Ayrd or Aird, is seen both ways. Our family passed down Ayrd. "Known as Grey Cloud Woman II. Reputed to be a beautiful young woman. 'Margaret was a beautiful and attractive half-breed girl, not without schooling, and it is not surprising that she should have found favor among the few white men employed about the trading post'. In 1805, she was married to Thomas Anderson, a young Scottish Canadian, who was working for her father, and five years later in 1910 the happy couple started out by the only means of transportation in use in those days, either mackinaw boats or canoes, on a long tedious journer up the Mississippi to Mendota and several hundred miles up the winding St. Peter's or Minnesota to take charge of another of Hudson Bay Company posts on the shores of Lake Traverse. It was on this memorable trip, while they were at Patterson Rapids just a few miles below the Yellow Medicine River, that the Grey Cloud Woman gave birth to her second child, the first being a boy, have been born at Prairie du Chien in 1806. The second child was a girl to whom the Andersons gave the name Jane, but who the Indians delighted to call 'An-pa-chi-ya-ye-win' or 'Daybreak Woman'" (from Brown County Historial Society) She and Anderson lived together about eight years, about 1805 to 1813. She was a sister to Wabasha II. Some say she was his daughter, granddaughter or niece. When Thomas Anderson enlisted in the British army for the War of 1812, Grey Cloud returned to her family. When Thomas refused American citizenship, (with the intention of going to Canada perhaps) Grey Cloud also refused to leave her native land. "Leaving her husband the spring of 1814, as she would not leave her relatives, and returned to Prairie du Chien, and lived with her parents, James Aird and Gray Cloud Woman I, till her father's death in 1819. She reared hrt children till they were ready for school. Angus and Jane were sent to Canada for their education at their father's request. Grey Cloud met Hazen Mooers in 1816, they were married about 1818. Hazen took his bride up to Mendota, then on to St. Peters over the same route that she had traveled with Captain Anderson. They also went on to Big Stone Lake, near Hartford where they established a trading post and a home." (MN Historical Library, journal of John Bourke, clerk at Graham Renville fort, entered. Nov. 10,1819.) They moved to Mississippi River Island between St. Paul and Hastings, Wisconsin Territory. Grey Cloud Island was named to honor her by her second husband, Hazen. She was 1/2 Dakota Sioux, 1/2 Scottish.
Ayrd or Aird, is seen both ways. Our family passed down Ayrd. "Known as Grey Cloud Woman II. Reputed to be a beautiful young woman. 'Margaret was a beautiful and attractive half-breed girl, not without schooling, and it is not surprising that she should have found favor among the few white men employed about the trading post'. In 1805, she was married to Thomas Anderson, a young Scottish Canadian, who was working for her father, and five years later in 1910 the happy couple started out by the only means of transportation in use in those days, either mackinaw boats or canoes, on a long tedious journer up the Mississippi to Mendota and several hundred miles up the winding St. Peter's or Minnesota to take charge of another of Hudson Bay Company posts on the shores of Lake Traverse. It was on this memorable trip, while they were at Patterson Rapids just a few miles below the Yellow Medicine River, that the Grey Cloud Woman gave birth to her second child, the first being a boy, have been born at Prairie du Chien in 1806. The second child was a girl to whom the Andersons gave the name Jane, but who the Indians delighted to call 'An-pa-chi-ya-ye-win' or 'Daybreak Woman'" (from Brown County Historial Society) She and Anderson lived together about eight years, about 1805 to 1813. She was a sister to Wabasha II. Some say she was his daughter, granddaughter or niece. When Thomas Anderson enlisted in the British army for the War of 1812, Grey Cloud returned to her family. When Thomas refused American citizenship, (with the intention of going to Canada perhaps) Grey Cloud also refused to leave her native land. "Leaving her husband the spring of 1814, as she would not leave her relatives, and returned to Prairie du Chien, and lived with her parents, James Aird and Gray Cloud Woman I, till her father's death in 1819. She reared hrt children till they were ready for school. Angus and Jane were sent to Canada for their education at their father's request. Grey Cloud met Hazen Mooers in 1816, they were married about 1818. Hazen took his bride up to Mendota, then on to St. Peters over the same route that she had traveled with Captain Anderson. They also went on to Big Stone Lake, near Hartford where they established a trading post and a home." (MN Historical Library, journal of John Bourke, clerk at Graham Renville fort, entered. Nov. 10,1819.) They moved to Mississippi River Island between St. Paul and Hastings, Wisconsin Territory. Grey Cloud Island was named to honor her by her second husband, Hazen. She was 1/2 Dakota Sioux, 1/2 Scottish.
