USA > Iowa > Howard County > Lime Springs > History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston and Lime Springs, Ia. gathered by the old settlers > Part 30
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THOMAS, OW EN-Born May 14, 1863, at Llanerchymedd, Wales. His early days were spent on a farm. Came to this country in 1884. Is a carpenter, and is employed at the car shops of the C., M. & St. P. Ry. Co. In 1892 he was married to Miss Kate Griffith.
WILLIAMS, T. EVERETT-Son of Mr. David P. Williams, Dawn, Mo. Was born September 28, 1867. In 1891 he came to Minneapolis, and has since learned the machinist trade.
WILLIAMS, GEO. W .- Born February 22, 1858, at Portage Prairie, Wis. For a number of years he was in Dakota, and in 1882 came to Minneapolis. He married Miss Sarah Owen, Cambria, Wis., and has one child. He is the organist of the Welsh church.
BIOGRAPHIES NOT LISTED BY MISTAKE.
RICHARDS, OWEN E. ( Margrugyn) -- Born in Dyfryn Ardudwy, Merionethshire, July 5, 1850. Son of Thos. J. and Margaret Richards, late of Butternut Valley, Minn. The family emigrated to America in 1851 and settled first at Hol- land Patent, N. Y., then at Proscairon, Wis., whence in 1867 they removed to a farm in the vicinity of Bethel church, But- ternut Valley. July 4, 1878, he married Miss Sarah E., dangh- ter of Rev. David F. Jones late of LeSueur county. In No- vember, 1884, he removed to Mankato and engaged in the grocery business until his death on March 5, 1895. He was thoroughly honest, conscientious and religious. A warm- hearted friend and a loyal, faithful servant of Christ and His church. Ile was a leading elder of the C. M. church for years. He was also a patron of literature and a frequent contributor to Welsh papers.
JONES, DAVID J .- Born in Jefferson township, Jackson county, O., September 18, 1850. His parents, Thos. J. and Elizabeth Jones ( Cooper), emigrated from Cardiganshire, Wales, in 1848. In 1856 the family came with the Jackson colony to Blue Earth county, Minn., and located on a farm in South Bend. The father, who was a very prominent elder of the C. M. church, died June 12, 1870. David married in May, 1873, Miss Mary, daughter of the old C. M. elder, Wm. J. Roberts ( Creek), and his wife Anna. In 1892 Mr. and Mrs. Jones retired from their farm to the city of Mankato. They are a very worthy couple and faithful members of the Welsh church. In 1894 Mr. Jones formed a partnership with E. D. Jones in the marble business.
MOSES, REV. JOHN-Born in Monmouthshire, Wales. His early life was spent in the vicinity of Rhymni and Tredegar, where he obtained his elementary education. Circumstances soon obliged him, however, to work in the coal mines and he followed a collier's occupation while in Wales and for some years in America. He did not, however, neglect those two
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greatest educational institutions of the Welsh: The Sunday School and the Young People's meeting. In 1850 he married a young woman of Llangenach, Carmarthenshire, and the same year emigrated to Carbondale, Pa. In 1854, at the re- quest of the C. M. church at the latter place, he began to preach, and September 28, 1860, at the Synod of the C. M. church, held at Pittston, Pa., he was ordained to the full work of the ministry. Ile ministered at Carbondale and vicin- ity until 1863, when he removed to Weathersfield, O., and thence to Newburg, O. In 1866 he went to Alliance, O .; thence in 1868 to Newark. O .; and three years later he had charge of the church at Niles, O. The year 1875 he spent traveling in California and British Columbia. On his return he took charge for seven years of the churches of Waterville, Soar and Seion in Waukesha county, Wis. In 1883 he accepted a call to the C. M. church of Minneapolis, Minn. In 1885 he visited Wales and in 1886 he went to minister to his last charge, at Picatonica, Wis. He died at the hospital in Chicago, April 21, 1891, in his 66th year, leaving surviving his wife and five children. He had much natural ability and was very faithful and successful as a pastor. His christian spirit was most excellent.
JONES, REV. RICHARD F. Born at Llanbedr, Merion- ethshire, Wales, about 1828. Son of Richard and Sarah Jones, and a brother of the late Rev. D. F. Jones, of Le Sueur county. He emigrated to Utica, N. Y., in 1851, where he married Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Iones, of Holland Patent, N. Y. He removed to Constableville, N. Y., where he commenced to preach. He ministered to the following churches successively in New York: Prospect, Trenton, Hol- land Patent and Sundusky. In 1872, while on a visit to the Welsh settlements of Blue Earth county, he accepted a call to the Mankato Seion and Carmel churches, which he served for five years. He then spent a year in Wales preaching with great acceptance. On his return in 1882 he accepted a call to the C. M. church of Scranton, Pa., where he labored with much success for ten years. While there his beloved wife died. His next move was to his present charge near Ran- dolph, Wis. He is an able preacher, and an excellent chris- tian man. His living children are: Mrs. Sarah Wood, of Mankato; Richard F., of St. Peter: Evan F., of St. Paul; John F., of Mankato; Mrs. Libbie Morgan, of near Randolph, Wis.
APPENDIX.
The Dakota Tribes at the Bend of the Minnesota and Their Names of Places.
BY DRS. A. L. RIGGS AND J. F. WILLIAMSON.
In response to letters sent to Rev. A. L. Riggs, D. D., principal of the Santee Normal Training School at Santee Agency, Neb., and to Rev. John P. William- son, D. D .. of Greenwood, S. D., regarding the Indians and their names of places in the region of the Great Bend of the Minnesota, we received the following most interesting and valuable matter. No better authority on the points covered can be found than these two worthy men, who have spent their lives among our Sioux Indians. They are sons of the renowned Sioux missionaries Dr. S. R. Riggs and Dr. T. S. Williamson.
LETTER OF DR. A. L. RIGGS.
Mah-kah-to means Blue Earth. The place where the Indians procured "blue earth" was near the mouth of the Blue Earth and as I understand they named the stream from that as well as the particular place.
Momeopa is a name manufactured by white men. The nearest Dakota word is Minnenonpa meaning two waters. But I do not know that they ever called the twin falls that.
Wrraju is more correctly spelled Wa gha-ojn. The gh is a guttural. It means cottonwood grove, or literally cottonwood planting.
Swan Lake was Maya Tanka Mde.
The spelling "Merah" is an old spelling when "r" was used for the guttural gh which we now write with a marked "g." The word is Mah-ghah-tan-kah. The "w" is nasal.
Rev. John B. Renville of whom you speak is still working as a pastor of one of our Indian churches at Sisseton Agency, a useful christian worker, univer- sally beloved.
You are certainly right in your estimate of the important influence of the missionary work in restraining many of the people from joining in the outbreak and in securing kind treatment and final deliverance for many captives.
Santa Agency, Neb., March 14. 1895.
A. L. Ricos.
.
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LETTER OF DR. J. P. WILLIAMSON.
When the country around Mankato was settled forty years ago, the Indians living in that region gave the following designations to the prominent points :
I. Otymveya (The Crossing.) This was Travers des Sioux (near St. Peter.) It was so called because it was the point at which all the travel from Ft. Snelling and the east, crossed the Minnesota river; from which point the travel was up the north side of the Minnesota river passing Swan Lake. And Traverse had been occupied for many years previous as a trading post by Provencal and others.
2. Magasapa. (Black Banks.) The mouth of the Blue Earth river. It was not called by the Indians Mankato, its present name.
3. Makato-one (Blue Earth diggings ) The name of the Blue Earth river. This is evidently what the town Mankato took its name from.
4. Ma-gha-tan-La Ola (Many Swan. ) The name of Swan Lake.
5. Wa gha nju (Cottonwood groves. ) This name seems to have been applied to both the Big and Little Cottonwood rivers,
6. Kah-min (The Bend.) This was the general designation for the country around Mankato, as far as St. Peter, Swan Lake and Cam bria Creek.
7. The Minnesota river they called Wale kopa Minnesota, "The river of sky- tinted water."
The Sioux tribes have been drifting for 500 years from the Northeast to the Southwest. Their oldest traditions show that they lived around Lake Superior. Two hundred years ago the Yankton Sioux were about Mankato, One hundred years later they had gone Southwest into what is now Dakota, and their place was taken by Wahpetons and Sissetons. Before that country was open for white set- tlement the Wahpetons had mostly gone further up the Minnesota and the Sisse- ton's were the principal occupants, with a few from the bands further east, Fifty years ago there were two leading bands of Sisseton Sionx in that region.
1. Red Iron's band, called by the Indians Kah min ofmine, "Those who live in the Bend," lived at different points on the Minnesota river, both above and below Mankato. Their headquarters was at Traverse, but I think most of the Indians about South Bend belonged to Red Iron's band. And the Sires whom you speak of I think were "MIdewakanton" Sioux who had lately come in from Little Six's band, who lived about Shakopee (Six.) Then there were some Wah- pe-koo-tay Sioux who had come over from about Faribault. Their head chief was Red Legs. Who "The Friend" was that lived at Judson I do not know.
2. Sleepy Eye's band of Sissetons had their headquarters at Swan Lake. Their Indian name was Sheyjo. ( Prairie Chickens. ) It was some of this band who lived at the mouth of the Big Cottonwood, and I suspect at Judson, too, but don't know. Their chief was Ishte-how (Sleepy Eye.) He died before the may- sacre, was a good friend of the whites. Red Iron was also a good man, but many of his band were wild After they left the Bend they settled a few miles above Granite Falls. A majority of his young men were active in the massacre, and after Gen. Sibley routed the Indians at Yellow Medicine they fled to Manitoba where they still are. Sleepy Eye himself had nothing to do with the massacre. Was removed with the remnant of his tribe to Sisseton Agency where he died about 1870. Ifas one daughter living.
Sleepy Eye's band moved first to Sleepy Eye Lake. After the massacre they scattered to Sisseton Agency, Devils Lake and elsewhere.
The Sixes as a band were probably the worst Indians in the massacre, though I know nothing particular about those who lived around the Bend. The chict
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Little Six was hung with Medicine Bottle at Ft. Snelling about a year after the massacre. The majority of this band are in Manitoba-a few at Santee Agency. Nebraska, and elsewhere.
I can vouch for the fact that none of the Renvilles had anything to do with the massacre at Butternut Valley. Indeed, there is no proof that any Indian who had professed the Christian religion previous to 1862 had any connection with any of the massacres of that year At that time there were less than two dozen Indi- ans who professed to be christians, and the few men who made themselves noted for befriending the whites were nearly all from those two dozen. For instance. John Otherday, Simon Anawagmani and Lorenzo Lawrence.
The revival in the prison at Mankato was a very wonderful spiritual awaken- ing. The truth which the missionaries had preached for twenty years and which seemed to have been cast upon the hard rock, there sprang up like Jonah's gourd in a night, but unlike the gourd, much of the fruit remains to this day. Nearly every one of the 300 (about that number) were baptized, and most of them united with the Presbyterian church that my father, Rev. Thos. S Williamson, organ- ized in prison. A few preferred to unite with the Catholic and Episcopal churches, Of this number probably about fifty are still living and are mostly faithful to their profession. Two are ministers, Rev. Artemas Ehnamani, of Santer Agency, Neb., and Rev. Louis Mazawakinyanna of Sisseton Agency Another, Rev. David Greycloud, died a few years ago. Many others are still bearing office as elders or deacons in our churches.
Greenwood, S. D., April, 1895. JOHN P. WILLIAMSON.
ADDITIONAL ACCOUNT OF THE SIOUX WAR.
Release of the White Captives .-- Arrest, Trial and Execution of the Indians, Etc.
BY THOMAS HUGHES.
At the time of the battle of Wood Lake mentioned on page 109, the Indians had over 100 white women and children held as captives, Mad- dened by their defeat the hostiles would have slanghtered all of these, had it not been for the wise and heroic efforts of the Christian Indians. By judicious man- agement they secured possession of nearly all these captives and then, through one of their principal men, Paul Mazakootamane, whose oratory, wisdom and bravery made him a power in the Indian councils, they arranged to surrender the captives and themselves and all other Indians who were opposed to the outbreak. and therefore had taken but small part in it, to Gen. Sibley. In accordance with this arrangement those friendly Indians separated themselves from the hostiles, and hoisting a white flag over their camp, they surrendered to Gen. Sibley on the afternoon of September 26. There were 91 pure whites and nearly 150 half-
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breeds released at this camp -called from this fact, "Camp Release." The whites were mostly comely young women and girls, whose lives had been spared only that they might minister to the lusts of the savages. For six weeks they had been subject to every outrage and indignity, which savage nature could conceive. Many had hardly any clothing, though the Christian Indian women had given them all they could spare from their own scanty wardrobe. Their pitiable condition and their joy at being released from their fiendish tormentors made a most affecting scene, More captives were soon brought in until by October 3. there were 107 whites and 162 half-breeds, making 269 in all released. The horrible treatment these white prisoners had received, and the terrible tortures and mutilations which had been inflicted on men, women and children, had made the whites desperate and they thirsted for vengeance and did not believe there was a good Indian in the country. Most of those who had surrendered were suspected of having heen implicated in the massacre. Gen. Sibley, therefore, caused 425 of those suspected to be arrested and placed in chains, and a military court created at once to try them. This court was composed of Col. Wm. Crooks, of the Sixth regiment, Col. Wm. R. Marshall, of the Seventh regiment, Captains Grant and Bailey of the - Sixth regiment, and Lieut, Olin, of the Third regiment. Hon, Isaac V. D. Heard, an attorney from St. Paul, acted as recorder for the court.
The court began its labors at Camp Release on September 30, and after con - victing twenty-one adjourned until October 16, to allow the Indians time to come in and surrender themselves. After disposing of 120 cases the camp and commis- sion moved to the Lower Agency on October 23. In all 425 were arraigned and tried, and of these 321 were convicted. Three hundred and three were sentenced to be hung and the remaining eighteen to various terms of imprisonment. With the terrible prejudice then existing in the minds of our best men against Indians and the summary haste of the trials (from twenty to forty-two being disposed of in a day), there was little opportunity for an Indian to escape. Our modern courts take as long to try one murderer as that court spent in trying 425. Ou No- vember 7, the military commission having finished its work, those acquitted to- gether with the squaws and papooses, were sent to Fort Snelling, where they were kept all winter, The convicted ones were chained together and loaded into wagons and carried to Camp Lincoln, which was located in the present fair grounds in West Mankato A number of our Welsh people helped to transport these con- victed Indians, T. M. Pugh, with his fine team of gray horses, led the van, and David J. Williams, David Price, Hugh R. Williams and about half a dozen other Welshmen were in the procession, At New Ulm a mob rushed upon the Indians with clubs and stones and in spite of the efforts of the military to protect them, a number of the braves in Pugh's wagon were injured. The German women, whose relations had been murdered by the savages, were specially furions in this attack.
The train, which, between the Indians and the military, reached over a mile and a half in length, passed through Cambria Sunday afternoon, November o. The settlers lined the road to see them pass, and Mrs. David Price was not the only one who eased her mind by giving the dusky rascals a good lecture appropriately em- phasized by a vigorous shaking of the fist and head.
It was Gen. Sibley's intention toexecute at once the 303 sentenced to be hung. but the religious sentiment of the east was so shocked by the idea of hanging so many human beings at once, especially in view of the provocation they had for the outbreak, that President Lincoln was induced to interfere and order that none be executed until he had approved their sentence, and that all the evidence upon which they had been convicted be sent to him, and though burdened then with
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other work Pres. Lincoln carefully and conscientiously examined each case per- sonally and selected forty, whom the evidence tended to show had been guilty of individual murder or outrage, and sentenced them to be hung. The people of Minnesota, however, were greatly incensed at the president's interference and in- sisted on all being hung.
There was much talk at Mankato, New Ulin and other places of lynching and companies of the citizens were formed once or twice for the purpose, but they were restrained by the military. When we reflect that two out of the forty selected by the president as the worst were proved to be wholly innocent and how the others were converted in the great revival, which had even then started in prison and nearly all became true, noble, christian men, we must admit that the judgment of the president and of the good people of the east, was best after all. The fact is, as Dr. Riggs says, the most guilty fled with Little Crow to the British Possessions and their survivors are there to this day. With few exceptions it was only the innocent and least guilty who voluntarily surrendered to Gen. Sibley. Among those sentenced to be hung was Robert Hopkins Chaskay, a young Indian thirty- two years old, an elder in Dr. Williamson's church, whose wife, Sarah, was also a devoted Christian. Hle had at the risk of his own life, helped Dr. Williamson and his family and the other white people at the Upper Agency to escape. He then ont of curiosity had gone down to see what the Indians were doing at Fort Ridgely and New Ulm and had shot an ox for food. To allay suspicion on the part of the hostile party that he was helping the whites he had said "I have killed." (Without saying what). These words were repeated by some one against him in his absence, to the military commission, and they construed the words to mean that he had killed a human being and sentenced him to be hung. Every effort to save him failing, Dr. Williamson's daughter, Miss Sarah J., wrote a per- sonal letter in his behalf to President Lincoln and this alone saved him from the gallows. God, it seems, had a great work yet for this man to do.
On December 6, President Lincoln sent the names of the other thirty-nine doomed men with the order fixing the date of their execution for December 19. It was discovered that there was not sufficient rope at Mankato for the purpose and the president, on request, postponed the execution to December 26. The Sun- day before the execution an old man named, "Round Wind," was converted in prison and baptised. He did not then know his name was on the list of those to be hung the following Friday. Next day when Dr. Riggs and Major Brown were sent into the prison to identify the doomed men and inform them of the president's order "Round Wind" was found to be among them. He had been convicted on the testimony of a German boy who had pointed him ont as the Indian who had killed his mother. An investigation soon proved beyond a doubt that the boy was mistaken. Round Wind was miles away when his mother was killed. To a stranger Indians are much alike in appearance. Round Wind's pardon was only received a few hours before the execution. The old man always attributed his rescue to the direct intervention of Providence.
On the approach of winter the Indians had been removed from Camp Lin- coln to a three story stone building, known as the Leach building, in Mankato. Its capacity had been increased by the erection of a large log shanty beside it. The doomed men were put into a room by themselves on Monday. About three- . fourths selected, on the advice of the half-breed, Cambell, who was a Catholic, Father Ravaux, of St. Paul, as their spiritual adviser. The rest chose Dr. Wil- liamson. They were not permitted to select Dr. Riggs as he was government in- terpreter. The scaffold was erected across the street Irom the prison, about where
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The execution of thirty-eight Sioux Indians at Mankato, Minn., December 26th, 1862. The three story building in left front with the low shed lying between it and the next building on the right, formed the prison where the three hundred : condemned Indians were confined during the winter of 1862-3.
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now stands the Northwestern depot. An immense concourse of people gathered to witness the execution. The military formed in a square about the scaffold and two lines were drawn from the prison door to the scaffold steps, between which the Indians passed onto the scallolil. With savage bravado they danced and sung their death song, until the drop fell. David J. Davis and W. J. Duly had both applied for the privilege of cutting the rope which held the drop. It was accorded to Mr. Duly, whose three children had been foully murdered at Lake Shetek, and whose wife and two other children had suffered the horrors of Indian captivity. At three taps of the drum the drop fell and thirty-eight human beings dangled in air on one scaffold. In half an hour they were cut down and buried in one large grave dug in the sand on the river bank. Before the next morning most of the bodies had been exhumed and carried off by medical men The following Sun- day Dr. Riggs preached to the remaining prisoners out in the prison yard. Three hundred dusky warriors, heavily laden with chains, standing in that court yard in the freshly fallen snow listening intently to the preacher's words, is a picture wor. thy an artist's skill. Through the efforts of Robert Hopkins and Peter Big Fire, another elder in Dr. Williamson's church, the religious revival continued to grow until in February it culminated in a regular Pentecostal time, and Dr. William- son and Rev. Ilichs, the Presbyterian minister at Mankato, baptised and received into the church nearly 300 ot them in one day. That their conversion was genn- ine, their after lives fully demonstrated. The prison was transformed into a school room and books were in great demand Before spring most of these con- demned men had learned to read an i write. The revival spread to the camp at Ft. Snelling, and many were there converted. Dr. Williamson walked through the snow this winter almost every Sunday from his home in St. Peter to preach to the Mankato prisoners.
In the spring of 1863 these prisoners were taken down the river in one boat to Davenport, Ia. As they were passing St. Paul they sung one of their favorite hymns to the tune "Old Hundred "
"Jehovah, have merey npon me For thy own merey -akr, Thy loving kindness is very great Therefore place me in thy heart." Etc.
They were confined ina military prison at Davenport until the spring of 1866, when the survivors were sent to their new agency in a barren district of Nebraska, where a small remnant still survive.
In the spring of 1863 the Winnebagos were removed from their Reservation in Blue Earth county to Dakota and thence to Eastern Nebraska where they now reside. There were 1,856 of them and they were taken down the Minnesota in boats -- the last of them embarking May 18, 1863. In March, 1863, Congress made an appropriation of $200,000 towards paying the losses sustained by the citizens of Minnesota in property confiscated and otherwise lost by reason of the Sioux war. A commission consisting of Aldrich of Minnesota, Potter of Wiscon- sin and White of Indiana, was app nated to receive and determine the claims. They met during the summer at St Peter, Mankato and South Bend. In all 2040 claims were filed amounting to $2,000,000, of these $1, 350,000 were allowed. It was impossible with the money appropriated to pay the claims allowed in full, so the people had to content themselves with a small per cent
During 1863 military posts were erected all over the frontier and expeditions were sent after the hostile bands under Little Crow. In the fall of 1862 Dane's company was removed from Camp Crisp to Judson village, where they remained until spring. Traces of the fort they built are still visible. Thirty men of Com-
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