USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume II > Part 30
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 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93
929
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
turn back toward their homes. One of the savages spoke English well. He was acquainted with some of the company, having often hunted with Paul Kitzman. He kissed Kitzman, telling him he was a good man; and they shook hands with all of the party. The simple hearted Germans believed them, gave them food, distributed money among them, and, gratefully receiving their assurances of friendship and protection, turned baek.
They traveled on toward their deserted homes till noon, when they again halted, and gave their pretended protectors food. The Indians went away by themselves to eat. The suspicions of the fugitives were now somewhat aroused, but they felt that they were, to a great extent. in the power of the wretches. They soon came back, and ordered them to go on, taking their position on each side of the train. Soon after they went on and disap- peared. The train kept on toward home; and when within a few rods of a house, where they thought they could defend them- selves, as they had guns with them, they were suddenly sur- rounded by fourteen Indians, who instantly fired upon them, kill- ing eight (all but three of the men), at the first discharge. At the next fire they killed two of the remaining men and six of the women, leaving only one man, Frederick Kreiger, alive. His wife was also, as yet, unhurt. They soon dispatched Kreiger. and, at the same time, began beating out the brains of the scream- ing children with the butts of their guns. Mrs. Kreiger was standing in the wagon, and, when her husband fell, attempted to spring from it to the ground, but was shot from behind, and fell back in the wagon-box, although not dead. or entirely uncon- scions. She was roughly seized and dragged to the ground, and the teams were driven off. She now became insensible. A few of the children, during this awful scene, escaped to the timber near by : and a few also maimed and mangled by these horrible monsters, and left for dead, survived, and, after enduring in- credible hardships, got to Fort Ridgely. Mrs. Zable, and five children, were horribly mangled, and almost naked, entered the fort eleven days afterward. Mrs. Kreiger also survived her suf- ferings.
Some forty odd bodies were afterward found and buried on that fatal field of slaughter. Thus perished, by the hands of these terrible scourges of the border, almost an entire neighbor- hood. Quiet, sober, and industrious, they had come hither From the vine-clad hills of their fatherland, by the green shores and gliding waters of the enchanting Rhine, and had built for them- selves homes, where they had fondly hoped, in peace and quiet. to spend yet long years, under the fair, blue sky, and in the sunny elime of Minnesota, when suddenly, and in one short hour. by the hands of those whose land they had usurped, they were doomed to one common annihilation.
930
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
Brown's Family Captured. The news of the murders below reached Leopold Wohler at the "lime-kil." three miles below Yellow Medicine, on Monday afternoon. Taking his wife, he crossed the Minnesota river, and went to the house of Major Joseph R. Brown, on the Sacred Heart.
Major Brown's family consisted of his wife and nine chil- dren ; Angus Brown and wife, and Charles Blair, a son-in-law, his wife, and two children. The Major himself was away from home. Including Wohler and his wife, there were then at their house. on the evening of the eighteenth of August, eighteen persons.
They started, varly on the morning of the nineteenth. to make their escape, with one or two others of their neighbors, Charles Holmes, a single man, residing on the claim above them, being of the party. They were overtaken near Beaver creek by Indians, and all of the Browns. Mr. Blair and family, and Mrs. Wohler, were captured, and taken at once to Little Crow's vil- lage. Messrs. Wohler and Holmes eseaped. Major Brown's fam- ily were of mixed Indian blood. This fact, probably, accounts for their saving the life of Blair, who was a white man.
Crow told him to go away, as his young men were going to kill him: and he made his eseape to Fort Ridgely, being out some five days and nights without food. When he entered the post. he was completely exhausted yet Lieutenant Shechan had him arrested and confined as a spy thus hastening his death. Mr. Blair was in poor health. The hardships he endured were too much for his already shattered constitution ; and although he es- raped the tomahawk and scalping-knife, he was soon numbered among the victims of the massacre.
.J. II. Ingalls, a Scotchman, who resided in this neighborhood, and his wife, were killed, and their four children were taken into captivity. Two of them, young girls, aged twelve and fourteen years, were resened at Camp Release, and the two little boys were taken away by Little Crow. Their fate is still shrouded in mystery. A Mr. Fraee, residing near Brown's place, was also killed. His wife and two children were found at Camp Release.
John Kochendorfer, Jr. Angust 18, 1862, eame the terrible events which robbed so many families of parents or children and in some instances wiped out entire families. My father was in the field, having, when called into the log claim house to par- take of the humeh which my mother had prepared. He had stepped into the bedroom when an Indian, as was customary in that locality in those days, ealled at the cabin and asked for my father. The Indian had a gun in his hand, which he stood near the corner of the house outside. My Father then opened the door of the room, greeting with his usual cordiality the
931
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
Indian, who seemed friendly. The redskin then took the family axe that stood at the corner of the house, and threw it in the brush, a short distance From the house. Although I was a boy of but eleven years, I noticed that something was wrong and called my father's attention to what the Indian had done. My father then went out and brought back the axe. In the mean- time I noticed that the Indians were gathering in groups in the distance. My father then took up his position in Front of the cabin, with one foot on the bench, ready to protect my mother and ns helpless children, of whom I was the oldest. A shot rang out on the air and my Father fell backward, the vietim of the treachery of a race to whom he had always shown the greatest kindness. Prior to his death he had warned us ehildren to flee for our lives. My mother was washing at the time and white running we heard the sereams which showed she, too, had fallen a victim to savage cruelty. My youngest sister, Sarah, was in hiding under the bed. She, too, was dragged forth and cruelly slaughtered. I took my sisters, named Rose, Katie and Maggie, aged at that time nine, seven and five, respectively, and ran for the woods, running seven miles before we met anyone. Onr neighbor, Michael Belter, came down the road, and at first we were afraid that he was another Indian. But we were finally reassured and after he overtook us we told him our terrible story. We were informed by him that a party was on its way with wagons following us. Later as we continued our way we were overtaken by them. We were carried to Fort Ridgely that night and there our whole party remained until reinforcements arrived from St. Paul, two weeks later, when a provision train with a company of cavalry as an escort, took ns to St. Peter, from where we were started on a boat for the city of St. Paul.
Editor's Note : Some years ago while exeavations were being conducted on the farm of Henry Timms. the bones of a man, woman and child were found. These were claimed by John Kochendorfer, Jr., as those of his father and mother and sister.
932
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
CHAPTER XXXVIII
BIOGRAPHICAL REVIEW.
Pioneers and Later Comers Whose Industry Has Helped to Build up the County-Early Experiences in an Unsettled Country- Leaders in Urban and Rural Life-Family Histories of Well- Known Men-Amusing Stories of the Frontier Days.
Thor Helgeson, the pioneer, is one of the most influential eiti- zens in the western part of Renville county. For nearly fifty years he has taken a part in its growth and progress, and his voice has ever been raised in defense of whatever he believes to be just and right. His memory of the early days is very clear and much of the information for the early history of this part of the county has been gathered from him. Thor Helgeson was born in Brandsgaarden, Opdal. Nummedal, Norway, May 5, 1841, son of Henry and Birget Helgeson, being one of seventeen ehil- dren. He was reared in the old country and, in 1861, started for America, reaching Quebec after a voyage of eleven weeks and three days aboard a sailing vessel. By boat and railroad he finally reached Winona, in this state, from which point he went to Rushford, in Fillmore county. He landed without a eent, and the first money he earned went to pay the money he had borrowed for his fair. Wages were small, and he received only a dollar a day during having season and a dollar and a quarter during harvest season. At other seasons of the year labor was worth still less. In 1863, when the Civil war was raging, Thor Helgeson planned to go to the defense of his adopted country. His name was drawn for the draft and he went to Lewiston, in Winona county, every Saturday to drill with a military company there, but it was found that he did not have his eitizen's papers and he was not mustered in. In 1866 he came to Renville county and settled in Sacred Heart township among the very first settlers after the massacre. The story of his coming. the names of the people who accompanied him, and many of his stories of the early days appear elsewhere. The surveys had not then been made. When the surveys were made, it was found that Mr. Helgeson's farm was in four sections, sections 5, 6, 7 and S. He is probably the only man in the Northwest who secured a preemption in four different sections. He paid for this preemption in soldiers' script at the rate of ten shillings an aere. It is interesting to note that when Mr. Helgeson landed on the site of his future home the first thing he did was to take the stove from the wagon and have his good wife make some coffee.
THOR HELGESON AND FAMILY
ثمد.
٢ مو
ino
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENGVANU TILDEN SOUNDA UNS
933
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
For a home, Mr. Helgeson took the covered box from the wagon and fixed it in some crotches to make a shelter. There the family lived until Mr. Helgeson could haul logs from the hot- toms and make a log cabin. It is interesting to note that he owned the wagon in which he came, a pair of oxen, two cows, a leifer, and two sheep. These were the first sheep brought into the township. The family owned a spinning wheel which had been brought from Norway by Groe Helgeson, a sister of Thor Helgeson. She died on the ocean coming over, and her belong- ings were sent to lowa, where Mr. Helgeson went to get them. With this wheel, Mrs. Helgeson spun thread for the first wool cloth made in Sacred Heart township. The family in the early days underwent numerous hardships. Many of their experiences are related elsewhere and some of their adventures have been widely published in the Norwegian language. Mr. Helgeson was the first man in the township to plant apple trees, and as time passed he received many awards for his fruit at county and state exhibits. He also set out other trees on his land and a fine grove now results from the saplings he set ont. in those early days. There is on the place a cottonwood tree six feet in diameter, which he himself planted when it was scarcely an inch in diameter. As time passed, Mr. Helgeson achieved prosperity. He increased his holdings to 214 acres, erected a good frame house and suit- able outbuildings, and became one of the leading men of his vicinity. It was in 1906 that he retired from farming and moved to Sacred Heart where he now resides in a comfortable home, surrounded by the honor and esteem of all who know him. He has been cheered throughout his married life by the sympathy, love and encouragement of his good wife, a woman of unusual qualities, who is looked up to by all who know her. The influ- ence of this couple has been one for good for many years and their home is noted for its good cheer and hospitality. Both Mr. and Mrs. Helgeson are prominent members of the Updal Norwe- gian Lutheran church. Mr. Helgeson helped to haul the stone for the church. He also has been a member of the board of his district and helped to hanl the logs for the first schoolhonse in the district. Mr. Helgeson was married in Fillmore county in 1864 to Helge Halvorsdotter, whose father and mother came to Fillmore eomty in 1857 and to Renville county in 1868.
Mr. and Mrs. Helgeson have been blessed with thirteen chil- dren: Berget Andrea was born Oct. 20, 1864. Halvor Astenius was born Jan. 17, 1867. Anna is dead. Helge was born Nov. 12, 1870. Ole was born July 23, 1872. Gina is dead. Gina Helene was born April 31, 1876. Endre was born Nov. 28, 1877. Stener was born Jan. 18, 1880. Turi, twin of Stener, is dead. Hanna Gunhilda was born April 18, 1882. Theodor was born Oct. 13, 1884. An unnamed infant is deceased.
934
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
Charles H. Hopkins, father of the Fort Ridgely National Park project, veteran of the Civil war, prominent G. A. R. man and leading citizen, now residing in Fairfax, was born in Norwich, New York, Oct. 6, 1844, son of Maturin and Mary M. (Hainer) Hopkins. The father was born in New York in 1822, located in Otsego county, Wis., in 1861, came to Renville county in 1869, and secured 160 acres in the southwest quarter of section 34, Cairo township, where he remained nntil his death in 1893. The mother was born in 1822 and died in 1899. Charles H. Hopkins came to Wisconsin with his parents and enlisted Nov. 23, 1863 in the 13th Wiseonsin Light Artillery. The battery patrolled the Mis- sissippi river from Memphis to Vicksburg, was stationed at Ft. Williams Baton Rouge and participated in raids after Forrest through Mississippi and Louisiana. Ile was discharged June 21, 1865. In 1869 he came to Cairo township, Renville county, and squatted on the southwest quarter of section 33, on the military reservation. He preempted this farm under the law of 1871 and homesteaded it under the soldiers' act of 1886, a law that he was instrumental in getting passed by Congress. After operating this farm for many years he retired in 1898 to Fairfax. where he engaged in the real estate, Joan and insurance business. Mr. Ilop- kins was one of the seven commissioners appointed by the gov- ernor to purchase the first tract of land and erect the monument that stands on the same place where the flagstaff stood in the center of the parade ground at old Fort Ridgely.
In public affairs, Mr. Ilopkins has taken a most prominent part. His connection with the monument and park at Ft. Ridgely is noted elsewhere. His father and himself hewed out the logs and built the first school house for Distriet No. 17, which is now the Fairfax high school. The teacher could not call the school to order in the spring of 1870, the first day of the spring term, until 11 A. M. waiting for the school house to be finished. He was the first president of the school board of Fairfax, after Dis- triet No. 17 became an independent district. He has been justice of the peace forty years, and school clerk of District No. 32 twen- ty-eight years. In 1894 he was candidate for the office of state auditor on the Populist tieket. In 1914-15 he was department commander of the Minnesota Department G. A. R. In 1911-12 he was senior viee-commander. He assisted in organizing the Ben Franklin Post No. 116, of Morton. Franklin and Fairfax, of which post he has been commander. He has also served the public in many other positions of public honor and private trust.
Mr. Hopkins was married Dee. 15, 1872, to Snsan M. Christ . man, born May 7, 1848, daughter of Nicholas Christman, a farmer of Nicollet county, who died in 1891 at the age of seventy-six, and of Catherine (Schafer) Christman, who died in 1884, at the age of seventy-six. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins are
GAR
CHARLES H. HOPKINS
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR. LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
935
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
Hayward V., born Sept. 28, 1873; Frank M., born Nov. 7, 1877, and Gladys, born Nov. 14, 1882.
Thus briefly is told the story of the man whose work will bless unborn generations for uneounted years to come. His dream of a park at Ft. Ridgely to honor the past and inspire the future and furnish a recreation place for all has been realized. In the face of discouragement, at great personal sacrifiee, he has gone his way since the earliest days, working for this great project. He is the friend of all, his unselfish zeal and devotion is given to every good cause which attracts his sympathies, and the full inspiration of his life on those with whom he comes in contact can never be measured. As soldier, citizen, parent, husband and friend he has ever been an example for good throughout the community.
Adam Rieke, a defender of Ft. Ridgely, was born in Hanover, Germany, June, 1840, being one of a family of thirteen children, nine boys and four girls. His father was a miller by trade and rented a mill run by water power. Adam had, but little chance for attending school. At the age of fourteen he began work for a farmer, receiving $6.00 per year and his board. Fred was the first one of the family to come to America in 1853 and George eame in 1855. The two boys saved their money and sent it home so that the rest of the family could come to the United States. In 1856 the rest of the family came by sailing vessel and were seven weeks and two days on the water, arriving at Baltimore Sept. 2. 1856. From there they went to Ohio, locating in Jack- son county where Adam worked three and a half years as a teamster for the iron furnace. Then he left Ohio and went by boat to St. Louis, going from there to St. Paul by way of the Mississippi river. From St. Paul he went up the Minnesota river to St. Peter and, leaving his goods there, drove to Ft. Ridgely. going on to MInd Lake, where Victor and George Rieke had set- tled the year before. A house was built on the bank of Mud Lake. It was of logs, 16 by 24. Victor and George having pre- pared and hanled up the logs previously. All lived in that one house. In 1861 Adam took a 160-acre homestead which is now in Cairo township in section 35. He had no tools, but went to work with a good will. Ile broke up part of the prairie land with four yoke of oxen, the plow cutting a twenty-four inch slice. Then he seeded the land by hand to small grain, but had no crop on account of the blackbirds eating the seed. He learned to trap mink and muskrat and sold their pelts at New Ulm, this side line bringing in a little money. His nearest neighbor on the south, three miles away, was William Mills, and three-quarters of a mile to the northwest was John Buehro. In 1862 the Indian massacre broke out and all fled to Ft. Ridgely, where Adam and his brothers took part in the defense. After the massacre he
936
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
returned to his farm. In 1863-64 the grasshoppers destroyed everything, even the grass on the prairie and the leaves on the trees, so trapping again had to be the means of livelihood. In 1865 he harvested a small erop of rye. In 1869 he and his brother, August, bought a ten-horse power threshing machine and en- gaged in threshing, which they continued for the next twenty- five years. From 1873 to 1876 the grasshoppers again destroyed all the erops. In 1872 he bought a traet of 120 acres land from the Winona & St. Peter Railway Co. in section 35 and, in 1886, a tract of 120 acres in section 27, this latter piece now being owned by his son, Louis. Then he bought another piece of eighty aeres in section 35, which is now owned by his second son, Ed- ward. At present he owns 240 acres valmed at $125 per aere, and is still farming at the okl age of seventy-five years.
Mr. Rieke was married in 1871 to Ernestina Sander, daughter of a farmer near Henderson. Four children were born to this union : Louis, Edward, Anna, who died when twelve years of age, of diphtheria, and Adolph.
The George and Allied Families. William Wallace George was born Oct. 12, 1853, at New Alexandria, Pennsylvania. Hle lived with his father until 1882. At the age of 29 he went to Me- Pherson county, South Dakota, which at that time was the fron- tier east of the Rockies. In 1884 he was married to Josephine Kribs. Five children were born to this union on the homestead in South Dakota. The family removed to Renville, Minnesota, in 1896. Josephine (Kribs) George was born at Mantorville, Minn., Feb. 28, 1865. Prior to her marriage she taught school and musie in Minnesota and South Dakota. William and Jose- phine (Kribs) George are the parents of six children, all living.
Jess Ruth, born October 2, 1886, graduated from Renville public schools and Winona State Normal School; married Oscar A. Berg, Jan. 1, 1910, at Renville, Min., and has one daughter, Jean Shirley.
James McBride, born Feb. 7, 1888; graduated from Renville public schools and the University of Minnesota, 1910; now prae- tieing law at Winona, Minn .; member of Phi Kappa Sigma, Delta Theta Phi (law fraternity). Arlington Club ( Winona), Meadow- brook Golf Club (Winona), Y. M. C. A. (Winona), Sons Amer- ican Revolution, Order of Washington and Minnesota Historical Society.
Eugene Sherman, born July 11, 1889; graduated from Ren- ville public schools, attended University of Minnesota, and was graduated from St. Paul College of Law 1915: now practicing law at Glenwood, Minn .; member of the college fraternities named above.
Winston Remington, born March 9, 1891; attended Renville publie schools.
937
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
Cedrie Kribs, born Sept. 18, 1893; attended Renville public schools.
Shirley MeClure, born Oet. 6, 1898; student Renville public schools.
Oscar A. Berg, born at Christiania, Norway, in 1885, is the son of Ole Berg and Marie (Hanson) Berg. Ole Berg was born in Christiania in 1845, and was a eivil government officer until he retired and purchased an estate of 1,000 acres on Lake Sjarvangen. His grandfather and great-grandfather were lum- bermen. Marie (Hanson) Berg, born in 1852 at Kronswinger, married in 1873, was a graduate nurse. Her father was a farmer.
James George, of Scotch ancestry, was born in Ireland in 1760. Ile came to America in 1778 and made his home in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania. He married Mary MeCIure, also of Scotch- Irish descent, in 1790, and crossed the Alleghanies, where he pos- sessed himself of 240 acres of land in Loyalhannah township, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. He died Jan. 18, 1854. The home place descended to William, the youngest son, and remained in his possession to the date of his death. He was born May 28, 1816, married Naney MeBride in December, 1844, and died Jan. 21, 1891. On the death of William, the old home was left to his wife for life with remainder over to the two youngest sons. It is still in her possession (1916). William was the father of Wil- liam Wallace, mentioned above.
Nancy McBride, born July 29, 1827, the wife of William George, Sr., was the daughter of Hon. Henry MeClure McBride and Elizabeth (Kerr) McBride. Henry McClure McBride was born Aug. 16, 1800, on the old McBride homestead adjoining that of the Georges. His marriage took place Sept. 20, 1824. He served two terms as state senator and filled other local publie of- fices and died Jan. 7, 1875. He is buried with his father, grand- father and great-grandfather in the family cemetery. The home descended to his son, James, who left it to his daughter, Lulu, now the wife of William Beatty. The parents of Henry were James McBride and Martha (Young) MeBride. James was born March 15, 1758, in New Jersey. He was a soldier of the Revolu- tion, serving in Captain James Moore's company, of Westmore- land County Rangers. llis father was a member of the same com- pany. He died Dec. 21, 1837, at the age of eighty, after a life of many hardships. One of his daughters was killed in an Indian raid during the war. His pension papers for services in the Revo- lution are on record at the United States Pension Office, Book C., Vol. 5, page 84. He was the son of James MeBride, Sr., and Mary, his wife. James, Sr., was born in 1717 and died in 1812. His will was probated June 17, 1812, and was dated March 2, 1805, and is recorded in Will Book I, page 285, Westmoreland county,
938
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
Pennsylvania. In 1802, January 8, he deeded the old home to his son, James, after having possession for several years.
Elizabeth Kerr, the wife of Henry McClnre McBride, born March 4, 1804, died March 28, 1874, was the daughter of David Kerr and Nancy (Huey) Kerr. David was born Jan. 30, 1783, and fought in the war of 1812. He died Sept. 27, 1866. His parents were William Kerr and Margaret (Young) Kerr. He also was a member of Captain James Moore's company of rangers.
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.