Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - III. The Arrival of my Father and Brother—Journey to Illinois—Work on a Railroad—The Ague—Doctor Ober—Religious Impressions—The Arrival of my Mother, Sister and her Husband—A Burning Railroad Train—We go to Minnesota—Our Experience as Wood Choppers and Pioneers
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IS 4.2 Story of an Emigrant.
Tired and very hungry we reached Red Wing late in the
afternoon, and soon found my sister, Mrs. Willard,
comfortably housed with one of the families there. Her cheerful
and hopeful nature and the beautiful baby on her arm gave
us fresh jov and strength to battle with the hardships that
were in store for us. Mr. Willarcl and his wife had taken
along what furniture they owned, a few eatables and five
dollars and fifty cents in cash, which was all that we
possessed of the goods of this world. But who cares for money
at that age? Mr. Willard was twenty-five years old, my
sister twenty-three, and I twenty, all hale and hearty, and
never for a moment doubting our success, 110 matter what
we should undertake.
Our first work was wood chopping, for which we were
less fit that almost anything else. We had to go to a place
about three miles above Red Wing, where a man had made a
contract to bank up fifteen hundred cords of wood for the
Mississippi steamers. There was an old wood chopper’s
cabin which we repaired b}^ thatching it with hay and earth,
putting in a door, a small window, and a few rough planks
for a floor. In a few days we were duly installed, baby and
all, in the little hut which was only twelve by sixteen feet,
but to us as dear as a palace to a king.
We began to chop wood at once. The trees were tall, soft
maples and ash, and our pay was fifty-five cents a cord for soft
and sixty-five cents for hard wood. At first both of us could
not chop over a cord a day together; but within a week we
could chop a cord apiece, and before the winter was over
we often chopped three cords together in a day. After a few
days we were joined by four Norwegian wood choppers for
whom we put up a new cabin to sleep in; but my sister
cooked for us all, and the others paid for their board to Air.
Willard and myself, who had all things in common. Those four
men were better workmen than we, and one of them, Albert
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