Edna Dunham (Mrs. Jack) Essler discusses where she was born and how her family first came to St. Peter, Minnesota; her grandfather's livestock business; her first teaching jobs at Traverse des Sioux, Lake Washington, Kasota, and Cleveland; working at Kerr's Department Store in Minneapolis; going with her friend, Miss Lula Rickmire, to stay at her homestead claim in Itasca County; buying her own relinquishment in Itasca County; what Farley and Blackduck looked like when she first went through; going up to her own homestead for the first time; her and Miss Rickmire's encounter with a bear; meeting her husband; teaching a country school near her claim; buying her land; getting married at Blackduck; what Bemidji looked like in 1902; and early doctors in Bemidji. The recording is continued in bchs087b.
