USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 22
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done no wrong. He said: 'The captives are not mine ; they belong to my oldest son. I will talk to him and see what is right to be done.' We kept up a talk all night. Inkpaduta would get very angry and threaten us, but then I would tell him the soldiers would surely get him, and finally at nine o'clock next morning he con- sented that I should take back one of the women. (Greyfoot's recollection of the time was evidently mistaken, for in his report to Colonel Flandreau he says, 'Much time was spent in talking and it was not until the middle of the afternoon did we obtain their consent to our proposition.' Mrs. Marble, writing of the event, says: 'One after- noon I stepped out of my tent and saw two fine- looking, well-dressed Indians. I spoke to them and soon perceived they had taken a fancy to me and desired to buy me. The trade was made in guns, powder, blankets, etc., and was quickly done. It was about three P. M. when we started.) Inkpaduta said one woman would be enough to prove to the soldiers that we were good Indians and not responsible for what he had done. We tried every way to have him let us take all of the women, but it was useless. He said one or none. He told us to take our choice. The white women were near by under a shelter tent, baking fish. I looked into the tent and saw there was a very young girl and I thought they would be good to her and I would take one of the older women. I could not speak to them, but I beckoned to one of them to come with me, but she turned away very angry, but the other women nodded to me pleasantly and when I motioned to her to come she took her shawl and followed me away. We reached the camp on the Sioux that evening. (Again it appears that in the long space of forty-three years Greyfoot's recollection had failed him, for Mrs. Marble says they started from Lake Herman at three P. M. and camped over night, getting an early start and reaching the Sioux at nine o'clock next morn- ing.) Next day we started on to Lacqui Parle, where we arrived in two days. I took the woman first to my father's home and he went to the agent, Judge Flandreau. I agreed to go for the other women, provided the government would
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indemnify my family in case I was killed, but while I was negotiating John, Paul and Iron Hawk volunteered to go, so I dropped out of the arrangement.
"Inkpaduta's camp, when we visited him, was about thirty rods south of the outlet to Lake Herman and about sixty-five feet from the lake- shore, not far from the creek that runs out of the lake."
Judge Flandreau, then agent for the Min- nesota Sioux, took Mrs. Marble to St. Paul and thence she reached her relatives. Later she married a Mr. Silbaugh and, at the age of sixty-six years, still resides (1903) at Napa, California.
As soon as Judge Flandreau learned of the whereabouts of the white captives through the return of Mrs. Marble, he moved energetically to effect their rescue. In this he was most ef- ficiently assisted by Drs. Riggs and Williamson. They handsomely rewarded Greyfoot and his brother for their service and selected three well- known Christian Indians, John Otherday, president of the Hazelwood republic: Paul Mazakutemane and Chetanmaza (Ironhawk), to go upon an expedition for the purchase and re- lease of Mrs. Noble and Abbie Gardner, at the same time arranging with the military for a vigorous campaign into Dakota for the punish- ment of Inkpaduta as soon as the release of the captives was effected. Judge Flandreau provided the envoys with the following property, which they were authorized to exchange for the captives: One wagon, four horses, twelve blankets, thirty-two yards of squaw cloth, thirty-seven and a half yards of calico, twenty pounds of tobacco, one sack of shot, one dozen shirts, fifteen pounds of powder, four dollars' worth of ribbon and quantities of flour, corn, coffee and sugar.
Immediately after the release of Mrs. Marble, on May 7th, Inkpaduta, assured that communica- tion had now been established with civilization, immediately broke camp and moved off to the northwest through the present Kingsbury, Ham- lin, Clark and Spink counties to the James river at the mouth of Snake creek, camping on the west
side of the Jim at the junction of the two streams, where there was a large camp of Yanktons. While on this march and while somewhere near the east side of Spink county, Mrs. Noble was brutally killed by Roaring Cloud, the eldest son of Inkpaduta, who pounded her over the head with a club until she was fatally hurt and then leaving her to die. This occurred in the evening and next morning the band gathered about and mutilated her body in the most terrible manner. Shortly before the death of Mrs. Noble they had come upon a party of Yanktons and one of them, a one-legged man named End of the Snake, had purchased the captives for the purpose of specu- lation, believing the whites would pay him a good price for their ransom. He was present, but offered no protest when Mrs. Noble was killed. The usual accounts say this murder occurred one day before reaching the Jim, but Mrs. Sharp says that several days elapsed. It must be recalled that Mrs. Sharp was but a child at the time and her impressions of time are not reliable. In fact she was in captivity but eleven weeks, though to her it was an eternity, and she cannot be blamed for overrating the length of time. She thinks it was four weeks from the rescue of Mrs. Marble until she was sold to the Yankton, while in point of fact, it was just three weeks from the rescue of Mrs. Marble until she herself was ransomed. There is good reason to believe, however, that at least two nights were passed on the march, after the death of Mrs. Noble before the Jim was reached.
The rescuing party drove directly to Lake Herman and striking the hostiles' trail there had little difficulty in following it to the Jim. Before reaching the Jim, the rescuers had the foresight to hide one span of horses and the wagon and a portion of the supplies. When they were discovered approaching the camp the valorous Inkpaduta hastened to a point up Snake creek, three or four miles distant, where he hid in a plum thicket in a bend of the stream and did not appear during the negotiations. A day or more was spent in the negotiations for the release of Abbie Gardner, the only remaining captive. The Yankton argued that he could get
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more money by taking her to the white settle- ments on the Missouri, but finally a trade was effected, the consideration being two horses, twelve blankets, two kegs of powder, twenty pounds of tobacco, thirty-two yards of squaw cloth, thirty-seven yards of ribbon and some other small articles. The release was effected on May 30, 1857. In due season they reached Lacqui Parle, Hazelwood and St. Paul and eventually Miss Gardner reached the home of a sister at Hampton, Iowa. There she fell in with a young man named Casville Sharp, a cousin of her fellow captives, Mesdames Noble and Thatcher, and though but fourteen years of age, she was per- mitted to marry him within a month of her first meeting, on the 16th of August of the year of her captivity and release. Mrs. Sharp is now living, a widow, on the old homestead at Spirit Lake where her family was massacred forty-six years ago. The state of Iowa has restored the log cabin and has erected a suitable monument in the dooryard.
The South Dakota Historical Society has been at pains to ascertain and mark all of the points within this state connected with this tragic occurrence, except the place where Mrs. Noble was killed. This place possibly cannot be ascer- tained with any certainty.
The military expedition projected by Judge
Flandreau for the punishment of Inkpaduta did not materialize, owing to the action of the gov- ernment in ordering all of the troops away from Fort Ridgely to participate in the Mormon cam- paign. Inkpaduta was never punished for this outrage, nor was any adequate attempt made by the government to do so. In 1859 Judge Flan- dreau, learning that the outlaw and his band were visiting at the Yellow Medicine, undertook his destruction, but he effected his escape. His son, Roaring Cloud, who so brutally murdered Mrs. Noble, was however killed. After that Inkpa- duta established himself with the wild trans- Missouri Sioux, by whom he was regarded as a great hero. Just a month before the outbreak of 1862 he was reported to be encamped on Lake Benton and a detail of soldiers were hurried out to bring him in, but his spies were more fleet than the soldiers and he again escaped. The next year the redoubtable Inkpaduta was the leader of the hostiles in the battle of Big Mound, near Bis- marck. After that he escaped over the inter- national line into Canada and does not appear again in any of the records until the battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876 (the Custer battle), where he was in command of the camp of Santees and Yanktonais and led the fierce fight against Reno. He again escaped into Canada, where he died in 1880.
CHAPTER XXIV
BEGINNING OF SETTLEMENT.
With 1857 begins the permanent settlement of South Dakota for the purpose of home-build- ing and the development of agriculture, although it may be truthfully said that the first settle- ments were really speculative ventures. The organization of a new territory offers some fair opportunities for profitable public contracts, official positions and town-lot speculation at the new capital and at points where public institu- tions are located. Minnesota was about to be ad- mitted to the union of states and its proposed western boundary was already defined at the present location, leaving open to settlement that fine strip of country lying between Minnesota and the Sioux river, the Indian title to which had been extinguished, as we have seen by the treaty of 1851. Exaggerated stories were broadcast throughout the neighboring states of the great importance of the water-power at the falls of the Sioux river. These considerations made their appeal to two parties of young and adventurous men, acting independently and without knowl- edge of the intentions of the other, the one party in Dubuque, Iowa, the other in St. Paul, Min- nesota.
The promoters of the Dubuque enterprise, which was known as the Western Town Com- pany, were Dr. George M. Staples, Meyer Hetherington, Dennis Mahoney, Austin Adams, or two others. The organization was perfected in September, 1856, and Ezra Millard, of Sioux City, now a prominent citizen of Omaha, was S. P. Waldron, William Tripp and possibly one
employed to visit the Falls of the Sioux river and locate a town site. Accompanied by D. M. Mills and a surveyor, Millard drove up the east side of the Sioux, early in November, and se- lected three hundred twenty acres of land for his employers, at the Falls. Mr. Mills also located an adjoining quarter section and built a small house of logs upon it. They then returned to Sioux City. The late John McClellan was authority for a story that the party were driven away by hostile Indians, but Judge Bailey, the historian of Minnehaha county, disputes this and he is doubtless correct.
In May, 1857, the Western Town Company sent Jesse T. Jarrett, John McClellan and two men named Olson and Farwell to occupy. and hold their town site and they arrived at the falls about June Ist and made improvements on the land and sat down to wait the course of events. Meanwhile the Minnesotans were active. Through their influence the western line of the state was located so as to leave the Sioux river and falls in the proposed new territory. They secured from congress an appropriation for the building of a road across Minnesota and Dakota, which it was proposed should become the great highway for emigration to the far west and ultimately the line of a great trans-continental railway and one of their party, Col. W. H. Nobles, was appointed to build the road. They secured a charter from the legislature of the territory of Minnesota as the Dakota Land Company. The incorporators named in the charter are W. H. Nobles, Joseph
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R. Brown, Alpheus G. Fuller, Samuel A. Medary, Samuel F. Brown, James W. Lynd. N. R. Brown, Franklin J. DeWitt, Baron F. Freiden- - reich, Byron M. Smith, Artemas Gale, Parker Paine, Thomas Campbell and Charles E. Flan- dreau.
Alpheus G. Fuller and Franklin DeWitt were selected to conduct a party to the Sioux river and to select town sites wherever thought to be available. They made their first location at Saratoga, on the Big Cottonwood, and at the Great Oasis, in western Minnesota, where they left men to hold their claims and then passing over the Couteau, entered South Dakota just south of the present village of Ward, reached the Sioux river at Flandreau and, proceeding down the stream to the falls, found that desirable site already occupied, as we have already seen, by the Western Town Company's location. They, how- ever, took three hundred twenty acres adjoining the Western people on the south, and really se- cured the land where the principal portion of the present city is located. They also made a loca- tion at the mouth of the Split Rock, which they called Eminija. They named the location at the falls. Sioux Falls City, and built a log house upon it, near where the Burlington depot now stands, . and left James L. Fiske and James McBride to look after their interests. Returning up river, Major DeWitt and Mr. Fuller made town-loca- tions at Flandreau and Medary, where they made slight improvements and left men in charge. DeWitt and Fuller returned to St. Paul to report upon their action.
Thus it will be seen that the entire white set- tlement in the Sioux valley consisted of six men at Sioux Falls and two at Flandreau and Medary. These claim-holders got along well enough until in July when they were frightened away by an invasion of Sioux Indians, Fiske and McBride and the up-river representatives of the Dakota Land Company returning to Minnesota and the Dubuque representatives, after waiting one day longer, deposited their belongings in a canoe and floated down the Sioux to its mouth At this time W. H. Nobles was prosecuting his road-building enterprise across Dakota. He had
proceeded from Fort Ridgely to Lake Benton, where, on the 18th of July, he was met by a large number of Yankton Indians who warned him from entering the country, intimating that if he crossed the Sioux river he must expect resistance from the Yankton tribe. This, it must be re- membered, followed immediately upon the Ink- paduta massacre and there were, too, most dis- quieting rumors from Yellow Medicine, and messengers were going through the country pre- paring the frontiers in anticipation of a general Indian war. It placed Nobles in a most precarious situation to enter the country of hostile Indians who openly threatened him, and with the prospect of a general Indian war in his rear. Nobles, therefore, retired to the Cottonwood, where he employed his men in building a bridge, while he hastened to consult Major Sherman, in com- mand at Fort Ridgely, and Superintendent Cul- len of western Indian affairs, and it was deter- mined to equip him with a good supply of arms and ammunition and to push on regardless of the Indians, which he did and reached the Mis- souri river with a good road at the mouth of Crow creek. Good fords were made across the Sioux at Medary and the James near the present Forestburg, by grading the banks and filling the bottom of the stream with boulders and gravel. The line of the road was marked by mounds of sod from three to five feet high at intervals of one-quarter of a mile. The engineering was done by Samuel A. Medary, who that year was appointed the last territorial governor of Min- ncsota by President Buchanan. Medary made very interesting report upon the progress of the work, which was published by the secretary of the interior. Notwithstanding the discourage- ment from the Indian situation, the town pro- moters did not propose to be driven from their holdings. On August 27th, Jesse T. Jarrett. Dr. J. L. Phillips, W. W. Brookings, S. B. Atwood, A. L. Kilgore, Smith Kinsey, John McClellan, D. M. Mills and two others named Callahan and Godfrey arrived at Sioux Falls to protect the rights of the Dubuque people. They brought with them an abundance of provisons. a sawmill and several teams and wagons. Ten
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days later Dr. Staples, himself, arrived. Each member of this party made a personal location of a quarter section of land.
Up to this date Jarrett had been the author- ized manager of the Dubuque interests, but Dr. Staples displaced him and appointed Wilmot W. Brookings manager in his stead. A stone house was first erected, then a store building and a sawmill. When these buildings had been com- pleted all of the party except Brookings, Phillips, McClellan, Atwood, Kilgore and Kinsey returned to lowa. Except for an Indian scare on October Ioth, when their one yoke of oxen were stampeded and driven off in broad daylight, they got on fairly well. They were soon joined by S. D. and E. M. Brookings, brothers of the manager, and Charles McConnell and R. B. Mckinley.
October 15th there arrived as representatives of the Dakota Land Company, James L. Fiske, James McBride, James W. Evans, James Allen, James McCall, William Little and Cyrus Mer- rill. These sixteen men passed the winter at Sioux Falls.
The section was, of course, still under the ju- risdiction of Minnesota territory and the particu- lar locality was a portion of Big Sioux county as constituted by the Minnesota legislature, and upon petition of these settlers and through the influence of the land company, of which the governor was a member, Governor Medary or- ganized the county by the appointment of the following officers, who it will be observed were chosen about equally from both companies. In fact, it does not appear that at any time any hostility existed between them, but on the con- trary they acted constantly together, particularly in the common defense against possible Indian attacks : James Allen, register of deeds ; James Evans, sheriff : James L. Fiske, judge of pro- bate; W. W. Brookings, district attorney ; J. L. Phillips, justice of the peace; William Little, James McBride and A. L. Kilgore, county com- missioners. The officers qualified and the or- ganization was kept up until the creation of the territory, but the records were not preserved. Sam. T. Clover, however, has in his collection
several documents indicating that the county was "doing business," among them the first warrant for the payment of public money.
Judge Brookings was enterprising in the interest of his company and in January of 1858, a rumor having reached him that the Indians had relinquished title to the land between the Sioux and the Missouri, set out to scrip some of the most eligible town sites on the Missouri, having the present location of Yankton chiefly in mind. He was accompanied by Smith Kinsey, and their course led down the east side of the Sioux. There had been a thaw and the streams were swollen. When they reached the Split Rock they found it out of banks and got very wet in cross- ing. They were horseback and proceeded fifty miles that day, being constantly experiencing difficulties with the high water. That night a severe blizzard came on and, wet and unprotected as they were, they attempted to return to the Falls, as the nearest place of safety. At the Split Rock Judge Brookings was again thoroughly drenched and, already chilled to the heart, they hastened on, but before arriving at the settlement his feet were severely frozen. For lack of at- tention and lack of the necessaries for prompt treatment, mortification resulted and as a last resort, in order if possible to save his life, amputation of both legs below the knees was re- sorted to. This was done by Dr. Phillips, a young but very intelligent physican, with no other instruments than a large butcher-knife and a small tenon saw, and without anesthetics. Marvelous as it may appear, the patient, lying on a bed of buffalo robes, in his floorless cabin, with none of the surroundings of civilization and com- forts deemed indispensable to the sick room, not only survived the shock incident to the harsh surgery, but entirely regained his health and afterwards became one of the foremost citizens of Dakota.
The spring of 1858 brought many new settlers, including several women. The first woman to settle in the state was a Mrs. Goodwin, but a few days later she was joined by Mrs. Charles White and her daughter. Almost im- mediately the settlers were threatened with
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hostilities from the Indians, but luckily were on their guard and so saved themselves. Notice of their danger was promptly sent them by that sturdy old missionary, Thomas S. Williamson, who, learning of the purpose of the savages, dis- patched the following letter from his mission home on the Minnesota :
PAJUTAZEE, May 29, 1858. To the Americans who are making claims at Medary:
We are informed by the Dakotas of this neigh- borhood that a large party of Ihanktonwan are on their way to the pipestone quarry and threaten to drive you off and burn your houses and doubtless you have the same information from other sources and may be better able to estimate the danger than we are.
The bearer of this, Hisayu, I have known for many years. He is brother to Upizaholuza, chief of the Wahpetons of Lac Qui Parle, and son-in-law of old Limping Devil, who died about a year ago, and probably better acquainted with the Ihanktonwan than any other Wahpeton, and probably can exert more influence with them than any other of the annu- ity Indians and, though not in all respects a reliable man, is desirous of preventing an outbreak between the Sioux and the whites from interested motives and last summer when these same Ihanktonwan were in this neighborhood and some of them caught Major Sherman's mules, to take them off, he persuaded them to let them go again. He is going to meet the Thanktonwan and expects to be with them as they approach your neighborhood. By giving him a lib- eral supply of provisions for a feast and talk with the principal men you may probably prevent trouble. Respectfully,
THOS. S. WILLIAMSON.
Hisayu faithfully delivered this note into the hands of Maj. Franklin J. DeWitt, in charge of the settlement at Medary, and then hastened away to intercept the approaching Yanktonais. Major DeWitt hastily dispatched a messenger to Sioux Falls and prompt action was taken there to prepare and ward off danger. What was done there was so comprehensively told in a letter written by James M. Allen to his father that I reproduce it, together with an introductory note written also by Mr. Allen many years later to Gen. Maris Taylor :
CLEVELAND, OHIO, March 8, 1875.
Friend Taylor: In looking over ancient home letters I found the enclosed to my father which will
give you an idea of what trials and difficulties the old settlers at Sioux Falls labored under seventeen years ago when they tried to make their homes there. Supplementary to the letter should be added how we were confined six weeks at the old fort and how our provisions ran out, with the exception of a bar- rel of caked, musty flour, which we chopped out and then pounded for use. And how we lived on fresh pickerel and pike without lard or salt; and how 'we daily grew poor in flesh and weak in spirits; and how at last DeWitt, and a companion (Brown, now at Fort Edwards, New York), made his appearance with a horse and buggy, bringing a sack of flour, a half bushel of beans, some pork, sugar and coffee, having circumvented the Indians by taking a rounda- bout route from northern Iowa, and how the half starved garrison marched out in battle array, rivaling Fallstaff's army, to welcome him. Even more could be said, but have you not ex-Mayor DeWitt, as a fel- low citizen of yours, to apply to for additional facts, and Major Evans to corroborate them.
FORT SOD, SIOUX FALLS, D. T.,
June 17, 1858.
Dear Father: We are in a state of excitement at the present time. Last Sunday a half breed who . had been acting as an interpreter at Medary, reached here, stating that one hundred lodges of Indians, Yanktonaise, had arrived there and ordered our townsite men away. Mr. DeWitt was at first dis- posed to fight them, but his men, a dozen or so in number, thought the odds were against them and refused to do so. The consequence was the Indians forced all hands out of the houses, took what provis- ions they wanted and burnt every building down. DeWitt and men have all gone to the agency and St. Paul. The Indians sent word by the half breed for us to leave the country forthwith, and that they would be down here in the course of a week and drive us off if we had not left. Mr. DeWitt also told the half breed to tell us to go to St. Paul, or any other convenient place, at once. On the receipt of this in- telligence we called a meeting of all the other settlers and unanimously determined to remain and defend ourselves and property. As some doubted the cor- rectness, we dispatched two mounted men toward Medary to reconnoitre. The next day they reported the Indians to be within thirty-five miles of here in great numbers. All day Monday was wasted by us to decide which house to fortify. The DuBuque Company were determined not to abandon their build- ings and we were equally determined not to abandon ours. The DuBuque Company's houses, being under the brow of the hill, could not be fortified to much advantage, whereas our house is on an open plain, commanding a fine prospect, with a fine spring of
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