USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 15
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The two terror-stricken women were considering, as best their mental condition would permit, what they should do, when a half-witted, half-demented fellow, an Irishman, named Cox,
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came along the road. At once the women entreated him for as- sistance. The poor imbecile only grinned, shook his head and said to them that they were liars and that there had been no Indians here. When they pointed to the bloody corpses he laughed and said : "Oh, they only have the nose-bleed; it will do them good," and then passed on, crooning a weird song to a weirder tune. A few days later, the report was that Cox was a spy for the Indians and he was arrested at Forest City and sent under guard, via Monticello, to St. Paul, where, on investigation, he was released as a harmless lunatic.
Horrified and half distracted, Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Webster, with the former's two children, made their way for some miles to the house of Nels Olson (who was afterward killed by the Indians), where they passed the night. The next morning they were taken to Forest City and from thence to Kingston and Mon- ticello. Their subsequent history cannot here be given.
Soon after their arrival at Nels Olson's cabin Ole Ingeman heard the alarming story of Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Webster and galloped away to Forest City with the thrilling news, stirring up the settlers on the way. He reached Forest City at six o'clock in the evening, crying, "Indians on the war-path !" In an hour six- teen of the villagers, with hunting rifles and shotguns, were on their way to Acton. It soon grew dark and nine of the party turned back. The other seven-John Blackwell, Berger Ander- son, Amos N. Fosen, Nels Danielson, Ole Westman, John Nelson, and Charles Magnuson-pressed bravely on. Soon they were joined by another party of settlers headed by Thomas MeGan- non. Reaching the Baker place, the settlers approached the house warily, lest the Indians were still there. In the darkness they stumbled over the bloody bodies of Jones, Webster and Baker, and found the corpse of Mrs. Jones in a pantry.
In the gloom of midnight the pioneers passed on to Acton postoffice, Jones' house. Here they expected to find the Indians dead drunk in Jones' whisky, but not an Indian was there. Pros- trate on the floor, in a pool of her virgin blood, and just as she had fallen when the Indian's bullet split her young heart in twain, lay the corpse of poor Clara Wilson. No disrespect had been shown it and she had been mercifully killed outright-that was all. On a low bed lay her little baby brother of two years, with not a scratch upon him. He had cried himself to sleep. When awakened he smiled into the faces of his rescuers, and prattled that Clara was "hurt" and that he wanted his supper. John Blackwell carried him away and the child was finally adopted by Charles H. Ellis, of Otsego, Wright county.
In a corner of the main room of the Jones house stood a half- filled whisky barrel, and on a long shelf, with other merchandise, was an array of pint and half-pint bottles filled with the exhila-
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rating beverage. The Indians had not touched a drop of the stuff-so they themselves declared, and so appearances indi- cated. The numerous printed statements that they were drunk when they perpetrated the murders are all false. Moreover, Jones' statement that they wanted whisky and "acted ugly" be- cause he would not let them have it, may well be disbelieved. After he had fled from the house, disgracefully abandoning Clara Wilson and her baby brother, who were all that could say them nay, the Indians might have seized enough of the whisky to make the entire Rice Creek band drunk; and when they returned from Baker's and killed Miss Wilson they could easily have plundered Jones' house, not only of its whisky, but of all its other contents, but this they did not do. Of all Jones' household goods and his tempting stock of merchandise, not a pin was taken and not a drop of whisky drank. At Baker's they were as sober as judges and asked for water. (See Lawson and Tew's admirable History of Kandiyohi county, pp. 18-19; also Smith's History of Meeker county.)
On Monday, August 18, about sixty citizens assembled at Acton and an inquest was held on the bodies of Jones, Webster, Baker, Mrs. Jones, and Clara Wilson. The investigation was presided over by Judge A. C. Smith, of Forest City, then pro- bate judge and acting county attorney of Meeker county. The testimony of Mrs. Baker and others was taken and recorded and the verdict was that the subjects of the inquest were, "murdered by Indians of the Sioux tribe, whose names are unknown." The bodies had changed and were changing fast under the warm Au- gust temperature, and were rather hastily coffined and taken about three miles eastward to the cemetery connected with the Norwegian church, commonly called the Ness church, and all five of them were buried "in one broad grave." (See Smith's His- tory, p. 17.) Some years later at a cost of $500, the State erected a granite monument over the grave to the memory of its inmates.
While the inquest was being held at the Baker house, eleven Indians, all mounted, appeared on the prairie half a mile to the westward. They were Island Cloud and his party. The two In- dians that had come to Baker's the previous day, while the Ghost Killer and his companions were there, and had left, after obtain- ing a drink of water, and before the murders, reported to the main party that they had heard firing in the direction of the Baker house. Ghost Killer and the three others had not since been seen, and Island Cloud and his fellows feared that the whites had killed them in a row, while drunk on Jones' whisky. (Island Cloud's statement to W. L. Quinn and others.) They were ap- proaching the Baker house to learn what had become of their comrades when the crowd at the inquest saw them. Instantly a number of armed and mounted settlers started for them, bent on
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vengeance. The Indians, wholly unaware of the real situation, and believing that their four comrades had been murdered and that they themselves were in deadly peril, turned and fled in terror and were chased well into Kandiyohi county. Both whites and Indians in the vicinity of Acton were at this time wholly unaware and altogether unsuspicious of what a great conflagra- tion was then raging the Minnesota valley and which had been kindled hy the little fire at Howard Baker's cabin.
All of the attendant circumstances prove that the murder was solely the work of the five persons that did the deed, and that they had no accessories before or after the fact. It was not perpetrated because of dissatisfaction at the delay in the payment, nor because there were to be soldiers at the pay table; it was not occasioned by the sale of the north ten-mile strip of the reservation, nor be- cause so many white men had left Minnesota and gone into the Union army. It was not the result of the councils of the soldiers' lodge, nor of any other Indian plot. The twenty or more Indians who left Rice Creek August 12 for the hunt did not intend to kill white people; if they had so intended, Island Cloud and all the rest would have been present at and have participated in the murders at Baker's and Jones' and carried off much portable property, including horses. The trouble started as has been stated-from finding a few eggs in a white man's fence-corner.
After the murder of Clara Wilson-who, the Indians said, was shot from the roadway as she was standing in the doorway look- ing at them-the four murderers, possibly without entering the Jones house, went directly to the house of Peter Wicklund, near Lake Elizabeth, which they reached about one o'clock, when the family were at dinner. Wicklund's son-in-law, A. M. Ecklund, who had a team of good young horses, had arrived with his wife, a short time before, for a Sunday visit at her father's One of the Indians came to the door of the house, cocked his gun, and pointed it at the people seated around the dinner table. Mrs. Wicklund rose and motioned to the savage to point his gun in another direction. He continued, however, to menace the party and thus distract their attention while his companions secured and slipped away with Ecklund's horses. Then, mounted, two on a horse, the four rode rapidly southward. Some distance from Wicklund's they secured two other horses, and then they pro- ceeded as fast as possible to their village at the mouth of Rice Creek, forty miles from Acton.
They reached their village in the twilight after a swift, hard ride, which, according to Jere Campbell, who was present, had well nigh exhausted the horses. Leaping from their panting and dripping studs they called out: "Get your guns! There is war with the whites and we have begun it!" Then they related the events of the morning. They seemed like criminals that had per-
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petrated some foul deed and then, affrighted, apprehensive and remorseful, had fled to their kinsmen for shelter and protection. Their story at once created great excitement and at the same time much sympathy for them. Some of their fellow villagers began at once to get ready for war, by putting their guns in order and looking after their ammunition supplies. Ho-choke-pe-doota, the chief of the Rice Creek band-if he really held that position -was beside himself with excitement. At last he concluded to take the four adventurers and go to see Chief Shakopee about the matter. Repairing as speedily as possible to the chief's village, on the south side of the river, near the mouth of the Redwood, they electrified all of its people by their startling story, which, however, many of them had already heard.
Shakopee (or Little Six) was a non-progressive Indian, who lived in a tepee and generally as an Indian-scorning the ad- juncts of the white man. The story of the killing stirred him, and the excitement among his band, some members of which were already shouting the war-whoop and preparing to fight, affected him so that, while he declared that he was for war, he did not know what to do. "Let us go down and see Little Crow and the others at the Agency," he said at last. Accordingly Shakopee, the Rice Creek chief, two of the four young men who still smelled of the white people's blood they had spilled, and a considerable number of other Rice Creekers, and members of Shakopee's band, although it was midnight, went down to consult with the greatest of the Sioux, Tah O Yahte Dootah, or Little Crow. Messengers were also sent to the other sub-chiefs inviting them to a war council at Little Crow's house. The chief was startled by the ap- pearance of Shakopee and the others, and at first seemed non- plussed and at a loss to decide. Finally he agreed to the war, said the whites of the Upper Minnesota must all be killed, and he commended the young murderers for shedding the first blood, saying they had "done well." Big Eagle thus relates the incident : "Shakopee took the young men to Little Crow's frame house, two miles above the Agency, and he sat up in bed and listened to their story. He said war was now declared. Blood had been shed, the annuities would be stopped, and the whites would take a dreadful vengeance because women had been killed. Wabasha. Wacouta, myself, and some others talked for peace, but nobody would listen to us, and soon the general cry was: 'Kill the whites, and kill all these cut-hairs (Indians and half-bloods who had cut their hair and put on white men's clothes) that will not join us.' Then a council was held and war was declared. The women be- gan to run bullets and the men to clean their guns. Parties formed and dashed away in the darkness to kill the settlers. Little Crow gave orders to attack the agency early next morning and to kill the traders and other whites there.
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"When the Indians first came to Little Crow for counsel and advice he said to them, tauntingly, 'Why do you come to me for advice? Go to the man you elected speaker (Traveling Hail) and let him tell you what to do.' But he soon came around all right."
Between 6 and 7 o'clock on the morning of August 18, the first shot was fired and the first white man was killed at the Lower Agency and the dreadful massacre began. James W. Lynd, ex-state senator from Sibley county, was a clerk in My- rick's trading house at the agency. He was standing upon a door step watching the movements of some Indians who were coming along with guns in their hands and acting strangely. Suddenly one of them named Much Hail, or Plenty of Hail (Tan-wah-su Ota). (Until a few years since it was generally understood from the best authorities that the fatal shot was fired by Walks Like a Preacher, who died in prison at Davenport, but in 1901 Much Hail, living in Canada, confessed that he was the one that killed Mr. Lynd.) drew up his gun and pointing it at Mr. Lynd, said : "Now, I will kill the dog that would not give me credit." He fired and Mr. Lynd fell forward and died instantly.
The massacre then became general. The whites were taken quite unawares and were easy victims. No women were killed, but some were taken prisoners; others were allowed to escape. The stores presented such enticing opportunities for securing plunder of a greatly coveted sort that the Indians swarmed into and about them, pillaging and looting, and this gave many whites opportunity to escape and make their way to Fort Ridgely, four- teen miles. The ferryman, Hubert Miller (whose name was com- monly pronounced Mauley, and whose name was printed in some histories as Jacob Mayley) stuck to his post and ferried people across to the north side until all had passed; then the Indians killed him.
The Indians in large numbers crossed the Minnesota and be- gan their bloody work among the settlers along Beaver and Sacred Heart creeks and in the Minnesota bottoms. A few set- tlers-and only a few-were warned in time to escape.
Shakopee's band operated chiefly in this quarter and the chief that night said he had killed so many white people during the day that his arm was quite lame. The other Lower bands went down into Brown county and directly across the river.
The dreadful scenes that were enacted in the Upper Minne- sota valley on that dreadful eighteenth of August can neither be described nor imagined. Hundreds of Indians visited the white settlement to the north and east and perpetrated innumerable murders and countless other outrages. Scores of women and children were brought in as prisoners and many wagon loads of plunder were driven into the Indian camps. White men, women,
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and children of all ages were murdered indiscriminately, and under the most terrible circumstances. The bodies were com- monly mutilated-sometimes shockingly-but very few were scalped. Only one mixed blood Indian, Francois La Bathe (pro- nounced La Bat) a trader at the Lower Agency, was killed. About twenty mixed bloods joined the hostile Indians; the others who would not join were made prisoners. Many mixed blood women were violated and otherwise misused. That night a large number of the settlers' houses and other buildings were burned, but many houses were spared. Some of the Indians declared that they needed them to live in the coming autumn and winter.
There was no resistance worthy of the name. Very few set- tlers had fire-arms or were accustomed to them. There were many Germans that had never fired a gun in all of their lives. Then, too, the Indian attacks were wholly unexpected. The savages ap- proached their victims in a most friendly and pleasant manner and slew them without warning. Very often, however, the white man knew that he was to be murdered, but he made no attempt to defend himself. Some who were being chased by the Indians, turned and fired a few shots at their pursuers, but without effect. Though hundreds of white people were murdered by the Indians that day, not a single Indian was killed or severely injured.
Down the Minnesota river on both sides below Fort Ridgley as far as New Ulm, and up the river to Yellow Medicine, the bloody slaughter extended that day. The fiendish butcheries and horrible killings beggar description. Here is one of many like in- stances: Cut Nose, a savage of savages, with half a dozen other Sioux, overtook a number of whites in wagons. He sprang into one of the vehicles in which were eleven women and children and tomahawked every one of them, yelling in fiendish delight as his weapons went crashing through the skulls of the helpless victims. Twenty-five whites were killed at this point. Settlers were slain from near the Iowa line in Jackson county, as far north as Breck- enridge, including Glencoe, Hutchinson, Forest City, Manannah and other places. Fourteen were killed at White Lake, Kandi- yohi county. The much greater number of whites were slaugh- tered, however, within the reservations, and in Renville and Brown counties. During the first week, it is estimated that over 600 whites were killed and nearly 200 women and children taken captive.
The Whites at the Yellow Medicine Agency above the Lower Agency, to the number of sixty-two, among them the family of Indian Agent Galbraith, escaped by the aid of John Otherday, a friendly Indian.
When the news of the outbreak reached Fort Ridgley, Captain John S. Marsh, with forty-six of his men of Company B, Fifth Minnesota, started for the Lower Agency. He was ambushed at
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Redwood Ferry, twenty-four of his men were killed and he him- self was drowned in attempting to cross the river. The survivors of his command hid in the thickets and worked their way back to the fort at night.
The Indians attacked Fort Ridgley on the twentieth and again on the twenty-second of August, the latter day with 800 warriors. The force in the fort numbered 180 men, commanded by Lieuten- ant T. J. Sheehan. A small battery under Sergeant John Jones, of the regular army, did effective service. There were 300 refu- gees in the fort. After many hours' fighting, the Indians retired. Had they charged they could have captured the fort, but Indians do not fight in that manner. The saving of Ridgley was the sal- vation of the country below, as its capture would have enabled the Indians to sweep the valley. The loss of the garrison was three killed and twelve wounded.
The most momentous engagements of the Indian war were the attacks upon New Ulm, as the fate of more than 1,500 people was at stake. The Sioux first assaulted it on the day following the outbreak, but were driven off. That night Judge C. E. Flan- drau, of the Supreme Court, arrived with 125 men, and the next day 50 arrived from Mankato. Judge Flandrau was chosen to command. On August 23 the Indians, some 500 strong, again attacked the little city and surrounded it, apparently determined to capture it. The battle lasted five or six hours. The Indians set fire to the houses to the windward, and the flames swept to- wards the center of the city, where the inhabitants had barricaded themselves, and complete destruction seemed inevitable. The whites, under Flandrau, charged the Indians and drove them half a mile. They then set fire to and burned all the houses on the outskirts in which the Indians were taking shelter. In all, 190 structures were destroyed. Towards evening the Indians re- tired. Thirty-six whites were killed, including ten slain in a reconnoissance on the nineteenth. Seventy to eighty were wounded.
Owing to a shortage of provisions and ammunition, the city was evacuated on August 25. The sick and wounded and women and children were loaded into 153 wagons and started for Man- kato. No more pathetic sight was ever witnessed on this conti- nent than this long procession of 1,500 people forced to leave their homes and flee from a relentless foe, unless it be the pathetic picture, seen so many times on this continent of the Indians being driven from the lands of their ancestors by the no less relentless whites.
Heard's history thus vividly portrays conditions in the Minne- sota valley at this period.
"Shakopee, Belle Plaine and Henderson were filled with fugi- tives. Guards patrolled the outskirts, and attacks were con-
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stantly apprehended. Oxen were killed in the streets, and the meat, hastily prepared, was cooked over fires on the ground. The grist mills were surrendered by their owners to the public and kept in contant motion to allay the demand for food. All thought of property was abandoned. Safety of life prevailed over every other consideration. Poverty stared in the face those who had been affluent, but they thought little of that. Women were to be seen in the street hanging on each other's necks, telling of their mutual losses, and the little terror-stricken children, surviv- ing remnants of once happy homes, crying piteously around their knees. The houses and stables were all occupied by people, and hundreds of fugitives had no covering or shelter but the canopy of heaven."
August 26, Lieut .- Gov. Ignatius Donnelly, writing to Gov. Alexander Ramsey, from St. Peter, said :
"You can hardly conceive the panic existing along the valley. In Belle Plaine I found sixty people crowded. In this place lead- ing citizens assure me that there are between 3,000 and 4,000 refugees. On the road between New Ulm and Mankato are over 2,000; Mankato is also crowded. The people here are in a state of panic. They fear to see our forces leave. Although we may agree that much of this dread is without foundation, nevertheless it is producing disastrous consequences to the state. The people will continue to pour down the valley, carrying consternation wherever they go, their property in the meantime abandoned and going to ruin."
When William J. Sturgis, bearer of dispatches from Fort Ridgley to Governor Ramsey, reached him at Fort Snelling on the afternoon of August 19, the government at once placed ex-Gov- ernor Henry H. Sibley, with the rank of colonel, in command of the forces to operate against the Indians. Just at this time, in response to President Lincoln's call for 600,000 volunteers, there was a great rush of Minnesotans to Fort Snelling, so that there was no lack of men, but there was an almost entire want of arms and equipment. This caused some delay, but Colonel Sibley reached St. Peter on the twenty-second. Here he was delayed until the twenty-sixth and reached Fort Ridgley August 28. A company of his cavalry arrived at the fort the day previous, to the great joy of garrison and refugee settlers.
August 31 General Sibley, then encamped at Fort Ridgley with his entire command, dispatched a force of some 150 men, under the command of Maj. Joseph R. Brown, to the Lower Agency, with instructions to bury the dead of Captain Marsh's command and the remains of all settlers found. No signs of Indians were seen at the agency, which they visited on September 1. That evening they encamped near Birch Coulie, about 200 yards from the timber. This was a fatal mistake, as subsequent
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events proved. At early dawn the Sioux, who had surrounded the camp, were discovered by a sentinel, who fired. Instantly there came a deadly roar from hundreds of Indian guns all around the camp. The soldiers sprang to their feet, and in a few minutes thirty were shot down. Thereafter all hugged the ground. The horses to the number of 87 were soon killed, and furnished a slight protection to the men, who dug pits with spades and bayonets. General Sibley sent a force of 240 men to their relief, and on the same day followed with his entire command. On the forenoon of September 3 they reached the Coulie and the Indians retreated. Twenty-eight whites were killed and sixty wounded. The condition of the wounded and indeed the entire force was terrible. They had been some forty hours without water, under a hot sun, surrounded by bloodthirsty, howling savages. The dead were buried and the wounded taken to Fort Ridgley.
After the battle of Birch Coulie many small war parties of Indians started for the settlements to the Northwest, burning houses, killing settlers and spreading terror throughout that region. There were minor battles at Forest City, Acton, Hutch- inson and other places. Stockades were built at various points. The wife and two children of a settler, a mile from Richmond, were killed on September 22. Paynesville was abandoned and all but two houses burned. The most severe fighting with the Indians in the northwestern settlements was at Forest City, Acton and Hutchinson, on September 3 and 4. Prior to the battle at Birch Coulie, Little Crow, with 110 warriors, started on a raid to the Big Woods country. They encountered a company of some sixty whites under Captain Strout, between Glencoe and Acton, and a furious fight ensued, Strout's force finally reaching Hutchinson, with a loss of five killed and seventeen wounded. Next day Hutchinson and Forest City, where stockades had been erected, were attacked, but the Indians finally retired without much loss on either side, the Indians, however, burning many houses, driving off horses and cattle, and carrying away a great deal of personal property.
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