Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/423

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 355 Oscar of Sweden and Norway, being named as a Knight of the, North Star Order. Swante J. Willard related some years ago the following inci- dents: "After our arrival from Sweden we came to Moline, 111. From thence, on a trip up the .Mississippi to St. Paul, our boat made a stop at Red Wing. The singular formation of Barn bluff attracted our attention. 1 then knew not even the name of the place. I said to our company that I would like to settle there, on account of its singular beauty and attractiveness. I then for the first time saw Indians. At St. Paul I met Peter Green and Abraham Peterson, who had been in the country about a year. I learned soon after that a committee of our countrymen, having visited Red Wing and vicinity, strongly recommended the place as a desirable one for settlement. I came with my family in the fall of 1853. Leaving my family in Red AYing, I went with Matt- son to Spring creek valley, thence on to where Roos and Kemp had started to build but had not finished their house. They were camping in a tent near by. Mattson and I stopped over night with them. We heard the most hideous music of prairie wolves. Mr. Kemp, being of rather nervous temperament, was disturbed by their -close proximity. Several times he awakened Mr. Roos and whispered, 'Roos, Roos, they are trying to dig under the tent.' Mr. Roos. being a good deal of a stoic, finally blurted out, 'Let the wolves howl; they have not worked as hard as I have during the day, or they would be willing to quit and be quiet.' The next morning I selected and marked off my claim. As the new settlers could not carry surveying instruments, it was customary to pace out the lines and distances, which almost invariably resulted in large quarter-sections. I was somewhat surprised to find by the government survey the next year that the claim I had paced off for my quarter-section held land enough for about two more. But foreigners have a faculty of profiting from the examples of others, and we have observed that our American friends selected those who were capable of taking long strides to do their measuring. "Mattson and I engaged the following winter to chop wood for Mr. Freeborn. It was a new life for us to be out in the forest. Our house was a shanty 10x12, and combined sleeping apartments, dining hall, parlor and kitchen, circumstances com- mon to all in those days. We were contented with a great deal less than is now deemed necessary. During our stay at this place Indians often visited us, but we were seldom annoyed or fright- ened by their presence. Their canoes were often moored on the river near us. One day Mattson and I resolved to try our skill in one, but like many a bark on the financial sea, it upset a few rods from the shore, and as we succeeded in reaching dry land, we