Saint Cloud Daily Times
Thursday, June 13
Page 2

The Pioneer Woman.

Half a century is a long time in which to live in one place and it is especially long when that period covers the transition period from a wilderness to civilization. Yet that was the experience of Mary Magdeline Braun, St. Cloud’s oldest inhabitant whose death is recorded in the news columns of the Times this evening. When she came to St. Cloud the valley of the Sauk was not dotted with beautiful farms. The virgin forest was still untouched by the ax, no plow had turned the sod of the prairie uplands and no scythe had mown the grass of the rich meadows of the lowlands. Through the forests and by the clear waters of the rivers and lakes the Indians still found here his favorite hunting grounds. Yet in her time she saw all this changed. The wilderness became the homes of hundreds of her fellow countrymen. The valley of the Sauk changed from its primal state to one of the richest agricultural districts in the Northwest. In this she and those who came with her had a great part. They suffered the privations and it was good that she could see the fruits of the hardships that she and her early pioneer associates endured, enjoyed by her children and even her children’s children. Stearns county is blessed with a rich soil and many natural advantages. it has been doubly fortunate in the characters of the people who were its pioneers. Whether they came from Germany, Ireland, or Norway, they were all thrifty Christian people who believed in right living, and exemplified it in their lives. But the old settlers are passing to the other shore and leaving to their descendants the heritage of the for which they lived and struggled.