(Monday, April 20, 2026)
I spent yesterday in the hospital with my mother and felt like “meeting with” my great-great grandmother Scholastica Cratte (many different spellings), who was born in Mendota and died in Wabasha. Today I went for the long Mendota walk I used to do on my lunch break when I worked at Ergotron. I photographed a bunch of the historic signage at the Faribault house. I looked into the Fuller ancestry website and saw that one of my great-great-great grandfather Captain Duncan Graham’s daughters, Marie Elizabeth, married Alexander Faribault. Duncan’s daughter Sarah Marie married Etienne Olivier Cratte (originally from Quebec). Their daughter was Scholastica. Both Jean-Baptiste Faribault (Alexander’s father) and Duncan Graham were fur traders in Mendota, and both of their wives were Dakota. Wabasha, the town my grandmother Lenora grew up in, was named by Captain Graham (inspired by his wife’s grandfather Red Leaf Wapasha). It has been reported that Duncan’s parents were members of Scottish nobility and his emigration was a protest against the society of the day. Most of this information is from the Fuller website (links below). Some of it conflicts with the ancestral story from my aunt, but I do trust the Fuller site more than passed-away Aunty Bernadine.
Ancestors (maternal grandmother Lenora Fuller):
Red Leaf, Chief Wapasha I (wife unknown)
https://gw.geneanet.org/rnelson?lang=en&n=wapasha&oc=0&p=i
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~wapasha/genealogy/wapa1.html
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~wapasha/genealogy/wapa1-children.html
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~wapasha/genealogy/index.html
Jean Pennishon + Winona Wapasha (Wenonah?)
Captain Duncan Graham + Susanne Istagiwin Hazahotawin
Etienne Olivier Cratte (Crête) + Sarah Marie Graham
Timothy Fuller + Scholastica Josephine Cratte
Henry Timothy Fuller + Matilda Behrns (Behrens?)
Bernard Michael Sheehan + Lenora Mary Fuller
Wednesday, April 22, Earth Day: I am meditating with my ZenWave device and reading my tiny “How to Sit” book by Thich Nhat Hanh. There are a lot of pages about ancestors. He says that they are inside of us, in every cell. Breathe together!
