 (Ben was) born in St. Peters, Minnesota, August 6th, 1857.
His parents had pre-empted some land near town. It was mostly covered with timber and sloughs. The timber there was all hard wood, mostly oak, maple and ash. There were no roads, only those settlers built themselves, and these had to be made through the sloughs in the winter-time. They made corduroy roads, hauled the log into this soft ground with oxen.
In those days they didn't keep many horses for Indians used to steal them. They never were afraid of the Chippewas, for they always walked; but the Sioux were the terror of the neighborhood. When those two tribes, the Chippewas and Siouxs had a fight, the Chippewas always won because they stayed on the ground and hid behind trees or buildings, but the Sioux rode their horses in the open places.
On his father's place the first school house was built out of logs. In this school the desks faced the wall. They were nailed to the side of the building and a shelf (was) placed underneath for books. The bench on which they sat was made of a plank with no backrest. The blackboard was just a board, painted black, and the chalk came in huge chunks, which they chipped off into small pieces for use. The teacher's desk was in the center of the room.
His father was a doctor and used to be gone most of the time. He got very little for his services, as the people were too poor to pay in cash, but gave him meat and vegetables.
Every spring they used to make maple sugar. On his father's farm there was a large grove of hard maples. They used to have 3,000 trees tapped at a time. The buckets they used had no bails. His father had them made at a factory in Shakopee. The spikes driven into the tap-hole through which the sap dripped into the kegs, were made by hand from stems of bass-wood. They would cut down big oak trees that measured three or four feet through and hew them out, to put the sap in. They held twenty-five barrels. They worked day and night boiling the sap which was mostly made into sugar. They would make from 350 to 400 pounds every year, besides what syrup his mother made for her preserving.
The wild fruit that grew around there was larger than our tame berries. The blackberries were so plentiful in the woods that you could pick a water pail full in fifteen minutes. They would pick them and ship them to the eastern markets. Another berry that grew in abundance was the ground cherry. It grew in the corn fields. They would pick bushels every fall and sell them to the markets.
Mr. Morrison's father owned a cranberry marsh, just across the Minnesota line in Wisconsin. This marsh covered many acres and he and his brothers were sent every fall to gather the crop. They hired Chippewa Indians to pick them. The squaws did the picking. They would pick in the neighborhood of 850 barrels every fall. These were shipped to eastern markets.
Mr. Morrison remembers when the government put in the first road from Traverse De Sioux to Sibley, which was eighty miles. This road is very winding and they have tried many times to have it straightened out but the government will not allow it. It is one of the prettiest highways in Minnesota today.
At this time the Sioux Indians staged an uprising. An old Sioux friend of his father came and told him that they intended to kill all the white people around there and he had better get out. He took his mother and children to Hasting, and went back home, but the Indians did not come into that part. General Sibley and his army from Fort Snelling were called out and drove the Indians back to the west. The soldiers followed some of them to the Canadian border, captured them and brought them back to Mankato. President Lincold condemned thirty-eight of them to death. His father was there when they were hung. Some of the Indians confessed to the crimes that they committed before they were hung.
He tells of one German that lived near New Ulm at that time that was driven out of his home by the Indians. He and his brother had adjoining farms. A guide came one morning and told them that the Indians were coming and to move. His wife and children began to pack what they needed and he went to get the oxen from the pastures. Before he got back he saw his brother's house in flames. He hurried toward his own home but he could see that they had already reached it, so he went out in a bay and hid. He had his dog along with him so he hid him also. The Indians knew that he was hiding and tried to find everyone. After a while his dog began to growl, so he ducked him under the water to make him keep quiet. He stayed hid all day and when night came he started out for town, still keeping hidden as much as possible. In the morning he saw a regiment of soldiers passing on horse-back. He took off his shirt and waved. The soldiers saw it and came to his rescue. He knew that they were not Indians for there was such a difference in the way they rode. They put him on one of their horses and took him back to town. The next day some of them went back with him to his home. There he found his six children and their mother scalped and lying around the yard dead. All of his buildings were burned down. At his brother's home it was the same. The soldiers helped him bury his dead. Then he left, and went east. Afterward he remarried. He came back and put up more buildings, and was one of the wealthiest farmers in that part of the country.
Mr. Morrison went to work for the McCormick Binder Company for a while, then went to the Deering Company and sold machinery all over the northern states.
When he was traveling through that part of the country he used to make the German's home his headquarters.
When traveling through Matto, South Dakota, he used to pass a Sioux Indian cemetery that covered 160 acres. On Decoration Day every grave had a flag waving over it. It was a beautiful sight. The government supplied the flags.
Mr. Morrison says that there are not many old pioneers that can boast of being here when Minnesota became a state in 1858. At his age he is well and spry; never had had a doctor but once in his life.
He makes his home here with his nieces, Mrs. Violet Valquette and Mrs. Graham of Deerwood.
|
