USA > Minnesota > Meeker County > Album of history and biography of Meeker County, Minnesota > Part 55
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The average per cent. of attendance to the whole number of pupils in 1868 was 31.5, while in 1887 the percentage had risen to 61.4; the difference being partly owing to the increased facilities, but more to the grow- ing interest in educational matters by the cit- izens, and a more intense desire on the part of the children of this generation for the advantages of an education, for they can see that in this day and age the man who has the greatest amount of knowledge has the great- est chance for success in life.
The whole number of trees planted by the
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pupils of the various schools in the county on Arbor Day, 1887, was, according to offi- cial sources, 2,202.
Take it altogether, but few counties in Minnesota can make a better showing in the matter of education than Meeker county. The interest manifested by the people, the
high grade of teachers employed, and the general excellent feeling throughout the community in regard to school affairs, is rap- idly and clearly placing the county at the head as one of the most enlightened and pro- gressive subdivisions of the State.
Meeker County During the Massacre.
CHAPTER VI. THE INDIAN MASSACRE.
PO THE necessary hard- ships and trials of the pioneers of this county was added the terrible experience of Indian atrocity and fiendish- ness. By the first set- 3. tlers here, in the midst of their hard struggle with na- ture, was heard, in 1862, the thrilling war whoop of the red savage and the sharp crack of his rifle, as its ball sped to the doom of the peace- ful farmer. The tragical epi- sode of the Indian massacre of that year commenced within the limits of Meeker county, and has impressed itself indelibly, in letters of fire and blood, with fearful distinctness, upon the pages of its annals and in the hearts and minds of the survivors of that fearful ordeal. It is the task of the historian to trace the event in all its detail, and endeavor to recon- cile some of the conflicting statements re- ceived.
In order to have a full understanding of the causes that led to the outbreak, it is necessary to give in brief the complaints of
the tribes, and other matters connected therewith, compiled from the most authentic State and United States documents.
By the treaty of Traverse de Sioux, be- tween the United States Government and the Sissetons and Wapatons, dated July 23, 1851, 8275,000 were to be paid to their chiefs, and the further sum of $30,000, was to be expended for the benefit of the tribes. By the treaty of Mendota, dated August 5, 1851. the Medawakantons and Wapakutas were to receive the sum of $200,000, to be paid to their chiefs, and §30,000 to the improve- ment fund. This sum of $535,000, the Indians claimed, and perhaps truly, that they had never received, except probably a small amount expended on the improvements on the reservations. This evident breach of treaty obligations, caused the Indians to ex- press their discontent quite freely to the Government agents. In 1857, Major Kintz- ing Pritchette, sent out by the Department, made a report, in which he says :
"The complaint which runs through all of their councils, points to the imperfect per- formance or non-fulfillment of treaty stipu- lations. Whether these are well or ill- founded, it is not my premise to discuss. That such belief prevails among them, im- pairing their confidence and good faith in the Government, can not be questioned."
Judge Young, who was commissioned to investigate certain charges brought against
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the Governor of Minnesota, in connection with the disposal of large amounts of money, due to the Indians and paid out under his direction, in his report, shows quite coneln- sively that some $320,000 was paid by the Governor to Hugh Tyler, for the savages, but a large proportion clung to the fingers of that gentleman, and the balance was paid out in accordance with the dictates of the post traders, and without any regard to the wishes of the annuitants. Peculation and chicanery were rife in all transactions of the Indian Department and its agents at the time, and this was no exception to the gen- erał rule. The Senate of the United States exonerated Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota. from any blame in the business. but still the Indians murmured about their treatment. It is very evident that there was some truth in their complaints, but wily men among them, who had certain ends to gain, stirred up the feeling and intensified it in every savage breast. When they wanted an ex- ense, Indian subtlety never lacked one.
From the time when the Government de- sisted from the pursuit of Inkpaduta, the in- famons author of the Spirit Lake massacre, in Dickinson county, Iowa, in 1857, consid- erable feeling was manifested by the Sionx who thought that the action of the United States arose from fear of the savages, and these feelings were fomented and increased with insiduous care by Little Crow, and other chiefs. This famous chief was a second edi- tion of Tecumseh, on a smaller scale, and had formed the scheme of driving the whites from the territory of Minnesota, and enjoy- ing it themselves, by a preconcerted massa- cre of all the settlers by a simultaneous out- break. Maturing his plans with a care worthy of a great general, by means of a secret or- ganization.known as the "Soldier's Lodge," he adopted means for the carrying out of all the arrangements. It was a deep-laid conspiracy, and but for the premature action of a few
braves would have been more direful in its consequences and wide-spread in its effect.
On the 3d of Angust. 1862, a memorable council was held at the village of Little Crow, near the Lower Agency. Little Crow was present and was not wanting in the ability to meet the momentous occasion with a wily subtlety. The proceedings were entirely secret, but some of the details have since been divulged, and it is now known that then were matured the details of a conspiracy, which for atrocity has scarcely ever been equaled. Little Crow said, upon that occa- sion, that in this way they could get all the land back ; that the whites would want their lands again, and that the Sioux would get double annuities. But the causes that led to the outbreak are of so complex a nature that but few have fully mastered them, and hardly any two people agree on all points on this head, and therefore, it suffices to give the above account, which is a simple statement of what is known and fully agreed on by all, and not enter into a closer investigation as to the details, which are given with regard to their general effect in the State at large in the history of Minnesota, in this volume. We will, however, go at length into the account of its local annals within the bounds of Meeker county.
We now come to the terrible massacre it- self, the fierce blow that fell, like a lightning flash from a cloudless sky, with such sudden- ness and force upon an almost unarmed and unsuspecting border, crimsoning its beautiful fields with the life blood of the settlers, and firing the heavens with the lurid glare of their blazing homes. The survivors fleeing, filled with the nameless terror of such a moment, wandered around, often to fall be- fore the deadly rille or gleaming tomahawk of the ruthless and fierce nomadic Sioux, or to perish miserably of want and exposure on the broad prairies.
Although Little Crow, the chief mover of
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the plot had ordered the simultaneous out- break to take place on the first of September, wishing the whites to get in their grain, for it was harvesting time, and that the three regiments that had been raised to aid in the suppression of the rebellion but then, in this State, wonki be forwarded to the front. His able tactics, however, were thwarted by the action of some "bucks" who precipitated matters by the attack on the settlers of Mecker county. What was the reason for this premature movement will never be fully known, as many theories have been formed, and hardly two of them agree.
Rt. Rev. H. B. Whipple, Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, gives the following account of the massacre at the Lower Agency and the causes that led to the outbreak, and it deserves preservation. It is given in this connection just as it was written, but not all, as much of it is irrelevant to our purpose. He says :
" The Sioux had been our friends, and for more than a quarter of a century had boasted that they had never taken the life of a white man. Onr wretched Indian system was at its worst. It left wild men without govern- ment or personal rights of property, and by its alms-house system at every agency, was training up savage paupers. The Indians made bitter complaints of the treaty of Traverse de Sioux-that they did not receive the money promised to them, that they were not permitted to take the reserve agreed upon, that large claims were allowed, that when payment was made, it was delayed until they were starving, and their annuities were paid for food. In 1858 they sold 800,- 000 acres of land on the north side of their reserve, to procure additional means for civil- ization. This treaty had a provision that the Secretary of the Interior might use the avails of this purchase, and any of their moneys, as he deemed best for their interests. but that no debts should be allowed unless
they had been approved by the Indians in open council. No such council was ever held. There were councils of a few chiefs ; one was held in our school-room, and Little Crow was one of the leaders in it. They waited four years, and the only thing they received for this valuable tract of land. was a few thousand dollars' worth of goods, among which were many dozens of Canadian 'belts. At our first meeting Wabasha said, ' Will you ask the Great Father what has become of our money? He would not lie to us. White men would not have a liar for their great chief. He says he would send the money-so many boxes. He probably started it, but the cars go so fast it has fallen off by the way. Tell him we are poor, and ask him to look it up.' Another chief, Wa- couta. said, 'Our eyes have grown dim by looking so long for our money. Our old men would like to see it before they die.' Sometimes harder words were spoken with flashing eyes, and many young braves boasted they would never shake hands with a white man. The civil war was at its height, and up to this time the tide of victory seemed to be with the South. Pictorial papers lay on the counters of traders, and Indians believed that the South was victori- ous. Abont this time a company of Renville Rangers was organized by the agent, and many of its members were mixed bloods and Indians. The Indians said : . The whites are all being killed, and now they come to us for help.' There were many darker stories told of which I will not speak. The Indians, with foolish bravado, began to boast that they could repossess their lands, and sweep the white man from their country. Most of the new settlers were very poor im- migrants, upon whom the Indians looked down in contempt. The payment had al- ways taken place in June. They came as usual-2,500 at the Lower Agency, and over 5.000 at the Upper Agency. Misses Catha-
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rine and Elizabeth Beddle, Miss Caroline A. Ilarris, Miss Sarah A. Farnum, Mrs. Whipple and my son Charles had accompanied me to the Sioux Mission. We found everything unsettled, the air full of rumors, the Indians turbulent, restless, dissatisfied. Again and again the Indians asked me, ' When will we receive our payment ? How much will we receive ?' I invariably answered, ' You will receive $20 each, and be paid very soon.' No one seemed to believe me. One day after my return from the Upper Ageney, I said to a trader, 'Major Galbraith will be down to- day to make arrangements for payment.' He answered, 'Galbraith is a fool. The full payment will not be made. The money is gone; it has been spent for claims; we can not trust the Indians because they will have no money to pay us.' It filled me with sad forebodings. I believed Major Galbraith was an honest man, but here was a trader who claimed to know more about the payment than the agent. Each day there was some new dance or gathering, as if the Indians would crowd into weeks, all the savagery and heathenism of generations. The air was charged with elements which at any moment might carry desolation and death to the whole border. We left the Sioux coun- try about the 10th of July, and went im- mediately to the Chippewa country. While at Crow Wing, a letter was brought, di- rected to care of Rev. E. S. Peake, for ' Hole-in-the-Day,' and marked 'immedi- ate.' Hole-in-the-Day was absent, we called in his head warrior, and opened it. It was from Little Crow, the leader of the Sioux outbreak, and said, 'My Friend :- Some of your people have killed one of our civilized Indians. I tried to keep my men back as I agreed. I could not. They have gone. Look out. (Signed) Little Crow.' Whether an agreement had been made between them we do not know. We sent messengers to warn some Chippewas camped on the Crow
Wing river, and then went to St. Columba."
After detailing much of his trip and pointing out that a party of Sioux Indians were ahead of them bent on the murder of some Chippewa people, because a member of the latter tribe, as Little Crow had said, had murdered one of their people, the Bishop goes on to say:
"On our way home our Indians (Chippe- was) said they had seen Sioux signs. We laughed at the idea that they could tell a Sioux moccasin track from the Ojibway. They insisted. Manitowaub threw himself on the ground and with a stick lifted each weed and spear of grass until he could trace a hu- man step, and after hours he found the mark of a human foot in the sand. Ile showed us his moccasin and the mark in the sand, and said : 'That is Sioux" The next day we found where the Sioux had camped, and the Indians told us about how many Sioux were in the party. They found a Sioux moccasin. The Indians were much excited and made a forced march to reach Gull Lake, and were rejoiced to find their people safe. Saturday we went from Crow Wing to St. Cloud and heard of this party of Sioux as being across the river near Winnebago prairie. That Sunday afternoon they reached Acton, and either for fear of being laughed at on their return home for their fruitless errand or from hatred of the whites, or because filled with malice and deviltry, they murdered the family at Acton and then fled. They trav- eled all night and reached Little Crow's vil- lage carly Monday, August 18. The Sioux have a Soldier's lodge, which decides all questions connected with war. The lodge was hastily convened, the story of Acton told, the certainty that troops would come to arrest the murderers. The spark had been laid to the train of powder, and it was settled that the whites should be massacred. " About seven o'clock John Whipple, a stone mason, who was building our church,
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stood by the door of the Mission house talk- ing with Mr. Hinman. They heard the report of guns, and, looking toward the trad- ing post of Myrick, saw a crowd of Indians firing into the store; others were running toward Forbes' and Roberts' stores armed. Shunkaska (White Dog) came running by. Mr. Ilinman asked him what this meant. Ile answered, ' Go, go, the Indians are killing all the whites. I am going to Wabasha to see if I can not stop it.' Shunkaska was pale with terror. He was a civilized Indian- not a Christian. A few minutes after Little Crow came running by with other Indians. Hlinman called him, but he refused to answer. They went to the Government barn, a little way from the Mission house, to take the Government horses, and were resisted by Wagner, the farmer, and his man, John Lamb. Crow said, .Kill them,' and they were both killed. Mr. Hinman told Miss Emily West, a teacher in the Mission, that the Indians were killing the whites and they must flee. Mrs. ITinman was in Faribault. Mr. Hinman went to notify some neighbors. Miss West started for the ferry. On her way she met a woman and child, and advised them to go with her. They crossed the ferry and the broad valley beyond, and as they came to the top of the hill met three Indians, armed. As they saw Miss West the leader, a stranger to her, said, 'You belong to the Missionary ?' She said, 'Yes.' He reached out his hand and shook hands, and said, ' Washta' (good). The poor woman with her reached out her hand. He refused it, and drew his knife and said, 'I will kill you.' Miss West said, 'No, she belongs to me.' The Indian laughed, as if it were strange that this single woman had a mother and child in her care, but Miss West persisted and the Indian said 'Washta.' He asked her where she was going. She pointed to a distant house. Ile said, ' No, we are going to kill those persons.' She said, ' Where
shall we go?' The Indians led them to the road, and said, 'This will bring you to the fort.' "
The outbreak commenced as mentioned by Bishop Whipple, in Meeker county, and it is now our duty to enter upon the narration of the events, both the massacre in Acton, and the subsequent perils, hairbreadth escapes, and labors of the settlers and soldiery in putting down the Indians during those trying times. As near as can be arrived at now, by an extensive and exhaustive research among all the papers, both State and otherwise. and personal interviews with many of the sur- viving citizens of the county, the facts are about as follows :
About eleven o'clock in the forenoon of Sunday, August 17, 1862, while the bright golden gleams of the summer sun poured down upon the lovely landscape in the wealth of its noontide splendor, and while from the throats of the feathered songsters of grove and prairie rose the glad hymns of peace and thanksgiving, six Indians, supposed to have been of Shakopee's band from the Lower Agency, red fiends with foul and deadly murder in their hearts, approached the house of Robinson Jones, which stood on the south west quarter of the northeast quar- ter of section 21, of Acton township. Mr. Jones kept a kind of frontier tavern and had for sale various staple articles of groceries, among which was the inevitable whisky, and besides attending to this business pur- chased or traded for furs, and carried on farming. The Indians came up to the house and demanded whisky of Mr. Jones, which he saw fit to refuse, and some words ensued and the savages became quite boisterous. Some little time after this Mr. Jones went over to the cabin of Howard Baker, leaving Miss Clara D. Wilson, a niece, in charge of the house, and a little boy. a half-brother of Clara and an adopted son of Mr. Jones about a couple years of age, lying on the bed. The
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Indians, who had left the house some time before, followed after Mr. Jones, and four of them soon arrived at the house of Howard Baker, about three-quarters of a mile distant from Jones' house, and, sauntering leisurely up, bantered the men, Jones, Baker and Viranus Webster, who was an emigrant passing to the West, to shoot at a mark. After the savages had stayed in the house some fifteen or twenty minutes, the white men, taking down their guns, agreed to go outside and shoot with them. After a few minutes spent in this kind of sport, while the settlers were standing around, Mr. Baker made a trade with one of the redmen for his gun, the savage giving some three dollars difference between the weapons. Not sus- pecting any evil, and being entirely too trusting when an Indian was in the question, none of the three men reloaded their guns, an oversight for which they paid their lives. The savages, on the contrary, recharged their pieces in the doorway of the house, and about noon were joined by the two other Indians, who had been with them at Jones' cabin. The latter said that they were Sioux, and that he knew them all. Mrs. Howard Baker, one of the survivors, describes them as all being of middle age, one quite tall and one short, chubby and thick. The last two had on white men's coats, and one of the savages had three feathers in his cap and another two.
While they stood there one of the fiends raised his rifle to his shoulder and poured its leaden contents into the body of Mr. Jones, who fell. Mrs. Ann Baker and her daugh- ter-in-law, Mrs. Horace Baker, were standing in the doorway of the house and witnessed the cowardly murder, and when another of the savages took aim at the younger Mrs. Baker, her husband, with noble self devotion, threw himself forward to shield her and re- ceived in his own body the bullet intended for his wife. Almost at the same instant
two more of the guns of the Indians blazed forth their death-dealing contents, and Web- ster and Mrs. Ann Baker fell to the ground. The latter had turned to run within the house after receiving the first shot and fell into the buttery, the other two Indians firing at her as she pitched forward. Mrs. Howard Baker, who had her infant child in her arms, in trying to get out of a window, fell down into the cellar, which saved her life. The last she saw was Mrs. Webster trying to pull the dead body of her husband into the house. Thus were four souls called to an account, cut off in the full prime of their life by the fiendish hand of ruthless murder, and thus was inaugurated the terrible massacre of that eventful year, that carried death and de- struction into so many households through- out the State, and fear and panic over so vast an expanse of territory.
The report that this premature stroke in the massaere was the outgrowth of a drunken spree or broil has been so effectu- ally disposed of that it is needless to dwell upon it in this connection.
After the dastardly attack upon and kill- ing of the unarmed men and defenseless women, the same red devils returned to the cabin of Jones, and, in passing the house. one of them lifted his rifle, fired, and killed Clara Davis Wilson, who stood in plain sight in the room. They did not discover the little child nor enter the house. They then left the vicinity, taking the direction of the Beaver Creek settlement and the Lower Agency, leaving Acton about three o'clock in the afternoon. The incentive of this cruel outrage is sufficiently shown by the fact that no robbery took place, nor other damage being done except in the murder of these inoffensive settlers.
Mrs. Howard Baker, who was unhurt by her fall into the cellar, still had the presence of mind to remain quietly there until the murderers had gone. She finally emerged
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from her place of concealment, and, before she left the house, was accosted by an Irish- man, by the name of Cox, suspected of hav- ing been a spy of the redskins, and reputed to be crazy. She asked him to go with her to the settlement and help carry the baby, but he, with an incivility quite strange in one of the Celtic race, refused, saying, " the men are not dead but drunk, and in falling down have bumped their noses, which made them bleed." He, however, robbed the corpses of some $50 or $60 which was on their persons, and leaving the lone widow in her distress, with a total disregard for feeling or decency, took the road for the Lower Agency.
Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Baker, taking the latter's child in their arms, started alone for the county scat, Forest City. They stopped at the residence of John Blackwell, their nearest neighbor, but on their arrival there found that that gentleman and his family were absent. The two women then proceeded on their weary way, and soon reached the house of Nels Olson, who had a blacksmith's forge on his place and was employed at that business. From there Mrs. Baker went on to Forest City, which was some twelve miles from the scene of the massacre, and corroborated the account which had been given by Ole Ingeman, who had ridden into the town about six o'clock, and given the alarm to the settlers. The news spread throughout the country with amazing rapid- ity, and many were the parties who started out to inquire into the matter and investi- gate its truth, for the news was of so unwel- come a nature that many wished to disbe- lieve it.
During the week preceding the attack at the houses of Jones and Baker, the latter and Amos Nelson Fosen, now one of the promi- nent citizens of Meeker county, werecradling the wheat on the farm of Robinson Jones, but, as it was raining on that Saturday, Mr.
Fosen concluded that he would visit his own farm, which he had rented to Burger Ander- son, and see how things were going on. Put- ting his idea into execution, he started with the intention of returning on Sunday. After spending some time in looking after his af- fairs, he went to attend a " war meeting," and was detained so late that he came to the determination not to return to work until Monday morning, instead of that night. Never has procrastination met with so signal and sudden a reward, for this dilatoriness in his movements undoubtedly saved his life.
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