USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 37
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"By this time the young folks had warmed up and regained consciousness, and much to our relief we heard no complaining from the camp. The night soon passed and then at break of day we began firing guns again. This was kept up until about 8 o'clock, when we had our first response from down the river.
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Another gun was fired, and then another response from nearer by was soon followed by the appearance of John James on the bluff overlooking our camp. He told us the rest of the party were down the river about five miles in a well hole in the snow where they had staid over night without a fire. I now told him we had the family all safe, and we wanted something to eat, and to try and hurry up the provision party in quick time. A short time before noon they reached our camp, when we enjoyed their provision while they appeared to enjoy our fire fully as well. The cattle were fed, and when dinner was over the sleigh was loaded up again, cattle hitched on, and with two long ropes fastened to the sleigh and passing by on either side, with a couple of men to each, we were ready for a start. As I remember the picture just at that time it would not have been taken for a rapid transit outfit.
"We reached a fine ash grove on an island in the river a short distance above the mouth of Mud creek before night, where we stopped to camp. The weather during the day had become more moderate, and the wind had quieted down. With plenty of help we made good preparations for the night. During the evening about the camp fire we listened to the experiences of the relief party while hauling their heavy loads during the storm the day before, also about the night spent in the snow well without a fire, that no one of that party is liable ever to forget.
"In comparing notes we found that all of us were more or less frozen about the hands and face while beating up against the storm. Bright and early we were up, and when breakfast was over we packed up again and were off, with everybody feeling well satisfied with the work so far accomplished. Before noon Campbell and I left the party some two miles out from Mr. Reibhoff's and went to our cabin. Soon after the whole settlement was gladdened by the safe arrival of the fam- ily, and vied with each other in offering them the hospitality of their homes. They finally accepted Mr. and Mrs. Schenck's invitation, as they had more spare room to offer, where they staid until warm weather, when they went on their way with the best wishes of all who knew them, and with memories that are not liable ever to be forgotten."
BUILDING THE FORTS AND SCOUTING
In the spring of 1857, the settlers were thrown into a wild state of excite- ment when the news came that the entire Spirit Lake settlement had been mas- sacred by Inkpadutah's band of Sioux and that the settlement here was liable to meet the same fate. Although that event occurred early in March, the news did not reach the settlements in this county for some two weeks later, when it was reported by the mail carrier from Fort Dodge. Many of the settlers were simply panic stricken, some of them left the country and others were preparing to follow. Reports of other massacres went floating through the settlements which no one was able to trace to their origin. Sandhill cranes, flapping their wings and taking their customary sun dance on the distant hills, were frequently mistaken for the approaching Sioux, and prairie fires imagined to be the camp fires of that dreaded enemy. Considering what had happened at so short a dis- tance from the East Branch settlements, and the unprotected condition in case of an Indian invasion, the settlers were certainly justified in being alarmed for
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their safety. The settlers to the west and north of this vicinity had all fled, as did many on the east and to the far south. The heavy snows which had fallen during the winter having melted, the sloughs, ponds and creeks were overflowing and in an almost impassable condition. In spite of this fact settlers did flee, and many never returned to their preemption homes.
To provide a place of refuge in case of an attack upon the settlers, and to prevent a general stampede of the people from the county, two forts were soon in process of construction-one at Irvington and the other at Algona, where the mill at each place ran day and night to turn out the necessary material. The one at Irvington stood about twenty rods northeast of the present depot, and was about sixty feet square, having bastions and port holes. The heavy oak plank, doubled, and set on end in a trench, and all securely tied by substantial girths made the fort all that was necessary. The heavy door was on the south end and was seen about the townsite many years after it was made. In building that stockade all the neighboring settlers joined in the work to hasten its comple- tion. The earliest settlers in that vicinity used to tell how one young man hung around the mill but refused to help lift the heavy plank for the fort. To dis- pose of him he was picked up by a couple of stout fellows, taken to the bank of the river and then thrown in head formeost. When he got out he was very willing to assist the others. While the fort was bullet proof it would have been a death trap if the settlers had been compelled to remain in it for any great length of time, for no well had been provided in the inclosure. An old man by the name of John Edwards, who lived where M. D. L. Parsons is living, directed the building of the fort in accordance with military usage at that time. He was in the Indian service with Gen. Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe when he was a young man.
At Algona Judge Call and H. A. Henderson directed the construction of the stockade, which was built around the town hall on the present John Galbraith business block. Both had seen hard service in the Indian country, and both had knowledge of the Indian character. This stockade was six rods square and had a well inclosed besides a comfortable building. It took several days to get out the material and get it placed in position. While the mill was sawing day and night, a force of men in the timber, also kept busy splitting logs to form a part of the stockade line. These being double at the cracks, made as secure a pro- tection as the sawed plank. Bastions were provided at the northwest and south- east corners. The lower ends of all the planks and timbers being set in a trench two feet deep the construction proved very substantial.
While the work was progressing and the excitement running high, H. F. Watson, Abe Hill and W. Skinner proceeded to Fort Dodge to procure am- munition, Ambrose A. Call and Levi Maxwell went scouting down through the Lotts creek country on the south, and W. H. Ingham. A. L. Seeley, Lewis H. Smith, Jacob C. Cummins, Peter Reibhoff and W. S. Campbell formed another scouting party to explore the lake country in the region where the depredations had been perpetrated.
How Ambrose A. Call and Levi Maxwell happened to go south instead of northwest is best learned from the report of Mr. Call. which reads: "A report was started in Humboldt county that a large band of Indians was seen at the upper timber on Lotts creek. The couriers who went to Fort Dodge for am-
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munition, as they returned, met nearly the whole population of Humboldt county 'running from the Indians.' The writer at this time was baching south of the river, in the timber, with three companions. The boys worked on the stockade in the day time, and boiled sugar, nights. The river was bankfull, and the only means of crossing was a 'dug out' which frequently resented the familiarity of strangers by rolling over and dropping them in the water. About IO o'clock one night we heard fearful hallooing at the river, and on going down were interviewed by 'Big Burright,' from the other side, who had verbal dis- patches from headquarters. He said he had been sent down to tell us that there was a large number of Indians on Lotts creek; that it was believed up town they would attack the settlement before morning; that the news had come in since dark, and that the people had all gathered at Judge Call's and H. A. Hen- derson's. This news was of two much importance to go unheeded; we unfort- unately happening to be on the same side of the river the Indians were sup- posed to be on, the writer and Sam Nixon at once started to notify the set- tlers and gather them in at Mr. Brown's. They needed but little urging, and by midnight were all housed and ready to defend their castle. At old Dr. Cogley's, after a deal of hallooing. a faint response came from the neighbor- hood of the stock-yard. 'Halloo, doctor, what are you doing out there this time of night?' says the interviewer. 'The Indians haven't been here yet have they?' 'No,' says the doctor, 'and I don't propose to have them find me if they do come. You see I have my family buried in the hay out there, and if the Indians come and attack the house, I can fire on them from the rear, and they will think I have received reenforcements, and run. Do you see? Of course we saw the point; but the doctor never had an opportunity to test his strategy, the Indians having failed to put in an appearance.
"Early the next morning Mr. Maxwell and the writer (Call) rode down to Lotts Creek to see if there existed any grounds for the rumors which had alarmed us. Of course we found no Indians and no signs of any having been in the coun- try. The settlers had all left in great haste-some even leaving their stock tied and penned up without food. After this scare the settlers began to lose faith in Indian stories, and returned to their homes. When the conditions of the streams and sloughs would permit travel we found there were no Indians in the country, those committing the massacre at Spirit lake having fled to the westward."
The other scouting party, having first assembled at the Ingham cabin near Plum creek, decided to invade the region between Algona and the scene of the massacre, and learn if possible whether or not the Sioux were still in the coun- try, and if not in what direction they had gone. The personnel of the party was composed of fine marksmen who were well armed, and who comprehended the mission they were about to undertake. April 11, 1857, W. H. Ingham, A. L. Seeley, Lewis H. Smith, Jacob C. Cummins, Peter Reibhoff and W. S. Campbell struck out for the northwest. Through snow, slush and water they rode and managed to reach the Tuttle home, forty miles away at Tuttle's lake, on the second day. Until the arrival of these scouts this family had not heard of the massacre which had ocurred several weeks before. The next day they continued their march and found five tepees of Sioux encamped at the lake, south and west of the present city of Fairmont. Nothing about the contents of
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these tepees indicated that their owners had had any hand in the massacre, except one that stood apart from the others. On asking to see that owner they were told that he was away looking after his traps and that he did not belong to their company. That particular Indian was the same Umpashotah with whom Mr. Ingham had a perilous experience, a couple of years before on the prairie, and the same one who came to the Ingham cabin on the Black Cat in the spring of 1856, and stayed over night, after the boys had filled him so full of venison that he couldn't stand up.
The scouts told the Indians that on account of the massacre it would not be safe for them to stay there, and that they must leave by 9 o'clock the next morning. They took warning and soon left for the north, taking all the tepees except the one belonging to Umpashotah which the scouts could see the next morning still standing as they had seen it the day before with all its contents, thus indicating that the owner had not returned. After advising the Indians to move on, the scouting party staid over night at a cabin about a mile away. "On our way back to the Tuttle farm," says Mr. Ingham, "we met two Indians and asked them to take us to their tepee, which stood in the grove, north of the Tuttle house and about a mile distant. As we came near the tepee a squaw and two chil- dren fluttered away into the brush with a scream. We at once had the Indians unarmed and take a seat on a log near by for examination. Being surrounded by the party, one of them claiming to be a son of Inkpadutah, was asked if they had been at Spirit Lake. He promptly answered, 'Nix for stay.' And when asked if they had been on the west fork he replied, 'Nixcomherous' without the least visible appearance of fear. We were confident from his actions and from the goods in the tepee that these men had been in mischief, and had we known what we learned an hour later from George and William Granger, who had been at Spirit Lake, where their brother was one of the slain, and who confirmed all the reports made, it is very doubtful whether they would have been set at liberty. One person present begged us to tie their hands behind their backs and turn them over to him for a walk to the lake. This person was not one of the Algona party. but belonged in Minnesota, and his actions indicated that he meant busi- ness. We finally decided to let them go and gave them five minutes, after which they would be shot on sight if ever seen in that section again. The circle of guards opened for them to pass, several articles were given by them to George Tuttle, who was present, and in less than two minutes they were trotting out of our sight with their guns and furs only, leaving their tepee with many goods which were burned later by William Granger after a remarkable speech by him near its site."
As all the Indians that had been seen had been ordered away and had gone northward, and as food supplies in that frontier section were quite limited, it was decided that only two of the scouts should remain for further duty along that line, and that the others should return home to quiet the excitement and allay the fears of an Indian invasion. Consequently Lewis H. Smith, Seeley, Cummins and Reibhoff arrived at Algona bringing what was regarded as good news. The work on the fort ceased and it never was finished.
It fell to the lot of Ingham and Campbell to remain in the chain lake dis-
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trict to watch further developments. Notwithstanding the apparent good news, it is plain to be seen even at this late date that their stay was at a hazardous risk. Ingham had the consolation of knowing that he had a good backer, for Camp- bell had been a back-woods log-roller and was a man of great physical strength, as well as possessing true courage at the critical moment. At Tuttle's every- thing went on quietly for a couple of days when an Indian from the north ap- peared with a letter from one of Tuttle's friends asking that the Indian and one other be allowed to trap about the lakes. After being told how dangerous it was for them to be there on account of the excitement created by the massacre, it was finally agreed that they might come the next morning and put up their tepees near the house for protection. He then went away apparently friendly. As the two Indians did not appear the next day it caused some uneasiness for fear they might have joined those driven away and be planning a raid. Mr. Ingham tells what followed :
"In the afternoon of the second day while Mr. Tuttle and his two sons were out in the timber for wood, an Indian in full war paint was seen coming, and not far behind him appeared another who, when they came up, proved to be the two who were coming to trap. They at once told us the Sioux had not killed any whites at Spirit Lake, but that the whites had been killing the Sioux, and they were very insolent. In a few moments one of them started to go into the building occupied by Campbell and myself where the arms and ammunition were lying on the bed. We both stepped in and stood near our guns. At this one of the little children came in and told us the other Indian was in the house getting sugar. Telling Campbell to watch the arms I went to the house a few rods away and found the fellow helping himself at the further end of the room. He at once had a hustling invitation to go out side, and when we passed the door it was shut by Mrs. Tuttle. About this time the other Indian undertook to help himself to ammunition when Campbell unceremoniously threw him out doors. and in a moment stood with a gun in his hand blocking the way. While I, un- armed, was telling my man that he must go away at once or he certainly would be killed. that it was possible many men might come at any time and that he had better start, I felt something touching me and looked around to see the handle of an instrument made from the blade of a scythe, evidently for war purposes, which Mrs. Tuttle had thoughtfully passed out between the logs and was holding within easy reach should it be needed. Soon after, however, we persuaded the Indians to leave, giving them to understand that they would certainly be shot at sight if they came back. This occurrence tended to make us very watchful for a couple of days more, when we were relieved by learning from a settler, some ten miles away, that the Indians had all gone north and left that section of the country."
Mr. Ingham then left the lake country and returned to his cabin, (on the Dan Rice farm) bringing the news that the settlers in this county were in no danger of an Indian attack. Campbell was left at Tuttle's for a few days longer to return with a later report. During that stay he met with no exciting experience, and his report tended to hasten the normal quietude that had pre- vailed before the first news of the massacre had spread through the settlements.
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INKPADUTAH AND THE SPIRIT LAKE MASSACRE
The entire Spirit Lake settlement, with the exception of two of the women taken as captives and a few who were away at the time, was wiped out of exist- ence by Inkpadutah's band of roving Sioux Indians in March, 1857. The story of this horrible massacre becomes an interesting portion of Kossuth county his- tory, because the attack, at so short a distance from the settlements in this county, occasioned the fleeing of some settlers, the formation of scouting par- ties and the erection of stockades at Algona and Irvington. Moreover, Ink- padutah was no stranger to the early settlers of this county. for he had been here on a couple of occasions and given them trouble. They knew that it was his band that had driven off the Government surveyors and robbed their camp while Cresco township was being surveyed, on the second, day of July, 1854; they knew that he came a year later with his band and raised his village on sec- tion 24 in that same township and turned their ponies into Barney Hollond's corn field, they knew that his tepee in the center of the village was one of the most elaborately decorated of any ever seen by our early settlers; they knew that it was a portion of his band that raided the Maxwell cabin and terrorized the family, with no one to protect them except the husband and Ambrose A. Call until the relief force came a few hours later; they knew that the old chief moved his village east of the river and established it near where the Mann brothers and sisters are living; they knew that Ambrose A. Call, William G. Clark and others went to his camp and ordered him to leave the county; and they knew that he left the next morning, going north and crossing the river near the mouth of Buffalo Fork on his way westward out of the country. While the settlers of Kossuth were acquainted with these facts they had not learned that Inkpadutah had a disposition to murder innocent people who had never done him or his band any harm.
Having come in contact with the old chief on a couple of occasions Am- brose A. Call had a good chance to see how he appeared about two years before the raid was made on the Spirit Lake settlement, and this is his description : "Inkpadutah was about fifty-five years old, about five feet, eleven inches in height, stoutly built, broad shouldered, high cheek bones, sunken and very black sparkling eyes, big mouth, light copper color and pock-marked in the face." He was the leader of a renegade band of Sioux who had no standing with other tribes, who were not recognized by the Government in the annuities, and who had been driven out of the company of Sioux with whom they once associated. They were ugly and revengeful and treacherous in the extreme. Inkpadutah's son, Roaring Cloud, was even more barbarous than his father, as was witnessed by the captives taken at Spirit Lake when he cruelly murdered Mrs. Noble while defending her own virtue.
All the roving bands of Sioux Indians that infested northwestern Iowa were of the renegade order, and those headed by Inkpadutah were of the lowest of that order. They looked with suspicion and hatred upon all settlers who occu- pied hunting grounds to which they had not the slightest pretense of a claim. They drove away surveying parties, turned back emigrant trains and in various ways impeded the progress of settlement. Inkpadutah's band became more desperate because they had not been allowed to receive pecuniary aid from the Government such as the better class of Sioux had been receiving. Then again
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the treacherous chief had been nursing special grievances against the whites for over three years. In January, 1854, Henry Lott had killed Sidominadotah, his brother, and all of his family except a girl who hid in the weeds and a son Josh who was wounded and left for dead. This event occurred in the northern part of Humboldt county, where Lott had built his cabin beyond the bounds of civili- zation and where Sidominadotah at the time was camping. After the slaughter Lott carted all the dead bodies to "Bloody Run" and dumped them in the creek. Inkpadutah was much angered when he learned of the foul murder of his rela- tives, and that anger was largely increased when he was informed that the head of his brother had been fished out of the water and taken to Homer, where it was stuck upon a pole as an ornament to the hotel. The old chief wanted the authorities to bring Lott to trial and receive the punishment he deserved, but Lott after committing the bloody deed set fire to his own cabin and with his family fled for the mountains. The character of this out-law, Henry Lott, the habits of his life, the way in which he slaughtered the chief and most of his family and the reason he had for committing the murder having been presented in the chapter "Coming to Kossuth in 1854," under the sub-head "Sidelight Paragraphs," the story need not be repeated in this chapter.
It is quite evident that Inkpadutah, realizing that the white tribunal would not do anything to punish Lott, decided to wreak vengeance on some settlement when the favorable time came. He had come into full power over the band upon the death of his brother, and was fully prepared to retaliate for his murder. He knew how the various settlements were located and the means the settlers had for defending themselves. He was too much of a coward to fight in the open and chose a place where his band could hide behind trees to do their shoot- ing if armed men were prepared to resist them. He wandered up and down the county getting his band in shape for a general massacre by committing depredations of a less horrible nature.
In the fall of 1856, Inkpadutah and his band came down from the north- west and entered the state in Lyon county. They terrorized the settlers wher- ever they went by killing the stock, robbing houses of their contents and abusing especially the women and girls. As they advanced they became more and more bold and defiant. By the first day of the year, 1857, they had reached Suther- land and were working up the Little Sioux river, going from settlement to settlement, and committing all kinds of depredations except killing the people. In Clay county they were more abusive to the women than they had been since entering the state. At Cherokee they were ugly and had things all their own way. Mrs. Abbie Gardner Sharp, who was taken captive by the In- dians at Spirit Lake, says in her book that the Sioux while on their way to that place stopped two or three days at Peterson in Clay county and while there went to the home of A. S. Mead, who was absent, and "not only killed the cattle and destroyed his property but knocked down his wife and carried off to camp her daughter seventeen years old, and started away with a younger sister, but she resisted so hard and cried so loud that an Indian picked up a stick and whipped her all the way back to the house and left her. At the same house they knocked down Mr. E. Taylor, kicked his boy in the fire and took his wife off to their camp, but as yet had committed no murder. After one night in the Indian camp Mrs. Taylor and Miss Mead were permitted to return home."
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