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MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURIST SOCIETY. 



MRS. L. M. FORD AND HER FLOWERS. 



BY L. M. FORD, SAN DIEGO, CAL. 



After our marriage, June 20th, 1855, we bade adieu to relatives at 

 Sandusky, Ohio, and took passag^e on a steamer for Sheboyegan, 

 Wisconsin. Before starting she dug some roots of a flower, the 

 name of which I do not recall, and after being wrapped in damp 

 cotton, this first pet of hers was packed away carefully in one of the 

 traveling bags. At the home of her aunt Wilgus, across the lakeS' 

 we found a great display of May pinks, yet in bloom. Of these fra- 

 grant favorites our mothers loved so dearly, we laid in a good 

 supply, as I had not met with these among the first settlers of Saint 



MRS. L. M. FORD. 

 (From a potrait taken in her early married life.) 



Paul or Saint Anthony. The plants lived, and in a few years many 

 flower lovers in Minnesota had secured a stock from this small be- 

 ginning. 



From Lake Michigan to Lake Winnebago by stage and a ride on a 

 small steamer brought us further on our bridal trip and among 

 my relatives at Neena, a new town just started, and at Viuelaud, 

 where in 1819, father and I selected lands for several families that 

 came a little later. 



After a pleasant visit, we started for Milwaukee by steamer and 

 stage and thence by the lake to Chicago, as Wisconsin had no rail- 

 roads in those days. Trains had just begun to run from Chicago 



