Written in 1915
At a meeting of the Dunn County Old Settler's Society, Mrs. E C Jacobs read a paper written in 195 by Mrs. Henry E Squires (Edna J Curtis). Reproduced here as taken from research of CL Coleman, 1981.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Squires were married in Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio, by the Reverend M Moore on June 21, 1855.
We came west the first of October of that year. Father came with us. Father and Henry each had a span of horses and wagons. We drove to Cleveland, Ohio, staying all night at a place just before Cleveland, and we took the first boat at night up Lake Erie. It was a very rough night, but we took an immigrant train for Chicago from Detroit in the morning.
We were quite a while getting to Chicago for the train had to stop every little while to rest. We had to remain in Chicago a day and a half waiting for part of our wagon. We left Chicago by land. When we got part way, we stayed at a place where a man advised us to slip down to La Crosse and go to Hudson on a boat. Hudson's boat was four or five miles from where we were. When we got there the last boat was loaded up and starting up the river. So we had to return and come all the way by land. Then when we to Trumbull Valley, one of father's horses became sick. I do not remember how long we remained there. Father left the horse there. A man was going to doctor it up and if it got well, the man was going to let Father know, but we never heard from him after we left there. We hitched the other horse on the wagon and went a day or two that way. When we came to Augusta, Wisconsin, Father traded the horse for a nice yoke of oxen, and we arrived at the Traveler's Home at Mud Creek.
While we were in Eau Claire, it snowed quite hard during the night. There were no buildings on the west side of the river, only a board shanty where they kept the horses when they could not get them across the river. There was only a saw mill on the east side covered with slabs, Henry said, and one hotel where we stayed all the night.
We had come from Eau Claire to Mud Creek, getting there about noon. Mud Creek is now Waneka. There was a big log hotel, and a sign outside saying "The Traveller's Home." I told Mr. Squires that I would not like to make it my home. We went along and had not gone far when we met Mr. Matt Harshman from Hudson, and he wanted us to go back to the hotel. He said, "My brother and Dan Harshman (my brother in law) are coming." I was afraid thay were not coming so we went along and almost got to the river where we could cross on the ferry when we met them coming on horse back. We had to return to the Traveller's Home, arriving there at nine o'clock in the evening. The men all went down to Lake Pepin to a land sale, leaving me at the hotel where I remained all week. It was the longest week of my life. The stage that ran from Hudson to Sparta stopped at the hotel once or twice a week and remained all night. I thought they were a rough sort of folk. I was so afraid I did not know what to do as I had never seen a drunk man before.
After the men came back from the sale, we started out for Hudson. We had to go through the "Big Woods". I don't remember after leaving Menomenie until we got to the hotel seeing one house. I don't remember the hotel proprietor, but he had a squaw for a wife. We had not arrived until dark and had to wait a long while for our supper. I was so sleepy that I went to sleep by the stove before supper. We ate bear meat and venison. In the morning we left and arrived at Mr. Harshman's along about the middle of the afternoon on a day in November.
We were so long on the road we were afraid our money would run out. We did not stop for dinner any time after leaving Chicago. We ate breakfast before daylight and supper after dark. Sometimes I became so hungry I told Henry I was going to stop at a house and ask for a piece of bread and butter, but I never did for when I came to a house I did not have the courage to go in and ask for anything to eat.
Dan Harshman and my sister Lavina were married in October 1854, and they left for Hudson that same Fall. Dan's folks lived there with Uncle John Harshman's folks and stayed with them until Mr. Harshman moved down on their farm at Mud Creek. Gene was born the 8th of December, 1855. We arrived from Hudson to Mud Creek in January 1856. Dan built a house on the place that Aurwilda (Edie's daughter) owns now, and Lavina and I lived there that winter while Dan and Henry teamed for Knapp, Stout and Company. In the spring Henry took a claim down near the prairie and built a log house. We moved in before the house was shingled. We ate our first meal off a trunk. Henry made most of our furniture. He made a bed stead out of tamarack poles, stools to sit on, and a table. We got along pretty well until our belongings arrived some time in May. We had to pay a dollar a bushel of corn, potatoes, and oats.
