Old Rail Fence Corners: The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History

LUCY LEAVENWORTH WILDER MORRIS Originator of Old Rail Fence Corners.
COPYRIGHTED 1914 BY THE BOOK COMMITTEE LUCY LEAVENWORTH WILDER MORRIS, EDITOR
PUBLISHED BY THE F. H. MCCULLOCH PRINTING @ AUSTIN, MINN.
Mr. Eli Pettijohn Mrs. Missouri Rose Pratt Mr. James McMullen Mrs. Samuel B. Dresser Mr. William W. Ellison Mr. Henry Favel Major Benjamin Randall Mrs. Duncan Kennedy Major S. A. Buell Mrs. Helen Horton Mrs. Mary Massolt Mrs. J. M. Paine Mr. Chas. Watson Mrs. C. W. Gress
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Illustration: Map of OLD TRAILS AND ROADS
COMPILED BY MR. GEORGE RALPH AND MRS. JAMES T. MORRIS
How little we know about what we don't know!
During my search for a map of the Old Trails and Roads of Minnesota, public libraries were thoroughly investigated, but no book or map could be found showing these old highways. A few old maps in the Historical Library bore snatches of them, but in their entirety they had disappeared from books and maps, as well as from our state.
They might be the foundations for modern roads, but only the names of those modern roads survived, so they were lost.
Months of this research work failed to resurrect them, although a map was made from the fragmentary pieces on old maps, filled out by what the pioneers who had traveled those roads could furnish. All old maps seemed to have disappeared from the state.
We had one of the new territory of Minnesota when it was admitted in '49, but just threw it out when we cleaned house lately. I think it came from Washington, said one dear old pioneer woman.