When my grandfather came to Minnesota, he came alone, by pack horse. After he had started he sent for Grandmother. They had just one horse so they had to walk all the way to Morrison County. It was a very long hard journey, but once they got to Minnesota they found it very nice.
“When Grandfather came to Minnesota”, by Mary M. Kempenich, is an eleven-page book created as part of a school project. The book is constructed of sheets of tan construction paper with smaller sections of ruled white paper attached to the front near the bottom. Each sheet of construction paper has crayon drawings showing scenes related to the portion of the story that is on that page. Scenes include clearing the land, building a log house, plowing a field, making soap, butchering and gathering maple syrup. According to Mary, “(t)he drawings and statements in these pages were made as part of a class assignment given by Mrs. Forest Nutter, School District 106, Cushing township. To the best of my knowledge, the statements/facts are correct, as provided to me by my father, Anthony J. Kempenich. I did this school project sometime in the mid 1950’s. I do not remember which grade I was in at the time” (Handwritten Letter; 16 July 2008).