USA > Minnesota > Faribault County > The history of Faribault County, Minnesota : from its first settlement to the close of the year 1879 : the story of the pioneers > Part 20
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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
SEE HERE!
About the last of May a fair and festival was held at Winnebago City by the Ladies' Soldiers Aid Society for the benefit of sick and disabled soldiers at the front. It was a grand success in every re- spect. The people were enthusiastic and everyone contributed lib- erally to the good cause. The amount realized from the fair and and festival, together with some additional sums afterwards con- tributed was the handsome donation of $456.47. On the first day of June a like fair and festival was held at Blue Earth City by the Ladies' Soldiers Aid Society of that place. Notwithstanding the many enlistments, the large town and county bounties and other aid extended to the soldiers, the people were not weary. At Blue Earth City on this occasion a large concourse of citizens full of patriotism and liberality attended. They assembled at Young's Hall about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, where an address was deliv- ered by J. A. Kiester.
After alluding to and briefly explaining the monarchal theories and systems of government, which had ruled the world through all the ages, and the results, and after explaining the new and better principles of civil government, asserted by the Declaration of Amer- ican Independence. the speaker said, among other things :-
"But the American Revolution produced a change in the affairs of man- light broke in upon, and hope dawned for the down-trodden and oppressed millions of the earth. Those new and better and truer principles asserted by that revolution. recognizes man as a being of rights and of equal rights. And these better principles are becoming recognized. Mankind are progressing in knowledge everywhere, and in the knowledge of the true principles of political science. The shackles of the old despotic systems are slowly but surely loosen- ing-they must loosen as the mass of the people progress, or be burst assunder in bloody revolutions overturning all government and order. The despots of the old world already see, and to some extent admit this truth. The glorious car of human freedom is rolling forward. It is but a short time since the perjured villain and despot who rules France, in a call for a European Congress, stated that this progress of the people must be recognized. The English people are becoming more jealous of their civil liberties-Russia has freed ber millions of serfs-Poland and Hungary are in revolution-and classic Italy, under the leadership of Victor Emanuel and that glorious patriot, Garibaldi, has risen from her divisions and degradations of ages to an honorable position among the nations with the glad shout of free and united Italy. Thus are those prin- ciples asserted by our revolution becoming recognized-thus is mankind pro- gressing in the pathway of true advancement and elevation, and may this progress in the true principles of government, hand in hand with that in science, art, literature and religion, move forward without let or hindrance, until every system of slavery, wrong and oppression with despots, and their systems, thrones, sceptres and minions shall be swept from the earth forever.
And now let us revert to our own country and its great interests, its condi- tion and destiny. Eighty odd years have passed away since, through the fire and blood and storms of the revolution, our government was organized upon the principles asserted by that revolution-what is the result? Let us view it
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for one moment as It existed before the breaking out of the rebellion. This people, who, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, consisted of thir- teen colonies and three million of inhabitants, without commerce, without a name and withont a place among the nations-had grown to be a mighty pro- ple, composed of thirty-four states, and more than thirty million inhabitants. We had taken our place asa first-class power of the earth. Our empire was almost a continent. We had a country possessing every variety of soil, every character of climate and all kinds of productions. We had thousands of miles of sea coast, the longest rivers, railroads and canals in the world, a commerce that spread its sails on every sea, and manufactories of every description. Our people were industrious, intelligent, enterprising and brave. But this is not all-in the higher blessings of free government the universal diffusion of knowl- edge, progress in the arts and sciences, the freedom of conscience, of opinion, of speech, and of the press-in all these we had no equal on earth. In short, we had the most free, most tolerant, and best government ever possessed by man.
And now drawing aside the thick veil which hides the future destinies of our country, let us contemplate it an hundred years hence, in the spirit and faith of the patriot's hope. Behold: A nation of more than two hundred mil- lions of people, whose states indissolubly united embrace the area of a conti- nent, whose lands are in the highest state of cultivation and productiveness, whose manufactures supply the world-whose commerce covers every sea, whose arts and sciences are carried to the highest perfection-the precepts of moral- ity and religion governing its people-having no entangling alliances with for- cign nations, but the just arbiter of their differences-a nation whose schools are free, and the benefits of an enlarged physical and mental education and de- velopment, possessed by every citizen-where all classes, castes, and distine- tions, except such as are based upon virtue and wisdom, are unknown in the social and political systems-where the widest freedom of speech, of opinion of the press, of conscience and of personal action, consistent with the well-be- ing of society, are indisputable rights.
What a nation of prosperity, power and glory is this! This nation at the breaking out of the rebellion was a subject of pride and congratulation, but how much more worthy of pride is that nation which we may hope to become in the future !- And to me that future is no Utopian dream-no unreasonable hope. But there is a condition necessary to the maintenance of our country as it is or was-a condition necessary to be fulfilled, in the consummation of the future we hope for. And what is this condition? I answer, the maintenance of the Union. the Constitution and the Supremacy of the Laws. This is the simple, fundamental condition. And if we fail in this, we may now bid adieu to our liberties, to our wealth, power, prosperity and future prospects as a nation. The blood of our fathers will have been shed in vain, and the last and only hope of the political elevation of man will have perished, and on the broken columns of our ruins, the future moralizer on the destiny of nations, may write the sad but then truthful commentary-
"-Such is the moral of all earthly tales, "Tis but the sad rehersal of the past: First Freedom, then glory, and when that fails, Slavery, corruption and barbarism at last, And history with all its volumes vast, Hlas but this page."
Alas my countrymen! the black flag of treason, rebellion and disunion has been thrown to the breeze. Led on by traitors whose treason is as black as hell because of its ingratitude and want of excuse, the deluded people of the South,
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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
lifting their bloodstained hands to heaven, swear to dissolve the Union, over- turn the nation, defeat and destroy our just and equitable system of govern- ment and establish one upon the basis of slavery. Shall this be so? Shall the Union and the Constitution be maintained? Let us reason for a moment, then to the men who are defending them with their lives.
The American Union should be a holy thing to us. "It was baptized some eighty years ago, in a river of sacred blood. For that Union thousands of brave men left their homes, their wives, all that man holds dear, to die amid ice and snow, the shock of battle, the dishonor of gibbets. No one can count the tears, the prayers, the lives that have sanctified this American Union, making it an eternal bond of brotherhood for innumerable millions, an altar forever sacred to the rights of man. And for eighty years and more the smile of God has beamed upon it."
"And the man that for any pretence would lay a finger upon one of its pillars, not only blasphemes the memory of the dead, but invokes upon his memory the curse of all ages yet to come. I care not how plausable his argu- ment, how swelling his sounding periods, that man is a traitor to the soil that bore him, a traitor to the mother whose breast gave him nourishment, a traitor to humanity everywhere, and a traitor to the dead whose very graves abhor the pollution of his footsteps."
There is, my countrymen, no light in which you can view this question, no possible hypothesis upon which to base a probable condition consistent with the liberties, material and other prosperity of this people, if we should fail to crush this rebellion. There is nothing left but to maintain the Union, the Constitution and the Laws, whatever the time and treasure and life it may cost. And to accomplish it, is worth the lives of one generation of men, yours, my hearers, and mine among the number, and all the wealth of this continent, for it is not the cause of this country alone, nor of this generation, but of all mankind and of all the generations to come.
And here this question of slavery presents itself. But I will not try your patience by a long homily upon this subject. Let me tell you in a few words the character of this most accursed institution and the fate that awaits it as I read the signs of the times. I look upon chattel slavery as it existed in this country as the greatest social, moral and political evil upon the face of the earth. It is the essence of all and every system of despotism. It is antagonistic to the principles upon which our government was founded. It is "the sum of all villainies." It is without warrant in revealed law, and is condemned by the law of nature, and there is absolutely no argument in the whole range of human reason, that can excuse, much less sustain it.
And this great curse, this gigantic crime against man and God, the evils of which we are now reaping in this rebellion against the Union, against our laws and liberties-this evil, which, with its authors and apologists, men will execrate through all ages, is about to be destroyed as a result of this war for the Union. The Proclamation of Emancipation will besustained. The shackles are breaking and the oppressed shall go free, and when this war shall be ended and the Union restored, there may not be a slave on our soil, and the glad shout the mighty anthem of freedom shall resound throughout the universe-Glory be to God.
Understand me friends, standing upon the law of God and nature, I am the friend of human freedom, of liberty, civil and religious, for all men every- where. I care not of what nation or color they may be, and I verily believe as I stand here to-day, that as in the dark day of the revolution, the finger of God was everywhere manifest, so in this war is He evolving the great problem of human freedom, and that the restoration of the Union and the annihilation of slavery as a result of the war, are the ends He will accomplish.
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Such, friends, Is my humble comprehension of the importance of this war for the Union-some of Its results and in the dim but certain future the glori- ous destinies of our country. And I have no fear for the result If we do our duty, and the only question now is, what is our duty as loyal citizens? It is very plain, laying aside all party prejudices and passions, creeds and mere per- sonal interests, we must stand by our government with all our property, with the best exertions of our minds and bodies even unto death. And hundreds of thousands of our noble countrymen have gone forth determined to sustain the government. restore the Union and protect our liberties or perish in the at- tempt. God's best blessing be upon them. What a glorious cause like that for which our fathers tolled, the best for which man ever fought, or bled, or died.
But we have not only the openly declared rebel and traitor to fight-through- out the North there are many who sympathize with our enemies, There were such men in the days of the revolution, so In the war of 1812. They were called tories and traitors then-they are called copperheads now. And if I knew a more loathsome and repellant name, a name embodying all scorns and shames, I would shout it in their ears until they would hide their deformed beads and principles from the light of day, and the gaze of all honest men. The traitor who openly backs his treason with his life, may demand some respect for his courage and sincerity, but for the grovelling, sneaking, cowardly whelp of Sa tan, who with his heart filled with the foulness of treason, his mouth with ly- ing words, seeks to hinder, distract and ruin the very government whose liber- ties, security and protection he enjoys, there are no words too bitter, no hate too strong this side of IIell. Admitting as we must, that there is some corrup- tion in the war, that there are many mistakes made, all of which is inevitable in any war, it is no reason whatever to give up the contest. But copperheads, with motives and feelings as evident as the designs of the devil upon the hu- man race, and with no riew to temperate discussion and remedy of these evils, but to magnify and distort everything in the interest of their Southern friends, tell us the Constitution is violated every hour-that the President is a tyrant -that the government is wholly corrupt-that the country is ruined by debt- that Congress has no objects in its labors but base political and pecuniary ends -that our generals are all incompetent and mercenary-that this is a war against the rights of the South and should be given up-that it is an abolition war and a war for the benefit of speculators and rotten politicians, men who have no sympathy with our cause in its failures, mistakes and misfortunes- not a word of praise in its victories and achievements, who tell us there is no patriotism in the men who are fighting its battles,-that their motives are all mercenary -Great God! Can this all be true? Are these men who have left their business, their wives and children, their peace and security and comfort, sacri- fleing every thing that men hold dear -- are these men after all but mercenary wretches? See them on the hundred battleilelds of this war, from the highest commander to the commonest soldier, toiling, suffering, bleeding, dying, facing the most appalling dangers, and as company, regiment and battalion are swept away by the murderous fire of the foo, still with the battle shout, cheer and song, fill up the thinned ranks, marching into the very jaws of death, deter- mited on victory. Is this mercenary? Are these men thinking of bounties and thirteen dollars a month? See them lying strewn upon these hundred bat- tlefields, dead and silent, or in hospitals suffering from disease and ghastly wounds, still true to the holy cause-Is this mercenary? No, friends, this charge is a Jie-a base born traitor's lie. There is patriotism in this war, estab- lished by the best proofs men have ever asked. The lives, the accursed machin- ations of these copperheads have cost, will be kept as a record of blood against them through all time, like the tories and traitors of the revolution and of the war of '12, they will be remembered but to be hated.
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"Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from where they sprung Unwept, unhonored and unsung."
Now what should be our course towards these cowardly miscreants? I will tell you in a word. Have no association or sympathy with them-put no man in office of doubtful patriotism, and be not deceived by specious assertions or changes of opinion. Let the past consistency of every man's conduct prove his sincerity, and give no ear to their falsehoods-they will cry out against this, and the worst pinched will be the first to howl, but remember the mighty trust reposed in every patriot's hands, and as you value the success of our cause and country, heed them not-be true to your trust.
And now to return to the brave men who are fighting our battles, and our duty to them and to our country, and I am done. They are fast falling in the mighty struggle-by the hardships and dangers of disease, and wounds, and death. Thousands of them will return to us no more in this world-they have fallen with their faces to the foe. Thousands are languishing in hospitals from sickness and wounds-other thousands are still bravely facing the storms of battle amid want and toil and suffering. Oh! what is our duty! What can we do who are yet surrounded by peace and plenty and ease? I will say it-let us bury all party, all prejudice creeds and differences, and stand, as the struggle may grow fiercer and darker, more closely together, and when our time comes, as soon it may, let us go forth manfully to fill the thinned ranks, and while we remain here let us not be idle. Let us show our brave countrymen that we sympathize with them-that we appreciate their services. Yes, there is a great and good work for us to do-what is it? Find your answer in the organ- ization of the Sanitary and Christian Commission and Soldiers' Aid Societies, all intended for the benefit of the men in the field. And now here to-day the opportunity is offered to give your aid, and let no man, or woman, or child, be found wanting. You know the righteousness of the cause in which they are suffering and dying-it is our country's, humanity's, my cause, your cause, the cause of posterity. Let us open our hands wide, and as every man has received from God, so in the name of God let him bestow. If your gift is small, so be it. It may be enough to send an agent of the Commission with a cup of cold water, a bandage, a little cordial, for the wounded and dying soldier.
Fathers and Mothers! You have long enjoyed the blessings of our good government. Your son may be battling bravely to sustain it. Give of your abundance. It may moisten his parched lips, ease his broken body or stop the flow of his life blood.
Young Men and Brothers! It is especially for us to sustain our brothers in the field, and the cause of our country. Give in your health and strength and your hopes of a manly life.
Wives and Sisters! You who are ever ready in every good work. Remem- ber your husbands and brothers in the ranks of war. Prove again to-day that you are worthy descendants of the Mothers of the Revolution.
Little Children! Remember your fathers far away, battling for your future welfare, and while your mothers teach you the first duties of patriotism, bring your little gifts.
Let us all do our duty this day. The soldier will bless ns, humanity will bless us, posterity and God will bless us.
After the address and some patriotic music, a splendid dinner was served free to all, but for which many paid liberally. A sub- scription was passed around, and everybody gave largely beyond ex-
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pectation. Several town lots and many other things were put up for sale and sold and re sold at high figures, the proceeds going into the soldier's fund. From these and other sources the grand sum contributed was $452.35, which with twenty dollars contributed a day or so later made the sum of $172.35, making in all the splendid aggregate of $924.85 for Faribault county and which, considering the population and means of the people, made this the Banner County of the State. The funds were sent to the Christian Commission. Everybody was proud of this patriotic affair at the time, and those who took an active part in it like to talk about it and are proud of it to this day.
A TOPIC OF THE TIMES.
During the spring and summer there was again consideralbe talk in certain localities of another attempt to remove the county seat from Blue Earth City, but it failed to "crystalize" into action.
THE NATIONS' BIRTHDAY.
The Fourth of July was not generally celebrated in this county, in this year, but a pie nie was held in the town of Verona on that day, which was largely attended, and proved a very pleasant affair, and, in fact, is still remembered by many.
On the 18th of this month the President called for five hundred thousand more troops. The war was being prosecuted with terrible energy, as will be seen by reference to the summary of battles, etc. at the end of this chapter. Men were falling daily at the front, by the thousands. but the glorious shouts of victory over treason were resounding throughout the land.
THE HUSBANDMAN'S REWARD.
The harvest commenced this year as early as the middle of July. The weather was fine, and the crops were never better in this county than this year. Every kind of grain was good and abundant. and was safely harvested and secured. Wheat in Winona. in this State. in the early part of July, sold at $2.05. the price, however, was much less than that here. But there are some people who are never satisfied. Unele Josh-an old settler-has always been a grumbler. If it rains he grumbles: if it is dry he has great fore- bodings. "Well. Uncle Josh, you have very fine erops this year." said a neighbor to him one day, to see what he would say. "Yes." said Uncle Josh. "that are so, very fine craps, but these heavy craps is mighty hard on the land, I tell yer."
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FARIBAULT COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS.
A special session of the commissioners was held August 13th, when the following resolution was adopted:
"Resolved, that the sum of one hundred dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated, as a bounty to each person who has enlisted, or may enlist in the military or naval service of the United States, and be credited to any township in Faribault county, under the present call of the president for 500,000 men, to be paid upon satisfactory evidence of such enlistment and credit."
At this same time the several town districts in the county were giving very liberal bounties, as will be seen by reference to the his- torical sketches of the several towns. The commissioners met again September 6th, and on the thirteenth day of October, but we find nothing in their action to be noted here.
INDIANS AGAIN.
All along during the spring and early part of the summer, rumors of renewed Indian troubles in the west and southwest, were current, and a general Indian war, all along the border seemed imminent. The fears entertained were not without foundation, as the Indians did commence hostilities on the plains, in Nebraska. and at various points on the extreme western frontiers. Many whites were killed, and emigrant trains, on the plains, were attacked and destroyed, and in Minnesota a number of small hostile preda- tory bands of Indians were skulking and marauding on the frontier. About the 11th of August two murders were perpetrated by Indians near Vernon, in Blue Earth county, Mr. Root and Mr. Mack were killed, and a number of horses stolen.
The government sent out strong forces in every direction against the red skins. Gen. Sully again advanced with a strong force up the Missouri river. With this expedition was Brackett's battalion in one company of which-Capt. J. A. Read's-were some twenty Faribault county men. An expedition under command of Col. Thomas, in which was Capt. Davy's company, composed largely of Fairbault county men, left Minnesota in May, and crossing the western part of the State and Dakota in a westerly direction joined the Sully expedition in July, on the Upper Missouri.
The result of these rumors and murders here was another great excitement and much uneasiness. But the people did not leave their homes. No actual outbreak occurred in the State, but to quell the excitement and protect the country, Col. B. F. Smith, of Man- kato, was directed by the Governor of the State, to organize com- panies of "Mounted Minute Men," along the Blue Earth river. On the 25th of August a company of forty-two men, was organized and armed under command of Dr. R. R. Foster, lieutenant at Blue Earth City.
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Here is the company roll :
R. W. Foster.
B. D. Gillett.
G. B. Kingsley.
C. Getchell.
F. A. Squires.
M. E. Gano.
G. Bartholomew. A. Gray.
P. C. Seely.
J. B. Landis. .J. B. Gillett.
S. Mead.
J. A. Rose.
J. Marble.
G. D. Nash.
F. Mead.
W. Silliman.
I. S. Mead.
J. Blocher.
C. Butler.
C. W. Gillett.
M. McCrery.
C. Huntington.
F. Morehouse.
J. Dayton.
Henry Kamrar. W. Sharp.
Levi Chute.
A. Bonwell.
Frank Read.
J. Behse.
Z. Carbell. Wm. Coon.
A. E. Champney.
E. J. Earl.
E. Ellis.
G. T. Foster. G. Franklin.
Edward Wakefield.
At Winnebago City a similar company of thirty men was en- listed under command of James Crays. Jieutenant. We have not succeeded in getting the names of the members of this company for incorporation in this history as we should have liked The minute men received $2.50 per day, paid by the State.
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