Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/543

 HISTORY OF UOODlll'K COUNTS 463 perhaps altogether unnecessary, as everybody was imbued with primitive honesty in those days. In fact everybody was bent on making money faster and easier than by stealing. The exper- ience of that first night will never fade from my memory. I had no sooner composed myself for the enjoyment of sleep on a pile of mattresses than a whole battalion of mosquitoes presented their bills in battle array, accompanied by wierd strains of music, which awoke me to the necessity of immediate fortifica- tion. So I surrounded my couch with inverted chairs, barrels and boxes, spreading over the whole a web of mosquito netting. I then crawled into my barrack, but my hope of safety was soon dispelled. My attempts at self-defense seemed to increase the energy and fierceness of the assailants; and if only a few found their way in, the hungry cry of the ten thousand without and the possibility of all soon following suit forced me to rise, and grasp- ing the netting, scatter their ranks for a few moments. But the same attack and counter attack were enacted over and over during that longest of long nights, and I wonder to this day whether or not all the mosquitoes in the neighborhood were not notified that a fresh subject had arrived in town that day. -i Our communication with the rest of the world was by the Mississippi river in the summer, but in the winter this means was cut off most effectually by the ice. True, there was a post route by the river valley, but the mail was carried by a one-horse train. The great mail route from St. Paul to Galena passed through Oronoco, out back from the river some twenty or thirty miles. Hence the necessity arose for a better road, or rather that some definite roadway should be made passable for teams to various points in the interior, which then were tributary to Red "Wing for steamboat landing. To secure this desirable result, a party was formed consisting of William Colvill, Jr., who was later the hero of more dangerous expeditions, T. J. Smith, Spencer, Fellows and one or two .others, with myself and a Mr. Hunt, a teamster. The only way out of Red "Wing to the back country was then by the street now called Central avenue, and between the Twin bluffs. This was the starting point for Oronoco, Featherstone, Cannon Falls, Faribault, Owatonna and other places then known. Our object in this expedition was to find the shortest practicable route to Oronoco, including a place to ford the north branch of the river Zumbro. . We were to be met by another party from the other end of the route, supposed to be as much interested as ourselves. About six miles out we struck the bend in Hay creek, and some five miles beyond, on the prairie, we passed a large burr tree, and not far from it a kind of basin, which seemed to be a receptacle for the surface water. These land- marks have since been largely obliterated. The first night we