USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 16
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Twenty-two whites were killed in Kandiyohi and Swift coun- ties by war parties of Sioux. Unimportant attacks were made upon Fort Abercrombie on September 3, 6, 26 and 29, in which a few whites were killed.
There was great anxiety as to the Chippewas. Rumors were rife that Hole-in-the-Day, the head chief, had smoked the pipe of peace with his hereditary enemies, the Sioux, and would join them in a war against the whites. There was good ground for these apprehensions, but by wise counsel and advice, Hole-in-the- Day and his Chippewas remained passive.
General Sibley was greatly delayed in his movements against the Indians by insufficiency of supplies, want of cavalry and
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proper supply trains. Early in September he moved forward and on September 23, at Wood Lake, engaged in a spirited battle with 500 Indians, defeating them with considerable loss. On the twenty-sixth, General Sibley, moved forward to the Indian camps. Little Crow and his followers had hastily retreated after the battle at Wood Lake and left the state. Several bands of friendly Indians remained, and through their action in guarding the cap- tives they were saved and released, in all ninety-one whites and 150 half-breeds. The women of the latter had been subjected to the same indignities as the white women.
General Sibley proceeded to arrest all Indians suspected of murder, abuse of women and other outrages. Eventually 425 were tried by a military commission, 303 being sentenced to death and eighteen to imprisonment. President Lincoln commuted the sentence of all but forty. He was greatly censured for doing this, and much resentment was felt against him by those whose relatives had suffered. Of the forty, one died before the day fixed for execution, and one, Henry Milord, a half-breed, had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary ; so that thirty-eight only were hung. The execution took place at Mankato, December 26, 1862.
The Battle of Wood Lake ended the campaign against the Sioux for that year. Small war parties occasionally raided the settlements, creating "scares" and excitement, but the main body of Indians left the state for Dakota. Little Crow and a son returned in 1863, and on July 3 was killed near Hutchinson by a farmer named Nathan Lamson. In 1863 and 1864 expeditions against the Indians drove them across the Missouri river, defeat- ing them in several battles. Thus Minnesota was forever freed from danger from the Sioux.
In November, 1862, three months after the outbreak, Indian Agent Thomas J. Galbraith prepared a statement giving the num- ber of whites killed as 738. Historians Heard and Flandrau placed the killed at over 1,000.
On February 16, 1863, the treaties before that time existing between the United States and the Sioux Indians were abrogated and annulled, and all lands and rights of occupancy within the State of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims then existing in favor of said Indians were declared forfeited to the United States.
These Indians, in the language of the act, had, in the year 1862, "made unprovoked aggression and most savage war upon the United States, and massacred a large number of men, women and children within the State of Minnesota;" and as in this war and massacre they had "destroyed and damaged a large amount of property, and thereby forfeited all just claims" to their
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"monies and annuities to the United States," the act provides that "two-thirds of the balance remaining unexpended" of their annuities for the fiscal year, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, and the further sum of one hundred thousand dollars, being two-thirds of the annuities becoming due, and payable dur- ing the next fiscal year, should be appropriated and paid over to three commissioners appointed by the President, to be by them apportioned among the heads of families, or their survivors, who suffered damage by the depredations of said Indians, or the troops of the United States in the war against them, not exceeding the sum of two hundred dollars to any one family, nor more than actual damage sustained. All claims for damages were required, by the act, to be presented at certain times, and according to the rules prescribed by the commissioners, who should hold their first sesion at St. Peter, in the State of Minnesota, on or before the first Monday of April, and make and return their finding, and all the papers relating thereto, on or before the first Monday in December, 1863.
The President appointed for this duty, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the Hons. Albert S. White, of the State of Indiana; Eli R. Chase, of Wisconsin, and Cyrus Aldrich, of Minnesota.
The duties of this board were so vigorously prosecuted, that, by November 1 following their appointment, some twenty thou- sand sheets of legal cap paper had been consumed in reducing to writing the testimony under the law requiring the commissioners to report the testimony in writing, and proper decisions made requisite to the payment of the two hundred dollars to that class of sufferers designated by the act of Congress.
On February 21 following the annulling of the treaty with the Sionx above named, Congress passed an act for the removal of the Winnebago Indians, and the sale of their reservation in Minnesota for their benefit. "The money arising from the sale of their lands, after paying their indebtedness, is to be paid into the treasury of the United States, and expended, as the same is received, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in necessary improvements upon their new reservation. The lands in the new reservation are to be allotted in severalty, not exceed- ing eighty acres to each head of a family, except to the chiefs, to whom larger allotments may be made, to be vested by patent in the Indian and his heirs, without the right of alienation."
These several acts of the general government moderated to some extent the demand of the people for the execution of the condemned Sioux yet in the military prison at Mankato awaiting the final decision of the President. The removal of the Indians from the borders of Minnesota, and the opening up for settlement of over a million of acres of superior land, was a prospective
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benefit to the State of immense value, both in its domestic quiet and its rapid advancement in material wealth.
In pursuance of the acts of Congress, on April 22, and for the purpose of carrying them into execution, the condemned Indians were first taken from the State, on board the steamboat Favorite, carried down the Mississippi, and confined at Davenport, in the State of Iowa, where they remained, with only such privileges as are allowed to convicts in the penitentiary. Many of them died as the result of the confinement.
On May 4, 1863, at six o'clock in the afternoon, certain others of the Sioux Indians, squaws and pappooses, in all about seven- teen hundred, left Fort Snelling, on board the steamboat Daven- port, for their new reservation on the Upper Missouri, above Fort Randall, accompanied by a strong guard of soldiers, and attended by certain of the missionaries and employes, the whole being under the general direction of Superintendent Clark W. Thompson.
Authority and References. Chapters IX and X are based upon Major Return I. Holcombe's material in Minnesota in Three Cen- turies. Other works have also been consulted. Among the works which may be read in this connection are:
"The Minnesota Indian Massacre," by Charles S. Bryant and Abel B. Murch, 1863. A variation of this work appears in the "History of the Minnesota Valley," George E. Warner and Charles M. Foote, 1882, as the "History of the Sioux Massacre," by Charles S. Bryant.
"The Sioux Indian Massacre of 1862-63, I. V. D. Heard."
"Indian Outbreaks," by Judge Daniel Buck, 1904.
"The Indians' Revenge," by Rev. Alexander Berghold, 1891.
"The Dakota War Whoop," by Harriet E. Bishop-McConkey.
"Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars," a state publica- tion.
All the published histories of Minnesota contain accounts of the massacre, as do many county histories of Minnesota. The collections of the Minnesota Historical Society are rich in mate- rial on the same subject. Major Return I. Holcombe, already mentioned, is still pursuing his investigations of the massacre, and Marion P. Satterlee is also doing most excellent work along the same lines.
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CHAPTER XI.
THE MASSACRE IN REDWOOD COUNTY.
The four trading houses at the Redwood Agency in 1862 were those of Captain Louis Robert, William H. Forbes, Nathan My- rick & Co., and Francis La Bathe, the latter a mixed blood Sioux, and a close relative of the great chief, Wabasha.
August 18, 1862, Captain Robert, Nathan Myrick, Major Forbes; Stewart B. Carver, a member of the Myrick firm; and Henry Belland, who was in partial charge of the Forbes store, were all absent. Andrew J. Myrick, a member of the Myrick firm, and Hon. James W. Lynd, a distinguished scholar, and a former member of the Minnesota senate, were in charge of the Myrick store.
The morning of Aug. 18 dawned bright and clear, and the peo- ple at the agency set about their usual duties. It was evident, however, that something was astir among the Indians. The road was filled with the stalwart braves, stark naked for the most part, painted in gaudy war colors, and fully armed.
Philander Prescott, the elderly friend of the Indians, and the government interpreter, inquired of Little Crow the meaning of such a display. He was told by the Indian chief to get in his house and stay there. To questions asked by the Rev. J. D. Hinman, the devoted Episcopal missionary, Little Crow made no reply. Alarmed at these manifestations of danger, the clergy- man and the interpreter warned the other whites and prepared to flee.
Then the murderous storm broke loose, the first to be killed being James W. Lynd, the store clerk, and John Lamb, a team- ster. Lynd was standing in the doorway of the Myrick store about 7 o'clock in the morning. Puzzled at the war-display of the Indians, he was watching a group of them approach the store, when one of them, Plenty of Hail, or Much Hail (Tan-waj-su- Ota) drew a gun, pointed it at Mr. Lynd, said: "Now I will kill the dog that would not give me credit," and shot him dead in his tracks. His body was not mutilated and was subsequently buried where it lay, by Nathan Myrick, of St. Paul. George W. Divoll and a cook named Fritz, were quickly killed, and a search made for Andrew J. Myrick. Myrick had hidden himself in the building, but frightened out when the Indians talked of burning the structure, he started to flee toward the Minnesota river. He was soon killed, his body riddled with arrows, and mutilated with a scythe which was later found transfixed in his heart. His head was cut off, and his mouth filled with grass by an Indian, to
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whom a few days earlier in refusing credit at the store he had tauntingly said, in response to the Indian's plea of hunger, "Go eat grass."
In the meanwhile the Indians were trying to get the govern- ment horses from the stables. James Lamb, the hostler, remon- strated with them, and according to one authority, stabbed one of the Indians with a pitchfork. Lamb was killed on the spot, and others in the barn also slaughtered. A. H. Wagner, superin- tendent of farms at the agency, was also killed in endeavoring to prevent the theft of the horses.
While Wagner and Lamb were being killed at or near the barn, John Fenske was pierced in the back by an arrow. Unable to run, he hid in a hay-loft, and there extracted the arrow shaft, leaving the head buried some three inches. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, driven out by the approaching flames, he wrapped himself in an Indian blanket, and thus disguised as a squaw, he made his way through the plundering Indians, arriving at Ft. Ridgely on the fourth day, after many thrilling adventures.
Francis La Bathe, commonly written La Batte, was killed in his store. Although a mixed blood and a blood relative of his murderers as well as closely allied with them through his Indian wife, his life was not spared. His kitchen or living room nearby was afterward used as a court room in which were tried many of the Indian prisoners by the military commission.
James Powell, a young man residing at St. Peter, was at the agency herding cattle. He had just turned the cattle out of the yard, saddled and mounted his mule, as the work of death com- menced. Seeing Lamb and Wagner shot down and Fenske wounded near him he turned to flee, when Lamb called to him for help; but, at that moment two shots were fired at him, and, putting spurs to his mule he turned toward the ferry, passing close to an Indian who leveled his gun to fire at him; hut the caps exploded, when the savage, evidently surprised that he had failed to kill him, waved his hand toward the river, and exclaimed, "Puckachee! Puckachee!" Powell did not wait for a second warning, which might come in a more unwelcome form, but slipped at once from the back of his animal, dashed down the bluff through the brush, and reached the ferry just as the boat was leaving the shore. Looking over his shoulder as he ran, he saw an Indian in full pursuit on the very mule he had a moment before abandoned.
At about the same time Lathrop Dickinson was killed. J. C. Dickinson, who kept the Government boarding-house, with all his family, including several girls who were working for him, suc- ceeded in crossing the river with a span of horses and a wagon; these, with some others, mostly women and children, who had reached the ferry, escaped to the fort. J. C. Dickinson was after-
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ward killed at Birch Cooley, Sept. 2, 1862. He was with the burial party under Major Brown.
Very soon after, Dr. Philander P. Humphrey, physician to the Lower Sioux, with his sick wife, and three children, also suc- ceeded in crossing the river, but never reached the fort. All but one, the eldest, a boy of about twelve years of age, were killed upon the road. They had gone about four miles, when Mrs. Humphrey became so much exhausted as to be unable to proceed further, and they went into the house of a Mr. Magner, deserted by its inmates. Mrs. Humphrey was placed on the bed; the son was sent to the spring for water for his mother. *
* The boy heard the wild war-whoop of the savage break upon the still- ness of the air, and, in the next moment, the ominous crack of their guns, which told the fate of his family, and left him its sole survivor. Fleeing hastily toward Fort Ridgely, about eight miles distant, he met the command of Captain Marsh on their way toward the agency. The young hero turned back with them to the ferry. As they passed Magner's house, they saw the Doc- tor lying near the door, dead, but the house itself was a heap of smouldering ruins; and this brave boy was thus compelled to look upon the funeral pyre of his mother, and his little brother and sister. A burial party afterward found their charred re- mains amid the blackened ruins, and gave them Christian sepul- ture. In the charred hands of the little girl was found her china doll, with which she refused to part even in death. The boy went on to the ferry, and in that disastrous conflict escaped unharmed, and finally made his way into the fort.
In the meantime the work of death went on. The whites, taken by surprise, were utterly defenseless, and so great had been the feeling of security, that many of them were actually unarmed, although living in the very midst of the savages.
In the store of William H. Forbes were some five or six per- sons, among them George H. Spencer, Jr. Hearing the yelling of the savages outside, these men ran to the door to ascertain its cause, when they were instantly fired upon, killing four of their number, and severely wounding Mr. Spencer. Spencer and his uninjured companion hastily sought a temporary place of safety in the chamber of the building. One of the men killed was Joseph E. Belland, who was in charge of the store. Another was Antoine Young. Alexis Dubuque was killed either at the Forbes or the Myrick store.
The store of Louis Robert was savagely attacked. Patrick McClellan, one of the clerks in charge of the store, was killed. There were at the store several other persons; some of them were killed and some made their escape. Among those killed were the Frenchmen Brusson, Patnode, Laundre and Peshette. John Nairn, the Government carpenter at the Lower Sioux
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agency, seeing the attack upon the stores and other places, seized his children, four in number, and, with his wife, started out on the prairie, making their way toward the fort. They were ac- companied by Alexander Hunter, an attached personal friend, and his young wife. Mr. Nairn had been among them in the em- ploy of the Government, some eight years, and had, by his urbane manners and strict attention to their interests, secured the per- sonal friendship of many of the tribe. Mr. Nairn and his family, assisted by advice from friendly Indians, reached the fort in safety that afternoon, two of his children having previously reached the fort with J. B. Reynolds, who had overtaken them. Mr. Hunter had, some years before, frozen his feet so badly as to lose the toes, and, being lame, walked with great difficulty. When near an Indian village below the agency, they were met by an Indian, who urged Hunter to go to the village, promising to get them a horse and wagon with which to make their escape. Mr. Hunter and his wife went to the Indian village, believing their Indian friend would redeem his promises, but from inability, or some other reason, he did not do so. They went to the woods, where they remained all night, and in the morning started for Fort Ridgely on foot. They had gone but a short distance, how- ever, when they met an Indian, who, without a word of warn- ing, shot poor Hunter dead, and led his distracted young wife, a mixed blood Sioux and a bride of a month, away into captivity. Mrs. Hunter, whose maiden name was Marian Robertson, was afterward rescued at Camp Release.
The murders at the Lower Agency continued for hours. The white-haired interpreter, Philander Prescott (now verging upon seventy years of age), hastily left his house soon after his meet- ing with Little Crow, previously mentioned in this chapter, and fled toward Fort Ridgely. The other members of his family re- mained behind, knowing that their relation to the tribe would save them. Mr. Prescott had gone several miles, when he was overtaken. His murderers came and talked with him. He rea- soned with them, saying: "I am an old man; I have lived with you now forty-five years, almost half a century. My wife and children are among you, of your own blood; I have never done you any harm, and have been your true friend in all your trou- bles; why should you wish to kill me?" Their only reply was: "We would save your life if we could, but the white man must die; we cannot spare your life; our orders are to kill all white men ; we cannot spare you."
Seeing that all remonstrance was vain and hopeless, and that his time had come, the aged man with a firm step and noble bear- ing, sadly turned away from the deaf ear and iron heart of the savage, and with dignity and composure received the fatal mes- senger.
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Thus perished Philander Prescott, the true, tried, and faith- ful friend of the Indian, by the hands of that perfidious race, whom he had so long and so faithfully labored to benefit to so little purpose. Shakopee (Little Six) and Medicine Bottle were captured on the Canadian border by John McKenzie and were tried and hanged for this murder at Ft. Snelling in 1865.
The number of persons who reached Fort Ridgely from the agency was forty-one. Some are known to have reached other places of safety. All suffered incredible hardships; many hiding by day in the tall prairie grass, in bogs and sloughs, or under the trunks of prostrate trees, crawling stealthily by night to avoid the lurking and wily foe, who, with the keen scent of the blood- hound and ferocity of the tiger, followed on their trail, thirsting for blood.
Among those who escaped into the fort were J. C. Whipple, of Faribault, and Charles B. Hewitt, of New Jersey. The serv- ices of Mr. Whipple were recognized and rewarded by the Gov- ernment with a first lieutenant's commission in the volunteer artillery service. The Rev. J. D. Hinman and his family were also among those who escaped.
The situation of the agency was somewhat favorable to the escape of those who were quick-witted, and who were not killed in the first terrible onslaught. The agency was situated on a high bank. North of the agency is a steep incline to the river bottom. This incline is traversed by ravines and was covered with trees and shrubbery. The refugees by hiding in this shelter could make their way, unobserved by the howling and plundering In- dians, to the river, where the large ferry awaited. The ferry- man, Hubert Miller, carried fugitives over until murdered by the savages, sturdily sticking to his post long after he could have found safety in flight. Even after the ferry stopped run- ning, some of the fugitives crossed hand over hand on the ropes. Among these was Joseph Schneider. Others swam the river or waded it in shallow places.
All that day the work of sack and plunder went on; and when the stores and dwellings and the warehouses of the Government had been emptied of their contents, the torch was applied to the various buildings, and the little village was soon a heap of smoul- dering ruins.
The bodies of their slain victims were left to fester in the sun where they fell, or were consumed in the buildings from which they had been unable to effect their escape.
So complete was the surprise, and so sudden and unexpected the terrible blow, that not a single one of all that host of naked savages was slain. In thirty minutes from the time the first gun was fired, not a white person was left alive. All were either
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weltering in their gore or had fled in fear and terror from that place of death.
William Landmeier, the Reynolds hired man, did not join the Patoile family, and would not leave the Reynolds home until he had been twice warned by Moore that his life was in danger. He then went down to the river bottom, and following the Min- nesota river, started for the fort. When some distance on his way he came upon some Indians who were gathering up cattle. They saw him and there was no way of escape. They came to him and told him that if he would assist them in driving the cattle they would not kill him. Making a merit of necessity he com- plied and went on with them till they were near the Lower agency, when the Indians, hearing the firing at the ferry, sud- denly left him and hastened on to take part in the battle then progressing between Captain Marsh and their friends. William fled in an opposite direction, and that night entered Fort Ridgely.
The whites elsewhere were faring as badly as those at the Lower agency. At the Redwood river, ten miles above the agency, on the road to Yellow Medicine, resided Joseph B. Rey- nolds, in the employment of the Government as a teacher of farm- ing to the Indians. His house was within one mile of Shakopee's village. His family consisted of his wife, a niece-Mattie Wil- liams, of Painesville, Ohio-Mary Anderson and Mary Schwandt, hired girls. William Landmeier, a hired man, and Legrand Davis, a young man from Shakopee, was also stopping with them tem- porarily.
On the morning of August 18, at about 6 o'clock, John Moore, a half-breed trader, residing near them, came to the house and informed them that there was an outbreak among the Indians, and that they had better leave at once. Mr. Reynolds immediately got out his buggy, and, taking his wife, started off across the prairie in such a direction as to avoid the agency. At the same time Davis and the three girls got into the wagon of Francis Patoile, a trader at Yellow Medicine, who had just arrived there on his way to New Ulm, and they also started out on the prairie accompanied by Antoine Le Blaugh.
After crossing the Redwood river near its mouth, Patoile drove some distance up that stream, and, turning to the left, struck across the prairie toward New Ulm, keeping behind a swell in the prairie which ran parallel with the Minnesota, some three miles south of that stream.
They had, unpursued, and apparently unobserved, reached a point within about ten miles of New Ulm, and nearly opposite Fort Ridgely, when they were suddenly assailed by Indians, who killed Patoile, Davis and Le Blaugh, and severely wounded Mary
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Anderson. Mattie Williams and Mary Schwandt were captured unhurt, and were taken back to Waucouta's village.
The poor, injured young woman survived her wounds and the brutal and fiendish violation of her person to which she was subjected by these devils incarnate, but a few days, when death, in mercy, came to her relief and ended her sufferings in the quiet of the grave !
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