| Catherine McClure Fruit Goddard Smith one of Winona's outstanding pioneer women wrote this letter to her sister in Pennsylvania. She and her family came to Winona in 1852. In her first year here she lost her husband Abner and two children to Typhoid Fever. Four of her children had died earlier from Scarlet Fever. Her ten-year-old daughter died in 1853. Catherine married A. B. Smith in 1853 but he vanished under suspicious circumstances in 1854. Catherine ran a boarding house to support her family. |  |
Her son Charles joined Company
K of the First Minnesota Regiment in 1861 and fought in most of the
major battles of the Civil War--he was severely wounded at Gettysburg.
He died at age 24 in 1867. Her son Orrin Fruit Smith became Winona's leading
historian who saved many of the documents, which tell the city's history.
The citizens of Winona revered "Aunt Catherine," as she was popularly called,
for her humility, kindness and generosity. She died June 2nd 1888.]
)
Christmas Dinner, 1852