Page 53 - 2017 Willmar Lakes Area Guide

“I became ill and continued to grow worse for nearly a week. It became so much worse that it seemed we must have help from some other source. One morning quite early my husband left me alone knowing that one man was at Diamond Lake who he thought he could send some place for help. He was gone five hours and while he was away my child was born. I lay there in terrible suspense, fearing Indians every moment, but none came at that time. He came back not knowing whether to find me dead or alive. I had cut up my own clothes to make a baby’s wardrobe. It was not a very extensive wardrobe, but we did the best we could. I recovered fairly well though after
a week my limbs seemed to be paralyzed. I suffered much pain and could only move my limbs by taking my hands and moving them. By almost superhuman efforts and perseverance I would walk once more. When the baby was fourteen days old,
V. L. Forsythe and wife came along with
J.W. Burdick. Mrs. Forsythe was the first woman I had seen in seven months. She was a young inexperienced wife like myself. Mr. Burdick was a great help to me about taking care of the child as he had two small children. My baby seemed an ailing child and did not thrive very well. How could she! We named her Ida Delle. I regretted so much afterwards that I had not called her Minnesota.
Ida Delle, born on April 13, 1857, survived and thrived. In 1906, as Mrs. Ida Delle Macken of New York State, she accompanied her parents to Spicer to attend the Semi-Centennial meeting of the Old Settlers Association.
In 1857 the federal government, under President James Buchanan, passed the homestead preemption laws, requiring all homesteaders to prove up their claims at $1.25 per acre or take their chances at the public land sales at the expiration of 60 days. Most settlers had exhausted their resources in improving their land and were unable to come up with $200 cash to keep their claims. Elijah and Loretta mortgaged their property and after exactly three years residence went back to New York intending to return after another three years.
The U.S. Dakota Conflict broke out. The Green Lake country became depopulated. Buildings and fences were all destroyed by fires. To go through a second term of pioneering, wrote Elijah, “my ambition failed me, and I later
sold my land to J.W. Burdick for $500. This ended my career as a pioneer.” Elijah and Loretta Woodcock settled permanently in Urbana, Ohio. The marker of the Woodcock’s homestead is located in Spicer on North Lake Avenue 0.6 miles north of Manitoba Avenue.
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