Footprints on the Trail

The flu bug lives at our house. He is a nasty creature who saps my strength and energy and makes me sleepy. So today I am giving you some reading material and a previously scrapped page of the author of this piece.

There were seven siblings in my grandfather Paul's family.

Melvin Curtis Paul - b. 1870

Arthur Brayton Paul - b. 1871

Grace Vedder Paul - b. 1873

Andrew Jackson Paul - b. 1882 (my grandfather)

Alice May Paul - b. 1884

Clara Lydia Paul - b. 1886

Walter Eugene Paul - b. 1888

In 1893 my great-grandparents, Hollis Brayton Paul and Adella Caroline Curtis Paul, after much discussion and correspondence with their son Arthur who had already moved to Minnesota, decided that the family should leave Chenango County, New York where they had lived all of their lives and move to Duluth. This decision was not made lightly as it meant leaving all of their friends and family, but they thought that if they stayed in New York, their financial situation would be grim at best, and they could do no worse in the fast-growing area of Lake Superior, and could possibly do better.

In 1932, the youngest of my grandfather's brothers, Walter, wrote "Footprints on the Trail." It tells of the first Paul family member to come to America in 1637 and of the Paul line until the time of the writing of this piece. Much of it describes their lives in New York, their journey to Duluth, and how they lived in Minnesota. They must have been tough people to have endured all that they did to make a life for their family, and I found it fascinating reading.

The text is saved in WordPad and is as I received it from a cousin. The Preface tells a little about my great-uncle Walter, and at the end is a list of explinations of some of the words and terms that appear within the text. "Footprints on the Trail" is included in the Zip folder with the scrapbook page of Walter and his wife, Maud Ethal Mandery. Enjoy.

http://www.4shared.com/file/37581596/fcb9da98/12_feb_2008.html