ABSTRACT
Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve published her autobiography when she was 69 years old. During her lifetime she saw the midwestern wilderness undergo a dramatic transformation. When she lived at Fort Snelling as a child in the early 1800's, the population consisted mostly of Indians, fur traders, and soldiers. By the time she wrote her book, farms and towns had sprung up along the banks of the Mississippi River. Nearby, the city of Minneapolis, where Charlotte lived, had become a major center of trade, industry, and education.
