USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 81
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During the previous week the Sioux had made two determined attacks on the fort, fighting like fiends, coming right up in front of the howitzers, when many of them were killed, all the bodies being carried off but three. Four of the defenders of the fort were killed and five wounded during these assaults. The Indians destroyed all the buildings outside the fortifications with their contents, burning all the hay and a large supply of oats.
An orderly sergeant during one of the attacks ealled the attention of P. Lamb, of St. Cloud, to an Indian on horseback, half a mile off and taking aim with his howitzer threw a shell at him. It fell directly under the horse and burst, lifting horse and rider and seattering them in fragments. The remains of the horse were afterwards found, but the Indian had been carried off, what was left of him, by some of his companions.
Leaving Fort Abererombie September 30 Captain Freeman with com- mand, some men of the Third Minnesota Infantry, and a number of citizens, with women and children, started for St. Cloud. Reaching Dayton the first night they found that everything had been burned or destroyed, and buried the remains of a man named Smith who had been killed by the Indians two weeks before. Evidenees of the depredations of the savages were found along the road and on several occasions Indians at a distance were seen. St. Cloud was reached October 5.
Soon afterwards Captain Freeman's company disbanded. Another com- pany was organized October 16, of which Captain Freeman declined to ae- eept any higher offiee than that of first lieutenant. Oscar Taylor was elected captain and John H. Raymond sceond lieutenant. The company before the elose of the month was mustered into service as Company D of the First Regiment of Mounted Rangers, and rendered valuable service in General Sibley's campaign in 1863 against the Sioux, during which Lieutenant Free-
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man lost his life, as is more fully told on a subsequent page. The company was mustered out November 4, 1863, having completed the term of its en- listment.
Captain Barrett and Captain Berger arrived with their companies in St. Cloud October 29 and reported all quiet at Fort Abercrombie, no Indians having been seen since the departure of the cavalry the previous month.
November 5 a train of 63 six-mule teams loaded with supplies for the fort arrived in St. Cloud from St. Paul, escorted by two companies of cavalry under command of Lieutenant Colonel Peteler. They left the next day with Company D, the St. Cloud cavalry, added, and a train of 100 teams belong- ing to Burbank & Co., the whole cavalcade being six miles in lengtlı. It reached the fort in safety.
The three strategic points in the county for defense against attacks by the Indians were Sauk Centre, Richmond and Paynesville, and at each of these places the government stationed regular troops. While upon the first alarm the citizens had taken measures for protection, the government was prompt in sending soldiers.
Sauk Centre. When Company H of the Eighth Minnesota, Capt. George G. MeCoy, returned from the Paynesville trip to St. Cloud it was sent to Sauk Centre where a stockade was erected in an oblong form facing the street, with double gates made of two thicknesses of two-inch plank. Head- quarters buildings of logs were afterwards built, and five log houses for quarters for the men, with log stables for the horses. A private house was converted into a hospital, Dr. B. R. Palmer being post surgeon.
Lieutenant Colonel Nesmith of the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin Infantry ar- rived at St. Cloud September 30 with five companies, three being sent to Sauk Centre and two to Paynesville. The troops at these posts were changed from time to time. Company H of the Eighth Minnesota remained at Sauk Centre until February 14, 1863, when it was sent to Fort Abererombie, being relieved by Company B of this regiment, Captain George F. Pettit.
Company C of the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin, which had been stationed at Sauk Centre, passed through St. Cloud December 2 with three other com- panies stationed at other posts in Northern Minnesota, all under command of Lieutenant Colonel Nesmith, to join their regiment at Winona.
In the early part of January, 1863, a straggling band of Chippewas com- mitted depredations in the vicinity of Round Prairie and Long Prairie, when complaint having been brought to Capt. O. Taylor at Sauk Centre, he de- tailed forty men, part from Capt. McCoy's company and part from his own, with instructions to bring in the depredators dead or alive. The detachment returned with seven Indians whom the troops had surprised and taken pris- oncrs. They were kept under guard but some nights afterwards during a storm escaped from the tent where they were confined.
The legislature of Minnesota at the session of 1863 having asked for the establishing of a military post at Sauk Centre, the Secretary of War replied under date of March 27, declining to comply with the request, as "this point was already ocenpied temporarily by our forees, the commander of that
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department does not deem a permanent post necessary at this time, as the result of the war may make it advisable to remove the post further into the interior country." The old stockade built in the first instance was replaced by a much larger and more substantial one.
In April, 1863, Company F of the Mounted Rangers, Capt. Joseph Daniels, was sent to Sauk Centre to relieve Company D, Capt. Oscar Taylor, ordered to Fort Abercrombie.
On the night of September 7, 1863, a man named Hoffman, living about four miles above Sauk Centre, was shot and killed by Indians who were en- gaged in horse stealing. One rifle ball and two charges of buckshot took effect in his body. When Captain Pettit learned of this murder he at once dispatched Captain Ruble with a detachment of men in pursuit, but the In- dians had too great a start and were not found.
The troops left Sauk Centre in the summer of 1864-two companies had been occupying this post, Company K, Second Minnesota Cavalry, and a com- pany of infantry. The fort was located in the vicinity of the corner of Seventh and Birch streets, about half a mile southeast of where the Palmer Hotel now stands. The Irish Catholic Church and Mr. Herberger's house are practically on the ground then occupied by the fort, which was torn down soon after the troops left.
Richmond. The people of Richmond realizing the possibilities of attack erected a stockade and organized a company for defense. The Home Gnards numbered 96 men, and although the arms with which to fully equip them could not be obtained until November they supplied themselves as far as possible with what was at hand. They drilled regularly and performed valu- able scouting service. Many settlers from Paynesville and the intervening country came here for safety.
Company G of the Twenty-fifth Wisconsin, which had arrived in the early part of October, remained until the latter part of November. Com- pany C of the Minnesota Mounted Rangers, Captain Thomas G. Henderson, was afterwards stationed there.
Paynesville. Peace and quiet were reigning at Paynesville, the people being engaged in securing their crops and in their usual avocations in the little village, when August 21 news was brought of a terribly massacre by Sioux Indians which had occurred at Norway lake, located in Monongalia county, about seventeen miles southwest of Paynesville. A number of Swedes had been attending a wedding at a church the day before and were returning home, when they were met on the prairie by the Indians, who at first gave every evidence of friendliness but soon began firing. A boy, John Lomberg (or Luneberg as it has been differently given) with a wounded brother, Samuel, escaped and brought the news to Paynesville. A company con- sisting among others of John and Hugh Blakely, Moses Pelky, Stephen Har- ris, Smith Flanders, Hugh Jones and John Johnson, started for the scene of . the massacre. Upon their arrival they found the bodies of Louis, August and Andrew Lomberg, ranging in ages from 20 to 25 years; Andrew P. Bur- back, wife and three children; Daniel Burback, wife and two children; John Burback, brother to the other two-thirteen in all, who were buried in one
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grave. John Everson was killed in a meadow the following day, but because of the presence of Indians they were not able to bury the body. Mr. Lomberg, the father, although fired at escaped. Mrs. Lomberg at the first attack had unobserved sprung into a creek heavily fringed with reeds and sinking into the water up to her mouth had remained there until nightfall, when she came out and traveled eight miles to a settler's house. While in the water she had been compelled to witness the terrible tortures inflicted by the savages on their victims, cutting off one by one the fingers of the children, then their ears and noses, finding evident delight in the screams of the little ones. A daughter of the Lomberg's had been taken by the Indians and placed bound on a horse, but her screams so frightened the animal that it threw her and started the other horses scampering out on the prairie. The Indians all went in pursuit, when she made her escape to the bushes and afterwards reached Paynesville, where she and her brothers were seen by Captain Freeman when he reached there August 24 from St. Cloud. The Indians drove off at this time a large number of cattle and horses, and it was said that they secured $2,000 in gold from the different families attacked. The party from Paynes- ville went to the east end of Norway lake, arriving just in time to compel a band of savages who had attacked the settlers to beat a retreat to the timber three miles away. Many of the people, with their household effects packed in wagons, accompanied them on their return to Paynesville.
A company of Home Guards was at once organized, with Stephen Harris captain; John Blakely, first lieutenant; Hugh Blakely, second lieutenant ; John J. Brown, sergeant. Work was begun on a sod fort, five feet high, which had frame buildings at cach corner, moved there for that purpose. When Captain Freeman's company of St. Cloud Home Guards arrived, they were accompanied on their return not only by the refugees who had come into Paynesville but by so many of the inhabitants of the place that the garri- son was weakened to such a degree as to render the occupancy of the fort unsafe in view of the alarming reports of ravages by the Indians which came in from the surrounding country. Accordingly it was abandoned and the entire population removed to Richmond and St. Cloud. But as the grain which had been harvested was still in the shock and unthreshed, nine men returned September 11 with teams and a threshing outfit, sleeping in the schoolhouse which formed one of the corners of the fort, the horses being kept in the main inclosure. On the night of the thirteenth they were awak- ened by a light from the burning church which formed another corner of the fort. When John Boylan stepped to the door he was shot by an Indian who with the rest of the gang was inside the fort. The men stealthily left their quarters and started for the bank of the Crow river about one hun- dred rods distant, but the flames of the burning church revealed their fleeing figures to the Indians, who poured a volley after them, fortunately without any being struck by the passing bullets and they reached the wooded banks of the river in safety. Mr. Boylan was carried by John and Robert Blakely nearly three miles to a deserted house, where was found a cotton shirt with which they bound his wound, from which he had suffered a great loss of blood. The rest of the party, warning settlers on the way, continued their
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journey to Richmond, returning the next day for Mr. Boylan. The Indians succeeded in carrying off considerable household plunder, besides driving away a number of horses, oxen and cows. The nine men who composed the harvesting party occupying the school house were John, Hugh and Robert Blakely, O. S. Freeman, Hugh Jones, Smith Flanders, E. H. Bates, Peter Lagrow and John Boylan, the latter being the only member who was in- jured as a result of the attack.
In addition to the buildings at the fort, practically all those in the village itself were burned by the Indians at this time, and it was unsafe for the people to return. On October 2 companies E and H of the Twenty-fifth Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry arrived, when a substantial fort was built of popple logs, the chinks filled in with mortar, and all roofed with boards, this being surrounded by earthworks eight feet high and four feet thick, provided with loop holes for rifle firing. The quarters were sufficient to accommodate two companies of troops. The Wisconsin soldiers remained until the last days of November, when Company A of the Minnesota Mounted Rangers, Captain E. M. Wilson, occupied the post, Dr. J. V. Wren, of St. Cloud, being post surgeon there and at Richmond, making regular weekly visits and others when specially summoned.
In the eastern part of the township of Paynesville, where was a German settlement, a number of families when the first alarm was received gathered at the house of Gottlob Knebel, which they fortified with sod breastworks. Here the women and children were gathered while the men, some fifteen in number, went to the fields to harvest their crops, taking first one farm and then another, all returning to their extemporized fort at night. When the attack was made on Paynesville they went to Richmond, the house in which they had found shelter being burned the second night afterwards by the Indians, who committed further depredations as they left.
Maine Prairie. When the news of the uprising reached Maine Prairie a company was at once formed, R. F. Adley being chosen captain ; F. H. Dam, first lieutenant ; D. W. Fowler, second; E. H. Atwood, third; Joseph Eaton, fourth; F. M. Kimball, first sergeant; William H. Heywood, second; Alex. Spaulding, third. James Jenks and F. H. Dam were appointed a committee to supervise the building of a blockhouse, located near where the Methodist Church was afterwards built. It was 40 feet square, made by standing a double row of tamarac logs on end close together, two feet under and six- teen feet above ground, all being roofed over. Rifle pits were dug for the protection of the sides of the fort. F. H. Dam and afterwards John Farwell drove to St. Paul, each securing a few old muskets and some ammunition, which were gladly received. Later more ammunition, buckshot and powder was obtained from St. Cloud.
While Indians were seen from time to time and on several occasions settlers were fired at no lives of any of the residents of the Prairie were lost. Other localities near by were less fortunate. At Manannah, 22 miles west of Maine Prairie, a party of men who at the first alarm had fled returned to their homes August 26 to secure provisions and look after their crops. As they approached the house a party of Indians rose up from behind a pile
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of lumber and firing killed Willmot Maybee, Lyman Howe, Joseph Page and Philip Deck, who were in a wagon. Two other men, Thomas Ryckman and Chauncey Wilson, who had stopped to look after some cattle, ran for the timber with the Indians in pursuit, but they managed to escape, reaching the Maine Prairie fort in a greatly exhausted condition. Others of the orig- inal party coming to the scene of the massacre found the bodies of their comrades and at once started for Forest City, avoiding the road for fear of the Indians, and making their way as best they could through brush and marshes. On their arrival a party of men went to the place and found all except Maybee, whose body was discovered two months later. Mr. Howe had been scalped and Mr. Page's throat cut from ear to ear. A young Swede girl, whose father, mother, brother and sister had been butchered before her eyes and who had been kept by the Indians and brutally outraged be- fore making her escape, came to the fort and was kindly cared for by the Maine Prairie mothers, being afterwards sent to Clearwater where she had friends. It is not surprising that, with such experiences as these, many people came to believe that "the only good Indian was a dead Indian." There was a strong sentiment in favor of having the government offer a bounty of $10 each for Indian scalps.
Using every possible precaution the settlers gathered in their neglected crops and cared for their cattle. Finally as all indications of danger passed they gradually left the fort and returned to their homes, taking up again the customary duties of life in peaceful times.
Fair Haven. At this little hamlet as a matter of precaution it was de- cided to send the women and children to places of safety, some going to St. Cloud, some to Clearwater, and others to Maine Prairie. The men, some fifteen in number, organized by electing A. Montgomery captain and V. W. Olds lieutenant, and at once inclosed an old log building which had been used as a hotel. A call coming from Forest City for help the greater part of this little company of men left to render assistance where it seemed to be most needed. They went to Acton, the scene of the Jones and Baker murder, but others had preceded them, and they returned to Fair Haven August 23 without having encountered any Indians. A feeling of comparative security soon prevailed and the families were reunited, the men who had remained having harvested their crops in the daytime while sleeping in the fort at night.
On June 11, 1863, Captain John S. Cady and three men of Company A Eighth Minnesota Volunteers, followed the trail of Indians, who had been stealing horses, to near Kandiyohi lake, where they overtook and opened fire on them; the Indians, hidden in the brush, returned the fire, Captain Cady being shot through the heart while the Indians escaped.
Colonel M. T. Thomas with a detachment of 77 mounted men left Paynes- ville July 18, and scouted through the Big Woods and Kandiyohi county, cov- ering 200 miles, frequently dividing into small parties for the purpose of thoroughly reconnoitering the country, returning to Paynesville at the end of seven days without having found any Indians or very late signs of their presence.
On September 11 Captain M. Q. Butterfield (Captain Cady's successor)
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with Sergeant William Edwards left Paynesville for Kingston to have the muster and pay rolls signed by the men at that post. When about five miles beyond Paynesville they were fired on by Indians ambushed in bushes by the roadside and Sergeant Edwards was killed. Unable to take the body, Cap- tain Butterfield left it and returned to Paynesville, where taking Lieutenant Tollington and seventeen men he started immediately in pursuit. They soon came on the trail of the Indians and found that they had ponies, although they were on foot when they shot and killed Sergeant Edwards. This trail was followed to the vicinity of Lake Calhoun, where it was lost. The party circled the lake to the north, coming out on Green lake, where they discovered another trail of two Indians whose moccasin tracks were fresh in the sand. These were evidently other Indians than those who had committed this mur- der. After a pursuit of two or three miles this trail also was lost and dark- ness compelled the party to return to Manannah. The search was resumed the following day by Lieutenant Tollington, but without result. The body of Sergeant Edwards which had been scalped was sent to his home at Champlin.
The troops garrisoning the fort at Paynesville remained until May 24, 1864. This was Company E of the Eighth Minnesota Volunteers. The fort referred to was located in the west end of the old Paynesville townsite.
As a family of immigrants, Amos Dustin and family, were on their way, June 29, 1863, from Waverly, Wright county, to Moore's Point, Carver county, places but twelve miles apart, they were attacked by Indians who used bows and arrows exclusively. Two persons were killed outright and two so badly injured that they died afterwards. The family were traveling in an open lumber box-wagon, and while the tragedy occurred on Monday it was not until the following Wednesday that the mangled and decomposed bodies of the dead were found and the agonized living. Amos Dustin, the father, was sitting in the front part of the wagon, dead, with an arrow stick- ing in his body and a deep wound in his breast made by a towahawk. His left hand had been cut off and carried away by the Indians. In another part of the wagon lay the corpse of Mrs. Dustin, his aged mother. An arrow was in her body also and her head hanging over the side of the wagon, her long hair disheveled and filled with the clotted blood which had flowed from her wounds. The mother and a child twelve years of age were in the wagon still alive but so badly wounded that they died afterwards. For two days they had lain and suffered beside the dead bodies of their loved ones, unable to procure sustenance or assistance. Beneath the father's seat crouched a little girl, six years of age, who had concealed herself there when the attack was first made and thus escaped the savages. Her face and clothes were covered and her shoes literally filled with the life blood of her father as it had trickled from his mangled body.
Following the news of this outrage the Adjutant General of Minnesota issued an order calling for volunteers to serve for sixty days to scour the woods from Sank Centre to the line of Sibley county, to go in squads of four under their own leader, to furnish their own arms, equipment and subsist- ence, and be paid $1.50 per day and $25.00 for every Sioux scalp taken.
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This bounty was paid for a number of scalps, but not as many as the author- ities and the other people would have been glad to receive.
In March, 1863, Colonel M. T. Thomas, of the Eighth Regiment Minne- sota Volunteers, arrived in St. Cloud and made this city his headquarters. He was accompanied by his staff: Lieutenant George W. Butterfield, regi- mental adjutant; Lieutenant George L. Fisk, regimental quartermaster; Ser- geant Major John Hartley; Quartermaster Sergeant E. M. Bass; Orderly Henry C. Helm. Major Camp came at the same time, but left soon afterwards, going to Sauk Centre to take command of the post at that place. In May he was transferred to Fort Abercrombie, being succeeded by Captain Pettit.
Mr. Doble living near Fair Haven, July 11 discovered three Indians driving away his cow. He shot one, believing he killed him. The others were about to carry the body off when Mr. Doble fired again, wounding an- other. The third fled, but Mr. Doble not knowing how many might be near left for the settlement, but when he returned with a party both bodies were gone.
Shortly after midnight of July 26 Indians attempted to steal horses from Henry Block's stable at Maine Prairie, and being discovered shot at Mr. Block, a ball striking him in the left hand. Four horses were stolen from stables in Maine Prairie that night. The evening of the next day while a man named Kenney was driving along the road near Clearwater he was shot at by a couple of Indians, a ball entering his arm.
Reports came from Alexandria of settlers in that vicinity being fired on by Indians.
Aside from occasional appearances and outrages, such as are narrated above, there were no troubles from the Indians in 1863. The settlers had practically all returned to their homes, the great majority before the begin- ning of the year, although a feeling of insecurity still prevailed and Home Guard organizations were maintained, while the government troops occupied the posts. In June and July 250 Prussian muskets and 10,000 ball cartridges were received and later an additional 200 for the use of the militia of Stearns county. When some time afterwards a eall was made for the return of these muskets very few were turned in, the settlers preferring to retain them.
In the first days following the Sioux outbreak great fears were felt as to what the Chippewas might do, and it was from this quarter that the great- est apprehensions were felt. It was known that they were in an ugly mood and some minor depredations were committed. Subsequent revelations showed that an uprising in that direction was perilously near. But wise action and wise counsel averted the threatened danger. Governor Ramsey went per- sonally to the Chippewa agency about the middle of September and arrived at a satisfactory understanding with Hole-in-the-Day and the minor chiefs. The marauders gave up their plunder and a desire for peace was professed.
Judge Usher, secretary of the interior, and Superintendent Thompson went to the agency in November for a further conference, which cemented the good which had been previously accomplished. This was about the time that the convicted Sioux were at Mankato awaiting execution and this doubt- less had a wholesome effect on the Chippewas.
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