From the journals of Dorothy Halverson Morrison: When Lydia wasa child, her family moved from Wisconsin to Minnesota near thetown of Mankato. They lived in a log cabin in the forest, a veryprimitive life in which the children worked as hard as theadults. They wore shoes only in the winter and those were handeddown from child to child until completely worn out. The familywas of Dutch descent and had lived in Pennsylvania. Her memorieswere not cheerful--life was hard. She was the oldest girl in afamily of eight and had to help with all the chores. Theirclothing was made by hand and she learned to sew at an earlyage. Her schooling was limited although there was a schoolnearby; however, she was allowed to go only when she wasn'tneeded at home to tend the younger children or to sew or bake orclean. She was ten years old when the Civil War broke out but ithad little effect on her life; their fair was far from where thebattles were fought. It took at least six weeks before any newsto reach her home. Things that were close to home were of vitalimportancae. The most serious and frighteneing were the Indians.As the settlers and soldiers moved west, the Indians were pushedto the North and to the prairies.They hated the whites asbitterly as the whites hated them and raids on the settlers wereconstant. Lydia's most vivid memory was watching a war partyacross the lake from their cabin, dancing and singing(screaming, she said) and whooping around a campfire. They werestreaked with war paint and waving tomahawks and guns. She andher family hid in the woods for severl days before they dared togo back to their home. Often riders would come by, warning thatthe Indians were on the war path and urging the settlers tohide. I have no idea of how she moved to town or where she metmy grandfather. They lived in St. James, though, and are bothburied there. They had three children: Albin, Estella and Dora,all born in St. James. Albin was the oldest and served a shortstint in the Spanish American War. My grandmother, Lydia Keechwas born in Wisconsin Sept. 12, 1852. Her family had come fromPennsylvania. I think they were part of a religious group knownas "Shakers" -- a splinter group from the Quakers. They werePennsylvania Dutch in origin. They came from Wisconsin down toMinnesota by oxtrain and settled near Mankato, Minn., on ahomestead in the woods. My grandmother spent part of each yearwith us in Montana after my grandfather died -- the other partof the year she would be with my Aunt Stell in Minnesota. I usedto badger her with questions about her life in those pioneerdays but she didn't like to reminisce too much. There were eightchildren in her family and she was the oldest girl so she wasworking at household chores or helping care for younger childrenor sewing and mending all the time. There were constant Indianscares and she had a very vivid memory of watching Indiansacross the lake from their cabin, dancing and screaming around afire, preparing to go on the warpath. More than once her familyhid in the forest from Indian raiding parties. She had a vaguerecollection of Abraham Lincoln but said it was six weeks beforethe news of his assassination reached their community inMinnesota. She had one brother in the Union Army. And onebrother was in a posse that went looking for Jesse James andCole Younger after their bank robbery of the Bank in Northfield,Minnesota. She died in 1947 at the age of 95. She had livedthrough four wars -- The Civil, the Spanish-American, World WarI and World War II -- from Oxcarts to airplanes!