lived until 1890 when we moved to Lake Crystal, Minnesota and later to Vernon Center, Minn. Here were buried my three sons, Charlie 1901, Milton 1914, and Miles in 1919 [these are death years, a fourth son named Martin was buried on the John Porter farm, he died as an infant in 1862]. Then I lived with Frank and Stella Clague at Redwood Falls. In 1920, Frank [my son-in- law] was elected as Congressman from the Second District, Minnesota. Then I was privileged to live in Washington [D.C.] until 1924. E. A. Parks [my father] had his brother Milton P. Parks with him when he first came to Minnesota [1857] and later [Milton] pre-empted the 160 acres lying and adjoining E. A. [Parks' land] on the south. Milton died soon after [1862] and their sister Martha who married Charles Gilchrist moved onto Milton Parks' place [after Milton's death]. When we first came [as a family] to Minnesota in 1858, we had two wagons, each one drawn by two horses and hitched behind one wagon were two cows. The other wagon had a hencoop attached to each side and each [was] filled with chickens. We traveled in [our] covered wagons from Fox Lake, Wisconsin to my father's new home in Minnesota and I cooked our food in camp along the roadside. In May, 1858 my Father and Mother, three sisters, two uncles, an aunt and myself in two wagons crossed the Mississippi on a ferry boat at LaCrosse, Wisconsin as there were no bridges across the Mississippi in those early days, and not [even] a railroad in Minnesota. We traveled in covered wagons, cooked our meals on the roadside and slept in our wagons. Roads were very bad as we had so much rain that spring. The roads in Wisconsin were very wet and marshy and many times the drivers had to cut long grass and throw it over the roads in order to make a crossing as so much rain had fallen that season. We were several weeks in reaching our destination in Blue Earth County to the home pre-empted by my Father three miles west of the village of Vernon [Center]. After arrival at our homestead, we lived in our wagons nearly all summer until we had our log house finished. Mrs. John PorterÕs [EllenÕs] father, Elisha A. Parks had built a log house on his farm, preempted in 1852 [actually 1857], three miles west of Vernon Center on a prairie hillside and one mile [to the northeast] from where I later lived, after my marriage [to John Porter]. [Our new home was] Like most of the houses in the early days, consisting of one room above and one [room] below. All the early settlers endured hard times, as there was not much raised for several years. The first year we were here [in Blue Earth County] there was not much crop of any kind, except some corn and potatoes. The later rotted as there was so much rain and the settlers had to live largely on Johnnycake. Our people had cows but, so many [people] had none, consequently [they] had no milk but stirred the same [Johnnycake] with water, then made a gravy with meal and water to pour over it. Once the water was high and [we] could not get to the Butterfield mill on the Watonwan River, we ground corn in our coffee mill and it made a good Johnnycake. When we were out of meal we would make milk porridge. Uncle Dean Robinson who married Elisha Parks sister, Mary had been visiting Minnesota at that time, [he] was much disgusted with the country so the morning we served porridge, he took his leave and returned to New Hampshire. Several years later, he returned with his family to Minnesota and located at Appleton, Minnesota where they lived out their lives. Mr. E. A. Parks (my Father) and Mrs. Martha Parks Gilman- Gilchrist were brother and sister. When Martha Parks-Gilman was a widow in New Hampshire [she decided to join us and] she came with us to Garden City, Minnesota and [then] later married Charles Gilchrist of Garden City, Minnesota. She had accompanied us on our trip to Minnesota after having lived in Boston, Massachusetts for some years. All so different to her here, with neighbors in some cases Ð three miles apart, [that] were considered near neighbors in those early days. [Later] Martha and Charles Gilchrist had one son, Clarence. In those early days, people had many happy days visiting their neighbors usually winding up with a dance in one room and callers were always welcome to come and eat Johnnycake. How delighted we used to be when we could get a new calico dress. It was good enough for any occasion then but not now, as times have changed. [My father] Elisha A. Parks had built a log house on his farm, three miles west of Vernon Center on a prairie hillside. One night, after dark when we were upstairs we looked out the window and saw lights flaring up in the air South of us. These lights were used by one band of Indians in order to locate other bands of the tribe and it caused much restless feeling among the early settlers. There were no trees to obstruct the view from long distances in all directions and often, for fear of an Indian outbreak, the neighbors for miles around gathered here at night. The men acted as guards outside at night while the ladies remained in the house. My uncle, Milton Parks made portholes through the logs on the south side of the house through which they might shoot if necessary. People today know little about what hardships the early pioneers had to endure with the earlier residents' __ the Indians. The Indians were the first occupants here and did not like to give up their early possession of the land __ their hunting grounds and they should have been treated more honestly by the white agents of that day. In 1862 when the Civil War took place, the Indians thought, it a good time for them to breakout Ð the Winnebago's east of us and the Sioux north and west. It was on the 18th of August, 1862 and right in the midst of harvest time. The cause of the outbreak by the Indians was the fact that the white agents had robbed the Indians of their blankets and provisions furnished them by the government. Another cause was that so many men were away fighting against the southern States in the Civil War. The Indians were in a battle at Ft. Ridgely eighteen miles northwest of New Ulm. Before that they came to New Ulm and had murdered all they came into contact with, then burned the bodies. The Indians and destroyed much [of the settlements] west of New Ulm on August 23, 1862. Joe Dilley [the husband of Stella (Parks) Dilley] of Garden City and Mr. Robinson of Lake Crystal left New Ulm just twenty minutes before that place was attacked by the Indians, but they could see them all around on the hills surrounding the village. They had much heavy timber to pass through in order to return, they put spurs to their horses they were riding and passed through the timber as quickly as they could, and were back in Garden City as soon as possible. Their home people had protested their going to New Ulm in the first place but they had promised to be back if they [the villagers of New Ulm?] still were alive. The Winnebago Indians intended to join the Sioux but, the later started before the Winnebagoes were quite ready, so soldiers were sent to keep the Winnebagoes back. The Sioux were the larger tribe. We staid at home for several days until we saw New Ulm burning, about 30 miles distant. Then the whole neighborhood took a few things like flour and sugar and departed. We went south for several miles to avoid crossing the Winnebago Agency then east about 75 miles to Kasson, Minnesota. A few [families] returned to Wisconsin and there lived out their lives. The first night we were out, several neighbors stopped at a house not far from Mapleton. We had nothing for our supper. Fortunately, the family had left plenty of milk but we had flour so I made a huge batch of biscuits and there were enough so each of the party had one biscuit apiece. The ladies slept in the house and the men stood guard outside. The next morning we started, the men would shoot prairie chickens and often ran onto a potato patch, which always helped. So we cooked our meals on the way. We finally reached Kasson, Minnesota and here the ladies staid for a month while their husbands had returned to harvest their grain. Many of the men returned to their homes to cut their grain with a scythe and thresh it with a flail on a blanket, as my husband, John Porter had done with a shotgun at his side. A month later, the ladies returned to their homes but all were in constant fear of the Indians for six years or more. The ÓMounted RangersÓ of which organization my Uncle Milton Parker Parks was a member, had for its purpose the one object to subdue the Indians. Unfortunately Milton was suddenly taken sick and died at St. Peter, Minnesota [in October,1862]. Two years later [1864] the Indians came and killed two of our near neighbors, Messrs. Mack and Root who lived one and one half miles southeast of our place and rode away on the [draft]horses, which were used for harvesting. One year later the Indians returned and murdered the whole Jewett family near Garden City, Minnesota in 1863 [1865]. Willie Jewett, who was a son of the above Jewett family was a baby at that time and the Indians left him for dead but he revived and is still living in Mankato, Minnesota at this time [1924]. No one knew when they were safe [on the frontier]. The Indians had been robbed by the white agents as before stated and the later were more to blame than the Indians. Little Crow, the leader of the Indian outbreak was shot and killed two or three years after the outbreak near Hutchinson, Minnesota. Here also was killed Little Crows' son at the same time. In after years, when people began to raise wheat, the only market we had was in Mankato Ð twenty-five miles away. The steamboats ran from St. Paul to Mankato up the Minnesota River and took our grain but, after the war began, the river dried up so the boat could not get to Mankato. So wheat was worth here [in Blue Earth County] only 50 cents per bushel while in Wisconsin, it was worth Three dollars per bushel. Calico [was] fifty cents per yard, tea $2.00 per pound and other necessaries in proportion. After the war and [the first] railroads were built, [and] the grasshoppers came and destroyed all the grain in [many] places. So, Minnesota has seen many hard times and many good times and today is one of the best states in the union.