| Summary: | 4- . : ! 12 THE LONG AGO. side two miles, with cultivated land on one side of the river and wood lot and meadows or grazing on the other. While all were thrifty the most successful gained several of these lots. They built churches, erected schools and estab lished in the wilderness of prairie, notwithstanding the privations they were called upon to endure and the. dangers they must face, a most sturdy civilization. Presbyterians in Scotland they allied themselves with the English church in this far-oft land and maintained their religious integrity under all circumstances. Intoxication v,as almost unknown among them, and Mrs Cavalier informs the writer that the first white man she ever saw intoxicated was an American civil officer about 1870. They had wind mills for grinding grain, spun their own wool, wove their own cloth and made their own clothes. There was little communication from the old world A vessel or two arrived about October each year from England at York factory on the Hudson's Bay. bringing the goods ordered in December the year before by dog sledge packet. They had mail but once a year. Mrs. Cavalier says her grand father, Alexander Murray, was a subscriber to the London Times. He received a full yearly volume when the ship came in, and read one cop> a day only, the copy of that date for the previous year—thus ever keeping up within one year with current events. Mrs. Cavalier says she often wondered v/hen a child why her granmother always cried when the ship came in, not realizing until older that it was for joy because of the tidings from home. A tew articles and most of the live stock of a later day was imported via the Mississippi to Fort Snelling and then up the Mississippi river. Among the importations tor the colony was 300 sheep from Prairie du Chien, and a lot of cattle by Selkirk, at an expense of about $6,000. All but fifteen of the sheep were killed by the arrow grass, which then was common in the valley. The great herds of sheep found by the colonists of 1870 in the lower valley came trom this lot of fifteen. In 1816 an attempt was made by the Northwest company by means of the. Bois Brules to drive the Selkirk settlers from the valley, resulting in the massacre of Governor Semple of the Hudson Bay company and twenty others, mostly Hudson's Bay employes, though among them were some of the Selkirk settlers, who had sought the fort for protection. Seven or eight escaped, among them Alexander Murray, grandfather of Mrs. Cavalier. The massacre occurred at Seven Oaks, near Vinnipeg. and the settlers were again compelled to flee to Pembina for saiety as they had previously done for food their crops having been destroyed by birds and grasshoppers. This massacre, however, resulted in the consolidation of the Hudson's Bay and Northwest company in 1823. and out of this consolidation grew an American company called the Columbia, headed by Renville, Jefferies, McKenzie and composed largely of other employes of the old companies. Their central establishment was at Lake Traverse. The historian of Long's expedition gives their anuual catch of furs in this region as $64,877 among the lot 4.000 buffalo skins. The animals were killed not only for their skins but for food. The fat was heated and shreds of the flesh was dropped into it until it became thick, when the mass was turned hot into the cases or sacks made of the animal skins. This was the pemmican of the plains and was the staple article of food Long's expedition reached Fort Snelling July 22, 1823, and on the 9th commenced exploring on the Minnesota river. Beltrami, an Italian nobleman, a refugee, then stopping in St. Paul; was permitted to go with him. July 22 they arrived at Big Stone Lake. Here they met Wanata. a distinguished chief -*- Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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