Mrs. Greeley's Story, told in 1938.
By Sarah Costello

Mrs. Greeley's husband was the president of the First National Bank of Virginia, Minnesota. This is about her family who came here in the famine years from Queen's County, Ireland. Her parents with their seven children left their home when all their supplies were gone. They made their way to the seashore in hopes of being picked up by a passing ship. A ship bound for New Orleans took them aboard. A few days out at sea, one of the little girls died and was buried at sea. On reaching New Orleans, her father found to his dismay that all labor was done by slaves. Finally, a captain on a Mississippi boat picked them up and offered them a ride north out of slave territory. A day or so later, another little girl died of Cholera, which was raging in the south. The captain felt sorry for them, but said he could not keep them on his boat or let his passengers know that the little girl had died. He told them he would let them off on an island after dark. The island was a deserted island in the Mississippi River. It had a bridge to the mainland. He then gave them some food and a spade to bury the little girl, and left. They buried the little girl and under cover of darkness, crossed the little bridge to the mainland to Galena, Illinois.

Her father got work on the river and in the course of time became the captain of a boat. Navigation on the river was only a summer job as the river turned to ice in winter. They filed a claim on a homestead at Fountain City, Wisconsin. Residence of only six months a year for five years was required of the breadwinner of the family, if his family lived on the homestead in the winter, which worked well.