Old Rail Fence Corners | Page 6

Missouri Rose Pratt--1843.
In 1842 my father was going to the Wisconsin pineries to work, so
mother and we children went along to keep house for him. We came
from Dubuque to Lake Pepin. Mr. Furnell, from the camp, had heard
there were white people coming so he came with an ox team down the
tote road to meet us and our baggage, and take us to camp. We found a
large log house which we thought most complete. We lived there that
winter and Mr. Furnell and some others boarded with us. A romance

was started there.
The next Spring we took our household goods in a cabin built on a raft,
floated down to Nauvoo and sold the lumber to the Mormons. Joseph
Smith was a smart speaker, mother said, when she responded to the
invitation to hear the "Prophet of the Most High God" preach. The
children of these people were the raggedest I have ever seen. Mr.
Furnell had his raft lashed to ours and sold his lumber to them too.
We went to St. Paul on the Otter. Mr. Furnell went with us. When
mother saw "Pig's Eye" as St. Paul was then called, she did not like it at
all. She thought it was so much more lonesome than the pineries. She
begged to go back, but father loved a new country. On landing, we
climbed up a steep path. We found only six houses there. One was
Jackson's. He kept a store in part of it. In the kitchen he had three
barrels of liquor with spigots in them. The Jackson's were very kind
and allowed us to live in their warehouse which was about half way
down the bluff. We only slept there nights for we were afraid to cook in
a place with powder stored in it, the way that had, so we cooked
outside.
My sister Caroline had light hair, very, very blue eyes and a lovely
complexion. The Indians were crazy about her. It was her fairness they
loved. She was engaged to Mr. Furnell and wore his ring. The Indian
braves used to ask her for this and for a lock of her hair to braid in with
theirs but of course, she would never let them have it. She was afraid of
them. The interpreter told her to be careful and never let them get a
lock of her hair for if they did and braided it in with theirs, they would
think she belonged to them. One day when she was alone in the
warehouse, an Indian came in his canoe and sat around watching her.
When he saw she was alone, he grabbed her and tried to cut off some of
her hair with his big knife. She eluded him by motioning to cut it off
herself, but instead, ran shrieking to father at Jackson's. He came with a
big cudgel but the Indian had gone in his canoe.
In the election of '43 in St. Paul, every man there got drunk even if they
had never drunk before and many of them had not. Early in the evening,
Mr. August Larpenteur came into Mrs. Jackson's kitchen to get a drink

of liquor. He was a very young man. She said, "August, where's the
other men?" just as he was turning the spigot in the barrel. He tried to
look up and tell her, but lost his balance and fell over backward while
the liquor ran over the floor. Then he laughed and laughed and told her
where they were.
We built a cabin a few miles out of town. Our nearest neighbors were
the DeNoyers who kept a halfway house in a three roomed log cabin.
Their bar was in the kitchen. Besides this, there was a scantily
furnished sitting room and bed room. Mrs. DeNoyer was a warm
hearted Irish woman when she had not been drinking, but her warm
heart never had much chance to show. They bought their liquors at
Jackson's.
Our house was made from logs hewed flat with a broadax. My father
was a wonder at hewing. The ax was eight inches wide and had a
crooked hickory handle. Some men marked where they were to hew but
father had such a good eye that he could hew straight without a mark.
The cracks were filled with blue clay. For windows, we had "chinkins"
of wood. Our bark roof was made by laying one piece of bark over
another, kind of like shingles. Our floor was of puncheons. This was
much better than the bark floors, many people had.
I used to take much pleasure in watching and hearing the Red River
carts come squawking along. They were piled high with furs. The
French half breed drivers would slouch along by