At the age of twelve, Frank G. O'Brien (1843-1920) moved from Maine to Minnesota with his father and siblings, settling in Anoka County in 1855. After a difficult winter, the family moved to St. Anthony's Falls where O'Brien spent his adolescence combining a variety of manual and entrepreneurial jobs with education. Minnesota Pioneer Sketches is a collection of newspaper feature articles written by O'Brien that are here published in book form. The articles describe his own youth as well as notable events during the second half of the nineteenth century in Minnesota. He discusses farming, transportation, the U.S. mail, politics, Indians, the Civil War, religious practices, lumber camps, education, and other topics associated with pioneer life and the growth of the state.

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