Minnesota. Two spans of horses and two white topped covered wagons 
 
took us and our belongings to buffalo. F'rom there a Steamer took us 
 
and our goods to Milwaukee. From there our goods went by rail to 
 
La Crosse and we drove across Wisconsin camping on the way. it was 
 
like a continuous picnic to me. william drove one team and George the 
 
other. This was in the Spring of 1865. Jim and Alec had not yet been 
 
discharged from the Army. 
 
            our belongings wece all put in the wagons and the journey 
 
to r'airmont continued. no such roads as those of to-day existed in 
 
Minnesota. The hardships and inconveniences of such travel were accepted

 
and endured as unavoidable conditions of such migration. 
 
            From twenty to thirty miles per day with some stops on the 
 
way took us to Fairmont before the end of May. As we came in sight of 
 
it we met a man and I said to him, Is this FairynontY'He replied Yes, 
 
what there is of it." There was very little of it. A frame store about

 
16'x 24', a log house and a board Blacksmith shop on one side and on '. 
 
the other the old Stockade of former F'ort Fairmont with the one room, 
 
one story Court House inside. Now there is a City of more than Five 
 
Thousand people there. 
 
            Výe got from e.M.Ward, one of the owners of the store!the

 
use of a. log house and some breaking on the west bank of the Lake 
 
Sisseton)and planted some potatoes and some garden seeds. ve boys urged 
 
upon father the desirability of getting a place on one of the Lakes 
 
instead of taking a homestead out on the prairie. Un the west bank of 
 
the next lake South,Budd Lake, a man had entered three Forties 1274 
 
acres which he wished to sell. fie could give no title but would abandon

 
and the purchaser could then re-enter it under the recently passed 
 
homestead law or by preemption. fie had a hued log house, a few acres 
                               5.