Introduction to the 2023 edition -- Generations and generations -- 1700s. Jonathan Carver, English explorer -- Peter Pond, explorer and trader -- John Macdonell, fur trader -- 1800s. George Nelson, sixteen-year-old apprentice clerk in the fur trade -- 1820s. Lawrence Taliaferro, Indian agent -- James Colhoun, explorer -- 1830s. Nathan Jarvis, army surgeon -- William T. Boutwell, missionary -- Edmund and Catharine Ely, missionaries -- Mathias Loras, Catholic bishop -- Joseph Nicollet, mapmaker -- 1840s. John and Ann North, settlers on Nicollet Island -- Gustavus Otto, army private -- William Brown, farmer -- 1850s. The Fuller family, socialites in early St. Paul -- Daniel Fisher, seminarian teaching in St. Paul -- Andrew Peterson, homesteader in Waconia Township -- Harriet Griswold, widowed in Cambridge -- H.P. Van Cleve, surveyor in Stearns County -- Harriett and Nancy Nichols, missionaries in Morrison County -- Jane Grey Swisshelm, St. Cloud newspaper publisher and feminist -- 1860s. J. Madison Bowler, in love in St. Anthony -- Civil War. Sam Bloomer, Stillwater soldier -- Matthew Marvin, Winona farmer turned sergeant -- William Christie, Olmstead County soldier -- Isaac Taylor, volunteer -- US-Dakota War. Henry Whipple, Episcopal bishop of Minnesota -- Taoyateduta, Dakota leader -- Henry Hastings Sibley, leader of the expedition to put down the US-Indian war -- Eli Pickett, observer of the hangings at Mankato -- John Faith, St. Peter newspaper publisher --

1870s. Victims of the grasshopper plague -- John Riheldaffer, superintendent of a reform school -- Mary Carpenter, homemaker in Rochester and Marshall -- Hugo Nisbeth, Swedish traveler commenting on Christmas -- Margaret Kerr, Wadena missionary's wife -- 1880s. C.J. Birkebak, Danish observer of the Red River Valley -- The Christie family, a collection of strong-willed people -- The Doctors Mayo of Rochester -- Working girls -- John McGaughey, injured workman and union leader -- Rees Price, snowbound homesteader near Tracy -- Edward Drew, Winona farmer -- 1890s. Walter T. Post, St. Paul railroad clerk -- Emilie Wilhemina Nyman, eighteen-year-old widow -- David Freeman, survivor of the Hinckley fire -- 1900s. Horace Glenn, logger -- Polly Bullard, Iron Range teacher -- Victor Myllymaki, Eveleth miner on strike -- Roland Reed, photographer of Native Americans -- 1910s. Frank Geddes, Koochiching County homesteader -- E.J. Brown, Minneapolis doctor -- J.M. Drew, academician -- World War I. Philip Longyear, ambulance driver -- Victims of war hysteria -- 1920s. Shimmy dancers -- 1930s. Linda Benitt, Hastings farmer -- Sufferers during the Depression -- John F. D. Meighen, Albert Lea lawyer -- Sarah Berman, advertising saleswoman -- World War II. Richard Watson, Air Force flight surgeon.