USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
Believing that no good reason any longer existed for the pres- ence of so many troops at Fort Ridgely, Captain Marsh ordered Lieutenant Sheehan to lead Company C of the Fifth Minnesota back to Fort Ripley, on the Upper Mississippi, the march to be made on foot, across the country, by the most direet route. At 7 o'clock on the morning of August 17, the detachment set ont. encamping the first night at Cumming's Grove, near the present site of Winthrop, Sibley county.
After the troubles at Yellow Medicine were over a number of discharged government employes, Freneh-Canadians. and
137
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
mixed blood Sioux expressed a desire to enlist in the Union army, under President Lincoln's call for "300,000" more.
The Government was advancing forty dollars of their pros- pective bounty and pay to recruits, and as quite a number of the would-be volunteers were out of employment and money, the cash offer was perhaps to some as much of a stimulus to enlist as was their patriotism. A very gallant frontiersman named James Gorman, busied himself with securing reernits for the pioneer company, which, because most of its numbers were from Renville county, was called the "Renville Rangers." Captain Marsh had encouraged the organization, and Agent Galbraith had used all of his influence in its behalf. August 12 thirty men enlisted in the Rangers at Yellow Medicine and on the fourteenth twenty more joined the company at Redwood. Galbraith and Gorman, with their fifty men. left Redwood Agency for Fort Snelling, where it was expected the company would join one of the new regiments then being formed. At Fort Ridgely Captain Marsh furnished the Rangers quarters and rations and sent Ser- geant James G. MeGrew and four other soldiers with them on their way to the fort. At New Ulm they received a few men, and the entire company, in wagons. reached St. Peter in the after- noon of the eighteenth.
Much that is false has been written regarding the cause of the Sioux Outbreak, many idle speculations have been published as absolute faet.
There certainly was no conspiracy between the Chippewas and the Sioux ; there were certainly no representatives of the southern Confederacy urging the Indians to revolt, Little Crow was most assuredly guiltless of having long planned a general massacre. Possibly, for sneh is human nature, the Indians, smarting under untold wrongs, may have considered the possibilities of driving out the whites and resuming their own ancient freedom. But no details had been planned upon. The officials at Washington and their representatives on the reservation were wholely and solely responsible for the great massacre. The spark which lighted the conflagration was the lawless act of a few renegades, but there would have been no blaze from this spark had not the whites, through guile and dishonesty, been gradually increasing the disgust, discontent and resentment in the Red Men's breast.
The editor of this work holds no brief for the Indian. No one realizes more than he the sufferings of those innocent settlers, those martyrs to civilization, who underwent untold horrors at the hands of a savage and infuriated race. In savage or eivil- ized warfare, no aets of heartless cruelty can be excused or eon- doned. In the wrongs to which the Indian had been subjected the noble settlers of Renville county were guiltless.
Civilization ean never repay the Renville county pioneers for
138
IHISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
the part they had in extending Further the dominion of the white man, for the part they took in bringing the county from a wild wilderness to a place of peace, prosperity and contentment.
The treatment of the Indian by the settlers of this county was ever considerate and kind, the red man was continually fed and warmed at Renville county cabins. There is no condoning the terrible slaughter of these innocent. kind hearted, hospitable whites who in seeking their home in this rich valley were not umindful of the needs of their untutored predecessors.
It should. however, be remembered that however cruel, must- ful and bloodthirsty the Indian showed himself to be. base, treacherous. barbarons as his eonduet was, cowardly and mur- derous though his uprising against the innocent pioneers : never- theless not his alone was the guilt. The officials who tricked and robbed him, whose stupidity and inefficiency incensed him, whose lack of honor embittered him against all whites, they too, must bear a part of the blame for that horrible uprising.
It should be remembered too, that the white soldiers battling for a great nation taught the Indian no better method than the Indian himself practiced. The Indian violated the flag of truce. and likewise the white soldiers fired on Indians who came to parley under the white flag. The Indians killed women and chil- dren, the white soldiers likewise turned their guns against the tepees that contained the Indian squaws and papooses. The In- dian mutilated the bodies of those who fell beneath his anger, and there were likewise whites who sealped and mutilated the bodies of the Indians they killed. The Indian fired on unprotected white men. and there were white men too, who fired on unpro- tected Indians who had no part in the outbreak.
Neither side was guiltless. And the innocent settlers, espe- cially those heroie families living along the streams of Renville county paid the horrible price for the crimes of both raees.
TW WOOD. A ยทยท g 1860. To-ojate dita Little Crow-
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR. LINUX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
139
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
CHAPTER X.
THE SIOUX OUTBREAK.
Day Dawns Calm and Beautiful-Church Services-The Rice Creek Renegades Rob a Hen's Nest-Quarrel Among Braves as to Their Courage-Killing Starts-Miscreants Tell Their Story to the Chiefs-Little Crow Bows to the Inevitable and Reluctantly Consents to Lead His Men to Battle-General Massacre Begins-Weeks of Horror-Battles and Murders- Indians Subdued-Little Crow Killed-Peace.
Sunday, August 17. 1862, was a beautiful day in western Min- nesota. The sun shone brightly, the weather was warm, and the skies were blue. The corn was in the green ear stage; the wild grass was ripe for the hay mowing: the wheat and oats were ready to be harvested.
A large majority of the settlers and pioneers in the Upper Minnesota valley. on the north or east side of the river, were church members. The large German Evangelical settlement, on Saered Heart creek held religious services on that day at the house of one of the members, and there were so many in attend- anee that the congregation occupied the door yard. A great flock of children had attended the Sunday school and received the ninth of a series of blue eards, as evidence of their regular at- tendance for the nine preceding Sundays. "When you come next Sunday, " said the superintendent to the children, "you will be given another blue ticket, making ten tickets, and you can ex- change them for a red ticket." But to neither children or super- intendent that "next Sunday" never came.
At Yellow Medicine and Hazelwood there was an unusual attendance at the meetings conducted by Riggs and Williamson. At the Lower Ageney Rev. S. D. Himman, the rector of the sta- tion, held services in Sioux in the newly erected but uneom- pleted Episcopal church and among his most attentive auditors were Little Crow and Little Priest, the latter a Winnebago sub- chiel, who, with a dozen of his band, had been hanging about the Ageney, awaiting the Sioux payments. Little Crow was a pagan, believing in the gods of his ancestors, but he always showed great tolerance and respect for the religious opinions of others.
Altogether there was not the slightest indication or the faint- est suspicion of impending trouble before it came. There are printed statements to the effeet that a great conspiracy had been set on foot, or at least planned : but careful investigation proves these statements, no matter by whom made, to be base- less and unwarranted. Except the four perpetrators nobody was
140
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
more startled or surprised upon the learning of the murder of the first whites, than the Indians themselves.
The Rice Creek Indians were deserters from the bands to which they rightfully belonged, because they were discontented with conditions and had grievances against their chiefs or others of their fellow-elansmen. They were. too, malcontents generally. They did not like their own people : they did not like the whites. Not one of them was a Christian, and they had nothing but con- tempt for their brethren that had become converts. Many of them, however, wore white men's clothing, and a few were good hunters and trappers, although none were farmers. They do- pended almost altogether for provisions upon their success in hunting and fishing. Detachments from the band were constantly in the big woods. engaged in hunting, although in warm weather the game killed became tainted and nearly putrid before it could be taken home; and From daylight until dark the river bank in front of their village was lined with women and children busily fishing for bullheads.
On Sunday afternoon, August 17, the Rice Creekers hekl an open conneil, which was attended by some of Shakopee's band from across the river. It was agreed to make a demonstration to hurry up the payment, and that the next day every able-bodied man should go down to the Lower Agency, from thence to Fort Ridgely, and from thence to St. Paul. if necessary, and urge the authorities to hasten the pay day, already too long deferred. But nothing was said in the council about war. An hour or two later nothing was talked of but war.
About August 12 twenty Lower Indians went over into the big woods of Mecker and MeLeod counties to hunt. Half a dozen or more of the Rice Creek band were of the party. One of Shako- pee's band, named Island Cloud, or Makh-pea We-tah, had busi- ness with Captain George C. Whitcomb, of Forest City, concern- ing a wagon which the Indian had left with the captain. Reach- ing the hunting grounds in the southern part of Meeker county, the party divided, Island Cloud and four others proceeding to Forest City and the remainder continuing in the township of Aeton.
On the morning of August 17 four Riee Creek Indians were passing along the Henderson and Pembina road, in the central part of Acton township. Three of them were formerly Upper Indians, the fourth had a Medawakanton Father and a Wahpaton mother. Their names, in English, were Brown Wing. Breaks Up and Seatters, Ghost That Kills, and Crawls Against; the last named was living at Manitoba in 1891. Two of the four were dressed as white men; the others were partly in Indian costume. None of them was more than thirty years of age, but each seemed older.
141
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
As these Indians were passing the house and premises of Robinson Jones, four miles south of the present site of Grove City, one of them found some hen's eggs in a fence corner and proceeded to appropriate them. One of his comrades remon- strated against his taking the eggs because they belonged to a white man and a discussion of the character of a quarrel resulted. To Return I. Holcombe, the compiler of this chapter, in June, 1894. Chief Big Eagle related the particulars of this incident, as follows:
"I will tell you how this was done, as it was told to me by all of the four young men who did the killing. # #
* They came
to a settler's fence and here they found a hen's nest with some eggs in it. One of them took the eggs when another said : 'Don't take them, for they belong to a white man and we may get into trouble.' The other was angry, for he was very hungry and wanted to eat the eggs, and he dashed them to the ground and replied : 'You are a coward. Yon are afraid of the white man. Yon are afraid to take even an egg from him, though you are half starved. Yes, you are a coward and I will tell everybody so.' The other said, 'I am not a coward. I am not afraid of the white man, and to show you that I am not, I will go to the house and shoot him. Are you brave enough to go with me?' The one who had taken the eggs replied : 'Yes, I will go with you and we will see who is the brave.' Their two companions then said : 'We will go with you and we will be brave, too.' Then they all went to the house of the white man." (See Vol. 6, Minn. Hist. Socy. Coll., p. 389 ; also St. Paul Pioneer Press, July 1, 1894.)
Robinson Jones was a pioneer settler in Acton township. He and others came from a lumber camp in northern Minnesota, in the spring of 1857, and made claims in the same neighborhood. January 4. 1861, Jones married a widow named Ann Baker, with an adult son, Howard Baker, who had a wife and two young ehil- dren and lived on his own claim, in a good log house, half a mile north of his step-father. The marriage ceremony uniting Jones and Mrs. Baker was performed by James C. Bright, a jus- tice of the peace. In the summer of 1862 Mr. and Mrs. Jones adopted into their family a deceased relative's two children. Clara D. Wilson, a girl of fifteen, and her half brother, an infant of eighteen months. No children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones after their marriage.
Jones was a typical stalwart frontiersman, somewhat rough and unrefined, but well liked by his white neighbors. His wife was a congenial companion. In 1861 a postoffice called Aeton was established at Jones' house ; it was called for the township, which had been named by some settlers from Canada for their old home locality. In his house Jones kept a small stock of goods fairly suited to the wants of his neighbors and to the Indian trade. He also kept constantly on hand a barrel or more of cheap
142
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
whiskey which he sold by the glass or bottles, an array of which always stood on his shelves. ITe seldom sold whiskey to the Indians except when he had traded with them for their furs, but Mrs. Jones would let them have it whenever they could pay for it.
August 10, a young married couple. Mr. and Mrs. Viranus Webster, from Wisconsin. in search of a Minnesota homestead. eame to Howard Baker's in their fine two-horse wagon and were given a welcome and a temporary home until they could select a claim. As Baker's rooms were small. the Websters continued to use their covered wagon as a sleeping apartment. Webster had abont $160 in gold coin. and some other money, and good outfit. including a fine shotgun.
The Ghost Killer and his three companions went to Jones' house, and according to his statement, made half an hour later, demanded whisky. which he declined to give them. He knew personally all of the four, and was astonished at their conduet, which was so unusual. so menacing and threatening, that-al- though he was of great physical strength and had a reputation as a fighter and for personal courage-he became alarmed and fed from his own house to that of his step-son. Howard Baker, whither his wife had preceded him on a Sunday visit. In his Hight he abandoned his foster children. Clara Wilson and her baby brother. Reaching the house of his step-son, Jones said, in apparent alarm, that he had been afraid of the Indians who had plainly tried to provoke a quarrel with him.
Although the Jones house, with its stores of whisky, mer- chandise, and other articles had been abandoned to them, the Indians did not offer to take a thing from it, or to molest Miss Wilson. Walking leisurely, they followed Jones to the Baker house, which they reached about 11 a. m. Two of them could speak a little English, and Jones spoke Sioux fairly well. What occurred is thus related in the recorded sworn testimony of Mrs. Howard Baker, at the inquest held over the bodies of her husband and others the day following the tragedy :
"About 11 o'clock a. m. four Indians came into our house ; stayed abont fifteen minutes: got up and looked out: had the men take down their guns and shoot them off at a mark: then bantered for a gun trade with Jones. Abont 12 o'clock two more Indians came and got some water. Om guns were not reloaded ; but the Indians reloaded theirs in the door yard after they had fired at the mark. I went back into the house, for at the time I did not suspect anything, but supposed the Indians were going away.
"The next thing I knew I heard the report of a gun and saw Mr. Webster fall: he stood and fell near the door of the honse. Another Indian came to the door and aimed his gun at my hus- band and fired. but did not kill him; then he shot the other bar-
143
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
rel of the gum at him, and then he fell dead. My mother-in-law, Mrs. Jones. came to the door and another Indian shot her; she turned to run and fell into the buttery; they shot at her twice as she fell. I tried to get out of the window but fell down eellar. I saw Mrs. Webster pulling the body of her husband into the house : while I was in the cellar I heard firing out of doors, and the Indians immediately left the house, and then all went away. "Mr. Jones had told us that they were Sioux Indians, and that he was well acquainted with them. Two of the Indians had on white men's eoats ; one was quite tall, one was quite small, one was thick and chubby, and all were middle-aged: one had two feathers in his cap, and another had three. Jones said to us: 'They asked me for whisky, but I could not give them any.' " (See History of Meeker county, 1876, by A. C. Smith, who pre- sided at the inquest and recorded the testimony of Mrs. Baker.)
In a published statement made a few days later (Sce com- munication of M. S. Croswell, of Monticello, in St. Paul Daily Press. for September 4, 1862) Mrs. Webster fully corroborates the statements of Mrs. Baker. She added, however, that when the Indians came to the Baker house they acted very friendly, offering to shake hands with everybody; that Jones traded Bak- er's gun to an Indian that spoke English and who gave the white man three dollars in silver "to boot." seeming to have more money; that Webster was the first person shot and then Baker and Mrs. Jones: that an Indian chased Jones and mortally wounded him so that he fell near Webster's wagon, shot through the body, and died after suffering terribly, for when the relief party came it was seen that in his death agonies he had torn up handfuls of grass and turf and dug cavities in the ground, while his features were horribly distorted.
Mrs. Webster further stated that she witnessed the shooting from her covered wagon; that as soon as it was over the Indians left, without offering any sort of indignities to the bodies of their vietims, or to carry away any plunder or even to take away Web- ster's and Baker's four fine horses, a good mount for each In- dian. Mrs. Webster then hastened to her dying husband and asked him why the Indians had shot him. He replied: "I do not know; I never saw a Sioux Indian before, and never had any- thing to do with one." Mrs. Baker now appeared from the cellar and, with her two children ran into a thicket of hazel bushes near the house and powered among them. As soon as Webster was dead and his body had been composed by his wife, she, too, ran to the bushes and joined , Mrs. Baker.
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, eame along the road. At once the women entreated him for
144
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
assistance. 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 investi- gation. he was released as a harmless Innatie.
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 thenee 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 sixteen 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- rating beverage. The Indians had not tonehed a drop of the
145
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
stuff-so they themselves declared, and so appearances indi- vated. The numerous printed statements that they were drunk when they perpetrated the murders are all false. Morcover. 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' house- hold 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 Mecker 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 History, p. 17.) Some years later at a cost of $500, the State erceted 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 obtaining 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
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.