The reservation line goes through our land

DL: Did you ever hear about the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War during your growing up years?

FJ: Oh, all the time, just because of where we lived. The Milford monument was there, and right down the road from the Milford monument -- I don't know if you've seen that -- that stone by the ravine ambush? Well, right around the curve was a white schoolhouse where I went for the first six years of my education. So you'd walk by the Milford monument [each day] or you drove by it. Oh yeah, we talked about it a lot.

DL: What did you remember hearing about it?

FJ: [Laughter] That the settlers and the Indians fought. Apparently our family got along [with the Dakota]. The reservation line goes through our land; about 700 feet from here. From my driveway, the reservation line is a little over 500 feet west of our driveway and it moves through our land out there, and the land I own across the highway. So this was right on the edge of the reservation. So, we were here and that was the reservation. The trade was along the river valley. People spent a lot of time talking about that. But as far as specifics, again I didn't pay as much attention as I wish I had, but it was surely talked about.

DL: Who were your family members that lived through that time?

FJ: Well my great-grandparents did. My grandfather died in the 50s, and he was about 90. My paternal grandfather also must have been alive. And he lived here, this is where my grandfather was born, my father was born in the log house, born on the farm. So I wonder if my grandfather wasn't born in the 1860s. I should know that and I don't. I could look.