USA > Minnesota > Meeker County > A random historical sketch of Meeker County, Minnesota : from its first settlement to July 4th, 1876 > Part 3
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It was after dark when they arrived at Jones house and the child was found alive-the remainder of the story has been told. and needs not to be re- peated.
The child was brought to Forest City and kept some months by Mr. and Mrs. Jewett and subse- quently placed in charge of Mr. Charles H. Ellis of Otsego, Wright county, since which time we have lost track of him.
Jones gave the Indians no liquor, and while there was liquor in Jones' house, up to the time of the inquest on Monday afternoon, there was no ap-
HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
pearance of its having been molested. At the time of the inquest all the liquor in the house was poured on the ground.
To show the evident design of these Indians to commit the tragedy at this point, we give the tes- timony of the wife of Mr Howard Baker at the coroner's inquest conducted by A. C. Smith, then Judge of Probate and acting County Attorney. Her testimony was as follows:
"About II o'clock A. M. four Indians came into our house, staid about 15 minutes, got up and looked out. had the men take down their guns and shoot them off at a mark, then bantered for a trade with Jones. About 12 o'clock two more Indians came and got some water; our guns were not reloaded; the Indians loaded their guns in the dooryard; I went back into the house, did not suspect anything at the time; supposed they were going away; next I knew I heard the report of a gun and saw Web- ster fall: he stood and fell near the door: another Indian came to the door and aimed at Howard Baker and shot; did not kill him at that time; he shot the other barrel of his gun at Howard and he fell.
"My mother walked to the door and another In- dian shot her; she turned to run and fell into the buttery; they shot at her twice as she fell.
HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY. 43
I tried to get out of the window. but fell down cel- lar: saw Mrs. Webster pulling her husband into the house, dont know where she was prior to this; Indians immediately left the house: while I was in the cellar I heard firing out of doors.
Jones said they were Sioux Indians and that he was well acquainted with them. Two of the In- dians had on white men's coats; one quite tall, one quite small, one thick and chubby and all middle aged Indians, one had two feathers in his cap and one had three. Jones said "they asked me for whisky but I would not give them any.'"
This testimony shows a deliberate intention to massacre Jones' family. The facts are, that Roh- inson Jones kept a sort of frontier public house and kept various articles of groceries, &c., with which he used to traffic with the Indians, with whom he was well acquainted, and obtained their furs and other proceeds of their hunting expeditions, and they had by some means got into his debt 40 or 50 dollars. which sum Jones had made arrangements to have paid out of their annuities.
Certain Indian traders claimed the monopoly of the fur trade, and had for some years been in the habit of making advances to the Indians with the un- derstanding that the Indians were to return to the traders the proceeds of the chase-the balance if
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any to be jerked (in a manner only known to In- dian traders) out of the next succeeding annuities.
Jones little traffic was interfering quite mater- ially with those traders, and was setting a bad pre- cedent, and this may, perhaps, furnish a better clue than whisky, to the destruction of Jones' family. and which in its results, produced far more than the traders bargained for. The Indians were dis- satisfied with all the traders, and Jones with the rest.
Any one who understands the Indian trading system, as sanctioned by the Indian Department at Washington, can fill up the balance of the picture -those who do not. will never know any more about the origin of the Indian massacre than they do now. .
On Monday morning the 18th of August, news of the Acton massacre reached Forest City, and in less than an hour A. C. Smith, J. B. Atkinson, Milton Gorton and a few others accompanied by Mrs. Gorton and Mrs. Jewett. were on their way to the scene of the tragedy-with increasing numbers they arrived at Acton some sixty strong-held an inquest and buried the dead. On their return in the evening, the whole community was in a pan- ie and appeared to be in Forest City.
An inquest was held as above stated and while
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engaged with the inquest a band of eleven mount- ed Indians came in sight of the place where the people were assembled, whereupon a detail of our mounted men gave chase and drove them off into Kandiyohi county.
Subsequent developments rendered it certain that those Indians had no hand in the Acton trag- edy, and in fact knew nothing about it at that time.
On Tuesday, news arrived of the outbreak on the Minnesota River and Mr. Smith prepared a letter to Gov. Ramsey, demanding guns and ammu- nition, and of six or seven hundred people in For- est City, Jesse V. Branham sen., then 60 years of age, was the only one to volunteer and obligate himself to take it to the Governor in St. Paul-100 miles in twenty-four hours.
Father Branham performed the service in nine- teen hours on Wednesday, on horseback, riding the first nineteen miles bareback !
The following is a copy of the somewhat laconic letter of the Judge.
FOREST CITY, Aug. 20th, (6 A. M.) 1862,
HIS EXELLENCY, ALEXANDER RAMSEY, GOV- ERNOR, &c .- SIR-In advance of the news from the Minnesota River, the Indians have opened on us in Meeker. It is war! A few propose to
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
make a stand here. Send us, forthwith, some good guns, and ammunition to match.
Yours Truly, A. C. SMITH.
On receiving this letter about I o'clock A. M. . of the 2 1st, Governor Ramsey with a prompti- tude which has ever distinguished him in his offi- cial business, found Mr. Geo. C. Whitcomb in St. Paul (County Treasurer of Meeker County ) and directed 75 stand of Springfield muskets with a suitable amount of fixed ammunition, to be placed in his charge, with transportation to Forest City, where he arrived about II, A. M. of the 23d,
In the meantime about all the people had left Forest City and but few were known to be in the County.
On the morning of the arrival of these guns there were but thirteen men and three women on the townsite of Forest City, and nobody west of us. Their names are worth recording, for it was the decision of the little band at this point on the morn- ing of August 23d that saved all there was worth saving west of the Mississippi River.
Their names are A. C. Smith, J. B. Atkinson, T. C. Jewett, Milton Gorton, Geo. S. Sholes, sen,, Thos. H. Skinner, James M. Harvey, Wm. Towler, Henry L. Smith, Thomas Grayson, Judson A. Stan- ton, Hamlet Stevens, Sylvester Stevens, Mrs.
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTX.
Jewett, Mrs. Whitcomb and Mrs. Brown.
During the week previous one hundred and seventy teams-mostly double,passed through For- est City on their way "out to the Mississippi River"-averaging from five to twelve persons to a team, with such goods and chattels as could be hastily packed on the wagon for immediate use. Seventy two of these had left on the morning of the 22d, and before the arrival of the guns-the persons above named had also discussed the propriety of vacating home and country, when Whitcomb hove in sight "over the hill by "Uncle Ikes" a bakers dozen of caps and stove pipe hats went up about as high as single arms could toss them.
Whitcomb passed through Hutchinson and find- ing the boys there about as destitue as we, allowed them to subtract 31 of the guns and a part of the ammunition from his ambulance, leaving us but 44 guns and 2000 rounds.
On Sunday the 24th, a military organization was effected and by the next day over thirty had joined and a portion were mounted, all comers were thereafter politely required to do military duty.
The following is a copy of the article of com- pact, viz.
"We the undersigned do solemly swear to bear true allegiance to the United States and the State of Minnesota and the officers which may be elec-
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ted or appointed over us, to the best of our ability. in accordance with CAPTAINS COMMISSION ISSUED TO G. C. WINITCOMB, BY COL. H. H. SIBLEY ! ! bearing date August 20th, 1862, (mustered in, Au- gust 24th, 1862.)
J. B Atkinson,
M. Gorton.
Jas. M. Harvey,
O. B. Todd,
A. F. Heath,
G. W. Waggoner,
J. Heath,
Wm. Caswell,
H. J. Hill,
J. V. Branham jr.,
G. S. Sholes sen.,
Jerome Rogers,
S. W. White,
Chas. D May bee,
Herman Kruger.
Jas. Lang.
Sylvester Stevens,
Oliver Gibbins.
Samuel Hutchins,
Patrick Condon,
T. C. Jewett,
Albert Sperry,
J. H. Bradshaw,
W. Johnson,
A. C. Smith,
Andrew Nelsor
Michael McGraw ,
J. B. Garrison,
Dan. McGraw,
Geo. R. Page,
Thos. Grayson,
C. E. Payson,
Jesse F. Cobb,
Jos. Thomas,
Thos. Ragan,
Henry L. Smith,
Oslog Olson,
H. Stevens,
Alfred Mousley,
F. G. Gould,
Alga Olson,
A. B. Hoyt,
E. A. Chapin,
Wm. Branham,
D. Chapin,
R. B. Ralston,
Eli Gibbins,
Wm. Wilcox,
Henry Johnson,
H. S, Howe,
H. Mickelson,
A. Hamilton,
Lory Smith,
N H. White
H. Lutons,
Chas. Kruger,
D. M. Holbrook,
H. Behrmann,
Nels Tornom,
E. Swontart,
G. C. Whitcomb claimed to be Captain by virtue of Col. Sibley's commission and his receipt for the guns and refused to give them up under any other circumstance.
The following were thereupon elected officers. viz ;
Ist Lieutenant J. B. Atkinson, 2nd Corporal H. J. Hill,
2nd do H. Stevens, 3d do T. C. Jewett,
Ist. Sergeant Wm. Branham, 4th do Sam Hutchins,
2nd do H. S. Howe, 5th do J. M. Harvey,
3₫ do Dan. McGraw, 6th do R. B. Ralston,
4th do F. G. Gould, 7th do N. H. White.
1st Corporal A. F. Heath,
8th do A. B. Hoyt.
The 44 Springfield Muskets were distributed to the men as far as they went-remainder unarmed, except with a few Belgian guns that had been re-
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
ceived from some quarter, and as it was thought best to have the men armed, all mounted, and as we had but 15 horses and it was ascertained that a a party of skedadlers were yet lingering in King- ston, a detail was made to the extent of all the horses on hand, with a man and gun on each, to go to Kingston and seize horses.
The following were detailed for that pleasing duty.
1 st Lieutenant J. B. Atkinson, 2nd Corp'] H. J. Hill,
Ist Sergeant Wm. Branham, 3rd do T. C. Jewett,
2nd Sergeant H S. Howe,. 4th, do Sam Hutchins,
Ist Corp'l
A. F. Heath,
5th do R. B. Ralston,
O. B. Todd,
G. W. Waggoner,
C. McGraw.
H. Krnger,
Michael McGraw, F. G. Gould A. Hamilton.
Eight officers and seven privates-and this was the first military movement in the county, and was made of the right material.
They went to Kingston armed and equipped, whereupon the first Lieutenant declared MARTIAL LAW ! ordered T. C. Jewett to occupy the Clear Water bridge and allow none to escape unless they could speak the word plain-very, very plain, which one or two are said to have done-cab- baged 23 horses (the best to be had ) and returned with their booty to Forest City.
Forage detail; B. Cobb, J. A. Stanton, DeLama- ter and Oliver Gibbins. .
Stock guard; W. H. Towler and Gottlip Reef. Thus ended Sunday's exploits August 24th 1862.
CHAPTER V.
The Adjutaut General might well be excused in styling us "Irregular" when connected with the fact that the horses were cabbaged upon demo- cratic principles-no partiality being shown among horses or men-all were taken that could be found-in size of horses, from the Indian pony to the trace horse weighing 1,600, with switches from 8 inches to 3 feet long, and soldiers to match from five feet two, to six feet eight, with weight from 110 to 240 lbs., some in stoga boots, and oth- ers in nature's moccasins. The Adjutant General must have been a man of extraordinary genius to have found any other name for us than "irregular."
On Monday morning, August 25th, a detail of 27 men was made for the purpose of visiting Monon- galia county -- now part of Kan-di-yo-hi-in pursuit
(50)
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
of Indians, returning on the 27th, having penetra- ted some thirty-five or forty miles west, and having seen no Indians but buried seven mutilated bodies in all and passed the ruins of three dwellings and quite a number of mutilated carcasses of dead cattle.
The following is a copy of Quarter Master's commission issued to James M. Harvey, Esq.
FOREST CITY, Aug. 28th, 1862.
I hereby appoint Jas. M. Harvey to serve as Quarter Master for "Meeker County Volunteers," and he is hereby authorized and empowered to exercise the duties of the office.
On Wednesday the 27th of August, the follow- ing named persons, residents of Manannah, left Forest City . to obtain stoves bedding, provis- ions, stock, etc., to-wit: Linus Howe, David Hoar, Chauncy Wilson, Moody Caswell, Thomas Ryckman, James Nelson, Phillip H. Deck, Wil- mot Maybee, N. C. Caswell, Joseph Page and R. D. C. Cressy. Arriving at the house of Maybee the party took dinner, thence went to Manannah to the house of Carlos Caswell-saw no Indians- left a yoke of cattle in Caswell's barn, intending to return and pass the night there. thence the par- ty went two miles to the house of Silas Caswell, and loaded Maybee's two-horse wagon with bed-
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
ding and provisions, whereupon Maybee and Page started with Maybee's team, and Deck and Howe with Deck's one-horse vehicle, on their return to the residence of Carlos Caswell, the balance of the party scattering for the purpose of recovering stock. Just as Maybee's and Deck's teams went into Caswell's door-yard, they were fired upon by a party of Indians concealed behind a pile of lumber and a fence. and some in a corn-field.
Page was killed, and fell from the wagon, Deck and Howe rode about twenty rods, when they too fell, fatally pierced by bullets. Maybee ran his horses about forty rods, when he was headed off by the savages, whereupon he left his team and ran about thirty rods further, in the direction of the river. where he was shot and instantly killed.
Those exciting scenes were witnessed by Wil- son and Ryckman at a distance of about sixty rods, but they were in no condition to render the least assistance, their guns being on the wagon.
The Indians about fifteen in number, after secu- ring the horses and wagons, started west, passing within thirty yards of Nelson and N. C. Caswell, who mistaking them for white men let them pass unmolested-but followed at a safe distance behind for about a mile, the redskins stopping once, ap- parently to form an acquaintance, but soon drove
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
off at a rapid rate and were seen no more.
The remainder of the party returned to Forest City-Wilson and Ryckman-via Main Prairie, which they deemed quite the safest route.
Howe, Maybee, Deck and Page were among the best men in the county.
Mr. Howe had been a county commissioner most of the time for three years previous.
On the morning of the 28th, Lieut. Atkinson with a detail of 24 men was sent to Manannah; charged with the melancholy duty of burying the dead.
On the 23d. Mark Warren Esq., county Atty. for Meeker county, was arrested at Monticello and returned to Forest City under guard, on the grave charge of being a "Copperhead." Copperheads were supposed to be in league with the Indians as well as the South. Warren was furloughed at Forest City.
On the night of the 27th, while Jesse V. Bran- ham jr., was standing guard at the creek just out of Forest City on the south, A. C. Smith, E. S. Fitch and Mark Warren taking a circuit of the guard, came up to sentinel Branham, and while conversing with the sentinel, Warren disappeared in the star-light and was not seen again till the next spring. When Warren departed Jesse duly
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
exercised his lungs in affectionate efforts for his return, but concluded not to follow him many miles south that night as it was too dark to use a needle gun!
When Warren returned he had a couple of In- dian ponies and said he had been off on the plains as a guide for Col. Sibley.
He was a singular genius-the world would ney- er have been complete without him.
Educated as a lawyer in the office of Hon. J. M. McShafter, then of Vermont -- since of California -- he early settled on a pre-emption claim in the town of Rice City in this County, where he lived a number of years, was County Commissioner at times, exhibiting in business transactions a good sound judgment, made but little improvement on his farm, was at peace with all the world, no ene- mies, a democrat from childhood, his time was principally divided in his cabin between praying and swearing-'twas difficult to tell which service he engaged in with the most zeal.
He was one fall a Democratic candidate for the Legislature and instead of electioneering for votes, kept steady at his work, and one day while he was carrying the hod, tending mason at Greenleaf, the Hon. Thomas Cowan from St. Peter, who was that season stumping this Congressional District,
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
arrived at Greenleaf and running against a man working mortar with a hoe, enquired for Hon. Mark Warren, candidate for the Legislature from this District.
Mark looked at Cowan for a moment encased in black broad cloth and kid gloves, then dropping his hoe, raised both hands above his head and ex- claimed, loud enough to be heard half a mile, "I'm your man by G-d sir." Should friend Warren still be in the land of the living,and his eye chance to meet this, he will be after us with a sharp stick for some part of his "descriptive roll."
On the 30th, (Saturday) a detail was made of 24 men to go to Hutchinson with the view of ob- taining the guns left there by Whitcomb, but the paucity of their defensive impliments induced the Hutchinson boys to hold on to the guns.
The detail returned to Forest City on Sunday the 31st.
On the first of September another detail was made of 17 men of the company and several citi- zens for the purpose of visiting Green Lake, and for the ostensible purpose of relieving a family said to be on the island in said lake in a helpless condition. It probably should have been Nor- way Lake as there are no islands in Green Lake where a family could have been secreted.
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
The history of this detail is not material as it re- turned the same day reporting a skirmish at Swede Grove with the Indians. Two Indians reported killed and one of our men Sam. Hutchins. woun- ded in the thigh by a musket ball.
On the morning of the second day of September another detail of twenty soldiers and twenty citi- zens was sent out for the purpose of rescuing the family mentioned before, and as all could not be mounted it was thought best to go in wagons.
The detail had proceeded as far as where Hoken Peterson formerly resided when they halted for dinner.
Some of the boys being near home obtained leave to visit the house about one mile from camp. on promise that they would bring back watermel- ons for the whole company-after being gone a short time one of them came running back with his arms full of melons and crying Indians! In- dians ! ! The company being unable to see any Indians from their location in the low ground one of the party was ordered "to run his head out on the knoll," near by "and take a look." He did so and reported twelve Indians advancing from the timber near by, in the direction of camp, and after being ordered back by the Captain, looking around he saw some twenty or more mounted In-
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
dians approaching on our west, and the teams were at once ordered to retreat in the direction of Forest City, And they did retreat for a fact. It was a race for life and home.
Their ma-ma's didn't know they were out!
Horses that were a little slow, were renewed in their activity by the point of the bayonet. In the flight our amiable Captain lost his hat and was un- able to recover it, on account of two or three In - dians that were within a half mile of them. .
After this wild flight of some two miles, the teams were ordered to halt, as some of the horses were about giving out, and being considered safe, as the enemy were left at least one mile behind.
They had only been halted for a moment when one of the teams came rushing by and one of the boys thinking he would be left, sprang for the wagon, striking the back of his gun on the side of the box-the gun "went off" wounding O. B. Todd in the leg and barely missing D. Chapin, tearing his cartridge-box and bayonet scabbard, to shreds.
After resting a few minutes the party proceeded toward Forest City, without any further accident except the miring and leaving of one of E. O. Britt's horses, while with the other Mr. Britt came to Forest City in advance of the party and ordered all the women and children into the hotel of Lieut.
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
Atkinson, and for the remainder of the men left in Forest City to come out and meet the company; as the Indians were coming into town.
There were about a baker's dozen of men and boys left in Forest City, and arming themselves with whatever they could find marched out towards "Uncle Ikes" with Judge Smith at their head armed with an old double barrel bogus stub and-twist-shot gun, and three butcher-knives un- der the waist-bands of his pants. This was be- lieved to be the first, last and only time that the Judge ever commanded a company of Irregular Volunteer Militia, and is a full report of all of his military exploits.
At the time Capt. Whitcomb made his last "double quick" toward Forest City and thought it safe to leave Britt's horse sticking in the mud with forty men at command-there were just two Indians in sight.
There were various men among our people, who "lived fast", between the 17th of August and the 4th. of September, 1862-some in tragedy and some in comedy-far more peril to individuals than to companies of men, assembled for mutual protection.
We could wish that we had a sketch of all such, including the hair-breadth escapes of men and fam-
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
ilies; but the facts are not furnished us, and we cannot do justice to the parties in interest from rumors obtained at the time, or from our recollec- tion of circumstances.
Few men had more difficulty in getting out of the prairie than our townsman Andrew Nelson- the following is but one week of his life:
Mr. N. a native of Sweden and but slightly ac- quainted in this county, at the time, was a single man and residing in Monongalia county.
On the 21st of August 1862 he was engaged at Foot's place haying, with several other parties.
About 4 P. M. his brother-in-law. Swanson, passed Foot Lake and gave the first alarm-Nel- son spent some time in assisting Swanson, who had a wife and three children to get under way-with but an ox-team-a load of hay had to be dumped and wagon body substituted for the hay rack- Nelson took charge of some 40 head of cattle, has- tily collected, which he intended to drive to a place of safety. In all this he was delayed till dark and he had hardly got off the premises when the Indians were on the ground.
Two cow-bells-40 cattle and the darkness fa- vored Nelson and preserved his scalp. The Indi- ans were first" discovered within ten paces and suppossing them to be white men, Nelson en-
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
quires "how goes it ?" getting no answer, but hear- ing steps approaching he quietly slid into a corn- field close by. From the cornfield he ran into Mud Lake, where he found a desirable resting place for fifteen or twenty minutes, representing Moses in the bulrushes-thence he started for Diamond Lake, but soon got lost, and Nelson is ready to swear, that he, that evening, sounded every "sloo" in the vicinity.
In the morning he found himself on the bank of a creek-the outlet of Eagle Lake and but about 40 rods from the house of Oscar Erickson, in which were four families, and the house surronll- ded by Indians.
It was here that Mr. and Mrs. Foot, Erickson, Swanson and Carlson defended themselves until the Indians raised the siege, after killing Carlson.
Nelson made a direct shoot for Diamond Lake, reaching there about 7 A. M ..- proceeding to the farm of J. H. Gates, where he found a number of Diamond Lake people who were preparing break- fast, but in consequence of the close proximity of the Indians, they started for Forest City without stopping to eat.
Nelson lost his boots on the road and his feet be- came so sore that he was compelled to ride part of the way-From Forest City he went to Kingston,
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HISTORY OF MEEKER COUNTY.
where his feet were dressed up with rags, and moccasins by Mr. Davidson, the miller. On his return to Forest City, Swan Munson gave him one of his horses to ride and when almost half way back, met Atkinson with his squad, who ordered him to halt and sought to levy on his horse-Nel- son responded that he could not have the horse unless he took him dead or alive-A. said "come along" and Nelson joined the crowd and was sub- sequently out on every detail till the company was disbanded-at one time in Foot Lake region, Nel- son lay by the side of a log in the dark, with the Indians passing on the side of it in the road.
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