Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/172

 124 HISTOKY OF GOODHUE COUNTY and would be mainly lost. I remember well when the first installment that came home — three families — pitched their tents in the evening near the mission house. They were worn out, cold and hungry. The children were emaciated, and sick from want and exposure. They were supplied by the whites with food until the men could obtain game for their sustenance. In the morning two of the men went out hunting, and as I came home in the evening, unsuccessful from a similar expedition on Hay creek, I struck their trail, and in a short time overtook them near what is now the corner of Main and Minnesota streets, each of them slowly toiling through the deep snow, under the burden of a deer. The men seemed exhausted, and requested me to stop at their tepees and tell the women where they were — that they had' got tado — and wanted them to come to their assistance. I hurried home to communicate this joyful intelligence to the inmates of the three lodges. Upon reaching them I told one of the women the good news. She immediately shouted forth a peculiar cry, which was echoed by all in the tent, down to a three-year-old boy dressed in purus naturalibis. This brought out the inhabi- tants of the other lodges. Upon being told the cause of the com- motion, the same shout went up from all present. Women and children acted as if demented. The women rushed about for straps, knives and blankets, and the children jumped up and down for joy. After giving them the proper directions where to go, three women started ou1 on a dog trot, and were soon lost to- view; Init some time after dark I called at the lodges and found them busily engaged in masticating large mouthfuls of venison. In three days those little, half-starved, copper-colored specimens of the genus homo had acquired a very perceptible rotundity, and were as sleek and frisky as a litter of young pups. The cry, or shout, mentioned I have heard frequently, and is made on the occasion of the intelligence of a successful hunt ; not always the same, different intonations indicating the kind of game killed, as deer, bear, elk, etc. "The additions to our population, besides those mentioned, were John Day and family. E. C. Stevens, David Pucket, Jack Sanders and Ben Hill, in the summer, and Charles Parks, in November. 1852. v 'The proprietors of the town site had procured lumber late in the fall for the erection of a hotel early in the spring, and it was necessary to engage carpenters to prepare such of the material in winter as could be done within the shop. H. B. and Joseph Middaugh were obtained, and became residents of the town in December, 1852. About this time, also, the first of our Scandinavian population arrived here — Mathias Peterson, a Nonvegian by birth. Soon after came Nels Nelson, a SAvede. who