Excerpt from Personal Recollections of Minnesota and Its People: And Early History of Minneapolis On returning from Mexico to my Wisconsin home in 1848, with impaired health, I thought of returning to a claim I made in Texas in 184 G.During a military march in the fall of 1846 from Matamoras to a point on the plains some forty miles east of that city into Texas, the command lost its bearings on the prairie, through the carelessness of the guide, and in seeking water and a place to camp, after a march of two days, on the second night a light was seen in the distance which evidently indicated the presence of either a settlement of whites or a Comanche camp. The latter would not be a desirable event, but after so long a march over an unbroken wilderness it was decided best to approach the signs of habitation. About midnight the place was reached and it was found that three men had taken claims on the banks of a small stream which drained that part of Texas, where both mesquite trees and grass were abundant. The owners of these claims were from New Orleans where, as clerks, they had saved considerable money. They had concluded to unite their earnings and become planters in southwestern Texas. They purchased a few negroes and mules, supplied themselves with provisions and agricultural implements, and wandered through the wilds of Texas in search of land suitable for planting, and located in what they thought the most desirable place. Upon a hasty examination of the neighborhood the next morning, I decided to take an adjoining claim, and employed them to make improvements on it for me, with a full intention of making it a permanent home after the war. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.