USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 51
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E. G. Pomroy, now living in Delhi, assisted in erecting some of the first buildings at Ft. Ridgely in 1853, was here during the building of the Lower Sioux Agency in 1854, and assisted in building the government saw mill at Redwood Falls in 1855. Mr. Pomroy was born in Hopkinton, St. Lawrence county, New York, and in August, 1852, arrived at St. Paul to join his brother, Jesse H., who had come to Stillwater in 1845, and had assisted in building Ft. Ripley and other pioneer landmarks. April 29, 1853, he hired out to the government at Fort Snelling as a car- penter.
In the meantime by the treaty of 1851, ratified in 1853, the Sioux Indians were being removed to their reservation on the upper Minnesota river. The concentration of so many Indians upon an area small in comparison to the vast sweeps over which they had ranged, and a radical change in the conditions under
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which they had lived for countless generations, were circum- stances which the officials realized might result in situations which would require the firm hand of strongly entrenched au- thority.
For several reasons it was necessary that a military post be maintained in the vicinity of the new reservation. Whether the Indians would be reconciled to their new home was still a ques- tion, and it was realized that settlers, whose presence was needed to develop the country which the treaty opened, would not lo- cate in any considerable numbers in the lower Minnesota valley, unless they were assured of some sort of protection from the Indians in the upper valley. It was also advisable that there should be constantly before the Indians a reminder of the strength and organization of the government.
It had already been decided that there were to be two Indian agencies for the Indians on the reservation. The Upper agency for the Sissetons and Wahpatons was established at the mouth of the Yellow Medicine, and the Lower for the Medawakanton and Wahpakoota bands was placed about six miles east of the mouth of the Redwood. Both agencies were on the south bank of the Minnesota river.
The matter of a new military post was called to the attention of C. M. Conrad, then secretary of war, and General Winfield Scott, then commanding the regular army, by Delegate Henry H. Sibley.
General Scott concurred in Sibley's recommendation and the secretary of war approved it and issued necessary orders. In the fall of 1852, Captain Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana, then of the quartermaster's department (later colonel of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and major general of vol- unteers), and Colonel Francis Lee of the Sixth United States Infantry, then in command at Fort Snelling, were ordered to select a suitable site for the new fort, "on the St. Peter's river, above the mouth of the Blue Earth."
In the latter part of November, with an escort of dragoons from Fort Snelling, and after a three-days' march in the snow, the officers reached Laframboise's trading post, established about 1834, by Hazen Mooers, and placed in charge of Joseph Lafram- boise in 1837, and located at the mouth of the Little Rock creek. Five miles above the rock, just back of the crest of a high bluff on the north side of the Minnesota, the site was fixed, immedi- ately west of the ravine of what is now called Fort Ridgely creek, and overlooking the beautiful Minnesota valley for many miles in each direction.
The Fort Ridgely reservation extended three miles on each side of the Minnesota river, being six miles each way, the boun- dary line jogging a mile north to every mile west.
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Sometime during the winter Captain Dana with non-com- missioned officers and men, erected a cabin on the banks of the river and the men started cutting timber.
The new post for a time was called simply "The New Fort," or "The New Post," but shortly afterward was named Fort Ridgely in honor of Major Randolph Ridgely, a gallant officer of the regular army from Maryland, who died of injuries received at the battle of Monterey. When Fort Ridgely was established, Fort Riley, Kansas, was ordered built. At the time Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Fort Scott, Kansas, were ordered discontinued and broken up. Fort Ridgely took the place of Fort Dodge and Fort Riley was substituted for Fort Scott.
The first garrison at Fort Ridgely was composed of Com- panies C and K, of the Sixth Infantry. The first commander was Captain James Monroe, then of Company K, who died in the Civil War, as colonel of the Twenty-seventh New York Volunteer Infantry. The sutler was Major B. H. Randall, for many years prominent in Minnesota history. The adjutant was T. C. Kelton, afterward adjutant general of the United States army.
Companies C and K went up on the steamboat West Newton from Fort Snelling. The troops arrived at the landing on the evening of April 30, 1853. On Sunday, the first day of May, they disembarged and pitched their tents for a summer camp. Aside from the settlement of Joseph Laframboise, there were no white people within fifty miles.
To the people of the present generation it is puzzling that the officers should have selected the location they did west of the ravine, when east of the ravine there is a piece of high land overlooking all the surrounding country, so situated as to be almost impregnable, whereas the site selected was far from be- ing an ideal spot for a fortification. Officers later explained this by stating that the fort was never intended for defense. At the present time, however, it is difficult to understand how a fort established for the purpose of exercising military super- vision over the Indians could have been built without some thought being taken of the possibility of defending it. The In- dians had, as the offcers said, promised perpetual peace, but the government had also made promises which it had broken. Whatever the thought of the military authorities may have been it is certain that the pioneers in settling in Renville county looked upon Fort Ridgely as a possible refuge and defense in case of emergency.
Company E marched across the country from Fort Dodge and arrived in June, 1853, when work on the buildings was begun. When Company E arrived, its captain, Brevet Major Samuel Woods, previously well identified with Minnesota history, took
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command by virtue of his rank. The work of constructing the fort was in charge of Captain Dana.
With the party which arrived on the West Newton came the carpenters; also E. G. Pomroy, Jessie H. Pomroy, Oliver P. Wetmore of Plattville, Wisconsin, Cornelius C. Vandenburk of Hillsdale, Michigan, and Robert R. Craig, of Fort Wayne, Indi- ana. The masons were Thomas Brannon and John Flynn. The brick maker was John Brinkman. Mr. and Mrs. Anton Bramyea boarded the boat near Bell Plain and became the cook and the civilian workman.
Many interesting events happened along the way. When they reached the site of Fort Ridgely, they found the log cabin on the river bank of Sergeant Cressey and wife and about twelve soldiers. Two blanketed Indians watched the landing and then disappeared. The soldiers started to unload, and for a time lived in tents while the carpenters and masons made ready the various buildings.
That year the workmen completed three hewed log buildings for the officers, a cook house, a carpenter shop and a blacksmith shop, all of logs. They erected one frame building, completed the stone commissary and started the famous stone barracks.
November, 1853, officers gathered all the Indians scattered from Kaposia (South St. Paul) to Shakopee for the purpose of transporting them to the reservation. When the Indians reached the timber near Bell Plain they gradually returned to their former homes. It was not until June, 1854, that the officials succeeded in moving them to the agency.
Mr. Pomroy tells with relish of a trip which he and the Ft. Ridgely mail carrier took through Bell Plain while the Indians were still camped there and when, for lack of accommodation, the two white men were compelled to spend the night with the Indians.
During the year 1854 the various buildings of the Lower Agency were erected. Mr. Pomroy assisted in getting out the sash and doors for the agency in the carpenter shop in Ft. Ridgely, but did not work at the agency. In the spring of 1855 Alexander Hunter, John Nairn and E. G. Pomroy built the government saw mill at the Falls of the Redwood. They blasted out the granite on the east bank of the falls, put in a flume and an overshot water wheel and erected the frame work of a mill. Their contract with the government was then completed.
In 1858 Mr. Pomroy again visited this region. He with his friend, Sheldon Henderson, were to meet an acquaintance at New Ulm and go on to Sioux Falls. Mr. Pomroy and Mr. Henderson came as far as the Carver Rapids in a steamboat. The steamer, unable to pass the rapids, went back to Shakopee, where Mr. Henderson and Mr. Pomroy disembarked. They crossed the
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river at Henderson and continued across Nicollet county and came to Redwood Falls. Their Iowa friend had become frightened by the Inkpaduta Massacre and failed to meet them. Mr. Pomroy and Mr. Henderson accordingly came to the Falls of the Red- wood, carted boards to the Minnesota river, built a boat and thus reached Mankato, where they boarded a steamer.
Mr. Pomroy again visited Redwood county just before the massacre. He was then carpenter aboard the steamer "Frank Steele," which brought a pleasure excursion to the Lower Agency. Mr. Pomroy and others walked up the bank from the river and witnessed a savage Indian pow-wow.
J. S. Johnson's Experiences. In the fall of 1870 we were living at Mankato, having followed railroading mostly since we arrived from Denmark in 1867. There were at that time many that emi- grated to Chippeway county, and also to Ottertail, where they found some timber, but when we found there was plenty of good prairie land in Redwood county we decided to make our claim here. I have since that time seen all the land in this region and never felt sorry that we settled in Sundown. We had some hard times-grasshoppers, and also blight, destroyed our crops, and parties that had been used to better times were compelled to "skip the country." We got a little assistance from the govern- ment, and the third year the state furnished each farmer with twenty-two bushels of seed wheat from which we harvested a big yield. Nobody knows what became of the grasshoppers. Our winters were most severe, and at least one man who lost the road froze to death. Four of my neighbors were completely lost until one of the oxen fell into a straw stable. They were then com- pelled to stay in a dugout, 12 by 12 until the third day. Another great trouble was the prairie fires. I myself once lost all my stables and hay for eighteen head of stock, but neighbors helped me with hay free of charge. I have also known of people being lost in the big grass in the summer. Very few know how we came to call our town Sundown. At the first organization several names were proposed. A man named Gasel claiming to be first settler, another said he was not. J. Lorens, getting tired of the discussion, said it was near sundown. Some one immediately said, "Let it be Sundown." So much about old times. The difference between now and then never was expected. I plowed corn with a two-year old steer, my son riding-now my son and sons-in-law come to town with autos and take father out for a pleasure trip. I served Redwood county as commissioner seven years. When I first drove over, my buggy was an old trap partly self-made and the compensation I received was one-twentieth of what commissioners receive nowadays. When I got $100 to build a bridge across the North Branch the neighbors would flock around offering to work for nothing. The old settlers are thinning
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out fast. Our oldest man, J. M. Christensen, is past 80. I myself, 71, live in Springfield, but my interest is mostly in Redwood county and especially in Sundown.
Early Days Near Walnut Grove. (By Charles W. Howe.) Too much credit cannot be given to the pioneers, who, with little else than a stout heart and good health, fought their way to a com- petence, through all kinds of troubles and trials, some of them strong enough to appall the stoutest hearts.
Among the honor names will be found Eleck C. Nelson, Thos. Allen, Chas. Lund, Lars Truedson, the Moses family, Andrew Thompson, Eric Wilson, Nathan Rawlings, Swan Peterson, Peter Westman, Andrew and Swan Swanson, James and N. M. Crow, W. J. Masters, Byron Knight, Martin Jacobs and a host of others who, coming here when the country was new, took up or bought land and struggled forward to make the wilderness "blossom like the rose."
Some of these pioneers are alive today, are with us, and the writer has had the pleasure of listening to the stories of life as they found it while making a home for their loved ones.
Some have passed away, but will always be remembered by those who knew them. How the great silent wastes make one feel of the friendships of the day and knit them together! Such was the friendships of those great days when each man was a close neighbor even when they lived miles apart, one from the other. Those were the days when each man knew his neighbor by the name of Thomas, Andrew, Lars, Eleck or Peter, as the case might be; when friendships were so closely knit together that every man and his family was ready to assist the other in his struggle.
How many of us can still remember when sheep dotted the prairies; when each farmer had his little flock; when wool went down to almost nothing, because there was no market; when large lamb carcasses were a drug on the market at 50 cents apiece; when we ate lamb chops and mutton chops because we could not sell them. Those were days to try men's souls, but onward, ever onward the sturdy pioneer kept moving, holding to his property, only in a few instances giving up. Those were the days that showed how much of manhood there was in them.
Then again remember the time when you (I'm talking to the old settler, now) had put in that big field of oats, when you had harvested that bumper crop; some of which had measured out fifty bushels to the acre, had almost mortgaged your life to pay the threshing bill and haul it to the market, only to find that the price was seven or eight cents a bushel.
Then again, the spring wheat crop; in those years always "No. 1, hard" that gave an average of twenty bushels, which you had such a time to get rid of at thirty-eight cents. No one who lived in those times can forget it.
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But in all those days the indomitable will of the settler held him to the place, many of those farms are still in the name of the original filer. The owner is enjoying a much needed rest in a nice house in town, while his son or a tenant is working the old home- stead.
Too much honor cannot be given to the old pioneer who through trials and privations made it possible for those who came later to enjoy the modern style, the modern life; without them here to carve the way none of us could enjoy the wonderful pros- perity of the present.
Take off your hats to Mr. and Mrs. Pioneer, who had the nerve and dare that enabled them to subdue the vast prairies of the vicinity and make it habitable for man.
How vividly those days come back to us when we went through the grasshopper plague; how we stood helpless at the side and saw the field change from green to black in so short a time. It really did seem that while we were looking on, the edge of the green field moved slowly along not only destroying the crops, but de- stroying our peace of mind, almost.
Then those days, when after feeding cattle on good pasture and corn, to find that from 1 to 3 cents a pound was fair price. Do you remember (of course you do) those four lean years when crops of all kinds were nearly a complete failure? As one of the old settlers expressed it to the writer. "There was nothing left but to put an extra shirt and pair of pants in a sack, put it on your shoulder and hike down east 65 or 70 miles and work in the harvest to earn enough to keep the family through the winter."
Then after the winter was over once again to take up the work on your own place and go through another summer, possibly fin- ishing with another long hike in harvest time.
Well, those days are over, and, thanks to the old settler who had the nerve to stick, this particular end of the most fertile spot in Minnesota has been put in shape to attract people from all parts of the country. Rich land, good homes, successful farmers, made so in many instances by the discovery of that modern idea, rotation in crops, greet you on every hand. Through the furnace of affliction, trials, some of them so great that the stoutest heart would sometimes quail, has emerged the modern farmer, the dross of old ideas burned away, showing the pure gold of up-to-date styles of farming.
But those early days had their times of pleasure. The times when the neighbors drove for miles to picnics and house parties. Those were the days when, in lieu of the high powered automo- biles, the farmer hitched up his ox team and drove miles to attend a church meeting, a picnic or town meeting, when the day was spent in pleasant intercourse one with the other.
These were the oases in the desert; the days which gave them
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the strength to push forward towards the goal that each one was striving for, a home on the rolling prairies of southwestern Red- wood county.
The soil in and around Walnut Grove is a dark rich loam from two to three feet deep resting on a clay subsoil. On account of the numerous creeks that traverse both townships the land is well drained, and excepting in some localities ditching was not needed.
The land in this locality is particularly adapted to the raising of corn and most cereals, and is especially good for stock. On nearly every farm in the locality the visitor will find good herds of cattle and hogs, and in many cases the cattle are grades of high order, Holsteins, Shorthorns and Red Durham are the prevailing breeds, while among the specimens of the hogs we find Duroc Jersey, Poland China and Chester Whites have the lead.
Walnut Grove takes the lead as a market for live stock, the local buyer and shipper handling hundreds of carloads each year. Fifty years ago this part of the domain of Uncle Sam was un- known to man, but today hundreds of farms with up-to-date modern homes cover the country.
In no other place can one find finer barns or finer stock build- ings of any kind. The engravings we show in this little history prove this statement beyond a doubt.
This is essentially the home of corn, and southern Minnesota has proven time after time that her fields of corn are second to none in Iowa and Illinois. Thousands of bushels of the best ma- tured corn ever grown are shipped every year from the stations along the Chicago & Northwestern, and Walnut Grove, with its four elevators, stands away in front with its share of shipments.
Mrs. Roset A. Schmahl. The career of a remarkable woman came to an end in the demise of Mrs. Roset Apfel Schmahl, for many years, and earlier years, so closely identified with the his- tory of Redwood county and of the entire Minnesota Valley. She first saw the light of day on February 29, 1828, at Mainz, Germany. She was a leap-year child, and enjoyed but twenty-one birthday anniversaries, the calendar makers have skipped one four year period during her lifetime in order to catch up with the time revolutions of the earth around the sun.
Mrs. Schmahl was one of a large family, she being the youngest child. Her father was a stonemason of Mainz, and struggled hard in the support of the family. Most of the elder children came to America as soon as they could secure funds for transportation, and when Mrs. Schmahl was but eleven years old, she and her father left for Havre France, from which city they sailed for London and Liverpool. At the latter city they secured passage on a sailboat clearing for New York.
In those days the ocean steamers were unknown, and sail transportation was uncertain. The boat on which the couple had
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secured passage was a small one, and with stormy weather and unfavorable winds, sixty days were required to make the journey from Liverpool to New York. From the latter city the two went to Galena, Ill., where relatives from the fatherland had already found homes, but the father and daughter remained there only a short time, coming to Caledonia, Houston county, Minn., on a Mississippi river steamboat. At Caledonia they remained for several years, several of Mr. Apfel's family having previously located at that place.
When St. Paul was still a village Mrs. Schmahl found employ- ment in the home of Col. Robertson, then editor of the St. Paul Pioneer, and it was while thus employed that young Jacob Schmahl, who had met her in Mainz, and who had followed her to America, asked for and was given her hand. Jacob Schmahl became well acquainted with Gen. George Becker, Henry M. Rice, and other well-known men of that period, at a time when the proposition to remove the capitol of the state from St. Paul to St. Peter was receiving serious consideration, and he was advised to go to Traverse des Sioux, a mile out from the latter point, and establish a hotel. This was done, and during those early days when the annuities were being paid to the Indians the hotel at Araverse entertained many of the notables of that period. The house stood but a few rods from the spot where the celebrated Indian treaty of 1862 was consummated, the then living members of the Schmahl family all being present on that momentous occasion.
When the attempt to change the location of the capitol was abandoned, Traverse des Sioux declined and its little commerce was nothing. The Schmahl family moved on to a farm three miles east of Ft. Ridgely, and when the Indian outbreak of 1862 oc- curred Colonel Sheehan, at the head of the troops recalled from their march to Ft. Ripley, insisted that the family must take refuge in the fort. Mrs. Schmahl protested, but was finally per- suaded to go with her husband and the children, and the troops and family had hardly entered the territory of the fort before it was surrounded by Indians, and that memorable ten days siege commenced.
It was during the crucial period that Mrs. Schmahl gave birth to a son-the late Emil Schmahl of Redwood Falls, and the day following his birth she left her bed and engaged in the work of caring for her brood, comforting other women and the injured, and above all, in moulding bullets for the troops. The soldiers were running short of ammunition, and it became necessary to cut nails, etc., and to mould this material into rough bullets. This was part of the work of Mrs. Schmahl, and for her heroic conduct during those days her name was given a place on the monument erected to the memory of soldiers and citizens who engaged in
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the memorable defense of this outpost, then regarded as the key to the entire Minnesota valley.
Following the outbreak the Schmahl family returned to the old stone farm house east of the fort, only to find it entirely de- stroyed, the personal property stolen or destroyed, and an at- tempt was made to establish a new home at St. Peter. Hard struggling, without much personal gain, Jacob Schmahl came to Redwood Falls in 1869, where he determined to locate and estab- lish a brewery, and in 1870, the family moved here. The head of the family was unsuccessful in his venture and Mrs. Schmahl de- voted her time to the support of the children and in getting them established in various occupations in which she proved remark- able. Prior to 1876 the dancing parties of the town, with their bountiful suppers, were held in what was known as Schmahl's hall, and it was Mrs. Schmahl and her daughters that always su- perintended the cuisine. With the destruction of the old home in 1876, and the building of the new home, now on the corner of Second and Bridge streets, these parties were abandoned, and Mrs. Schmahl struggled in other lines until her children were able to assist her to make the latter years full of comfort. Several years ago she took up her residence with her youngest daughter, Mrs. John J. Palmer, at Duluth, and it was at this home that she passed away.
For a month prior to November 5, she and her daughter, Mrs. M. Liebenguth, visited with her son, Julius A. Schmahl, at St. Paul, and it was during this period that her decline in physical strength, although she was still strong mentally, became noticeable.
Mrs. Schmahl was rich in reminiscences of the fatherland, and of the city where she was born, although but eleven years old when she left that country, and frequently, to her family she would recall her early experiences in Germany, France, England, and on the high seas in her trip to America. She passed through the eastern states when they were young, and came into the wilderness of Minnesota and gave her mite towards building up a great commonwealth. A German minister but recently re- marked of her, while he was engaged in laying the corner stone of a new hospital in St. Paul, that she had accomplished a greater work than that about to commence at that moment-the bringing of ten children into the world, and the bringing up of most of them into manhood and womanhood. Of the ten children four pre- ceded her to the grave-Mrs. Julia Jaehning, Otto, Emil and an infant son. The six children surviving her are: Mrs. Geo. Win- gett, Mrs. Matilda Liebenguth, Mrs. J. J. Palmer, Alex C., Herman G., and Julius A. Schmahl.
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