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HISTORY
RICE COUNTY
INCLUDING
EXPLORERS HND PIONEERS of MINNESOTA,
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
By Rev. Edward D. Neill;
SIOUX MASSACRE OF 1862.
State EDu©y\TiON,
BY CHARLES S. BRYANT,
MINNEAPOLIS:
MINNESOTA HISTORICAL COMPANY,
1882.
Am
f]L-)^x-) ^,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
PREFACE,
In the compilation of the History of Rice Cothsttt it has been the aim of the
Publishers to present a local history, comprising, in a single volume of convenient
form, a varied fund of information, not only of interest to the present, but from vrhich the
coming searcher for historic data may draw without the tedium incurred in its preparation.
There is always more or less difficulty, even in a historical work, in selecting those things
which will interest the greatest number of readers. Individual tastes differ so widely, that
what may be of absorbing interest to oiie, has no attractions for another. Some are inter-
ested in that which concerns themselves, and do not care to read of even the most thrilling
adventures where they were not participants. Such persons are apt to conclude that what
they are not interested in is of no value, and its preservation in history a useless expense.
In the settlement of a new County or a new Township, there is no one person entitled to all
the credit for what has been accomplished. Every individual is a part of the great whole,
and this work is prepared for the purpose of giving a general resume of what has thus far
been done to plant the civilization of the present century in Rice Coun"tt.
That our work is wholly errorless, or that nothing of interest has been omitted, is more
than we dare hope, and more than is reasonable to expect. In closing our labors we have
the gratifyino- consciousness of having used our utmost endeavors in securing reliable data,
and feel no hesitancy in submitting the result to an intelligent public. The impartial
critic, to whom only we look for comment, will, in passing judgment upon its merits, be
governed by a knowledge of the manifold duties attending the prosecution of the under-
taking.
We have been especially fortunate in enlisting the interest of Rev. Edward D. Neill
and Charles S. Bryant, whose able productions are herewith presented. We also desire to
express our sincere thanks to Prof. J. L. Noyes who, assisted by Prof. J. J. Dow and Dr. Gr.
H. Knight, furnished the able sketch of " The Minnesota Institute for the Education
of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, and the School for Imbeciles and Idiots." Our ac-
knowledgements are likewise tendered to the County, Town, and Village officials for their
uniform kindness to us in our tedious labors; and in general terms we express our indebted-
ness to the Press, the Pioneers, atid the Citizens, who have extended universal encourage-
ment and endorsement.
That our efforts may prove satisfactory, and this volume receive a welcome commensu-
rate with the care bestowed in its preparation, is the earnest desire of the publishers,
ELLIS C. TURNER.
F. W. HARRINGTON.
B. F. PINKNEY.
CONTENTS.
Pbepaoe
Page.
Ill
CHAPTER IrXXin.
Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota
1-128
CHAPTER XXIV-XXVII.
Outline History of the State of Minnesota 129-160
CHAPTER XXVIII-XXIX.
State Education
161-176
CHAPTER XXX-XLIII.
History of the Sioux Massacre
177-256
CHAPTER XLIV.
Chronology
257-262
CHAPTER XLV-XLIX.
Rice County
263-317
CHAPTER L-LI.
City of Faribault
318-396
■ CHAPTER LII-LIir.
City of Northfield
396-437
CHAPTER LIV.
Bridgewater Township
437-453
CHAPTER LV.
Wheeling Township
454-464
CHAPTER LVI.
Richland Township
464-47Q
CHAPTER LVII.
Walcott Township
CHAPTER LVIII.
Forest Township
CHAPTER LIX.
Wells Township
CHAPTER LX.
Warsaw Township
CHAPTER LXI.
Cannon City Township
CHAPTER LXn.
Webster Township
CHAPTER LXIII.
Wheatland Township
CHAPTER LXIV.
Erin Township
CHAPTER LXV.
Northfield Township
CHAPTER LXVI.
Shieldsville Township
CHAPTER LXVII.
Morristown Township
Index
Page.
470-477
478-490
491-504
505-517
518-534
534-544
545-
-553
554-
-564
564-
-574
575-
-582
583
-595
596-
-603
EXPLORERS
AND
PIOI^EERS OF MIISTNESOTA.
CHAPTER I.
FOOTPRINTS OF CIVILIZATION TOWARD THE EXTREMITY OF LAKE SUPERIOR.
Hinnesotti'B Central Position,— D' A vagour's Prediction.— Nicolet's Visit to Green
Bay. — First White Hen in Minnesota. — Notices of Oroselliers' and Radisson. —
Hurons Flee to Minnesota.— Visited by Frenchmen.— Father Menard Disap-
pears.— Oroselliers Visits Hudson's Bay.— Father Allouez Describes the Sioux
Mission at La Fointe.— Father Marquette.— Sioux at Sault St. Marie,— Jesuit
Missions Fail. — Oroselliers Visits England.- Captain Qitlam, of Boston, at Hud-
son's Bay. — Letter of Mother Superior of Ursulines,, at Quebec. — Death of
Oroselliers.
The Dakotahs, called by the Ojibways, Nado-
waysioux, or Sioux (Soos), as abbreviated by the
French, used to claim superiority over other peo-
ple, because, their sacred men asserted that the
mouth of the Minnesota Eiver was immediately
over the centre of the earth, and below the centre
of the heavens.
While this teaching is very different from that
of the modern astronomer, it is certainly true,
that the region west of Lake Superior, extending
through the valley of the Minnesota, to the Mis-
souri River, is one of the most healthful and fer-
tile regions beneath the skies, and may prove to
be the centre of the republic of the United States
of America. Baron D'Avagour, a brave oflBcer,
who was killed in fighting the Turks, while he
was Governor of Canada, in a dispatch to the
French Govermnent, dated August 14th, 1663,
after referring to Lake Huron, wrote, that beyond
" is met another, called Lake Superior, the waters
of which, it is believed, flow into New Spain, and
this, according to general opinion, ought to be the
centre of the country."
As early as 1635, one of Champlain's interpre-
ters, Jean Nicolet (Mcolay), who came to Canar-
da in 1618, reached the western shores of Lake
Michigan. In the summer of 1634 he ascended
the St. Lawrence, with a party of Hurons, and
probably during the next winter was trading at
Green Bay, in Wisconsin. On the ninth of Be-
cember, 1635, he had returned to Canada, and on
the 7th of October, 1637, was married at Quebeci
and the next month, went to Three Rivers, where
he lived until 1642, when he died. Of him it is
said, in a letter written in 1640, that he had pen-
etrated farthest into those distant countries, and
that if he had proceeded " three days more on a
great river which flows from that lake [Green
Bay] he would have found the sea."
The first white men in Minnesota, of whom we
have any record, were, according to Garneau, two
persons of Huguenot aflanities, Medard Chouart,
known as Sieur GroseUiers, and Pierre d'Esprit,
called Sieur Radisson.
GroseUiers (pronoimced Gro-zay-yay) was bom
near Eerte-sous-Jouarre, eleven miles east of
Meaux, in France, and when about sixteen years
of age, in the year 1641, came to Canada. The fur
trade was the great avenue to prosperity, and in
1646, he was among the Huron Indians, who then
dwelt upon the eastern shore of Lake Huron,
bartering for peltries. On the second of Septem-
ber, 1647, at Quebec, he was married to Helen,
the widow of Claude Etienne, who was the daugh-
ter of a pilot, Abraham Martin, whose baptismal
name is still attached to the suburbs of that city,
the " Plains of Abraham," made famous by the
death there, of General Wolfe, of the English
army, in 1759, and of General Montgomery, of
the Continental armv, ia December, 1775, at the
EXPLOBEBS AND P10NEEB8 OE MINNESOTA.
commencement of the " "War for Independence."
His son, Medard, was bom in 1657, and the next
year his mother died. The second wife of Gro-
selliers was Marguerite Hayet (Hay^y) Radisson,
the sister of his associate, in the exploration of
the region west of Lake Superior.
Eadisson was born at St. Malo, and, while a
boy, went to Paris, and from thence to Canada,
and in 1656, at Three Elvers, married Elizabeth,
the daughter of Madeleine Hauiault, and, after
her death, the daughter of Sir David Kirk or
Kerkt, a zealous Huguenot, became his wife.
The Iroquois of New York, about the year 1650,
drove the Hurons from their villages, and forced
them to take refuge with their friends the Tinon-
tates, called by the French, Petuns, because they
cultivated tobacco. In time the Hurons and
their allies, the Ottawas (Ottaw-waws), were
again driven by the Iroquois, and after successive
wanderings, were found on the west side of Lake
Michigan. In time they reached the Mississippi,
and ascending above the Wisconsia, they found
the Iowa Biver, on the west side, which they fol-
lowed, and dwelt for a time with the Ayoes
(loways) who were very friendly ; but being ac-
customed to a country of lakes and forestsj they
were not satisfied with the vast prairies. Eetum-
ing to the Mississippi, they ascended this river,
in search of a better land, and were met by some
of the Sioux or Dakotahs, and conducted to their
villages, where they were well received. The
Sioux, delighted with the axes, knives and awls
of European manufacture, which had been pre-
sented to them, allowed the refugees to settle
upon an island in the Mississippi, below the
mouth of the St. Croix Eiver, called Bald Island
from the absence of trees, about nine miles from
the site of the present city of Hastings. Possessed
of firearms, the Hurons and Ottawas asserted
their superiority, and determined to conquer the
country for themselves, and having incurred the
hostility of the Sioux, were obliged to fiee from
the isle in the Mississippi. Descending below
Lake Pepin, they reached the Black Eiver, and
ascending it, found an unoccupied country around
its sources and that of the Chippeway. In this
region the Hurons established themselves, while
their allies, the Ottawas, moved eastward, till
they found the shores of Lake Superior, and set-
tled at Chagouamikon (Sha - gah - wah - mik - ong )
near what is now Bayfield. In the year 1659,
GroseUiers and Eadisson arrived at Chagouamik-
on, and determined to visit the Hurons and Pe-
tuns, with whom the former had traded when
they resided east of Lake Huron. After a six
days' journey, in a southwesterly direction, they
reached their retreat toward the sources of the
Black, Chippewa, and "Wisconsia Elvers. From
this point they journeyed north, and passed the
winter of 1659-60 among the " Nadouechiouec,"
or Sioux vUlages in the Mille Lacs (Mil Lak) re-
gion. Prom the Hurons they learned of a beau-
tiful river, wide, large, deep, and comparable with
the Saint Lawrence, the great Mississippi, which
flows through the city of Minneapolis, and whose
sources are in northern Minnesota.
Northeast of Mille Lacs, toward the extremity
of Lake Superior, they met the "Poualak,"or
Assiniboines of the prairie, a separated band of
the Sioux, who, as wood was scarce and small,
made fire with coal (charbon de terre) and dwelt
in tents of skins ; although some of the more in-
dustrious buUt cabins of clay (terre grasse), like
the swallows build their nests.
The spring and summer of 1660, GroseUiers and
Eadisson passed in trading aroimd Lake Superior.
On the 19th of August they returned to Mon-
treal, with three hundred Indians and sixty ca-
noes loaded with " a wealth of skins."
" Purs of bison and of beaver,
Purs of sable and of ermine."
The citizens were deeply stirred by the travelers'
tales of the vastness and richness of the region
they had visited, and their many romantic adven-
tures. In a few days, they began their return to
the far "West, accompanied by six Frenchmen and
two priests, one of whom was the Jesuit, Eene Me-
nard. His hair whitened by age, and his mind
ripened by long experience, he seemed the man
for the mission. Two hours after midnight, of the
day before departure, _ the venerable missionary
penned at " Three Elvers," the foUowrng letter
to a friend :
'Eevebend Father:
" The peace of Christ be with you : I write to
you probably the last, which I hope will be the
seal of our friendship until eternity. Love whom
the Lord Jesus did not disdain to love, though
the greatest of sinners; for he loves whom he
FATHER ME NASD LOST IN WISCONSIN.
loads with his cross. Let your friendship, my
good Father, be useful to me by the desirable
fruits of your daily sacrifice.
" In three or four months you may remember
me at the memento for the dead, on account of
my old age, my weak constitution and the hard-
ships I lay under amongst these tribes. Never-
theless, I am in peace, for I have not been led to
this mission by any temporal motive, but I think
it was by the voice of God. I was to resist the
grace of God by not coming. Eternal remorse
would have tormented me, had I not come when
I had the opportunity.
" We have been a little surprized, not being
able to provide ourselves with vestments and oth-
er things, but he who feeds the little birds, and
clothes the lilies of the fields, will take care of
his servants; and though it should happen we
should die of want, we would esteem ourselves
happy. I am burdened with business. What I
can do is to recommend our journey to your daily
sacrifice, and to embrace you with the same sen-
timents of heart as I hope to do in eternity. .
" My Reverend Father,
Your most humble and affectionate
servant in Jesus Christ.
E. MENAED.
"From the Three Elvers, this 26th August, 2
o'clock after midnight, 1660."
On the loth of October, the party with which
he journeyed reached a bay on Lake Superior,
where he found some of the Ottawas, who had
fled from the Iroquois of New York. For more
than eight months, surrounded by a few French
voyageurs, he lived, to use his words, " in a kind
of small hermitage, a cabin built of fir branches
piled one on another, not so much to shield us
from the rigor of the season as to correct my im-
agination, and persuade me I was sheltered."
During the summer of 1661, he resolved to visit
the Hurons, who had fled eastward from the Sioux
of Minnesota, and encamped amid the marshes of
Northern Wisconsin. Some Frenchmen, who had
been among the Hurons, in vain attempted to dis-
suade him from the journey. To their entreaties
he replied, " I must go, if it cost me my life. I
can not suffer souls to perish on the ground of
saving the bodily life of a miserable old man like
myself. What! Are we to serve God only when
there is nothing to sufEer, and no risk of life?"
Upon De I'lsle's map of Louisiana, published
nearly two centuries ago, there appears the Lake
of the Ottawas, and the Lake of the Old or De-
serted Settlement, west of Green Bay, and south
of Lake Superior. The Lake of the Old Planta-
tion is supposed to have been the spot occupied
by the Hurons at the time when Menard attempts
ed to visit them. One way of access to this seclu-
ded spot was from Lake Superior to the head-
waters of the Ontanagon Eiver, and then by a port-
age, to the lake. It could also be reached from
the headwaters of the Wisconsin, Black and Chip-
pewa Rivers, and some have said that Menard
• descended the Wisconsin and ascended the Black
Eiver.
Perrot, who lived at the same time, writes:
"Father Menard, who was sent as missionary
among the Outaouas [Utaw-waws] accompanied
by certain Frenchmen who were going to trade
with that people, w^as left by all who were with
him, except one, who rendered to him until death,
aU of the services and help that he could have
hoped. The Father followed the Outaouas TUtaw-
waws]to the Lake of the Illinoets [Illino-ay, now
Michigan] and in their flight to the Louisianne,
[Mississippi] to above the Black Eiver. There
this missionary had but one Frenchman for a
companion. This Frenchman carefully followed
the route, and made a portage at the same place
as the Outaouas. He found himself in a rapid,
one day, that was carrying him away in his canoe.
The Father, to assist, debarked from his own, but
did not find a good path to come to him. He en-
tered one that had been made by beasts, and de-
siring to return, became confused in a labyrinth
of trees, and was lost. The Frenchman, after
having ascended the rapids with great labor,
awaited the good Father, and, as he did not come,
resolved to search for him. With all his might,
for several days, he called his name in the woods,
hoping to find him, but it was useless. He met,
however, a Sakis [Sauk] who was carrying the
camp-kettle of the missionary, and who gave him
some intelligence. He assured him that he had
foimd his foot -prints at some distance, but that
he had not seen the Father. He told him, also,
that he had found the tracks of several, who were
going towards the Scioux. He declared that he
supposed that the Scioux might have killed or
captured him. Indeed, several years afterwards,
4
EXPL0BEB8 AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
there were found among this tribe, his breviary
and cassock, which they exposed at their festivals,
making offerings to them of food."
In a journal of the Jesuits, Menard, about the
seventh or eighth of August, 1661, is said to have
been lost.
Groselliers (Gro-zay-yay), while Menard was
endeavoring to reach the retreat of the Hurons
which he had made known to the authorities of
Canada, was pushing through the country of the
Assuieboines, on the northwest shore of Lake
Superior, and at length, probably by Lake Alem-
pigon, or Nepigon, reached Hudson's Bay, and
early in May, 1662, returned to Montreal, and
surprised its citizens with his tale of new discov-
eries toward the Sea of the North.
The Hurons did not remain long toward the
sources of the Black Eiyer, after Menard's disap-
pearance, and deserting iheir plantations, joined
their allies, the Ottawas, at La Polnte, now Bay-
field, on Lake Superior. While here, they deter-
mined to send a war paxty of one hundred against
the Sioux of MUle Lacs (Mil Lak) region. At
length they met their foes, who drove them into
one of the thousand marshes of the water-shed
between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, where
they hid themselves among the tall grasses. The
Sioux, suspecting that they might attempt to es-
cape in the night, cut up beaverskins into strips,
and hung thereon little bells, which they had ob-
tained from the Trench traders. The Hurons,
emerging from their watery hiding place, stumbled
over the unseen cords, ringing the beUs, and the
Sioux instantly attacked, killing all but one.
About the year 1665, four Frenchmen visited
the Sioux of Minnesota, from the west end of
Lake Superior, accompanied by an Ottawa chief,
and in the summer of the same year, a flotilla of
canoes laden vrith peltries, came down to Mon-
treal. Upon their return, on the eighth of Au-
gust, the Jesuit Father, Allouez, accompanied the
traders, and, by the first of October, reached Che-
goimegon Bay, on or near the site of the modem
town of Bayfield, on Lake Superior, where he
found the refugee Hurons and Ottawas. While
on an excursion to Lake Alempigon, now Ne-
pigon, this missionary saw, near the mouth of
Saint Louis River, in Minnesota, some of the
Sioux. He writes : " There is a tribe to the west
of this, toward the great river caUed Messipi.
They are forty or fifty leagues from here, in a
country of prairies, abounding in all kinds of
game. They have fields, in which they do not
sow Indian corn, but only tobacco. Providence
has provided them with a species of marsh rice,
which, toward the end of smnmer, they go to col-
lect in certain small lakes, that are covered with
it. They presented me with some when I was at
the extremity of Lake Tracy [Superior], where I
saw them. They do not use the gun, but only
the bow and arrow with great dexterity. Their
cabins are not covered with bark, but with deer-
skins well dried, and stitched together so that the
cold does not enter. These people are above all
other savage and warlike. In our presence they
seem abashed, and were motionless as statues.
They speak a language entirely unknown to us,
and the savages about here do not understand
them."
The mission at La Pointe was not encouraging,
and Allouez, " weary of their obstinate imbeUef ,"
departed, but Marquette succeeded him for abrief
period.
The "JJeZations" of the Jesuits for 1670-71,
allude to the Sioux or Dakotahs, and their attack
upon the refugees at La Pointe :
" There are certain people called Nadoussi,
dreaded by their neighbors, and although they
only use the bow and arrow, they use it with so
much skill and dexterity, that in a moment they
fill the air. After the Parthian method, they
turn their heads in flight, and discharge their ar-
rows so rapidly that they are to be feared no less
in their retreat than in their attack.
"They dwell on the shores and around the
great river Messipi, of which we shaU speak.
They number no less than fifteen populous towns,
and yet they know not how to cultivate the earth
by seeding it, contenting themselves vnth a sort
of marsh rye, which we call wUd oats.
" For sixty leagues from the extremity of the
upper lakes, towards sunset, and, as it were, va.
the centre of the western nations, they have all
united their force by a general league, which has
been made against them, as against a common
enemy.
" They speak a peculiar language, entirely dis-
tinct from that of the Algonquins and Hurons,
whom they generally surpass in generosity, since
they often content themselves with the glory of
GBOSELLIERS AND BADISSON IN THE ENGLISH SEE VICE.
having obtained the victory, and release the pris-
oners they have taken ia battle.
" Our Outouacs of the Point of the Holy Ghost
[La Pointe, now Bayfield] had to the present time
kept up a kind of peace with them, but affairs
having become embroiled during last winter, and
some murders having been committed on both
sides, our savages had reason to apprehend that
the storm would soon burst upon them , and j udged
that it was safer for them to leave the place, which
in fact they did in the spring."
Marquette, on the 13th of September, 1669,
writes : " The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this
country. * * * they he northwest of the Mission
of the Holy Ghost [La Pointe, the modern Bay-
field] and we have not yet visited them, having
confined ourselves to the conversion of the Otta-
was."
Soon after this, hostilities began between the
Sioux and the Hurons and Ottawas of La Pointe,
and the former compelled their foes to seek an-
other resting place, toward the eastern extremity
of Lake Superior, and at length they pitched
their tents at Mackinaw.
In 1674, some Sioux warriors came down to
Sault Saint Marie, to make a treaty of peace with
adjacent tribes. A friend of the Abbe de GaUi-
nee vsrote that a council was had at the fort to
which "the Nadouessioux sent twelve deputies,
and the others forty. During the conference,
one of the latter, knife in hand, drew near the
breast of one of the Nadouessioux, who showed
surprise at the movement ; when the Indian with
the knife reproached him for cowardice. The
Nadouessioux said he was not afraid, when the
other planted the knife in his heart, and killed
him. All the savages then engaged in conflict,
and the Nadouessioux bravely defended them-
selves, but, overwhelmed by numbers, nine of
them were killed. The two who survived rushed
into the chapel, and closed the door. Here they ■
found munitions of war, and fired guns at their
enemies, who became anxious to bum down the
chapel, but the Jesuits would not permit it, be-
cause they had their skins stored between its roof
and ceiling. In this extremity, a Jesuit, Louis
Le Boeme, advised that a cannon should be point-
ed at the door, which was discharged, and the two
brave Sioux were killed."
Governor Frontenac of Canada, was indignant
at the occurrence, and in a letter to Colbert, one
of the Ministers of Louis the Fourteenth, speaks
in condemnation of this discharge of a cannon by
a Brother attached to the Jesuit Mission.
From this period, the missions of the Church of
Rome, near Lake Superior, began to wane. Shea,
a devout historian of that church, writes: "In
1680, Father Enjalran was apparently alone at
Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw ; the latter
mission still comprising the two villages, Huron
and Kiskakon. Of the other missions, neither
Le Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect, writers of
the West at this time, makes any mention, or in
any way alludes to their existence, and La Hon-
tan mentions the Jesuit missions only to ridicule
them."
The Pigeon River, a part of the northern boun-
dary of Minnesota, was called on the French maps
GroselUer's River, after the first explorer of Min-
nesota, whose career, with his associate Radisson,
became quite prominent in connection with the
Hudson Bay region.
A disagreement occurring between Groselliers
and his partners in Quebec, he proceeded to Paris,
and from thence to London, where he was intro-
duced to the nejJhew of Charles I., who led the
cavalry charge against Fairfax and Cromwell at
Naseby, afterwards commander of the English
fleet. The Prince listened with pleasure to the
narrative of travel, and endorsed the plans for
prosecuting the fur trade and seeking a north-
west passage to Asia. The scientific men of Eng-
land were also full of the enterprise, in the hope
that it would increase a knowledge of nature.
The Secretary of the Royal Society wrote to Rob-
ert Boyle, the distinguished philosopher, a too
sanguine letter. His words were : " Surely I need
not tell you from hence what is said here, witli
great joy, of the discovery of a northwest passage;
and by two Englishmen and one Frenchman
represented to his Majesty at Oxford, and an-
swered by the grant of a vessel to sail into Hud-
son's Bay and channel into the South Sea."
The ship Nonsuch was fitted out, in charge of
Captain Zachary Gillam, a son of one of the early
settlers of Boston ; and in this vessel GroseUiers
and Radisson left the Thames, in June, 1668, and
in September reached a tributary of Hudson's
Bay. The next year, by way of Boston, they re-
turned to England, and in 1670, a trading com-
EXPL0BEB8 AlTD PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
pany was chartered, still known among venerable
English corporations as " The Hudson's Bay
Company."
The Reverend Mother of the Incarnation, Su-
perior of the Ursulines of Quebec, in a letter of
the 27th of August, 1670, writes thus :
" It was about this time that a Frenchman of
our Touraiae, named des G-roseUiers, married ia
this country, and as he had not been successful
in making a fortune, was seized with a fancy to
go to New England to better his condition. He
excited a hope among the English that he had
found a passage to the Sea of the North. With
this expectation, he was sent as an envoy to Eng-
land, where there was given to him, a vessel,
with crew and every thing necessary for the voy-
age. With these advantages, he put to sea, and
in place of the usual route, which others had ta-
ken in vain, he sailed in another direction, and
searched so wide, that he found the grand Bay of
the North. He found large population, and fiUed
his ship or ships \ri.th peltries of great value. * * *
He has taken possession of this great region for
the King of England, and for his personal benefit
A publication for the benefit of this Erench ad-
venturer, has been made in England. He was
a youth when he arrived here, and his wife and
children are yet here."
Talon, Intendent of Justice in Canada, in a dis-
patch to Colbert, Minister of the Colonial Depart-
ment of France, wrote on the 10th of November,
1670, that he has received intelligence that two
EngUsh vessels are approaching Hudson's Bay,
and adds : " After reflecting on all the nations
that might have penetrated as far north as that,
I can alight on only the English, who, under the
guidance of a man named Des GrozeUers, for-
merly an inhabitant of Canada, might possibly
have attempted that navigation."
After years of service on the shores of Hudson's
Bay, either with English or French trading com-
panies, the old explorer died in Canada, and it has
been said that his son went to England, where he
was living in 1696, in receipt of a pension.
EABLT MENTION OF LAKE 8UPEBI0B COPPEB.
CHAPTER II.
EARLT MENTION OF LAKE SUPERIOR COPPER.
Sagard, A. D. 1636, on Copper Minep.— Boucher, A. D. 1640, Descril)es Lake Supe-
rior Copper.— Jesuit Relations, A. D. 1666-67. — Copper on Isle Royals.— Half-
Breed Toyageur Goes to Prance with Talon. — JolUet and Perrot Search for
Copper. — St. Lusson Plants the French Arms at Sault St. Uarie. — Copper at
Outanagon and Head of Lake Superior.
Before white men had explored the shores of
Lake Superior, Indians had brought to the tra-
ding posts of the St. Lawrence River, specimens of
copper from that region. Sagard, in his History
of Canada, published in 1636, at Paris, writes :
" There are mines of copper which might be made
profitable, if there were inhabitants and work-
men who would labor faithfully . That would be
done if colonies were established. About eighty
or one hundred leagues from the Hurons, there
is a mine of copper, from which Truchemont
Brusle showed me an ingot, on his return from a
voyage which he made to the neighboring nation."
Pierre Boucher, grandfather of Sieur de la Ye-
rendrye, the explorer of the lakes of the northern
boundary of Minnesota, in a volume published
A. D. 1640, also at Paris, writes : " In Lake Su-
perior there is a great island, fifty or one hundred
leagues in circumference, in which there is a very
beautiful mine of copper. There are other places
in those quarters, where there are similar mines ;
so I learned from four or five Frenchmen, who
lately returned. They were gone three years,
without finding an opportunity to return; they
told me that they had seen an ingot of copper all
refined which was on the coast, and weighed more
than eight hundred pounds, according to their es-
timate. They said that the savages, on passing
it, made a fire on it, aftei; which they cut off pie-
ces with their axes."
■ In the Jesuit Relations of 1666-67, there is this
description of Isle Royale : " Advancing to a
place called the Grand Anse, we meet with an
island, three leagues from land, which is cele-
brated for the metal which is found there, and
for the thunder which takes place there; for they
say it always thunders there.
" But farther towards the west on the same
north shore, is the island most famous for copper,
Minong (Isle Royale). This island is twenty-five
leagues in length ; it is seven from the mainland,
and sixty from the head of the lake. Nearly all
around the island, on the water's edge, pieces of
copper are found mixed with pebbles, but espe-
cially on the side which is opposite the south,
and principally in a certain bay, which is near
the northeast exposure to the great lake. * * *
" Advancing to the head of the lake (Pon du
Lac) and returning one day's journey by the south
coast, there is seen on the edge of the water, a
rock of copper weighing seven or eight hundred
pounds, and is so hard that steel can hardly cut it,
but when it is heated it cuts as easily as lead.
Near Point Chagouamigong [Sha - gah - wah - mik-
ong, near Bayfield] where a mission was establish-
ed rocks of copper and plates of the same metal
were found. * * * Returning stUl toward the
mouth of the lake, following the coast on the south
as twenty leagues from the place last mentioned,
we enter the river called Nantaouagan [Ontona-
gon] on which is a hill where stones and copper
fall into the water or upon the earth. They are
readily found.
"Three years since we received a piece which
was brought from this place, which weighed a
hundred pounds, and we sent it to Quebec to Mr.
Talon. It is not certain exactly where this was
broken from. "We think it was from the forks of
the river ; others, that it was from near the lake,
and dug up."
Talon, Intendent of Justice in Canada, visited
Prance, taking a half-breed voyageur with htm,
and while in Paris, wrote on the 26th of Febru-
ary, 1669, to Colbert, the Minister of the Marine
Department, " that this voyageur had penetrated
among the western nations farther than any other
Frenchman, and had seen the copper mine on
Lake Huron. [Superiori*] The man offers to go
8
EXPLOBEBS ANB PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOIA.
to that mine, and explore, either by sea, or by
lake and river, the communication supposed to
exist between Canada and the South Sea, or to
the rfegions of Hudson's Bay."
As soon as Talon returned to Canada he com-
missioned Jolliet and Pere pperrot] to search for
the mines of copper on the upper Lakes. Jolliet
received an outfit of four hundred livres, and four
canoes, and Perrot one thousand Uvres. Minis-
ister Colbert virrote from Paris to Talon, in Feb-
ruary, 1671, approving of the search for copper,
ia these words : " The resolution you have taken
to send Sieur de La Salle toward the south, and
Sieur de St. Lusson to the north, to discover the
South Sea passage, is very good, but the prinpipal
thing you ought to apply yourself in discoveries
of this nature, is to look for the copper muie.
" Were this mine discovered, and its utility
evident, it would be an assured means to attract
several Frenchmen from old, to New Prance."
On the 14th of June, 1671, Saint Lusson at Sault
St. Marie, planted the arms of Prance, in the pres-
ence of Mcholas Perrot, who acted as interpreter
on the occasion ; the Sieur Jolliet ; Pierre Moreaji
or Sieur de la Taupine ; a soldier of the garrison
of Quebec, and several other Frenchmen.
Talon, in announcing Saint Lusson's explora-
tions to Colbert, on the' 2d of November, 1671,
wrote from Quebec : " The copper which I send
from Lake Superior and the river Nantaouagan
[Ontonagon] proves that there is a mine on the
border of some stream, which produces this ma-
terial as pure as one could wish. More than
twenty Frenchmen have seen one lump at the
lake, which they estimate weighs more than eight
hundred pounds. The Jesuit Fathers among the
Outaouas [Ou-taw-waws] use an anvil of this ma-
terial, which weighs about one hundred pounds.
There will be no rest rmtil the source from whence
these detached lumps come is discovered.
" The river Nantaouagan FOntonagonJ appears
between two high hUls, the plain above which
feeds the lakes, and receives a great deal of snow,
which, in melting, forms torrents which wash the
borders of this river, composed of solid gravel,
which is rolled down by it.
" The gravel at the bottom of this, hardens it-
self, and assumes different shapes, such as those
pebbles which I send to Mr. BeUinzany. My
opinion is that these pebbles, rounded and carried
off by the rapid waters, then have a tendency to
become copper, by the influence of the sun's rays
which they absorb, and to form other nuggets of
metal similar to those which I send to Sieur de
BeUinzany, found by the Sieur de Saint Lusson,
about four hundred leagues, at some distance from
the mouth of the river.
"He hoped by the frequent journeys of the
savages, and French who are beginning to travel
by these routes, to discern the source of nroduc-
tion."
Governor DenonvUle, of Canada, sixteen years
after the above circumstances, wrote : " The cop-
per, a sample of which I sent M. Amou, is found
at the head of Lake Superior. The body of the
mine has not yet been discovered. I have seen
one of our voyageurs who assures me that, some
fifteen months ago he saw a lump of two hundred
weight, as yellow as gold, in a river which falls
into Lake Superior. When heated, it could be
cut with an axe ; but the superstitious Indians,
regarding this boulder as a good spirit, would
never permit him to take any of it away. His
opinion is that the frost undermined this piece,
and that the mine is in that river. He has prom-
ised to search for it on his way back."
In the year 1730, there was some correspond-
ence with the authorities in France relative to
the discovery of copper at La Pointe, but, practi-
cally, little was done by the French, in developing
the mineral wealth of Lake Superior.
DU LUTH PLANTS THE FRENCH ARMS IN MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER in.
DU liUTH PLANTS THE ¥EENCH AKMS TK MUSTNESOTA
D^ Luth'B Relatives.— RandlnVlaita Extremity of Lalce Snperior. — Da Lntli
Plants King's Arms.— Post st Ksministigoya.— Pierre MoreaF, alias La Taapine.
—La Salle's Yiait.— A Pilot Deserts to the Sioux Country.— uaffart, Du Lath's
Interpreter.— Descent of the River St. Croix.— Meets Father Hennepin. — Crit-
icised by La Salle.— Trades with New England.— Visits France. — In Command
at Mackinaw. — Frenchmen Murdered at Keweenaw. — Da Luth Arrests and
Shoots Murderers. — Builds Port above Detroit. — With Indian Allies in the
Seneca War.— Du Lnth'a Brother. — Cadillac Defends the Brandy Trade.— Du
Luth Disapproves of Selling Brandy to the Indiana. — In Command at Fort
Prontenac. — Death.
In the year 1678, several prominent merchants
of Quebec and Montreal, with the support of
Governor Frontenac of Canada, formed a com-
pany to open trade mth the Sioux of Minnesota,
and a nephew of Patron, one of these merchants,
a brother-in-law of Sieur de Lusigny, an oflBcer
of the Governor's Guards, named Daniel Grey-
solon Du Luth [Doo-loo], a native of St. Germain
en Laye, a few miles from Paris, although Lahon-
tan speaks of >n"r» as from Lyons, was made the
leader of the expedition. At the battle of SenefEe
against the Prince of Orange, he was a gendarme,
and one of the King's guards.
Du Luth was also a cousin of Henry Tonty , who
had been in the revolutipn at Naples, to throw off
the Spanish dependence. Du Luth's name is va-
riously spelled in the documents of his day. Hen-
nepin* writes, " Du Luth ;" others, " Dulhut,"
" Du Lhu," " Du Lut," " De Luth," " Du Lud."
The temptation to procure valuable furs from
the Lake Superior region, contrary to the letter
of the Canadian law, was very great ; and more
than one Governor winked at the contraband
trade. Kandin, who visited the extremity of
Lake Superior, distributed presents to the Sioux
and Ottawas in the name of Governor Frontenac,
to secure the trade, and after his death, DuLuth
was sent to complete what he had begun. With
a party of twenty, seventeen Frenchmen and
three Indians, he left Quebec on the first of
September, 1678, and on the fifth of April, 1679,
Du Luth writes to Governor Frontenac, that he
is in the woods, about nine miles from Sault St.
Marie, at the entrance of Lake Superior, and
adds that : he " wUl not stir from the Nadous-
sioux, until further orders, and, peace being con-
cluded, he will set up the King's Arms ; lest the
English and other Europeans settled towards
California, take possession of the country."
On the second of July, 1679, he caused his
Majesty's Arms to be planted in the great village
of the Nadoussioux, called Kathio, where no
Frenchman had ever been, and at Songaskicons
and Houetbatons, one hundred and twenty leagues
distant from the former, where he also set up the
King's Arms. In a letter to Seignalay, published
for the first time by Harrisse, he writes that it
was in the village of Izatys [Issati]. Upon Fran-
quelin's map, the Mississippi branches into the
Tintonha [Teeton Sioux] country, and not far from
here, he alleges, was seen a tree upon which was
this legend: " Armis of the King cut on this tree
in the year 1679."
He established a post at Kamanistigoya, which
was distant fifteen leagues from the Grand Port-
age at the western extremity of Lake Superior ;
and here, on the fifteenth of September, he held
a council with the Assenipoulaks [Assineboines]
and other tribes, and urged them to be at peace
with the Sioux. During this summer, he dis-
patched Pierre Moreau, a celebrated voyageur,
nicknamed La Taupine, with letters to Governor
Frontenac, and valuable furs to the merchants.
His arrival at Quebec, created some excitement.
It was charged that the Governor corresponded
with Du Luth, and that he passed the beaver,
sent by him, in the name of merchants in his in-
terest. The Intendant of Justice, Du Chesneau,
wrote to the Minister of the Colonial Department
of France,' that " the man named La Taupine, a
famous coureur des bois, who set out in the month
of September of last year, 1678, to go to the Ou-
tawacs, with goods, and who has always been in-
terested with the Governor, having returned this
year, and I, being advised that he had traded in
10
EXFLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
two days, one hundred and fifty beaver robes in
one village of this trilje; amounting to nearly nine
hundred beavers, which is a matter of public no-
toriety ; and that he left with Du Lut two men
whom he had with him, considered myself bound
to have him arrested, and to interrogate him ; but
having presented me with a license from the Gov-
ernor, permitting him and his comrades, named
Lamonde and Dupuy, to repair to the Outawac,
to execute his secret orders, I had him set at
Uberty : and immediately on his going out, Sieur
Prevost, Town Mayor of Quebec, came at the head
of some soldiers to force the prison, in case he
was still there, pursuant to his orders from the
Governor, in these terms : " Sieur Prevost, Mayor
of Quebec, is ordered, in case the Intendant arrest
Pierre Moreau alias La Taupine, whom we have
sent to Quebec as bearer of our dispatches, upon
pretext of his having been in the bush, to set him
forthwith at Uberty, and to employ every means
for this purpose, at his peril. Done at Montreal,
the 5th September, 1679."
La Taupine, in due time returned to Lake Su-
perior with another consignment of merchandise.
The interpreter of Du Luth, and trader with the
Sioux, was Paffart, who had been a soldier under
La Salle at Fort Prontenac, and had deserted.
La Salle was commissioned in 1678, by the
King of Prance, to explore the West, and trade in
cibola, or buffalo skins, and on condition that he
did not traffic with the Ottauwaws, who carried
their beaver to Montreal.
On the 27th of August, 1679, he arrived at
Mackinaw, in the " Griffin," the first saiUng ves-
sel on the great Lakes of the "West, and from
thence went to Green Bay, where, in the face of
his commission, he traded for beaver. Loading
his vessel with peltries, he sent it back to Niag-
ara, while he, in.canoes, proceeded with his ex-
pedition to the Illinois River. The ship was.
never heard of, and for a time supposed to be lost,
but La Salle afterward learned from a Pawnee
boy fourteen or fifteen years of age, who was
brought prisoner to his fort on the Illinois by some
Indians, that the pilot of the " Griffin '"' had been
among the tribes of the Upper Missouri. He had
ascended the Mississippi with four others in two
birch canoes with goods and some hand grenades,
taken from the ship, with the intention of join
ing Du Luth, who had for months been trading
vnth the Sioux ; and if their efforts were unsuc-
cessful, they expected to push on to the English,
at Hudson's Bay. While ascending the Missis-
sippi they were attacked by Indians, and the pilot
and one other only survived, and they were sold
to the Indians on the Missouri.
In the month of June, 1680, DuLuth, accom-
panied by Paffart, an interpreter, with four
Frenchmen, also a Chippeway and a Sioux, with
two canoes, entered a river, the mouth o'f which
is eight leagues from the head of Lake Superior
on the South side, named Jfemitsakouat. Eeach-
ing its head waters, by a short portage, of half a
league, he reached a lake which was the source
of the Saint Croix River, and by this, he and his
companions were the first Europeans to journey
in a canoe from Lake Superior to the Mississippi.
La Salle writes, that Du Luth, finding that
the Sioux were on a hunt in the Mississippi val-
ley, below the Saint Croix, and that Aecault, Au-
gelle and Hennepin, who had come up from the
Illinois a few weeks before, were with them, de-
scended until he found them. In the same letter
he disregards the truth in order to disparage his
rival, and writes:
" Thirty-eight or forty leagues above the Chip-
peway they found the river by which the Sieur
Du Luth did descend to the Mississippi. He had
been three years, contrary to orders, with a com-
pany of twenty " coureurs du bois " on Lake Su-
perior; he had borne himself bravely, proclaiming
everywhere that at the head of his brave fellows
he did not fear the Grand Prevost, and t^at he
would compel an aronesty.
" While he was at Lake Superior, the Nadoue-
sioux, enticed by the presents that the late Sieur
Randin had made on the part of Count Fronte-
nac, and the Sauteurs [Ojibways], who are the sav-
ages who carry the peltries to Montreal, and who
dwell on Lake Superior, wishing to obey the re-
peated orders of the Count, made a peace to
unite the Sauteurs and French, and to trade with
the Nadouesioux, situated about sixty leagues to
the west of Lake Superior. Du Luth, to disguise
his desertion, seized the opportunity to make
some reputation for himself, sending two messen-
gers to the Count to negotiate a truce, during
which period their comrades negptiated still bet-
ter for beaver.
Several conferences were iield with the Nar
FAFFART, DU LVTWS INTEBPBETEB.
11
douessioux, and as he needed an interpreter, he led
off one of mine, named Taflart, formerly a sol-
dier at Fort Frontenac. During this period there
were frequent visits between the Sauteurs [Ojib-
■ways]*and Nadouesioux, and supposing that it
might increase the number of beaver skins, he
sent FafEart by land, with the Nadouesioux and
Sauteurs [Ojibways]. The young man on his re-
tnm, having given an account of the quantity of
beaver in that region, he wished to proceed thither
himself, and, guided by a Sauteur and a Nadoue-
sioux, and four Frenchmen, he ascended the river
Nemitsakouat, where, by a short portage, he de-
scended that stream, whereon he passed through
forty leagues of rapids [Upper St. Croix Biver],
and finding that the Nadouesioux were below with
my men and the Father, who had come down
again from the village of the Nadouesioux, he
discovered them. They went up again to the
village, and from thence they all together came
down. They returned by the river Ouisconsing,
and came back to Montreal, where Du Luth in-
sults the commissaries, and the deputy of the
'procureur general,' named d'Auteuil. Count
Frontenac had him arrested and imprisoned in
the castle of Quebec, with the intention of return-
ing him to France for the amnesty accorded to
the coureurs des bois, did not release him."
At this very period, another party charges
Frontenac as being Du Luth's particular friend.
Du Luth, during the fall of 1681, was engaged
in the beaver trade at Montreal and Quebec.
Du Chesneau, the Intendant of Justica for Can-
ada, on the 13th of November, 1681, wrote to the
Marquis de Siegnelay, in Paris : " Not content
with the profits to be derived from the countries
under the King's dominion, the desire of making
money everywhere, has led the Governor [Fron-
tenac], Boisseau, Du Lut and Patron, his uncle,
to send canoes loaded with peltries, to the En-
glish. It is said sixty thousand livres' worth has
been sent thither;" and he further stated that
there was a very general report that within five
or six daySr Frontenac and his associates had di-
vided the money received from the beavers sent
to New England.
At a conference in Quebec of some of the dis-
tinguished men in that city, relative to difficulties
with the Iroquois, held on the 10th of October,
1682, Du Luth was present. From thence he went
to Prance, and, early in 1683, consulted with the
Minister of Marine at Versailles relative to the
interests of trade in the Hudson's Bay and Lake
Superior region. Upon his return to Canada, he
departed for Mackinaw. Governor De la Barre,
on the 9th of November, 1683, wrote to the French
Government that the Indians west and north of
Lake Superior, " when they heard by expresses
sent them by Du Lhut, of his arrival at MissiU-
makinak, that he was coming, sent him word to
come quickly and they would unite with him to
prevent others going thither. If I stop that pass
as I hope, and as it is necessary to do, as the Eng-
lish of the Bay [Hudson's] excite against us the
savages, whom Sieur Du Lhut alone can quiet."
While stationed at Mackinaw he was a partici-
pant in a tragic occurrence. During the summer
of 1683 Jacques le Maire and Colin Berthot, while
on their way to trade at Keweenaw, on Lake Su-
perior, were surprised by three Indians, robbed,
and murdered. Du Luth was prompt to arrest
and punish the assassins. In a letter from Mack-
inaw, dated April 12, 1684, to the Governor of
Canada, he writes: "Be pleased to know. Sir,
that on the 24th of October last, I was told that
FoUe Avoine, accomplice in the murder and rob-
bery of the two Frenchmen, had arrived at Sault
Ste. Marie vyith fifteen families of the Sauteurs
[Ojibways] who had fled from Chagoamigon [La
Pointe] on account of an attack which they, to-
gether with the people of the land, made last
Spring upon the Nadouecioux [Dakotahs.]
"He believed himself safe at the Sault, on ac-
count of the number of allies and relatives he had
there. Eev. Father Albanel informed me that
the French at the Saut, being only twelve in num-
ber, had not arrested him, believing themselves
too weak to contend with such numbers, espe-
cially as the Sauteurs had declared that they
would not allow the French to redden the land
of their fathers with the blood of their brothers.
" On receiving this information, I immediately
resolved to take with me six Frenchmen, and em-
bark at the dawn of the next day for Sault Ste.
Marie, and if possible obtain possession of the
miurderer. I made known my design to the Eev.
Father Engalran, and, at my request, as he had
some business to arrange with Kev. Father Al-
banel, he placed himself in my canoe.
" Having arrived within a league of the village
12
EXPL0BER8 ANDPIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
of the Saut, the Rev. Father, the Chevalier de
Fourcille, Cafdonnierre, and I disembarked. I
caused the canoe, in which were Bariband, Le
Mere, La Fortune, and Macons, to proceed, while
we went across the wood to the house of the Eev.
Father, fearing that the savages, seeing me, might
suspect the object of my visit, and cause Folle
Avoine to escape. Finally, to cut the matter
short, I arrested him, and caused him to be
guarded day and night by six Frenchmen.
" I then called a council, at which I requested
all the savages of the place to be present, where
I repeated what I had often said to the Hurons
and Ottawas since the departure of M. Fere [Per-
rot], giving them the message you ordered me.
Sir, that in case there should be among them any
spirits so evil disposed as to follow the example
of those who have murdered the French on Lake
Superior and Lake Michigan, they must separate
the guilty from the innocent, as I did not wish
the whole nation to suffer, unless they protected
the guilty. * * * The savages held several
councils, to which I was invited, but their only
object seemed to be to exculpate the prisoner, in
order that I might release htm.
" All united in accusing Achiganaga and his
children, assuring themselves with the belief that
M. Fere, [Perrot] with his detachment would not
be able to arrest them, and wishing to persuade
me that they apprehended that all the Frenchmen
might be killed.
" I answered them, * * * ' As to the antici-
pated death of M. Fere [Perrot], as well as of the
other Frenchmen, that would not embarrass me,
since I believed neither the allies nor the nation
of Achiganaga would wish to have a war with us
to sustain an action so dark as that of which we
were speaking. Having only to attack a few
murderers, or, at most, those of their own family,
I was certain that the French would have them
dead or aUve.'
" This was the answer they had from me during
the three days that the councils lasted; after
which I embarked, at ten o'clock in the morning,
sustained by only twelve Frenchmen, to show a
few unruly persons who boasted of taking the
prisoner away from me, that the French did not
fear them.
" Daily I received accounts of the number of
savages that Achiganaga drew from his nation to
Kiaonan [Keweenaw] under pretext of going to
war In the spring against the liTadouecioux, to
avenge the death of one of his relatives, son of Ou-
enaus, but really to protect himself against us,
in case we should become convinced that his chil-
dren had killed the Frenchmen. This precaution
placed me between hope and fear respecting the
expedition which M. Pere [Perrot] had under-
taken.
" On the 24th of Ifovember, [1683], he came
across the wood at ten o'clock at night, to tell me
that he had arrested Achiganaga and four of his
children. He said they were not all guilty of the
murder, but had thought proper, in this affair, to
follow the custom of the savages, which is to seize
all the relatives. Folle Avoine, whom I had ar-
rested, he considered the most guilty, being with-
out doubt the originator of the mischief.
" I immediately gave orders that Folle Avoine
should be more closely confined, and not allowed
to speak to any one ; for I had also learned that
he had a brother, sister, and uncle in the village
of the Kiskakons.
" M. Pere informed me that he had released the
youngest son of Achiganaga, aged about thirteen
or fourteen years, that he might make known to
their nation and the Sauteurs [Ojibways], who are
at Nocke and in the neighborhood, the reason
why the French had arrested his father and bro-
thers. M. Pere bade him assure the savages that
if any one wished to complain of what he had
done, he would wait for them with a firm step ; for
he considered himself in a condition to set them
at defiance, having found at Kiaonau [Keweenaw]
eighteen Frenchmen who had wintered there.
" On the 25th, at daybreak, M. Pere embarked
at the Sault, with four good men whom I gave
him, to go and meet the prisoners. He left them
four leagues from there, imder a guard of twelve
Frenchmen ; and at two o'clock in the afternoon,
they arrived. I had prepared a room in my house
for the prisoners, in which they were placed imder
a strong guard, and were not allowed to converse
with any one.
" On the 26th, I commenced proceedings ; and
this, sir, is the course I pursued. I gave notice
to all the chiefs and others, to appear iat the
council which I had appointed, and gave to Folle
Avoine the privilege of selecting two of his rela
INDIANS CONDEMNED TO BE SSOT.
13
tives to support his interests ; and to the other
prisoners I made the same offer.
" The comicil being assembled, I sent for FoUe
Avoiae to be iaterrogated, and caused his answers
to be written, and afterwards they were read to
him, and inquiry made whether they were not,
word for word, what he had said. He was then
removed under a safe guard. I used the same
form with the two eldest sons of Achiganaga, and,
as Folle Avoiae had indirectly charged the father
with being accessory to the murder, I sent for
him and also for FoUe Avoine, and bringing them
into the council, confronted the four.
" FoUe Avoine and the two sons of Achiganaga
accused each other of committing the murder,
without denying that they were participators in
the crime. Achiganaga alone strongly maintained
that he knew nothing of the design of Folle
Avoine, nor of his children, and called on them
to say if he had advised them to kill the French-
men. They answered, 'Ko.'
" This confrontation, which the savages did not
expect, surprised them; and, seeing the prisoners
had convicted themselves of the murder, the
Chiefs said: 'It is enough; you accuse your-
selves; the French are masters of your bodies.'
" The next day I held another council, in which
I said there could be no doubt that the French-
men had been murdered, that the murderers were
known, and that they knew what was the prac-
tice among themselves upon such occasions. To
all this they said nothing, which obliged us on
the following day to hold another council in the
cabin of Brochet, where, after having spoken, and
seeing that they would make no decision, and that
all my councils ended only in reducing tobacco to
ashes, I told them that, since they did not wish to
decide, I should take the responsibility, and that
the' next day I would let them know the deter-
mination of the French and myself.
" It is proper,' Sir, you should know that I ob-
served all these forms only to see t£ they would
feel it their duty to render to us the same justice
that they do to each other, having had divers ex-
amples in which when the tribes of those who
had committed the murder did not wish to go to
war with the tribe aggrieved, the nearest rela-
tions of the murderers killed them themselves;
that is to say, man for man.
" On the 29th of November. I gathered together
the French that were here, and, after the interro-
gations and answers of the accused had been read
to them, the guilt of the three appeared so evi-
dent, from their own confessions, that the vote
was unanimous that all should die. But as the
French who remained at Kiaonan to pass the win-
ter had written to Father Engakan and to myself,
to beg us to treat the afEair with all possible len-
iency, the savages declaring that if they made
the prisoners die they would avenge themselves,
I told the gentlemen who were with me in coun-
cil that, this being a case without a precedent, I
believed it was expedient for the safety of the
French who would pass the winter in the Lake
Superior countiry to put to death only two, as that
of the third might bring about grievous conse-
quences, while the putting to death, man for
man, could give the savages no complaint, since
this is their custom. M. de la Tour, chief of the
Fathers, who had served much, sustained my
opinions by strong reasoning, and all decided that
two should be shot, namely, FoUe Avoine and
the older of the two brothers, while the younger
should be released, and hold his life, Sir, as a gift
from you.
" I then returned to the cabin of Brochet with
Messrs* BoisguiUot, Pere, De Eepentigny, De
Manthet, De la Ferte, and Macons, where were
all the chiefs of the Outawas du Sable, Outawas
Sinagos, Kiskakons, Sauteurs, D'Achillny, a part
of the Hurons, and Oumamens, the chief of the
Amikoys. I informed them of our decision *
* * that, the Frenchmen having been killed by
the different nations, one of each must die, and
that the same death they had caused the French
to suffer they must also suffer. * * * This
decision to put the murderers to death was a hard
stroke to them all, for none had believed that I
would dare to undertake it. * * * I then left
the council and asked the Eev. Fathers if they
wished to baptize the prisoners, which they did.
"An hour after, I put myself at the head of
forty-two Frenchmen, and, in sight of more than
four hundred savages, and within two himdred
paces of their fort, I caused the two murderers
to be shot. The impossibility of keeping them
imtU spring made me hasten their death. * ■•'
* "When M. Pere made the arrest, those who had
committed the murder confessed it; and when ho
asked them what they had dorie with our jrnod*
14
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
they answered that they were almost all con-
cealed. He proceeded to the place of conceal-
ment, and was very much surprised, as were also
the Trench with him, to find them, in fifteen or
twenty different places. By the carelessness of
the savages, the tobacco and powder were entire-
ly destroyed, having been placed in the pinery,
under the roots of trees, and being soaked in the
water caused by ten or twelve days' continuous
rain, which inundated all the lower country.
The season for snow and ice having come, they
had all the trouble in the world to get out the
bales of cloth.
" They then went to see the bodies, but could
not remove them, these miserable wretches hav-
ing thrown them into a marsh, and thrust them
down into holes which they had made. Not sat-
isfied with this, they had also piled branches of
trees upon the bodies, to prevent them from float-
ing when the water should rise in the spring,
hoping by this precaution the French would find
no trace of those who were killed, but would think
them drowned ; as they reported that they had
found in the lake on the other side of the Portage,
a boat with the sides all broken in, which they
believed to be a French boat.
" Those goods which the French were able to
secure, they took to Kiaonau [Keweenaw], where
were a number of Frenchmen who had gone there
to pass the winter, who knew nothing of the death
of Colin Berthot and Jacques le Maire, until M.
Pere arrived.
"The ten who formed M. Pere's detachment
having conferred together concerning the means
they should take to prevent a total loss, decided
to sell the goods to the highest bidder. The sale
was made for 1100 livres, which was to be paid in
beavers, to M. de la Chesnaye, to whom I send
the names of the purchsers.
" The savages who were present when Achiga-
naga and his children were arrested wished to
pass the calumet to M. Pere, and give Viim cap-
tives to satisfy him for the murder committed on
the two Frenchmen; but he knew their inten-
tion, and would not accept their ofier. He told
them neither a hundred captives nor a hundred
packs of beaver would give back the blood of his
brothers ; that the murderers must be given up
to me, and I would see what I would do.
" I caused M. Pere to repeat these things in the
council, that in future the savages need not think
by presents to save those who commit similar
deeds. Besides, sir, M. Pere showed plainly by
his conduct, that he is not strongly inclined to
favor the savages, as was reported. Indeed, I do
not know any one whom they fear more, yet who
flatters them less or knows them better.
" The criminals being in two different places,
M. Pere being obliged to keep four of them, sent
Messrs. de Repentigny, Manthet, and six other
Frenchmen, to arrest the two who were eight
leagues in the woods. Among others, M. de Re-
pentigny and M. de Manthet showed that they
feared nothing when their honor called them.
" M. de la Chevrotiere has also served well in
person, and by his advice, having pointed out
where the prisoners were. Achiganaga, who had
adopted him as a son, had told him where he
should himt during the winter. *****
It still remained for me to give to Achiganaga and
his three children the means to return to his
family. Their home from which they were taken
was nearly twenty-six leagues from here. Know-
ing their necessity, I told them you would not be
satisfied in giving them life ; you wished to pre-
serve it, by giving them all that was necessary to
prevent them from dying with hunger and cold
by the .way, and that your gift was made by my
hands. I gave them blankets, tobacco, meat,
hatchets, knives, twine to make nets for beavers,
and two bags of com, to supply them till they
could kill game.
" They departed two days after, the most con-
tented creatures in the world, but God was not ;
for when only two days' journey from here, the
old Achiganaga fell sick of the quinsy, and died,
and his children returned. When the news of his
death arrived, the greater part of the savages of
this place [Mackinaw] attributed it to the French,
saying we had caused him to die. I let them
talk, and laughed at them. It is only about two
months since the children of Achiganaga retumel
to Kiaonan."
Some of those opposed to Du Luth and Fron-
tenac, prejudiced the King of France relative to
the transaction we have described, and in a letter
to the Governor of Canada, the King writes : " It
appears to me that one of the principal causes of
the war arises from one Du Luth having caused
two to be killed who had assassinated two French-
ENGLISH TItADEBS CAPTUBSD.
15
men on Lake Superior ; and you sufficiently see
now much this man's voyage, which can not pro-
duce any advantage to the colony, and which was
permitted only in the interest of some private
persons, has contributed to distract the peace of
the colony."
Du Luth and his young brother appear to have
traded at the western extremity of Lake Superior,
and on the north shore, to Lake Nipegon.
In June, 1684, Governor De la Barre sent Guil-
letand Hebertfrom Montreal to request DuLuth
and I>urantaye to bring down voyageurs and In-
dians to assist in an expedition against the Iro-
quois of New York. Early in September, they
reported on the St. Lawrence, with one hundred
and fifty coureurs des bois and three him^dred and
fifty Indians ; but as a treaty had just been made
with the Senecas, they returned.
DelaBarre's successor, Governor DenonvlUe,
in a dispatch to the French Government, dated
November 12th, 1685, alludes to Du Luth being
in the far West, in these words : " I likewise sent
to M. De la Durantaye, who is at Lake Superior
under orders from M. De la Barre, and to Sieur
Du Luth, who is also at a great distance in an-
other direction, and all so far beyond reach that
neither the one nor the other can hear news from
me this year ; so that, not being able to see them
at soonest, before next July, I considered it best
not to think of undertaking any thing during the
whole of next year, especially as a great number
of our best men are among the Outaouacs, and
can not return before the ensuing summer. * * *
In regard to Sieur Du Luth, I sent him. orders to
repair here, so that I may learn the number of
savages on whom I may depend. He is accredit-
ed among them, and rendered great services to
M. De la Barre by a large number of savages he
brought to Niagara, who would have attacked
the Senecas, was it not for an express order from
M. De la Barre to the contrary."
In 1686, while at Mackinaw, he was orderea to
establish a post on the Detroit, near Lake Erie.
A portion of the order reads as follows : " After
having given all the orders that you may judge
necessary for the safety of this post, and having
well secured the obedience of the Indians, you
will return to Michilimackinac, there to await
Rev. Father Engelran, by whom I will commu-
nicate what I wish of you, there."
The design of this post was to block the pas-
sage of the EngUsh to the upper lakes. Before
it was established, in the fall of 1686, Thomas
Bosebodm, a daring trader from Albany, on the
Hudson, had found his way to the vicinity of
Mackinaw, and by the proffer of brandy, weak-
ened the allegiance of the tribes to the French.
A canoe coming to Mackinaw with dispatches
for the French and their allies, to march to the
Seneca country, in New York, perceived this New
York trader and associates, and, giving the alarm,
they were met by three hundred coureurs du
bois and captured.
In the spring of 1687 Du Luth,- Durantaye,
and Tonty aU left the vicinity of Detroit for Ni-
agara, and as they were coasting along Lake Erie
they met another EngUsh trader, a Scotchman
by birth, and by name Major Patrick McGregor,
a person of some influence, going with a number
of traders to Mackinaw. Having taken him pris-
oner, he was sent with Roseboom to Montreal.
Du Luth, Tonty, and Durantaye arrived at Ni-
agara on the 27th of June, 1687, with one hun-
dred and seventy French voyageurs, besides In-
dians, and on the 10th of July joined the army of
Denonville at the mouth of the Genesee River,
and on the 13th Du Luth and his associates had
a skirmish near a Seneca village, now the site of
the town of Victor, twenty miles southeast of the
city of Rochester, New York. Governor Denon-
ville, in a report, writes: " On the 13th, about 4
o'clock in the afternoon, having passed through
two dangerous defiles, we arrived at the third,
where we were vigorously attacked by eight hun-
dred Senecas, two hundred of whom fired, wish-
ing to attack our rear, while the rest would attack
our front, but the resistance, made produced
such a great consternation that they soon resolved
to fly. * * * "We witnessed the pmful sight
of the usual cruelties of the savages, who cut the
dead into quarters, as is done in slaughter houses,
in order to put them into the kettle. The greater
number were opened while stiU warm, that the
blood might be drunk. Our rascally Otaoas dis-
tinguished themselves particularly by these bar-
barities. * * * We had five or six men kiUed
on the spot, French and Indians, and about
twenty wounded, among the first of whom was the
Rev. Father Angelran, superior of all the Otaoan
Missions, by a very severe gun-shot. It is a great
16
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
misfortune that this wound will prevent him go-
ing back again, for he is a man of capacity."
In the order to Du Luth assigning him to duty
at the post on the site of the modem Fort Gra-
tiot, aboye the city of Detroit, the Governor of
Canada said: " If you can so arrange your affairs
that your brother can be near you la the Spring,
I shall be very glad. He is an intelligent lad,
and might be a great assistance to you; he might
also be very serviceable to us."
This lad, Greysolon de la Toiirette, during the
winter of 1686-7 was trading among the Assina-
boines and other tribes at the west end of Lake
Superior, but, upon receiving a dispatch, hastened
to his brother, journeying in a canoe without any
escort from Mackinaw. He did not arrive until
after the battle with the Senecas. Governor Den-
onville, on the 25th of August, 1687, wrote:
" Du Luth's brother, who has recently arrived
from the rivers above the Lake of the AUempi-
gons [Nipegon], assures me that he saw more than
fifteen hundred persons come to trade with him,
and they were very sorry he had not goods suffi-
cient to satisfy them. They are of the tribes ac-
customed to resort to the English at Port Nelson
and Eiver Bourbon, where, they say, they did not
go this year, through Sieur Du Lhu's influence."
After the battle in the vicinity of Rochester,
New York, Du Luth, with his celebrated cousin,
Henry Tonty, returned together as far as the post
above the present city of Detroit, Michigan, but
this point, after 1688, was not again occupied.
From this period Du Luth becomes less prom-
inent. At the time when the Jesuits attempted
to exclude brandy from the Indian country a bit-
ter controversy arose between them and the
traders. Cadillac, a Gascon by birth, command-
ing Tort Buade, at Mackinaw, on August 3, 1695,
wrote to Count Frontenac: "Now, what reason
can we assign that the savages should not drink
brandy bought with their own money as well as
we? Is it prohibited to prevent them from be-
coming intoxicated? Or is it because the use of
brandy reduces them to extreme piisery, placing
it out of their power to make war by depriving
them of clothing and arms? If such representa-
tions in regard to the Indians have been made to
the Count, they are very false, as every one knows
who is acquainted with the ways of the savages.
* * * It is bad faith to represent to the Count
that the sale of brandy reduces the savage to a
state of nudity, arid by that means places it out
of his power to make war, since he never goes to
war in any other condition. * * * Perhaps it
will be said that the sale of brandy makes the
labors of the missionaries unfruitful. It is neces-
sary to examine this proposition. If the mission-
aries care for only the extension of commerce,
pursuing the course they have hitherto, I agree
to it; but if it is the use of brandy that hinders
the advancement of the cause of God, I deny it,
for it is a fact which no one can deny that there
are a great number of savages who never drink
brandy, yet who are not, for that, better Chris-
tians.
" All the Sioux, the most numerous of all the
tribes, who inhabit the region along the shore of
Lake Superior, do not even like the smell of
brandy. Are they more advanced in religion for
that? They do not wish to have the subject men-
tioned, and when the missionaries address them
they only laugh at the foolishness of pneaching.
Yet these priests boldly fling before the eyes of
Europeans, whole volumes filled with glowing
descriptions of the conversion of souls by thou-
sands in this country, causing, the poor missiona-
ries from Europe, to run to martyrdom as flies to
sugar and honey."
Du Luth, or Du Lhut, as he wrote his name,
during this discussion, was foimd upon the side
of order alid good morals. His attestation is as
follows : "I certify that at different periods I
have lived about ten years among the Ottawa
nation, from the time that I made an exploration
to the Nadouecioux people until Port Saint Jo-
seph was established by order of the Monsieur
Marquis Denonville, Governor General, at the
head of the Detroit of Lake Erie, which is in the
Iroquois country, and which I had the honor to
command. During this period, I have seen that
the trade in eau-de-vie (brandy) produced great
disorder, the father killing the son, and the son
throwing his mother into the fire; and I maintain
that, morally speaking, it is impossible to export
brandy to the woods and distant missions, with-
out danger of its leading to misery."
Governor Prontenac, in an expedition against
the Oneidas of New York, arrived at Port Pron-
tenac, on the 19th of July, 1695, and Captain Du
Luth was left in command with forty soldiers.
DU LUTH AFFLICTED WITH GOUT.
17
and masons and carpenters, with orders to erect
new buildings. In about four weeks he erected
a building one hundred and twenty feet la length,
containing oflBcers' quarters, store-rooms, a bakery
and a chapel. Early in 1637 he was still in com-
mand of the post, and in a report it is mentioned
that " everybody was then in good health, except
Captain Dulhut the commander, who was unwell
of the gout."
It was just before this period, that as a member
of the Boman Catholic Church, he was firmly
impressed that he had been helped by prayers
which he addressed to a deceased Iroquois girl,
who had died in the odor of sanctity, and, as a
thank offering, signed the following certificate :
" I, the subscriber, certify to all whom it may
concern, that having been tormented by the gout,
for the space of twenty-three years, and with such
severe pains, that it gave me no rest for the spae
of three months at a time, I addressed myself to
Catherine Tegahkouita, an Iroquois virgin de-
ceased at the Sault Saint Louis, in the reputation
of sanctity, and I promised her to visit her tomb,
if God should give me health, through her inter-
cession. I have been as perfectly cured at the
end of one novena, which I made in her honor,
that after five months, I have not perceived the
slightest touch of my gout. Given at Fort Tron-
tenac, this 18th day of August, 1696."
As soon as cold weather returned, his old mal-
ady again appeared. Hediedearlyin A. D. 1710.
, Marquis de VaudreuU, Governor of Canada, un-
der date of first of May of that year, wrote to
Count Pon+^chartrain, Colonial Minister at Paris,
" Captain Du Lud died this winter. He was a
very honest man."
18
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTEE IV.
FIEST WHITE MEN AT FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA.
Falls of St. Anthony Visited by White Men.— La Salle Gives the First Description
of Upper Mississippi Valley. — Accault, the LeaderrAccompanied by Augelle
and Hennepin, at Falls of Saint Anthony. — Hennepin Declared Unreliable by
La Salle. — His Early Life. — His First Book Criticised by Abbe Eerhou and
Tronson. — Deceptive Map. — First Meeting with Sioux.| — Astonishment at
Reading His Breviary,— Sioux Name for Guns.— Accault and Hennepin at
Lake Pepin. — Leave the River Below Saint Paul. — At Uille Lacs. — A Sweating
Cabin, — Sioux Wonder at Mariner's Compass. — Fears of an Iron Pot. — Making
a Dictionary. — Infant Baptised. — Route to the Pacific. — Hennepin Descends
Rum River. — First Visit to Falls of Saint Anthony. — On a Buffalo Hunt. — Meets
Du Luth.— Returns to Mille Lacs.— With Du Luth at Falls of St. Anthony.—
Returns to France. — Subsetjuent Life. — His Books Examined. — Denies in First
BookHisDescenttotheGulfof Mexico.— Dispute with Du Luth at Falls of St,
Anthony. — Patronage of Du Luth. — Tribute to Du Luth. — Hennepin's Answer
to Criticisms. — Denounced by D'Iberville and Father Gravier. — Residence in
Rome.
In the summer of 1680, Michael Accault (AJso),
Hennepin, the Pranciscan missionary, Augelle,
Du Luth, and Paffart aU' visited the Palls of
Saint Anthony.
The first description of the valley of the upper
Mississippi was written by La Salle, at Fort
Prontenac, on Lake Ontario, on the 22d of Au-
gust, 1682, a month before Hennepin, in Paris,
obtained a license to print, and some time before
the Pranciscan's first work, was issued from the
press.
La Salle's knowledge must have been received
from Michael Accault, the leader of the expedi-
tion, Augelle, his comrade, or the clerical attache,
the Pranciscan, Hennepin.
It differs from Hennepin's narrative in its free-
dom from bombast, and if its statements are to
be credited, the Pranciscan must be looked on as
one given to exaggeration. The careful student,
however, soon learns to be cautious in receiving
the statement of any of the early explorers and
ecclesiastics of the Northwest. The Pranciscan
depreciated the Jesuit missionary, and La Salle
did not hesitate to misrepresent Du Luth and
others for his own exaltation. La Salle makes
statements which we deem to be wide of the
truth when his prejudices are aroused.
At the very time that the Intendant of Justice
in Canada is complaining that Governor Pronte-
nac is a friend and correspondent of Du Luth
La Salle writes to his friends in Paris, that Du
Luth is looked upon as an outlaw by the governor.
While official documents prove that Du Luth
was in Minnesota a year before Accault and asso-
ciatesj yet La Salle writes: " Moreover, the Na-
donesioux is not a region which he has discov-
ered. It is known that it was discovered a long
time before, and that the Bev. Pather Hennepin
and Michael Accault were there before him."
La Salle in this communication describes Ac-
cault as one well acquauited with the language
and names of the Indians of the lUinois region,
and also " cool, brave, and prudent," and the head
of the party of exploration.
We now proceed with the first description of
the country above the Wisconsin, to which ia
given, for the first and only time, by any writer,
the Sioux name, Meschetz Odeba, perhaps in-
tended for Meshdeke Wakpa, Elver of the Poxes.
He describes the Upper Mississippi in these
words : " PoUowing the windings of the Missis-
sippi, they found the river Ouisconsing, Wiscon-
sing, or Meschetz Odeba, which flows between
Bay of Puans and the Grand river. * *■ * About
twenty-three or twenty-four leagues to the north
or. northwest of the mouth of the Ouisconsing,
* * * they found the Black river, called by the
Nadouesioux, Chabadeba [Chapa Wakpa, Beaver
river] not very large, the mouth of which is bor-
dered on the two shores by alders.
" Ascending about thirty leagues, almost at the
same point of the compass, is the BufEalo river
[Chippewa], as large at its mouth as that of the
IlUnois. They follow it ten or twelve leagues,
where it is deep, small and without rapids, bor-
dered by hills which vriden out from time to time
to form prairies."
About three o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th
of April, 1680, the travelers were met by a war
party of one himdred Sioux in thirty-three birch
bark canoes. "Michael Accault, who was the
HENNEPIN CRITICISED BT LA SALLE.
19
leader," says La Salle, "presented the Calumet."
The Indians were presented by Accault with
twenty knives and a fathom and a half of tobacco
and some goods. Proceeding with the Indians
ten days, on the 22d of April the isles in the Mis-
sissippi were reached, where the Sioux had killed
some Maskoutens, and they halted to weep over
the death of two of their own number ; and to
assuage their grief, Accault gave them in trade a
box of goods and twenty-four hatchets.
When they were eight leagues below the Falls
of Saint Anthony, they resolved to go by land to
their village, sixty leagues distant. They were
well received ; the only strife among the villages
was that which resulted from the desire to have
a Frenchman ta their midst. La Salle also states
that it was not correct to give the impression that
Du Luth had rescued his men from captivity, for
they could not be properly called prisoners.
He continues: "In going up the Mississippi
again, twenty leagues above that river [Saint
CroixJ is found the falls, which those I sent, and
who passing there first, named Saint Anthony.
It is thirty or forty feet high, and the river is nar-
rower here than elsewhere. There is a small
island in the, midst of the chute, and the two
.banks of the river are not bordered by high hills,
which gradually diminish at this point, but the
country on each side is covered with thin woods,
such as oaks and other hard woods, scattered wide
apart.
" The canoes were carried three or four hun-
dred steps, and eight leagues above was foimd
the west [east?] bank of the river of the Nadoue-
sioux, ending in a lake named Issati, which ex-
pands into a great marsh, where the wild rice
grows toward the mouth."
In the latter part of his letter La Salle uses the
f oUowiag language relative to his old chaplain:
" I beUeved that it was appropriate to make for
you the narrative of the adventures of this canoe,
because I doubt not that they will speak of it, and
if you wish to confer with the Father Louis Hen-
nepin, Recollect, who has returned to France, you
must know him a little, because he wiU not fail
to exaggerate all things; it is his character, and
to me he has written as if he were about to be
burned when he was not even in danger, but he
believes that it is honorable to act in this manner,
and he speaks more conformably to that which
he wishes than to that which he knows."
Hennepin was bom in Ath, an inland town of
the Netherlands. From boyhood he longed to
visit foreign lands, and it is not to be wondered
at that he assumed the priest's garb, for next to
the soldier's life, it suited one of wandering pro-
pensities.
At one time he is on a begging expedition to
some of the towns on the sea coast. In a few
months he occupies the post of chaplain at an
hospital, where he shrives the dying and admin-
isters extreme unction. From the quiet of the
hospital he proceeds to the camp, and is present
at the battle of Seneffe, which occurred in the
year 1674.
His whole mind, from the time that he became
a priest, appears to have been on " things seen
and temporal," rather than on those that are " un-
seen and eternal." While on duty at some of the
ports of the Straits of Dover, he exhibited the
characteristic of an ancient Athenian more than
that of a professed successor of the Apostles.
He sought out the society of strang<;rs " who
spent their time in nothing else but either to tell
or to hear some new thing." With perfect non-
chalance he confesses that notwithstanding the
nauseating fumes of tobacco, he used to slip be-
hind the doors of sailors' taverns, and spend days,
without regard to the loss of his meals, listening
to the adventures and hair-breadth escapes of the
mariners in lands beyond the sea.
In the year 1676, he received a welcome order
from his Superior, requiring him to embark for
Canada. Unaccustomed to the world, and arbi-
trary in his disposition, he rendered the cabin of
the ship in which he sailed any thing but heav-
enly. As in modem days, the passengers in a
vessel to the new world were composed of hete-
rogeneous materials. There were young women
going out in search for brothers or husbands, ec-
clesiastics, and those engaged in the then new,
but profitable, conunerce in furs. One of his
fellow passengers was the talented and enterpri-
prising, though unfortunate, La Salle, v^th whom
he was afterwards associated. If he is to be
credited, his intercourse with La SaUe was not
very pleasant on ship-board. The young women,
tired of being cooped up in the narrow accommo-
dations of the ship, when the evening was fair
20
EXPLOBEBS AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOIA.
sought the deck, and engaged in the rude dances
of the Trench peasantry of that age. Hennepin,
feeling that it was improper, began to assume
the air of the priest, and forbade the sport. La
Salle, feeling that his interference was uncalled
for, called him a pedant, and took the side of the
girls, and during the voyage there were stormy
discussions.
Good humor appears to have been restored
when they left the ship, for Hennepin would oth-
erwise have not been the companion of La Salle
in his great western journey.
Sojourning for a short period at Quebec, the
adventure-loving Tranciscan is permitted to go
to a mission station on or near the site of the
present town of Kingston, Canada West.
Here there was much to gratify his love of
novelty, and he passed considerable time in ram-
bling among the Iroquois of New York. In 1678
he returned to Quebec, and was ordered to join
the expedition of Eobert La Salle.
On the 6th of December Father Hennepin and
a portion of the exploring party had entered the
Niagara river. In the vicinity of the Falls, the
winter was passed, and while the artisans were
preparing a ship above the Falls, to navigate the
great lakes, the KecoUect whiled away the hours,
in studying the manners and customs of the Sen-
eca Indians, and in admiring the sublimest han-
diwork of God on the globe.
On the 7th of August, 1679, the ship being
completely rigged, imf urled its sails to the breezes
of Lake Erie. The vessel was named the " Grtf-
fln," in honor of the arms of Frontenac, Governor
of Canada, the first ship of European construc-
tion that had ever ploughed the waters of the
great inland seas of North America.
Alter encountering a violent and dangerous
storm on one of the lakes, during which they had
given up all hope of escaping shipwreck, on the
27th of the month, they were safely moored in
the harbor of " Missilimackinack." From thence
the party proceeded to Green Bay, where they
left the ship, procured canoes, and continued
along the coast of Lake Michigan. By the mid-
dle of January, 1680, La Salle had conducted his
expedition to the Illinois River, and, on an emi-
nence near Lake Peoria, he commenced, with
much heaviness of heart, the erection of a fort.
which he called Crevecceur, on account of the
many disappointments he had experienced.
On the last of February, Accault, Augelle, and
Hennepin left to ascend the Mississippi.
The first work bearing the name of the Rev-
erend Father Louis Hennepin, Franciscan Mis-
sionary of the EecoUect order, was entitled, " De-
scription de la Louisiane," and in 1683 published
in Paris.
As soon as the book appeared it yas criticised.
Abbe Bernou, on the 29th of February, 1684,
writes from Rome about the "paltry book" (mes-
hcant livre) of Father Hennepin. About a year
before the pious Tronson, under date of March
13, 1683, wrote to a friend: " I have interviewed
the P. Recollect, who pretends to have descended
the Mississippi river to the Gulf of Mexico. I do
not know that one will Relieve what he speaks any
more than that which is in the printed relation of
P. Louis, which I send you that you may make
your own reflections."
On the map accompanying his first book, he
boldly marks a Recollect Mission many mUes
north of the point he had visited. In the Utrecht
edition of 1697 this deliberate fraud is erased.
Throughout the work he assumes, that he was
the leader of the expedition, and magnifies tripes .
into tragedies. For instance, Mr. La Salle writes
that Michael Accault, also vreitten Ako, who was
the leader, presented the Sioux with the calu-
met ;" but Hennepin makes the occurrence more
formidable.
He writes : " Our prayers were heard, when on
the 11th of April, 1680, about two o'clock in the
afternoon, we suddenly perceived thirty -three
bark canoes manned by "a hundred and twenty
Indians coming down with very great speed, on a
war party, against the Miamis, Illinois and Maro-
as. These Indians surrounded us, and while at
a distance, discharged some arrows at us, but as
they approached our canoe, the old men seeing us
with the calumet of peace in our hands, prevent-
ed the young men from killing us. These sava-
ges leaping from their canoes, some on land,
others into the water, with frightful cries and
yells approached us, and as we madfe no resist-
ance, being only three against so great a number,
one of them wrenched our calUmet from our
hands, while our canoe and theirs were tied to
the shore. We first presented to them a piece of
ITHNJfEPIN'S DIFFICTJLTY WITH PBAYEB-BOOK.
21
French tobacco, better for smoking than theirs'
and the eldest among them uttered the words'
" Miamiha, Miamiha."
" As we did not imderstand their language, we
took a little stick, and by signs which we made
on the sand, showed them that their enemies, the
Miamis, whom they sought, had fled across the
river Colbert [Mississippi] to join the Islinois;
when they saw themselves discovered and unable
to surprise their enemies, three or four old men
laying their hands on my head, wept in a mourn-
ful tone. -
" With a spare handkerchief I had left I wiped
away their tears, 'but they would not smoke our
Calumet. They made us cross the river with
great cries, while all shouted with tears in their
eyes; they made us row before them, and we
heard yells capable of striking the most resolute
with terror. After landing our canoe and goods,
part of which had already been taken, we made a
fire to boil our kettle, and we gave them two large
wild turkeys which we had killed. These Indians
having called an assembly to deliberate what they
were to do with us, the two head chiefs of the
party approaching, showed us by signs that the
warriors wished to tomahawk us. This com-
pelled me to go to the war chiefs with one young
man, leaving the other by our property, and
throw into their midst six axes, fifteen knives
and six fathom of our black tobacco ; and then
bringing down my head, I showed them with an
axe that they might kill me, if they thought
proper. This present appeased many individual
members, who gave us some beaver to eat, put-
ting the three first morsels into our mouths, accor-
ding to the custom of the country, and blowing on
the meat, which was too hot, before putting the
bark dish before us to let us eat as we liked. We
spent the night in anxiety, because, before reti-
rmg at night, they had returned us our peace
calumet.
" Our two boatmen were resolved to sell their
lives dearly, and to resist if attacked ; their arms
and swords were ready. As for my own part, I
determined to allow myself to be killed without
any resistance ; as I was going to announce to
them a God who had been foully accused, un-
justly condemned, and cruelly crucified, without
showing the least aversion to those who put him
to death. We watched in turn, in our anxiety,
so as not to be surprised asleep. The next morn-
ing, a chief named Narrhetoba asked for the
peace calumet, flUed it with willow bark, and all
smoked. It was then signified that the white
men were to return with them to theiv villages."
In his narrative the Franciscan remarks, "I
found it diflBcult to say my office before these
Indians. Many seeing me move my lips, said in
a fierce tone, ' Ouakanche.' Michael, all out of
countenance, told me, that If I continued to say
my breviary, we should all three be kiUed, and
the Picard begged me at least to pray apart, so as
not to provoke them. I followed the latter's
advice, but the more I concealed myself the more
I had the Indians at my heels ; for when I en-
tered the wood, they thought I was going to hide
some goods under ground, so that I knew not on
what side to turn to pray, for they never let me
out of sight. This obUged me to beg pardon of
my canoe -men, assuring them I could not dis-
pense with saying my office. By the word, ' Ou-
akanche,' the Indians meant that the book I was
reading was a spirit, but by their gesture they
nevertheless showed a kind of aversion, so that
to accustom them to it, I chanted the litany of
the Blessed Virgin in the canoe, with my book
opened. They thought that the breviary was a
spirit which taught me to sing for their diversion ;
for these people are naturally fond of singing."
This is the first mention of a Dahkotah word
in a European book. The savages were annoyed
rather than em-aged, at seeing the white man
reading a book, and exclaimed, " Wakan-de I"
this is wonderful or supernatural. The war
party was composed of several bands of the M'de-
wahfcantonwan Dahkotahs, and there was a di-
versity of opinion in relation to the disposition
that should be made of the white men. The
relatives of those who had been MUed by the
Miamis, were in favor of taking their scalps, but
others were anxious to retain the favor of the
French, and open a trading intercourse.
Perceiving one of the canoe-men shoot a wUd
turkey, they called the gun, " Manza Ouackange,"
iron that has understanding; more correctly,
" Maza Wakande," this is the supernatural metal.
Aquipaguetm, one of the head men, resorted
to the following device to obtain merchandise.
Says the Father, "This wUy savage had the
bones of some distinguished relative, which he
22
EXPLOBEBS AND PJONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
preserved with great care in. some skins dressed
and adorned with several rows of black and red
porcupine quills. From time to time lie assem-
bled his men to give it a smoke, and made us
come several days to cover the bones with goods,
and by a present wipe away the tears he had shed
for him, and for his own son kiUed by the Miamis.
To appease this captious man, we threw on the
bones several fathoms of tobacco, axes, knives,
beads, and some black and white wampum brace-
lets. * * * "We slept at the point of the Lake
of Tears [Lake Pepin], which we so called from
the tears which this chief shed all night long, or
by one of his sons whoin he caused to weep when
he grew tired."
The next day, after four or five leagues' sail, a
chief came, and teUing them to leave their canoes,
he pulled up three piles of grass for seats. Then
taking a piece of cedar full of little holes, he
placed a stick into one, which he revolved between
the palms of his hands, until he kindled a fire,
and informed the Frenchmen that they would be
at Mille Lac in six days. On the nineteenth day
after their captivity, they arrived in the vicinity
of Saint Paul, not far, it is probable, from the
marshy groimd on which the Kaposia band once
lived, and now called Pig's Eye.
The journal remarks, " Having arrived on the
nineteenth day of our navigation, five leagues
below St. Anthony's Palls, these Indians landed
us in a bay, broke our canoe to nieces, and se-
creted their own in the reeds."
They then followed the traU to MUle Lac, sixty
leagues distant. As they approached their villa-
ges, the various bands began to show their spoils.
The tobacco was highly prized, and led to some
contention. The chalice of the Father, which
glistened in the ^sun, they were afraid to touch,
supposing it was "wakan." After five days'
walk they reached the Issati [Dalikptah] settle-
ments in the valley of the Bum or Knife river.
The different bands each conducted a Frenchman
to their village, the chief Aquipaguetin taking
charge of Hennepin. After marching through
the marshes towards the sources of Bum river,
five wives of the chief, in three bark canoes, met
them and took them a short league to an island
where their cabins were.
An aged Indian kindly rubbed down the way-
worn Franciscan; placing him on a bear -skin
near the fire, he anointed his legs and the soles
of his feet with wildcat oil.
The son of the chief took great pleasure in car-
rying upon his bare back the priest's robe with
dead men's bones enveloped. It was called Pere
■ Louis Chinnen. In the Dahkotah language Shin-
na or Shinnan signifies a buffalo robe.
Hennepin's description of his Ufe on the island
is in these words :
" The day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, who
was the head of a large family, covered me with
a robe made of ten large dressed beaver skins,
trimmed with porcupine quills. This Indian
showed me five or six of his vnves, telling them,
as I afterwards learned, that they shoul'' in fu'
ture regard me as one of their children.
" He set before me a bark dish full of fish, and
seeing that I could not rise from the ground, he
had a small sweating-cabin made, In which he
made me enter with four Indians. This cabin he
covered with buffalo skins, and inside he put
stones red-hot. He made me a sign to do as the
others before beginning to sweat, but I merely
concealed my nakedness with a handkerchief.
As soon as these Indians had -several times
breathed out quite violently, he began to sing vo-
ciferously, the others putting their hands on me
and rubbing me while they wept bitterly. I be-
gan to faint, but I came out and could scarcely
take my habit to put on. When he made me
sweat thus three times a week, I felt as strong as
ever."
The mariner's compass was a constant source
of wonder and amazement. Aquipaguetin hav-
ing assembled the braves, would ask Hennepin
to show his compass. Perceiving that the needle
turned, the chief harangued his men, and -told
them that the Europeans were spirits, capable of
doing any thing.
In the Franciscan's possession was an iron pot
with feet like lions', which the Indians would not
touch unless their hands were wrapped in buffalo
skins. The women'looked upon it as "wakan,"
and would not enter the cabin where it was.
" The chiefs of these savages, seeing that I was
desirous to learn, frequently made me write,
naming all the parts of the human body ; and as
I would not put on paper certain ii;idelicate words,
at which they do not blush, they were heartUy
amused."
nENNEPlN'8 VISIT TO FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY.
23
They often asked the Franciscaii questions, to
answer which it was necessary to refer to his lex-
icon. Tliis appeared very strange, and, as they
had no word for paper, they said, " That white
thing must he a spirit which tells Pare Louis all
we say."
Hennepin remarks : " These Indians often
asked me how many wives and children I had,
and how old I was, that is, how many winters ;
for so these natives always count. Npver illu-
mined by the Ught of faith, they were surprised
at my answer. Pointing to our two Frenchmen,
whom I was then visiting, at-a point three leagues
from our village, I told them that a man among
us could only have one wife ; that as for me, I
had promised the Master of life to live as they
saw me, and to come and Uve with them to teach
them to be like the French.
" But that gross people, till then lawless and
faithless, turned all I said into ridicule. ' How,'
said they, ' would you have these two men with
thee have wives? Ours would not live with them,
for they have hair all over their face, and we have
none there or elsewhere.' In fact, they were
never better pleased with me than when I was
shaved, and from a complaisance, certainly not
criminal, I shaved every week.
" As often as I went to visit the cabins, I found
a sick child, whose father's name was Mamenisi.
Michael Ako would not accompany me; the
Picard du Gay alone followed me to act as spon-
sor, or, rather, to witness the baptism.
" I christened the child Antoinette, in honor pf
St. Anthony of Padua, as weU as for the Picard's
name, which was Anthony Auguelle. He was a
native of Amiens, and nephew of the Procurator-
General of the Premonstratensians both now at
Paris.. Having poured natural water on the head
and uttered these words : ' Creature of God, I
baptize thee ui the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' I took half an
altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands
of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and put
it on the body of the baptized child; for as I
could not say mass for want of wine and vest-
ments, this piece of linen could not be put to bet-
ter use than to enshroud the first Christian child
among these tribes. I do not know whether the
softness of the linen had refreshed her, but she
was the next day smiling in her mother's arms.
who believed that I had cured the child ; but she
died soon after, to my great consolation.
" During my stay among them, there arrived
four savages, who said they were come alone five
hundred leagues from the west, and had been four
months upon the way. They assured us there
was no such place as the Straits of Anian, and
that they had traveled without resting, except to
sleep, and had not seen or passed over any great
lake, by which phrase they always mean the sea.
" They further inforjned us that the nation of
the Assenipoulacs [Assiniboines] who lie north-
east of Issati, was not above six or seven days'
journey ; that none of the nations, within their
knowledge, who lie to the east or northwest, had
any great lake about their countries, which were
very large, but only rivers, which came from the
north. They further assured us that there were
very few forests in the countries through which
they passed, insomuch that now and then they
were forced to make fires of buffaloes' dung to
boil their food. All these circumstances make it
appear that there is no such place as the Straits
of Anian, as we usually see them set down on the
maps. And whatever efforts have been made for
many years past by the English and Dutch, to
find out a passage to the Frozen Sea, they have
not yet been able to effect it. But by the help of
my discovery aud the assistance of God, I doubt
not but a passage may still be found, and that an
easy one too.
" For example, we may be transported into the
Pacific Sea by rivers which are large and capable
of carrying gi-eat vessels, and from flience it is
very easy to go to China and Japan, without cross-
ing the equinoctial line; and, in all probability,
Japan is on the same continent as America."
Hennepin in his first book, thus describes his
first visit to the Falls of St. Anthony : " In the
beginiung of July, 1680, we descended the [Eimi]
Eiver in a canoe southward, with the great chief
Ouasicoude [Wauzeekootay] that is to say Pierced
Pine, with about eighty cabins composed of more
than a himdred and thirty families and about
two hundred and fifty warriors. Scarcely would
the Indians give me a place in their little flotilla,
for they had only old canoes. They went four
leagues lower down, to get birch bark to make
some more. Having made a hole in the ground,
to hide our silver chalice and our papers, till our
24
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
return from the liiint, and keeping only our bre-
viary, so as not to be loaded, I stood on the bank
of the lake formed by the river we had called St.
Francis [now Eum] and stretched out my hand
to the canoes as they rapidly passed in succession.
"Our Frenchmen also had one for themselves,
which the Indians had given them. They would
not take me in, Michael Ako saying that he had
taken me long enough to satisfy him. I was hurt
at this answer, seeing myself thus abandoned by
Christians, to whom I had always done good, as
they both often acknowledged; but God never
having abandoned me on that painful voyage, in-
spired two Indians to take me in their little
canoe, where I had no other employment than to
bale out with a little bark tray, the water which
entered by little holes. This I did not do with-
out getting all wet. This boat might, indeed, be
called a death box, for its hghtness and fragility.
These canoes do not generally weigh over fifty
pounds, the least motion of the body upsets them,
unless you are long accustomed to that kind of
navigation.
" On disembarking in the evening, the Picard,
as an pxcuse, told me that their canoe was half-
rotten, and that had we been three in it, we
should have run a great risk of remaining on the
way. * * * Four days after our departure for
the buffalo hunt, we halted eight leagues above
St. Anthony of Padua's FaUs, on an eminence
opposite the mouth of the Kiver St. Francis [Eum]
* * * The Picard and myself went to look for
haws, gooseberries, and Uttle wild fruit, which
often did us more harm than good. This obUged
us to go alone, as Michael Ako refused, in a
vreetched canoe, to Ouisconsin river, which was
more than a hvmdred leagues off, to see whether
the Sieur de la Salle had sent to that place a re-
inforcement of men, vsrith powder, lead, and
other munitions, as he had promised us.
"The Indians would not have suffered this
voyage had not one of the three remained with
them. They wished me to stay, but Michael
Ako absolutely refused. As we were making the
portage of our canoe at St. Anthony of Padua's
FaUs, we perceived five or six of our Indians who
had taken the start ; one of them was up in an
oak opposite the great f aU, weeping bitterly, with
a rich dressed beaver robe, whitened inside, and
trimmed with porcupine quills, which he was
offering as a sacrifice tp the falls; which is, in it-
self, admirable and frightful. I heard him while
shedding copious tears, say as he spoke to, the
great cataract, 'Thou who art a spirit, grant that
our nation may pass here quietly, without acci-
dent; may kill buffalo in abundance ; conquer
our enemies, and bring in slaves, some of whom
we will put to death before thee. The Messenecqz
(so they call the tribe named by the French Outa-
gamis) have killed our kindred ; grant that we
may avenge them.' This robe offered in sacrifice,
served one of our Frenchmen, who took it as we
returned."
It is certainly wonderful, that Hennepin, who
knew nothing of the Sioux language a few weeks
before, should understand the prayer offered at
the Falls without the aid of an interpreter.
The narrator continues : "A league beyond
St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, the Picard was
obliged to land and get his powder horn, which he
had left at the FaUs. * * * As we descended
the river Colbert [Mississippi] we found some of
our Indians on the islands loaded with buffalo
meat, some of which they gave us. Two hours
after landing, fifteen or sixteen warriors whom we
had left above -St. Anthony of Padua's FaUs, en-
tered, tomakawk in hand, upset the cabin of those
who had invited us, took all the meat and bear
oil they found, and greased themselves from head
to foot,"
This was done because the others had violated
the rules for the buffalo hunt. With the Indians
Hennepin went down the river sixty leagues, and
then went up the river again, and met buffalo.
He continues :
"WhUe seeking the Ouisconsin Eiver, that
savage father, Aquipaguetin, whom I had left,
and who I beUeved more than two hundred
leagues off, on the 11th of July, 1680, appeared
with the warriors." After this, Hennepin and
Picard continued to go up the river almost eighty
leagues.
There is great confusion here, as the reader
will see. "When at the mouth of the Eum Eiver,
he speaks of the Wisconsin as more than a hun-
dred leagues off. He fioats down the river sixty
leagues ; then he ascended, but does not state the
distance; then he ascends eighty leagues.
He continues : " The Indians whom he had left
with Michael Ako at Buffalo [Chippeway] Eiver,
HENNEPIN MEETS SIEUB DU LVTH.
2S
with the flotilla of canoes loaded with meat, came
down. * * * All the Indian women had their
stock of meat at the mouth of Buffalo River and
on the islands, and again we went down the Col-
bert [Mississippi] about eighty leagues. * * *
We had another alarm in our camp : the old men
on duty on the top of the mountains announced
that they saw two warriors in the distance ; all
the bowmen hastened there with speed, each try-
ing to outstrip the others ; but they brought back
only two of their enemies, who came to tell them
that a party of their people were hunting at the
extremity of Lake Conde [Superior] and had found
four Spirits {so they call the French) who, by
means of a slave, had expressed a wish to come
on, knowing us to be among them. * * * On
the 25th of July, 1680, as we were ascending the
river Colbert, after the buffalo hunt, to the In-
dian villages, we met Sieur du Luth, who came
to the Nadouessious with five French soldiers.
They joined us about two hundred and twenty
leagues distant from the country of the Indians
who had taken us. As we had some knowledge
of the language, they begged us to accompany
them to the villages of these tribes, to which I
readily agreed, knowing that these two French-
men had not approached the sacrament for two
years."
Here again the number of leagues is confusing,
and it is impossible to believe that Du Luth and
his interpreter Faffart, who had been trading
with the Sioux for more than a year, needed the
help of Hennepin, who had been about three
months with these people.
"We are not told by what route Hennepin and
Du Liith reached Lake Issati or Mille Lacs, but
Hennepin says they arrived there on the 11th of
August, 1680, and he adds, " Toward the end of
September, having no implements to begin an
estabUshment, we resolved to tell these people,
that for their benefit, we would have to return to
the French settlements. The grand Chief of the
Issati or Nadouessiouz consented, and traced in
pencil on paper I gave him, the route I should
take for four hundred leagues. With this chart,
we set out, eight Frenchmen, in two canoes, and
descended the river St. Francis and Colbert [Eum
and Mississippi]. Two of our men took two bea-
ver robes at St. Anthony of Padua's Falls, which
the Indians had hung in sacrifice on the trees."
The second work of Hennepin, an enlargement
of the first, appeared at Utrecht in the year 1697,
ten years after La SaUe's death. During the in-
terval between the publication of the first and
second book, he had passed three years as Super-
intendent of the Recollects at Reny m the province
of Artois, when Father Hyacinth Lef evre, a friend
of La Salle, and Commissary Provincial of Recol-
lects at Paris, wished him to return to Canada.
He refused, and was ordered to go to ■ Rome, arid
upon his coming back was sent to a convent at
St. Omer, and there received a dispatch from the
Minister of State in France to return to the coun-
tries of the King of Spain, of which he was a
subject. This order, he asserts, he afterwards
learned was forged.
In the preface to the EngUsh edition of the
New Discovery, published in 1698, in London, he
writes :
"The pretended reason of that violent order
was because I refused to return into America,
where I had been already eleven years ; though
the particular laws of our Order oblige none of us
to go beyond sea against his will. I would have,
however, returned very willingly had I not known
the malice of M. La Salle, who would have ex-
posed me to perish, as he did one of the men who
accompanied me in my discovery. God knows
that I am sorry for his unfortunate death ; but
the judgments of the Almighty are always just,
for the gentleman was killed by one of his ovm
men, who were at last sensible that he exposed
them to visible dangers without any necessity and
for his private designs."
After this he was for about five years at Gosse-
Ues, in Brabant, as Confessor in a convent, and
from thence removed to his native place, Ath, in
Belgium, where, according to his narrative in the
preface to the "Nouveau Decouverte," he was
again persecuted. Then Father Payez, Grand
Commissary of Recollects at Louvain, being in-
formed that the King of Spain and the Elector of
Bavaria recommended the step, consented that
he should enter the service of William the Third
of Great Britain, who had been very kind to the
Roman Catholics of Netherlands. By order of
Payez he was sent to Antwerp to take the lay
habit in the convent there, and subsequently
went to Utrecht, where he finished his second
book known as the New Discovery.
26
EXPL0BEB8 AND PIONEUBS OF MINNESOTA.
His first volume, printed in 1683, contains 312
pages, with an appendix of 107 pages, on the
Customs of the Savages, while the Utrecht book
of 1697 contains 509 pages without an appendix.
On page 249 of the New Discovery, he begins
an account of a voyage alleged to have been made
to the mouth of the Mississippi, and occupies
over sixty pages in the narrative. The opening
sentences give as a reason for concealing to this
time his discovery, that La Salle would have re-
ported him to his Superiors for presuming to go
down instead of ascending the stream toward the
north, as had been agreed ; and that the two with
him threatened that if he did not consent to de-
scend the river, they would leave him on shore
during the night, and pursue their own course.
He asserts that he left the Gulf of Mexico, to
return, on the 1st of April, and on the 24th left
the Arkansas ; but a week after this, he declares
he landed with the Sioux at the marsh about two
miles below the city of Samt Paul.
The account has been and is still a puzzle to
the historical student. In our review of his first'
book we have noticed that as early as 1683, he
claimed to have descended the Mississippi. In
the Utrecht publication he declares that while at
Quebec, upon his return to France, he gave to
Father Valentine Eoux, Commissary of Recol-
lects, his journal, upon the promise that it would
be kept secret, and that this Father made a copy
of his whole voyage, including the visit to the
Gulf of Mexico ; but in his Description of Louis-
iana, Hennepin wrote, " "We had some design of
going to the mouth of the river Colbert, which
more probably empties into the Gulf of Mexico
than into the Bed Sea, but the tribes that seized
us gave us no time to sail up and down the river."
The additions in his Utrecht book to magnify
his importance and detract from others, are
many. As Sparks and Parkman have pointed
out the plagiarisms of this edition, a reference
here is unnecessary.
Du Luth, who left Quebec in 1678, and had
been in northern Minnesota, with an interpreter,
for a year, after he met Ako and Hennepin, be-
comes of secondary importance, in the eyes of
the Franciscan.
In the Description of Louisiana, on page 289,
Hennepin speaks of passing the Falls of Sanit
Anthony, upon his return to Canada, in these
few words : " Two of our men seized two beaver
robes at the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua,
which the Indians had in sacrifice, fg,stened to
trees." But in the Utrecht edition, commencing
on page 416, there is much added concerning Du
Lnth. After using the language of the edition
of 1688, already quoted it adds: "Hereupon
there arose a dispute between Sieur du Luth and
myself. I commended what they had done, say-
ing, ' The savages might judge by it that they
disliked the superstition of these people.' The
Sieur du Luth, on the contrary, said that they
ought to have left the robes where the savages
placed them, for they would not fail to avenge
the insult we had put upon them by this action,
and that it was feared that they would attack us
on this journey. I confessed he had some foun-
dation for what he said, and that he spoke accor-
ding tp the rules of prudence. But one of the.
two men flatly replied, the two robes suited them,
and they cared nothing for the savages and their
superstitions. The Sieur du Luth at these words
was so greatly enraged that he nearly struck the
one who uttered them, but I intervened and set-
tled the dispute. The Picard and Michael Ako
ranged themselves on the side of those who had
taken the robes in question, which might have
resulted badly.
" I argued with Sieur du Luth that the savages
would not attack us, because I. was persuaded
that their great chief Ouasicoude would have oiu-
interests at heart, and he had great credit with
his nation. The matter terminated pleasantly.
" When we arrived near the river Ouisconsin,
we halted to smoke the meat of the buffalo we
had killed on the journey. During our stay, three
savages of the nation we had left, came by the
side of our canoe to teU us that their great chief
Ouasicoude, having learned that another chief of
these people wished to pursue and kill us, and
that he entered the cabin where he was consult-
ing, and had struck him on the head with such
violence as to scatter his brains upon his associ-
ates ; thus preventing the executing of this inju-
rious project.
" We regaled the three savages, having a great
abundance of food at that time. The Sieur du
Luth, after the savages had left, was as enraged
as before, and feared that they would pursue and
attack us on our voyage. He would have pushed
TRIBUTU TO DANIEL GBEYSOLON BU LVTH.
27
the matter (urther , but seeing that one man would
resist, and was not in the humor to be imposed
upon, he moderated, and I appeaSed them in the
end with the assurance that God would not aban-
don us in distress, and, provided we confided in
Him, he would deliver us from our foes, because
He is the protector of men and angels."
Alter describing a conference with the Sioux,
he adds, " Thus the savages were very kind,
without mentioning the beaver robes. The chief
Ouasicoude told me to oiler a fathom of Marti-
nico tobacco to the chief Aquipaguetin, who had
adopted me as a son. This had an admirable
effect upon the barbarians, who went oil shouting
several times the word 'Louis,' [Ouis or We]
.which, as he said, means the sun. Without van-
ity, I must say that my name will be for a long
time among these people.
"The savages having left us, to go to war
against the Messorites, the Maroha, the ILUnois,
and other nations which live toward the lower
part of the Mississippi, and are irreconcilable foes
of the people of the North, the Sieur du Luth,
who upon many occasions gave me marks of his
friendship, could not forbear to tell our men" that
I had all the reason in the world to believe that
the Viceroy of Canada would give me a favorable
reception, should we arrive before winter, and
that he wished with all his heart that he had been
among as many natives as myself."
The style of Louis Hennepin is unmistakable
in this extract, and it is amusing to read his pa-
tronage of one of the fearless explorers of the
Northwest, a cousin of Tonty, favored by Fron-
tenac, and who was in Minnesota a year before
his arrival.
In 1691, six years before the Utrecht edition of
Hennepin, another EecoUect Franciscan had pub-
lished a book at Paris, called " The First Estab-
lishment of the Faith in New France," in which
is the following tribute to Du Luth, whom Hen-
nepin strives to make a subordinate : " In the last
years of M. de Frontenac's administration, Sieur
DuLuth, a man of talent and experience, opened
a way to the missionary and the Gospel in many
different nations, turning toward the north of
that lake [Superior] where he even built a fort,
he advanced as far as the Lake of the Issati,
called Lake Buade, from the family name of M.
de Frontenac, planting the arms of his Majesty
in several nations on the right and left."
In the second volume of his last book, which is
called " A Continuance of the New Discovery of
a vast Country in America," etc., Hennepm no-
ticed some criticisms.
To the objection that his work was dedicated
to William the Third of Great Britam, he replies :
" My King, his most Catholic Majesty, his Elec-
toral Highness of Bavaria, the consent in writing
of the Superior of my order, the integrity of my
faith, and the regular observance of my vows,
which his Britannic Majesty allows me, are the
best warrants of the uprightness of my inten-
tions."
To the query, how he could travel so far upon
the Mississippi in so Uttle time, he answers with
a bold face, " That we may, with a canoe and a
pair of oars, go twenty, twenty-five, or thirty
leagues every day, and more too, if there be oc-
casion. And though we had gone but ten leagues
a day, yet in thirty days we might easily have
gone three hundred leagues. I j during the time
we spent from the river of the lUinois to the
mouth of the Meschasipi, in the Gulf of Mexico,
we had used a httle more haste, we might have
gone the same twice over."
To the objection, that he said, he nad passed
eleven years in America, when he had been there
but about four, he evasively replies, that " reck-
oning from the year 1674, when I first set out, to
the year 1688, when I printed the second edition
of my ' Louisiana,' it appears that I have spent
fifteen years either in travels or printing my
Discoveries."
To those who objected to the statement in his
first book, in the dedication to Louis the Four-
teenth, that the Sioux always call the sun Louis,
he writes : " I repeat what I have said before,
that being among the Issati and Nadouessans, by
whom I was made a slave in America, I never
heard them call the sun any other than Louis.
It is true these savages call also the moon Louis,
but with this distinction, that they give the moon
the name of Louis Bastache, which in their lan-
guage signifies, the sun that shines in the night."
The Utrecht edition called foi-th much censure,
and no one in France doubted that Hennepin
was the author. D 'Iberville, Governor of Lou-
isiana, while in Paris, wrote on July 3d 1699, to
28
UXPLOBJERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
the Minister of Marine and Colonies of France,
in these words : " Very much vexed at the Eec-
ollect, whose false narratives had deceived every
one, and caused our suffering and total failure of
our enterprise, by the time consumed in the
search of things which alone existed in his imag-
ination."
The Eev. Father James Gravier, in a letter
from a fort on the Gulf of Mexico, near the Mis-
sissippi, dated February 16th, 1701, expressed the
sentiment of his times when he speaks of Hen-
nepin " who presented to King William, the Kela-
tion of the Mississippi, where he never was, and
after a thousand falsehoods and ridiculous boasts,
* * * he makes Mr. de la Salle appear in his
Belation, wounded with two balls in the head,
turn toward the Recollect Father Anastase, to
ask him for absolution, having been killed in-
stantly, without uttering a word • and other like
false stories."
Hennepin gradually faded out of sight. Bru-
net mentions a letter wptten by J. B. Dubos,
from Rome, dated March 1st, 1701, which men-
tions that Hennepin was living on the Capitoline
Hill, in the celebrated convent of Ara Coeli, and
was a favorite of Cardinal Spada. The time and
place of his death has hot been ascertained.
NICHOLAS PEBBOT, FOUNDEB OF FIBST POST ON LAKE PEPIN.
29
CHAPTER V.
NICHOLAS PEEEOT, FOUNDBK OF FIEST POST "ON LAKE PEPIK.
£iulr Life.— Searches for Copper,— Interpreter at Sault St. Marie, Employed by
La Salle. — Bwilds Stockade at Lake Pepin. — Hostile Indians Rebuked. — A
Silver Ostensorium Qivcn to a Jesuit Chapel.— Perrot in the Battle against
Senecas, in New York.— Second Visit to Sioux Country.— Taking Possession by
"Proces Verbal." — Discovery of Lead Uinea. — Attends Council at Montreal. —
Establishes a Post near Detroit, in Slichigan.— Ferrot's Death, and his Wife.
Nicholas Perrot, sometimes written Pare, was
one of the most energetic of the class in Canada
known as " coureurs des bois," or forest rangers.
Born in 1644, at an early age he was identified
with the fur trade of the great inland lakes. As
early as 1665, he was among the Outagamies
[Foxes], and in 1667 was at Green Bay. In 1669,
he was appointed by Talon to go to the lake re-
gion in search of copper mines. At the formal
taking possession of that country in the name of
the King of France, at Sault St. Marie, on the
14th of May, lb71, he acted as interpreter. In
1677, he seems to have been employed at Port
Prontenac. La Salle was made -very sick the
next year, from eating a salad, and one Nicholas
Perrot, called Joly Coeur (Jolly Soul) was sus-
pected of having mingled poison with the food.
After this he was associated with Du Luth in
the execution of two Indians, as we have seen.
In 1684, he was appointed by De la Barre, the
Governor of Canada, as Commandant for the
West, and left Montreal with twenty men. Ar-
riving at Green Bay in "Wisconsin, some Indians
told him that they had visited coimtries toward
the setting sun, where they obtained the blue
and green stones suspended from their ears and
noses, and that they saw horses and men like
Frenchmen, probably the Spaniards of New Mex-
ico ; and others said that they had obtained hatch-
ets from persons who lived in a house that walked
on the water, near the mouth of the river of the
Assiniboines, alluding to the English established
at Hudson's Bay. Proceeding to the portage be-
tween the Fox and Wisconsin, thirteen Hurons
were met, who were bitterly opposed to the es-
tablishment of a post near the Sioux. After the
Mississippi was reached, a party of Winnebagoes
was employed to notify the tribes of Northern
Iowa that the French had ascended the river,
and wished to meet them. It was further agreed
that prairie fires would be kindled from time to
time, so that the Indians could follow the French.
After entering Lake Pepin, near its mouth, on
the east side, Perrot found a place suitable for a
post, where there was wood. The stockade was
built at the foot of a blufE beyond which was a
large prairie. La Potherie makes this statement,
which is repeated by Penicaut, who vsrites of
Lake Pepin : "To the right and left of its shores
there are also prairies. In that on the right on
the bank of the lake, there is a fort, which was
built by Nicholas Perrot, whose name it yet [1700]
bears."
Soon after he was established, it was announced
that a band of Aiouez [loways] was encamped
above, and on the way to visit the post. The
French ascended in canoes to meet them, but as
they drew nigh, the Indian women ran up the
bluffs, and hid in the woods ; but twenty of the
braves mustered courage to advance and greet
Perrot, and bore him to the chief's lodge. The
chief, bending over Perrot, began to weep, and
allowed the moisture to fall upon his visitor.
After he had exhausted himself, the principal
men of the party repeated the slabbering process.
Then buffalo tongues were boiled in an earthen
pot, and after being cut into small pieces, the
chief took a piece, and, as a mark of respect,
placed it in Perrot's mouth.
During the winter of 1684-85, the French tra-
ded in Minnesota.
At the end of the beaver hunt, the Ayoes
[loways] came to the post, but Perrot was absent
visiting the Nadouaissioux. and they sent a chief
to notify him of their arrival. Four Illinois met
him on the way, and wore anxious for the return
of f oiu: children held by the French. When the
30
EXPLOBEBB AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
Sioux, who were at war with the Illinois, per-
ceived them, they wished to seize their canoes,
but the French voyageurs who were guarding
them, pushed into the middle of the river, and
the French at the post coming to their assistance,
a reconciliation was effected, and four of the
Sioux took the Illinois upon their shoulders, and
bore them to the shore.
An order having been received from Denon-
ville. Governor of Canada, to bring the Miamis,
and other tribes, to the rendezvous at Niagara,
to go on an expedition against the Senecas, Per-
•rot entrusting the post at Lake . Pepin to a few
Frenchmen, visited the Miamis, who were dwel-
ling below on the Mississippi, and with no guide
but Indian camp fires, went sixty miles into the
country beyond the river.
Upon his return, he perceivea a great smoke,
and at first thought that it was a war party pro-
ceeding to the Sioux country. Fortunately he
met a Maskouten chief, who had been at the post
to see him, and he gave the intelligence, that the
Outagamies [Foxes], Kikapous [Kjckapoos], and
Mascoutechs [Maskoutens], and others, from the
region of Green Bay, had determined to pillage
the post, kill the French, and then go to war
against the Sioux. Hurrying on, he reached the
fort, and learned that on that very day three
spies had been there and seen that there were
only six Frenchmen in charge.
The next day two more spies appeared, but
Perrot had taken the precaution to put loaded
guns at the door of each hut, and caused his men
frequently to change their clothes. To the query,
" How many French were there?" the reply was
given, " Forty, and that more were daily expected,
who had been on a buffalo hunt, and that the
guns were weU loaded andknives well sharpened."
They were then told to go back to their camp
aud bring a chief of each nation represented, and
that if Indians, in large numbers, came near, they
would be fired at. In accordance with this mes-
sage six chiefs presented themselves, After their
bows and arrows were taken away they were in-
vited to Perrot's cabin, who gave something to
eat and tobacco to smoke. Looking at Perrot's
loaded guns they asked, '-If he was afraid of his
children?" He replied, he was not. They con-
tinued, " You are displeased."- He answered,
" I have good reason to be. The Spirit has warned
me of your designs; you will take my things
away and put me in the kettle, and proceed
against the Nadouaissioux, The Spirit told me
to be on my guard, and he would help me." At
this they were astonished, and confessed that an
attack was meditated. That night the chiefs
slept in the stockade, and early the next morn-
ing a part of the hostile force was encamped in
the vicinity, and wished to trade. Perrot had
now only a force of fifteen men, and seizing the
chiefs, he told them he would break their heads
if they did not disperse the Indians. One of the
chiefs then stood up on the gate of the fort and
said to the warriors, " Do not advance, young
men, or you are dead. The Spirit has warned
Metaminens [PerrotJ of your designs." They fol-
lowed the advice, and afterwards Perrot present-
ed them with two guns, two kettles, and some
tobacco, to ,close the door of war against the Na-
douaissioux, and the chiefs were all permitted to
make a brief visit to the post.
Returning to Green Bay in 1686, he passed much
time in collecting allies for the expedition against
the Iroquois in New York. During this year he
gave to the Jesuit chapel at Depere, five miles
above Green Bay, a church utensil of silver, fif-
teen inches high, still in existence. The stand-
ard, nine inches in height, supports a radiated
circlet closed with glass on both sides and sur-
mounted with a cross. This vessel, weighing
about twenty dunces, was intended to show the
consecrated wafer of the mass, and is called a
soleil, monstrance, or ostensorium.
Around the oval base of the rim is the follow-
ing inscription:
^^^^^^BMBNicao^^^
X
%
^.
4^
V
.^
*■*"* n JI3 «aiA^
itf)"'
In 1802 some workmen in diggiag at Green
Bay, Wisconsin, on the old Langlade estate dia-
A CUP OF BBANDY AND WATEB DETECTS A THIEF.
3l
covered this relic, ■which is now kept in the vault
of the Eoman Catholic bishop of that diocese.
During the spring of 1687 Perrot, with De Lu-
th and Tonty, was with the Indian alUes and the
French in the expedition against the Senecas of
the Genessee Valley in New York.
The next year Denonville, Governor of Canada,
again sent Perrot with forty Prenchmen to the
Sioux who, says Potherie, " were very distant,
and who would not trade with us as easily as
the other tribes, the Outagamis [Poxes] having
boasted of having cut off the passage thereto."
When Perrot arrived at Mackinaw, the tribes
of that region were much excited at the hostility
of the Outagamis [Poxes] toward the Sauteurs
[Chippeways].- As soon as Perrot and his party
reached Green Bay a deputation of the Poxes
sought an interview. He told them that he had
nothing to do with this quarrel with the Chippe-
ways. In justification, they said that a party of
their- young men, in going to war against the
Nadouaissioux, had found a young man an^ three
Chippeway girls.
Perrot was silent, and continued his journey
towards the Nadouaissioux. Soon he was met by
five chiefs of the Poxes in a canoe, who begged
him to go to their village. Perrot consented, and
when he went into ia chief's lodge they placed be-
fore him broiled venison, and raw meat for the
rest of the French. He refused to eat because,
said he, " that meat did not give him any spirit,
but he would take some when the Outagamis
[Foxes] were more reasonable." He then chided
them for not having gone, as requested by the
Governor of Canada, to the Detroit of Lake
Erie, and during the absence of the French fight-
ing with the Chippeways. Having ordered them
to go on their beaver hunt and only fight against
the Iroquois, he left a few Frenchmen to trade
and proceeded on his journey to the Sioux coun-
try. Arriving at the portage between the Fox and
"Wisconsin Rivers they were impeded by ice, but
with the aid of some Pottawattomies they trans-
ported their goods to,the Wisconsin, which they
found no longer frozen. The Chippeways were
informed that their daughters had been taken
from the Foxes, and a deputation came to take
them back, but being attacked by the Poxes, who
did not know their errand, they fled without se-
curing the three girls. Perrot then ascended the
Mississippi to the post which in 1684 he had
erected, just above the mouth, and on the east
side of Lake Pepin.
As soon as the rivers were navigable, the Na-
douaissioux came down and escorted Perrot to
one of their villages, where he was welcomed
with much enthusiasm. He was carried upon a
beaver robe, followed by a long line of warriors,
each bearing a pipe, and singing. After taking
him around the village, he was borne to the chief's
lodge, when several came in to we,ep over his head,
with the same tenderness that the Ayoes (loways)
did, when Perrot several years before arrived at
Lake Pepin. " These weepings," says an old
chronicler " do not weaken their souls. They are
very good warriors, and reported the bravest in
that region. They are at war with all the tribes
at present except the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and
Ayoes [loways], and even with these they have
quarrels. At the break of day the Nadouaissioux
balhe, even to the youngest. They have very fine
forms, but the women are not comely, and they
look upon them as slaves. They are jealous and
suspicious about them, and they are the cause
of quarrels and blood-shedding.
" The Sioux are very dextrous with their ca-
noes, and they fight unto death if surrounded.
Their country is full of swamps, which shelter
them in summer from being molested. One must
be a Nadouaissioux, to find the way to their vil-
lages."
While Perrot was absent in New York, fight-
ing the Senecas, a Sioux chief knowing that few
Frenchmen were left at Lake Pepin, came with
one hundred warriors, and endeavored to pUlage
it. Of this complaint was made, and the guilty
leader was near being put to death by his associ-
ates. Amicable relations having been formed,
preparations were made by Perrot to return to
his post. As they were going away, one of the
Frenchmen complained that a box of his goods
had been stolen. Perrot ordered a voyageur to
bring a cup of water, and into it he poured some
brandy. He then addressed the Indians and told
them he would dry up their marshes if the goods
were not restored; and then he set on fire the
brandy in the cup. The savages were astonished
and terrified, and supposed that he possessed su-
pernatural powers ; and in a little "-'"'lethe goods
32
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBB OF MINNESOTA.
were found and restored to the owner, and the
Prench descended to their stockade.
The Poxes, while Perrot was in the Sioux
country, changed their village, and settled on the
Mississippi. Coming up to visit Perrot, they
asked him to establish friendly relations between
them and the Sioux. At the time some Sioux
were at the post trading furs, and at iirst they
supposed the Prench were plotting with the
Poxes. Perrot, however, eased them by present-
ing the calumet and saying that the Prench con-
sidered the Outagamis [Poxes] as brothers, and
then adding: "Smoke in my pipe; this is the
manner with which Onontio [Governor of Can-
ada] feeds his children." The Sioux replied that
they wished the Pbxes to smoke first. This was
reluctantly done, and the Sioux smoked, but
would not conclude a definite peace until they
consulted their chiefs. This was not concluded,
because Perrot, before the chiefs came down,
received orders to return to Canada.
About this time, in the presence of Pather Jo-
seph James Marest, a Jesuit missionary, Boisguil-
lot, a trader on the Wisconsin and Mississippi, Le
Sueur, who afterward, built a post below the Saint
Croix River, about nine miles from Hastings, the
following document was prepared:
" Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the King at
the post of the Nadouessioux, commissioned by
the Marquis Denonville, Governor and lieuten-
ant Governor of all New Prance, to manage the
interests of commerce among all the Indian tribes
and people of the Bay des Puants [Green Bay],
Nadouessioux, Mascoutens, and other western na-
tions of the Upper Mississippi, and to take pos-
session in the King's name of all the places where
he has heretofore been and whither he will go:
" We this day, the eighth of May, one thousand
six hundred and eighty-nine, do, in the presence
of the Reverend Pather Marest, of the Society of
Jesus, Missionary among the Nadouessioux, of
Monsieur de Boisguillot, commanding the Prench
in the neighborhood of the Ouiskonche, on the
Mississippi, Augustin Legardeur, Esquire, Sieur
de Caumont, and of Messieurs Le Sueur, Hebert,
Lemire and Blein.
" Declare to all whom it may concern, that, be-
ing come from the Bay des Puants, and to the
Lake of the Ouiskonches, we did transport our-
selves to the country of the Nadouessioux, on the
border of the river St. Croix, and at the mouth
of the river St. Pierre, on the bank of which were
the Mantantans, and further up to the Interior,
as far as the Menchokatonx [Med-ay-wah-kawn-
twawn], with whom dwell the majority of the
Songeskitons [Se-see-twawnsJ and other Nadou-
essioux who are to the northwest of the Missis-
sippi, to take possession, for and in the name of
the King, of the countries and rivers inhabited by
the said tribes, and of which they are proprietors.
The present act done in our presence, signed with
our hand, and subscribed."
The three Chippeway girls of whom mention
has been made were still with the Poxes, and
Perrot took them with him to Mackinaw, upon
his return to Canada.
While there, the Ottawas held some prisoners
upon an island not far from the mainland. The
Jesuit Pathers went over and tried to save the
captives from harsh treatment, but were unsuc-
cessful. The canoes appeared at length near each
other, one man paddling in each, while the war-
riors were answering the shouts of the prisoners,
who each held a white stick in his hand. As
they neared the shore the chief of the party made
a speech to the Indians who lived on the shore,
and giving a history of the campaign, told them
that they were masters of the prisoners. The
warriors then came on land, and, according to
custom, abandoned the spoils. An old man then
ordered nine" men to conduct the prisoners to a
separate place. The women and the young men
formed a Une with big sticks. The yormg pris-
oners soon found their feet, but the old men were
so badly used they spat blood, and they were con-
demned to be burned at the Mamilion.
The Jesuit Pathers and the Prench ofiicers
were much embarrassed, and feared that the Iro-
quois would complain of the little care which had
been used to prevent cruelty. -
Perrot, in this emergency, walked to the place
where the prisoners were singing the death dirge,
in expectation of being burned, ^nd told, them to
sit down and be silent. A few Ottauwaws rudely
told them to sing on, but Perrot forbade. He
then went back to the Council, where the old men
had rendered judgment, and ordered one prisoner
to be burned at Mackinaw, one at Sault St. Marie
and another at Green Bay. Undaunted he spoke
as follows : "I come to cut the strings of the
FERROT VISITS THE LEAD JUN'ES.
33
dogs. I will not suffer them to be eaten . I have
pity on them,.since my Father, Onontio, has com-
manded me. You Outaouaks [Ottawaws] are
like tame bears, who wUl not recognize them who
has brought them up. You have forgotten Onon-
tio's protection. When he asks your obedience,
you want to rule over him, and eat the flesh of
those children he does not wish to give to you.
Take care, that, if oyu swallow them, Onontio
wUl tear them with violence from between your
teeth. I speak as a brother, and I think I am
showing pity to your children, by cutting the
bonds of your prisoners."
His boldness had the desired effect. The pris-
oners were released, and two of them were sent
with him to Montreal, to be returned to the Iro-
quois.
On the 22nd of May, 1890, with one hundred
and forty-three voyageurs and six Indians, Per-
rot left Montreal as an escort of Sieur de Lou-
vigny La Porte, a half-pay captain, appointed to
succeed Durantaye at Mackinaw, by Frontenac,
the new Governor of Canada, who in October of
the previous year had arrived, to take the place
of Denonville.
Perrot, as he approached Mackinaw, went in
advance to notify the French of the coming of
the commander of the post. As he came in sight
of the settlement, he hoisted the white flag with
the fleur de lis and the voyageurs shouted, " Long
live the king ! ' ' Lou vigny soon appeared and was
received by one hundred " coureur des bois "
under arms.
From Mackinaw, Perrot proceeded to Green
Bay, and a party of Miamis there begged him to
make a trading establishment on the Mississippi
towards the O uiskonsing ( Wisconsin. ) The chief
made him a present of a piece of lead from a
mine which he had found in a small stream which
flows into the Mississippi. Perrot promised to
visit him within twenty days, and the chief then
returned to his village below the d'Ouiskonche
(iWsconsin) Eiver.
Having at length reached his post on Lake
Pepin, he was infoi'med that the Sioux were
forming a large war party against the Outaga-
mis (Foxes) and other allies of the French. He
gave notice of his arrival to a party of about four
hundred Sioux who were on the Mississippi.
They arrested the messengers and came to the
post for the purpose of plunder. Perrot asked
them why they acted in this manner, and said
that the Foxes, Miamis, Kickapoos, Illinois, and
Maskoutens had united in a war party against
them, but that he had persuaded them to give it
up, and now he wished them to return to their
families and to their beaver. The Sioux declared
that they had started on the war-path, and that
they were ready to die. After they had traded
their furs, they sent for Peirot to come to their
camp, and begged that he would not hinder them
from searching for their foes. Perrot tried to dis-
suade them, but they insisted that the Spirit had
given them men to eat, at three days' journey
from the post Then more powerful influences
were used. After giving them two kettles and
some merchandise, Poerrt spoke thus: " I love
your life, and I am sure you will be defeated.
Your Evil Spirit has deceived you. If you kill
the Outagamis, or their allies, you must strike me
first; if you kill them, you kill me just the same,
for I hold them under one wing and you under
the other." After this he extended the calumet,
which they at first refused; but at length a chief
said he was right, and, making invocations to the
sun, wished Perrot to take him back to his arms.
This was granted, on condition that he would
give up his weapons of war. The chief then tied
them to a pole in the centre of the fort, turning
them toward the sun. He then persuaded the
other chiefs to give up the expedition, and, send-
ing for Perrot, he placed the calumet before him,
one end in the earth aud the other on a small
forked twig to hold it firm. Then he took from
his own sack a pair of his cleanest moccasins, and
taking off Perrot's shoes, put on these. After he
had made him eat, presenting the calumet, he
said: " We listen to you now. Do for us as you
do for our enemies, and prevent them from kill-
ing us, and we will separate for the beaver hunt.
The sun is the witness of our obedience."
After this, Perrot descended the Mississippi
and revealed to the Maskoutens, who had come to
meet him, how he had pacified the Sionx. He,
about this period, in accordance with his prom-
ise, visited the lead mines. He found the ore
abundant " but the lead hard to work because it
lay between rocks which required blowing up.
It had very little dross and was easily melted."
34
EXPLOBEBS AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
Penicaut, who ascended the Mississippi in 1700,
wrote that twenty leagues below the Wisconsin,
on both sides of the Mississippi, were mines of
lead called "Mcolas Perrot's." Early French
maps indicate as the locality of lead mines the
site of modern towns, Galena, in Illinois, and Du-
buque, in Iowa.
In August, 1693, about two hundred Prench-
men from Mackinaw, with delegates from the
tribes of the West, arrived at Montreal to at-
tend a grand council called by Governor Pronte-
nac, and among these was Perrot.
On the first Sunday in September the governor
gave the Indians a great feast, after which they
and the traders began to return to the wilder-
ness. Perrot was ordered by Prontenac to es-
tabUsh a new post for the Miamis in Michigan,
in the neighborhood of the Kalamazoo River.
Two years later he is present again, in August,
at a council in Montreal, then returned to the
West, and in 1699 is recalled from Green Bay.
In 1701 he was at Montreal acting as interpreter,
and appears to have died before 1718: his wife
was Madeline Eaolos, and his residence was in
the Seigneury of Becancourt, not far from Three
Bivers, on the St. Lawrence.
BARON LA HONTAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE.
3.5
CHAPTER VI.
BAROSr LA BOSTTAN'S FABULOUS VOYAGE.
Li Hontan, ij, Gascon by Birth. — Early Life. — Description of Vox and Wisconsin
Rivers — Indian Feast — Alleged Ascent of Long River, — Bobe Exposes the
Deception. — Route to the Pacific.
The " Travels " of Baron La Hontan appeared
in A. D. 1703, both at London and at Hague, and
were as saleable and readable as those of Hermepin,
which were on the counters of booksellers at the
same time.
La Hontan, a Gascon by birth, and in style of
writing, when about seventeen years of age, ar-
rived in Canada, in 1683, as a private soldier, and
was with Gov. De la Barre in his expedition of
1684, toward Magara, and was also in the battle
near Rochester, New York, in 1687, at which Du
Luth and Perrot, explorers of Minnesota, were
present.
In 1688 he appears to have been sent to Fort
St. Joseph, which was built by Du Luth, on the
St. Clare River, near the Site of Fort Gratiot,
Michigan. It is possible that he may have accom-
panied Perrot to Lake Pepin, who came about
this time to reoccupy his old post.
From the following extracts it wiU be seen that
his style is graphic, and that he probably had been
in 1688 in the valley of the Wisconsin. At Mack-
inaw, after his return from his pretended voyage
of the Long River, he writes:
" I left here on the 24th September, with my
men and five Outaouas, good hunters,^ whom I
have before mentioned to you as having been of
good service to me. All my brave men being
provided with good canoes, filled with provisions
and <immunition, together with goods for the In-
dian trade, I took advantage of a north wind, and
in three days entered the Bay of the Pouteouata-
mis, distant from here about forty leagues. The
entrance to the bay is fuU of islands. It is ten
leagues wide and twenty-five in length.
"On the 29th we entered a river, which is quite
deep, whose waters are so affected by the lake
that they often rise and fall three feet in twelve
hours. This is an observation that I made dur-
ing these three or four days that I passed here.
The Sakis, the Poutouatamis, and a few of the
Malominis have their villages on the border of this
river, and the Jesuits have a house there. In the
place there is carried on quite a commerce in furs
and Indian corn, which the Indians trafiic with
the ' coureurs des bois' that go and come, for it is
their nearest and most convenient passage to the
Mississippi.
" The lands here are very fertile, and produce,
almost without culture, the wheat of our Europe,
peas, beans, and any quantity of fruit unknown
in France.
" The moment I landed, the warriors of three
nations came by turns to my cabin to entertain
me with the pipe and chief dance ; the first in
proof of peace and friendship, the second to indi-
cate their esteem and consideration for me. In
return, I gave them several yards of tobacco, and
beads, with which they trimmed their capgts. The
next morning, I was asked as a guest, to one of
the feasts of this nation, and after having sent my
dishes, which is the custom, I went towards noon.
They began to compliment me of my arrival, and
after hearing them, they all, one after the other,
began to sing and dance, in a manner that I will
detail to you when I have more leisure. These
songs and dances lasted two hours, and were sea-
soned vrith whoops of joy, and quibbles that they
have woven into their ridiculous musique. Then
the captives waited upon us. The whole troop
were seated in the Oriental custom. Each one
had his portion before him, like our monks in
their refectories. They commenced by placing
four dishes before me. The first consisted of two
white fish simply boiled in water. The second
was chopped meats with the boiled tongue of a
bear ; the third a beaver's taU, all roasted. They
made me drink also of a syrup, mixed with water,
made out of the maple tree. The feast lasted two
36
EXPLOBEBS AND FIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
hours, after which, I requested a chief of the
nation to sing for me ; for it is the custom, when
we have business with them, to employ an inferior
for self in all the ceremonies they perform. I
gave him several pieces of tobacco, to oblige him
to keep the party till dark. The next day and the
day following, I attended the feasts of the other
nations, where I observed the same formalities."
He" alleges that, on the 23d of October, he
reached the Mississippi Elver, and, ascending, on
the 3d of November he entered into a river, a
tributary from the west, that was almost without
a current, and at its mouth filled with rushes.
He then describes a journey of five hundred miles
up this stream. He declares he found upon its
banks three great nations, the Eokoros, Essa-
napes, and Gnacsitares, and because he ascended
it for sixty days, he named it Long River.
For years his wondrous story was behoved, and
geographers hastened to trace it upon their maps.
But in time the voyage up the Long Eiver was
discovered to be a fabrication. There is extant
a letter of Bobe, a Priest of the Congregation of
the Mission, dated Versailles, March 15, 1716, and
addressed to De L'Isle, the geographer of the
Academy of Sciences at Paris, which exposes the
deception.
He writes: "It seems to me that you might
give the name of Bourbonia to these vast coim-
tries which are between the Missouri, Mississippi,
and the Western Ocean. Would it not be well to
efface that great river which La Hontan says he
discovered? '
"All the Canadians, and even the Governor
General, have told me that this river is unknown.
If it existed, the Prench, who are on the Illinois,
and at Ouabache, would know of it. The last
volume of the ' Lettres Ediflantes' of the Jesuits,
in which there is a very fine relation of the Illinois
Country, does not speak of it, any more than the
letters which I received this year, which teU won-
ders of the beauty and goodness of the country.
They send me some quite pretty work, made by
the wife of one of the principal chiefs.
" They tell me, that among the Scioux, of the
Mississippi, there are always Erenchmen trading;
that the course of the Mississippi is from north
to west, and from west to south; that it is knovm
that toward the source of the Mississippi there is
a river in the highlands that leads to the western
ocean; that the Indians say that they have seen
bearded men with caps, who gather gold-dust on
the seashore, but that it is very far from this
country, and that they pass through many nations
unknown to the French.
"I have a memoir of La Motte CadUlac, form-
erly Governor of Missilimackinack, who says that
if St. Peters [MinnesotaJ Eiver is ascended to its
source they will, according to all appearance, find
in the highland another river leading to the West-
ern Ocean.
"Eor the last two years I have tormented
exceedingly the Governor-General, M. Eaudot,
and M. Duche, to move them to discover this
ocean. If I succeed, as I hope, we shall hear
tidings before three years, and I shall have the
pleasure and the consolation of having rendered
a good service to Geography, to Religion and to
the State."
Charlevoix, in his History of New Erance, al-
luding to La Hontan's voyage, writes: "The
voyage up the Long River is as fabulous as the
Island of Barrataria, of which Sancho Panza was
governor. Nevertheless, in Erance and else-
where, most people have received these memoirs
as the fruits of the travels of a gentleman who
wrote badly, although quite lightly, and who had
no religion, but who described pretty sincerely
what he had seen. The consequence is that the
compilers of historical and geographical diction-
aries have almost always f oUowed and cited them
in preference to more faithful records."
Even in modern tunes, Nicollet, employed by
the United States to explore the Upper Mississ-
ippi, has the following in his report:
"Having procured a copy of La Hontan's
book, in which there is a roughly made map of
his Long River, I was struck with the resem-
blance of its course as laid down with that of
Cannon River, which I had previously sketched
in my own field-book. I soon convinced mjself
that the principal statements of the Baron in ref-
erence to the country and the few details he gives
of the physical character of the the river, coin-
cide remarkably with what I had laid down as
belonging to Cannon River. Then the lakes and
swamps corresponded; traces of Indian villages
mentioned by him might be found by a growth
of wild grass that propagates itself around all old
Indian settlements."
LE SUHUB, EXPLOBEB OF THE MINNESOTA BIVEIi.
37
CHAPTEB Vn.
LE SUEUR, EXPLORER OF THE MINNESOTA BIVBK.
Le Sueur Visits take Pepta. — StationeiJ at la Pointe. — Establishes a Post on an
Island Above Lake Pepin. — Island Described by Fenicaut. — I'irst Sioux Chief
at Montreal. — Ojibway Chiefs* Speeches. — Speech of Sioux Chief. — Teeoskah-
tay's Death. — Le Sueur Goes to France. — Posts West of Mackinaw Abandoned
— ^Le Sueur's License Revoked. — Second Visit to Prance. — Arrives in Gulf of
Mexico with D'Iberville. — Ascends the Mississippi. — Lead Mines. — Canadians
Fleeing from the Sioux. — At the Mouth of the Wisconsin. — Sioux Robbers, — Elk
Hunting. — Lake Pepin Described. — Rattlesnakes. — La Place Killod. — St. Croix
River Named After a Frenchman. — Le Sueur Reaches St, Pterre, now Minne*
Bota River. — Enters Mankahto, or Blue Earth, River. — Sioux of the Plains,-^
Port L'Huillier Completed. — Conferences with Sioux Bands. — Assinaboines a
Separated Sioux Band. — An Indian Feast. — Names of the Sioux Bands. — Char-
leYoix'fli«Account. — Le Sueur Goes with D'Iberville to France. — D'Iberville 'a
Memorial.— Early Census of Indian Tribes. — Penicaut's Account of Fort L'fiuil
lier. — Le Sueur's Departure from the Fort. — D'Evaqe Left in Charge. — Return'
to Mobile.— Juchereau at Mouth of Wisconsin. —Bonder a Montreal Merchant. —
Sioux Attack Miamis. — Boudor Robbed by the Sioux.
Le Sueur was a native of Canada, and a rela-
tive of D'Iberville, the early Governor of Louis-
iana. He came to Lake Pepin in 1683, with
Nicholas Perrot, and his name also appears at-
tached to the document prepared in May, 1689,
after Perrot had re-occupied his post just above
the entrance of the lake, on the east side.
In 1692, he was sent by Governor Trontenac of
Canada, to La Pointe, on Lake Superior, and in a
dispatch of 1693, to the French Government, is
the following : " Le Sueur, another voyageur, is
to remain at Chagouamagon [La Pointe] to en-
deavor to maintain the peace lately concluded be-
tween the Saulteurs [Chippeways] and Sioux.
This is of the greatest consequence, as it is now
the sole pass by which access can be had to the
latter nation, whose trade is very profitable ; the
country to the south being occupied by the Foxes
and Maskoutens, who several times plundered the
French, on the ground they were carrying ammu-
nition to the Sioux, their ancient enemies."
Entering the Sioux country in 1694, he estab-
lished a post upon a prairie island in the Missis-
sippi, about nine miles below the present town of
Hastings, according to BelUn and others. Peni-
caut, who accompanied him in the exploration of
the Minnesota, writes, " At the extremity of the
lake [PepinJ you come to the Isle Pelee, so called
because there are no trees on it. It is on this island
that the French from Canada established their
fort and storehouse, and they also winter here,
because game is very abundant. In the month of
September they bring their store of meat, obtained
by hunting, and after having skinned and cleaned
it, hang it upon a crib of raised scaffolding, in
order that the extreme cold, which lasts from
September to March, may preserve it from spoil-
ing. During the whole winter they do not go out
except for water, when they have to break the ice
every day, and the cabin is generally built upon
the bank, so as not to have far to go. When
spring arrives, the savages come to the island,
bringing their merchandize."
On the fifteenth of July, 1695, Le Sueur arrived
at Montreal with a party of Ojibways, and the
first Dakotah brave that had ever visited Canada.
The Indians were much impressed with the
power of France by the marching of a detach-
rdent of seven himdred picked men, under Chev-
aUer Cresafi, who were on their way to La Chine.
On the eighteenth, Frontenac, in the presence
of CaUieres and other persons of distinction, gave
them an audience.
The first speaker was the chief of the Ojibway
band at La Pointe, Shingowahbay, who said:
" That he was come to pay his respects to Onon-
tio [the title given the Governor of Canada] in the
name of the young warriors of Point Chagouami-
gon, and to thank him for having given them
some Frenchmen to dwell with them; to testify
their sorrow for one Jobin, a Frenchman, who
was killed at a feast, accidentally, and not ma-
liciously. We come to ask a favor of you, which
is to let us act. We are allies of the Sciou. Some
Outagamies, or Mascoutins, have been killed.
The Sciou came to moum with us. Let us act,
Father; let us take revenge.
"Le Sueur alone, who is acquainted with the
language of the one and the other, can serve us.
We ask that he return with us."
38
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONUSBS OF MINNESOIA.
Another speaker of the Ojibways was Le Bro-
chet.
Teeoskahtay, the Dahkotah chief, before he
spoke, spread out a beaver robe, and, laying an-
other with a tobacco pouch and otter skin, began
to weep bitterly. After drying his tears, he said:
" All of the nations had a fath'er, who afforded
them protection; all of them have iron. Biit he
was a bastard in quest of a father; he was come
to see him, and hopes that he will take pity on
him."
He then placed upon the beaver robe twenty-
two arrows, at each arrow naming a Dahkotah
village that desired Prontenac's protection. Ee-
suming his speech, he remarked:
"It is not on account of what I bring that I
hope him who rules the earth will have pity on
me. I learned from the Sauteurs that he wanted
nothing; thathe was the Master of the Iron; that
he had a big heart, into which he could receive
all the nations. This has induced me to abandon
my people and come to seek his protection, and
to beseech bim to receive me among the number
of his children. Take courage, Great Captain,
and reject me not; despise me not, though I ap-
pear poor in your eyes. All the nations here
present know that I am rich, and the little they
offer here is taken from my lands."
Count Frontenac in reply told the chief that he
would receive the Dahkotahs as his children, on
condition that they would be obedient, and that
he would send back Le Sueur with him.
Teeoskahtay, taking hold of the governor's
knees, wept, and said: "Take pity on us; we
are well aware that we are not able to speak, be-
ing children; but Le Sueur, who understands our
language, and has seen all our villages, will next
year inform you what will have been achieved by
the Sioux nations represented by those arrows be-
fore you."
Having finished, a Dahkotah woman, the wife
of a great chief whom Le Sueur had purchased
from captivity at Mackinaw, approached those in
authority, and, with downcast eyes, embraced
their knees, weeping and saying:
" I thank thee. Father; it is by thy means I
have been liberated, and am no longer captive."
Then Teeoskahtay resumed:
" I speak like a man penetrated with joy. The
Great Captain; he who is the Master of Iron, as-
sures me of his protection, and I promise him that
if he condescends to restore my children, now
prisoners among the Foxes, Ottawas and Hurous,
I will return hither, and bring with me the twen-
ty-two villages whom he has just restored to life
by promising to send them Iron."
On the 14th of August, two weeks after the
Ojibway chief left for his home on Lake Superior,
Nicholas Perrot arrived with a deputation of
Sauks, Foxes, Menomonees, Miamis of Maramek
and Pottowatomies.
Two days after, they had a council with the
governor, who thus spoke to a Fox brave:
" I see that you are a young man; your nation
has quite turned away from my wishes; it has
pillaged some of my young men, whom it has
treated as slaves. I know that your father, who
loved the French, had no hand in the indignity.
You only imitate the example of your father
who had sense, when you do not co-operate
with those of your tribe who are wishing to go
over to my enemies, after they grossly insulted
me and defeated the Sioux, whom I now consider
my son. I pity the Sioux; I pity the dead whose
loss I deplore. Perrot goes up there, and he will
speak to your nation from me for the release of
their prisoners; let them attend to him."
Teeoshkahtay never returned to his native land.
While in Montreal he "was taken sick, and in
thirty-three days he ceased to breathe; and, fol-
lowed by white men, his body was interred in the
white man's grave.
Le Sueur instead of going back to Minnesota
that year, as was expected, went to France and
received a license, in 1697, to open certain mines
supposed to esdst in Minnesota. The ship in
which he was returning was captured by the Eng-
lish, and he was taken to England. After his
release he went backto France, and, in 1698, ob-
tained a new commission for mining.
While Le Sueur was in Europe, the Dahkotas
waged war against the Foxes and Miamis. In
retaliation, the latter raised a war party and en-
tered the land of the Dahkotahs. Finding their
foes intrenched, and assisted by " coureurs des
bois," they were indignant; and on their return
they had a skirmish with some Frenchmen, who
were carrying goods to the Dahkotahs.
Shortly after, they met Perrot, and were about
to bum him to death, when prevented by some
LE SUJEUB ASCENDS THE MI8SISIPPI HI FEB.
39
friendly Foxes. The Miamis, after this, were
disposed to be friendly to the Iroquois. In 1696,
the year previous, the authorities at Quebec de-
cided that it was expedient to abandon aU the
posts west of Mackinaw, and withdraw the French
from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
The voyageurs were not disposed to leave the
country, and the governor wrote to Pontchar-
train for instructions, in October, 1698. In his
dispatch he remarks:
" In this conjuncture, and mider aU these cir-
cumstances, we consider it our duty to postpone,
untU new instructions from the court, the execu-
tion of Sieur Le Sueur's enterprise for the mines,
though the promise had already been given him
to send two canoes in advance to Missilimackinac,
for the purpose of purchasing there some pro-
visions and other necessaries for his voyage, and
that he would be permitted to go and join them
early in the spring with the rest of his hands.
What led us to adopt this resolution has been,
that the French who remained to trade ofE with
the Five Nations the remainder of their merch-
andise, might, on seeing entirely new comers
arriving there, consider themselves entitled to
dispense with coming down, and perhaps adopt
the resolution to settle there; whilst, seeing no
arrival there, with permission to do what is for-
bidden, the reflection they will be able to make
during the winter, and the apprehension of being
guilty of crime, may oblige them to return in the
spring.
" This would be very desirable, in consequence
of the great difficulty there will be in constraining
them to it, should they be inclined to lift the mask
altogether and become buccaneers; or should
Sieur Le Sueur, as he easily could do, furnish
them with goods for their beaver and smaller
peltry, which he might send dovm by the return of
other Frenchmen, whose sole desire is to obey, and
who have remained only because of the impossi-
biUty of getting their effects down. This would
rather induce those who would continue to lead a
vagabond life to remain there, as the goods they
would receive from Le Sueur's people would afEord
them the means of doing so."
In reply to this communication, Louis XIV.
answered that —
" His majesty has approved that the late Sieur
(ie Frontenac and De Champigny suspended the
execution of the license granted to the man named
Le Sueur to proceed, with fifty men, to explore
some mines on the banks of the Mississippi. He
has revoked said Ueense, and desires that the said
Le Sueur, or any other person, be prevented from
leaving the colony on pretence of going in search
of mines, without his majesty's express permis-
sion."
Le Sueur, undaunted by these drawbacks to the
prosecution of a favorite project, again visited
France.
Fortunately for Le Sueur, D'Iberville, who was
a friend, and closely connected by marriage, was
appointed governor of the new territory of Louis-
iana. In the month of December he arrived from
France, with thirty workmen, to proceed to the
supposed mines in Minnesota.
On the thirteenth of July, 1700, with a felucca,
two canoes, and nineteen men, having ascended
the Mississippi, he had reached the mouth of the
Missouri, and six leagues above tliis he passed the
Illinois. He there met three Canadians, who
came to join him, with a letter from Father Mar-
est, who had once attempted a mission among the
Dahkotahs, dated July 13, Mission Immaculate
Conception of the Holy Virgin, in Illinois.
" I have the honor to write, in order to inform
you that the Saugiestas have been defeated by the
Scioux and Ayavois [lowas]. The people have
formed an alliance with the Quincapous [Kicka-
poosj, some of the Mecoutlns, Eenards [Foxes],
and Metesigamias, and gone to revenge them-
selves, not on the Scioux, for they are too much
afraid of them, but perhaps on the Ayavois, or
very likely upon the Paoutees, or more probably
upon the Osages, for these suspect nothing, and
the others are on their guard.
"As you will probably meet these allied nar
tions, you ought to take precaution against their
plans, and not allow them to board your vessel,
since tliey are traitors, and utterly faithless. 1 pray
God to accompany you in all your designs."
Twenty-two leagues above the Illinois, he passed
a small stream which he called the Elver of Oxen,
and nine leagues beyond this he passed a smaU
river on the west side, where he met four Cana-
dians descending the Mississippi, on their way to
the Illinois. On the 30th of July, nine leagues
above the last-named river, he met seventeen
Scioux, in seven canoes, who were going to re-
40
EXPL0BEB8 AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
venge the death of three Scioux, one of whom had
been burned, and the others killed, at Tamarois,
a few days before his arrival in that village. As
he had promised the chief of the Illinois to ap-
pease the Scioux who should go to war against
Ms nation, he made a present to the chief of the
party to engage him to turn back. He told them
the King of Prance did not wish them to make
this river more bloody, and that he was sent to tell
them that, if they obeyed the king's word, they
would receive in future all things necessary for
them. The chief answered that he accepted the
present, that is to say, that he would do as had
been told him.
Prom the 30th of July to the 25th of August, Le
Sueur advanced fifty-three and one-fourth leagues
to a small river which he called the Biver of the
Mine. At the mouth it runs from the north, but
it turns to the northeast. On the right seven
leagues, there is a lead mine in a prairie, one and
a half leagues. The river is only navigable in
high water, that is to say, from early spring till
the month of June.
Prom the 25th to the 27th he made ten leagues,
passed two small rivers, and made himself ac-
quainted with a mine of lead, from which he took
a supply. Prom the 27th to the 30th he made
eleven and a half leagues, and met five Canadians,
one of whom had been dangerously wounded in
the head. They were naked, and had no ammu-
nition except a miserable gun, with five or six
loads of powder and balls. They said they were
descending from the Scioux to go to Tamarois,
and, when seventy leagues above, they perceived
nine canoes in the Mississippi, in which were
ninety savages, who robbed and cruelly beat them.
This party were going to war against the Scioux,
and were composed of four different nations, the
Outagamies [Foxes], Poutouwatamis [Pottowatta-
mies], and Puans [Wtnnebagoes], who dwell in a
country eighty leagues east of the Mississippi
from where Le Sueur then was.
■ The Canadians determined to follow the detach-
ment, which was composed of twenty-eight men.
This day they made seven and a half leagues.
On the 1st of September he passed the Wisconsin
river. It runs into the Mississippi from the north-
east. It is nearly one and a half mUes wide. At
about seventy-five leagues up this river, on the
right, ascending, there is a portage of more than
a league. The half of this portage is shaking
ground, and at the end of it is a small river which
descends into a bay called Winnebago Bay. It is
inhabited by a great number of nations who carry
their furs to Canada. Monsieur Le Sueur came
by the Wisconsin river to the Mississippi, for the
first time, in 1683, on his way to the Scioux coun-
try, where he had already passed seven years at
different periods. The Mississippi, opposite the
mouth of the Wisconsin, is less than half a mUe
wide. Prom the 1st of September to the -Sth, our
voyageur advanced fourteen leagues. He passed
the river " Aux Canots," which comes from the
northeast, and then the Quincapous, named from
a nation which once dwelt upon its banks.
Prom the 5th to the 9th he made ten and a half
leagues, and passed the rivers Cachee and Aux
Ailes. The same day he perceived canoes, filled
with savages, descending the river, and the five
Canadians recognized them as the party who had
robbed them. They placed sentinels in the wood,
for fear of being surprised by land, and when
they had approached within hearing, they cried to
them that if they approached farther they would
fire. They then drew up by an island, at half the
distance of a gun shot. Soon, four of the princi-
pal men of the band approached in a canoe, and
asked if it was forgotten that they were our
brethren, and with what design we had taken
arms when we perceived them. Le Sueur replied
that he had cause to distrust them, since they had
robbed five of his party. JSTevertheless, for the
surety of his trade, being forced to be at peace
with all the tribes, he demanded no redress for
the robbery, but added merely that the king, their
master and his, wished that his subjects shotild
navigate that river without insult, and that they
had better beware how they acted.
The Indian who had.spoken was silent, but an-
other said they had been attacked by the Scioux,
and that if they did not have pity on them, and
give them a little powder, they should not be able
to reach their viUages. The consideration of a
missionary, who was to go up among the Scioux,
and whom these savages might meet, induced
them to give two pounds of powder.
M. Le Sueur made the same day three leagues;
passed a stream on the west, and afterward an-
other river on the east, which is navigable at all
times, and which the Indians call Red River.
BATTLESNAKB8 ON SHORES OF LAXE PEPIN.
41
On the 10th, at daybreak, they heard an elk
whistle, on the other side of the river. A Cana-
dian crossed in a small Scioux canoe, which they
had found, and shortly returned with the body of
the animal, which was very easily killed, " quand
U est en rut," that is, from the beginning of Sep-
tember until the end of October. The hunters at
this time made a whistle of a piece of wood, or
reed, and when they hear an elk: whistle they an-
swer it. The animal, beUeving it to be another
elk, approaches, and is killed with ease.
From the 10th to the 14th, M. Le Sueur made
seventeen and a half leagues, passing the rivers
Raisin and Paqmlenettes (perhaps the Wazi Ozu
and Buffalo.) The same day he left, on the east
side of the Mississippi, a beautiful and large river,
which descends from the very far north, and
called Bon Secours (Chippeway), on account of the
great quantity of buffalo, elk, bears and deers
which are found there. Three leagues up this
river there is a mine of lead, and seven leagues
above, on the same side, they found another long
river, in the vicinity of which there is a copper
mine, from which he had taken a lump of sixty
pounds in a former voyage. In order to make
these mines of any account, peace must be ob-
tained between the Scioux and Ouatagamis (Fox-
es), because the latter, who dwell on the east side
of the Mississippi, pass this road continually when
going to war against the Sioux.
Penicaut, in his journal, gives a brief descrip-
tion" of the Mississippi between the Wisconsin
and Lake Pepin. He writes: "Above the Wis-
consin, and ten leagues higher on the same side,
begins a great prairie extending for sixty leagues
along the bank; this prairie is called Aux Ailes.
Opposite to Aux Ailes, on the left, there is
another prairie facing it called Paquilanet which
is not so long by a great deal. Twenty leagues
above these prairies is found Lake Bon Secours "
[Good Help, now Pepin.]
In this region, at one and a half leagues on the
northwest side, commenced a lake, which is six
leagues long and more than one broad, called
Lake Pepin. It is bounded on the west by a
chain of mountains; on the east is seen a prairie;
and on the northwest of the lake there is another
prairie two leagues long and one wide. In the
neighborhood is a chain of mountains quite two
hundred feet high, and more than one and a half
mUes long. In these are found several caves, to
which the bears retire in winter. Most of the
caverns are more than seventy feet in extent, and
two hundred feet high. There are several of
which the entrance is very narrow, and quite
closed up vidth saltpetre, It would be dangerous
to enter them in summer, for they are filled with
rattlesnakes, the bite of which is very dangerous.
Le Sueur saw some of these snakes Which were
six feet in length, but generally they are about
four feet. They have teeth resembUng those of
the pike, and their gums are full of small vessels,
in which their poison is placed. The Scioux say
they take it every morning, and cast it away at
night. They have at the tail a kind of scale which
makes a noise, and this is called the rattle.
Le Sueur made on this day seven and a half
leagues, and passed another river, called Hiam-
bouxecate Ouataba, or the River of Flat Rock.
[The Sioux call the Cannon river Inyanbosndata.]
On the 15th he crossed a small river, and saw
in the neighborhood several canoes, filled with
Indians, descending the Mississippi. He sup-
posed they were Scioux, because he could not dis-
tinguish whether the canoes were large or small.
The arms were placed in readiness, and soon they
heard the cry of the savages, which they are ac-
customed to raise when they rush upon their en-
emies. He caused them to be answered in the
same manner; and after having placed all the
men behind the trees, he ordered them not to fire
until they were commanded. He remained on
shore to see what movement the savages would
make, and- perceiving that they placed two on
shore, on the other side, where from an eminence
they could ascertain the strength of his forces, he
caused the men to pass and repass from the shore
to the wood, in order to make them beUeve that
they were numerous. This ruse succeeded, for
as soon as the two descended from the eminence
the chief of the party came, bearing the calumet,
which is a signal of peace among the Indians.
They said that having never seen the French navi-
gate the river with boats like the felucca, they had
supposed them to be EngUsh, and for that reason
they had raised the war cry, and arranged them-
selves on the other side of the Mississippi; but
having recognized their flag, they had come with-
out fear to uiform them, that one of their num-
ber, who was crazy, had accidentally killed a
42
EXPL0BEB8 AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
frenchman, and that they would go and bring his
comrade, who would tell how the mischief had
happened.
The Frenchman they brought was Denis, a Ca-
nadian, and he reported that his companion was
accidentally killed. His name was Laplace, a de-
serting soldier from Canada, who had taken ref-
uge in this country.
Le Sueur replied, that Onontio (the name they
give to all the governors of Canada), being their
father and his, they ought not to seek justificatibn
elsewhere than before him; and he advised them
to go and see him as soon as possible, and beg
him to wipe off the blood of this Prenchman from
their faces.
The party was composed of forty-seven men of
different nations, who dwell far to the east, about
the forty-fourth degree of latitude. Le Sueur,
discovering who the chiefs were, said the king
whom they had spoken of in Canada, had sent
Him to take possession of the north of the river;
and' that he wished the nations who dwell on it,
as well as those under his protection, to live in
peace.
He made this day three and three-fourths
leagues; and on the 16th of September, he left a
large river on the east side, named St. Croix, be-
cause a Frenchman of that name was shipwrecked
at its mouth. It comes from the north-northwest.
Pour leagues higher, in going up, is found a small
lake, at the mouth of which is a very large mass
of copper. It is on the edge of the water, in a
small ridge of sandy earth, on the west of this
lake. [One of La Salle's men was named St.
Croix.]
From the 16th to the 19th, he advanced thir-
teen and three-fourths leagues. After having
made from Tamarois two hundred and nine and a
half leagues, he left the navigation of the Missis-
sippi, to enter the river St. Pierre, on the west
side. By the 1st of October, he had made in this
river forty-four and one-fourth leagues. After he
entered Blue river, thus named on account of the
mines of blue earth found at its mouth, he found-
ed his post, situated in forty-four degrees, thir-
teen minutes north latitude. He met at this
place nine Scioux, who told him that the river
belonged to the Scioux of the west, the Ayavois
(lowas) and Otoctatas (Ottoes), who Uved a little
farther off; that it was not their custom to hunt
on ground belonging to others, unless invited to
do so by the owners, and that When they would
come to the fort to obtain provisions, they would
be in danger of being killed in ascending or de-
scending the rivers, v/hich were narrow, and that
if they would show their pity, Tie must establish
himself on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the St.
Pierre, where the Ayavois, the Otoctatas, and the
other Scioux could go as well as they.
Having finished their speech, they leaned over
the head of Le Sueur, according to their custom;
crying out, "Ouaechissou duaepanimanabb," that
is to say, " Have pity upon us." Le Sueur had
foreseen that the establishment of Blue Earth
river would not please the Scioux of the East,
who were, so to speak, masters of the other Scioux
and of the nations which will be hereafter men-
tioned, because tliey were the first with whom trade
was commenced, and in consequence of which they
had already quite a number of guns.
As he had commenced his operations not only
with a view to the trade of beaver but also to
gain a knowledge of the mines which he had pre-
viously discovered, he told them that he was sor-
ry that he had not known their intentions sooner,
and that it was just, since he came expressly for
them, that he should establish himself on their
land, but that the season was too far advanced
for him to return. He then made them a present
of powder, balls and knives, and an armful of to-
bacco, to entice them to assemble, as soon as pos-
s.ible, near the fort he was about to construct,
that when they should be all assembled he might
tell them the intention of the king, their and his
sovereign.
The Scioux of the West, according to the state-
ment of the Eastern Scioux, have more than a
thousand lodges. They do not use canoes, nor
cultivate the earth, nor gather wild rice. They
remain :ienerally on the prairies which are be-
tween the Upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers,
and live entirely by the chase. The Scioux gen-
erally say they have three souls, and that after
death, that which has done well goes to the warm
country, that which has done evil to the cold
regions, and the other guards the body. Poly-
gamy is common among them. They are very
jealous, and sometime^s fight in duel for their
wives. They manage the bow admirably, and
have been seen several times to kill ducks on the
BLUE EABTH ASSAYED BT VHJJLLIEB IN PABI8.
43
wing. They make their lodges of a number of
buffalo skins interlaced and sewed, and carry
them wherever they go. They are all great smo-
kers, but their manner of smoking differs from
that of other Indians. There are some Scioux
who Swallow all the smoke of the tobacco, and
others who, after having kept it some tune in
their mouth, cause it to issue from the nose. In
each lodge there are usually two or three men
with their families.
On fthe third, of October, they received at the
fort several Scioux, among whom was Wahkan-
tape,. chief of the village. Soon two Canadians
c^rrived who had been hunting, and who had been
robbed by the Scioux of the East, who had raised
their guns against the establishment which M.
Le Sueur had made on Blue Earth river.
On the fourteenth the fort was finished and
nEimed Eort L'Huillier, and on thejwenty-second
two Canadians were sent out to invite the Aya-
vois and Otoctatas to come and establish a vil-
lage near the fort, because these Indians are in-
dustrious and accustomed to cultivate the earth,
and they hoped to get provisions from them, and
to make them work in the mines.
On the twenty-fourth, six Scioux Oujalespoi-
tons wished to go into the fort", but were told
that they did not receive men who had killed
Frenchmen, This is the term used when they
have insulted them. The next day they came to
the lodge .of Le Sueur to beg him to have pity on
them. .They wished, according to custom, to
weep over his head and make him a present of
packs of beavers, which he refused. He told
them he was surprised that people who had rob-
bed should come to him ; to which they replied
that they had heard it said that two Frenchmen
had been robbed, but none from their village had
been present at that wicked action.
Le Sueur answered, that he knew it was the
Mendeoucantons and not the Oujalespoitons ;
" but," continued he, "yon are Scioux; it is the
Scioux who have robbed me, and if I were to fol-
low your manner of acting I should break your
heads ; for is it not true, thpt when a stranger
(it is thus they call the Indians who are not
Scioux) has insulted a Scioux, Mendeoucanton,
Oujalespoitons, or others — all the villages revenge
upon the first one they meet?"
, As they had nothing to answer to what he said
to them, they wept and repeated, according to
custom, " Ouaechissou ! ouaepanimanabo I" Le
Sueur told them to cease crying, and added that
the French had good hearts, and that they had
come into the country to have pity on them. At
the same time he made them a present, saying to
them, " Carry back your beavers and say to all
the Scioux, that they will have from me no more
powder or lead, and they will no longer smoke
any long pipe until they have made satisfaction
for robbing the Frenchman.
The same day the Canadians, who had been
sent off on the 22d, arrived without having found
\h& road which led to the Ayavois and Otoctatas.
On the 25th, Le Sueur went to the river with .
three canoes, which he filled with green and blue
earth. It is taken from, the hills near which are
very abundant mines of copper, some of which
was worked at Paris in 1696, by L'Huillier, one
of the chief collectors of the king. Stones were
also found there which would be curious, if
worked.
On the ninth of November, eight Mantanton
Scioux arrived, who had been sent by their chiefs
to say that the Mendeoucantons were still at their
lake on the east of the Mississippi, and they could
not come for a long time ; and that for a single
village which had no good sense, the others ought
not to bear the punishment ; and that they were
willing to make reparation if they knew how.
Le Sueur replied that he was glad that they had
a disposition to do so.
On the 15th the two Mantanton Scioux, who
had been sent expressly to say that all of the
Scioux of the east, and part of those of the west,
■ were joined together to come to the French, be-
cause they had heard that the Christianaux and
the Assinipoils were making war on them.
These two nations dwell above the fort on the
east side, more than eighty leagues on the Upper
Mississippi.
The Assinipoils speak Scioux, and are certainly
of that nation. It is only a few years since that
they became enemies. The enmity thus origi-
nated: The Christianaux, having the use of arms
before the Scioux, through the English at Hud-
son's Bay, they constantly warred upon the As-
sinipoils, who were their nearest neighbors.
The latter, being weak, sued for peace, and to
render it more lasting, married the Christianaux
44
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
women. The other Scioux, who had not made
the compact, continued the war; and, seeing some
Christianaux with the Assinipoils, broke their
heads. The Christianaux furnished the Assini-
poils with arms and merchandise.
On the 16th the Scioux returned to their Til-
lage, and it was reported that the Ayavois and
Otoctatas were gone to establish themselves to-
wards the Missouri Biver, near the Maha, who
dwell in that region. On the 26th the Mantan-
tons and Oujalespoitons arrived at the fort; and,
after they had encamped in the woods, Wah
kantape came to beg Le Sueur to go to his
lodge. He there found sixteen men with women
and children, with their faces daubed with black.
In the middle of the lodge were several bufEalo
skins which were sewed for a carpet. After mo-
tioning him to sit down, they wept for the fourth
of an hour, and the chief gave him some wild
rice to eat (as was their custom), putting the
iirst three spoonsful to his mouth. After which,
he said all present were relatives of Tioscate,
whom Le Sueur took to Canada in 1695, and who
died there in 1696.
At the mention of Tioscate they began to weep
again, and wipe their tears and heads upon the
shoulders of Le Sueur. Then Wahkantape again
spoke, and said that Tioscate begged him to for-
get the insult done to the Frenchmen by the
Mendeoucantons, and take pity on his brethren
by giving them powder and balls whereby they'
could defend themselves, and gain a living for
their wives and children, who languish in a coun-
try full of game, because they had not the means
of killing them. " Look," added the chief, " Be-
hold thy children, thy brethren, and thy sisters;
it is to thee to see whether thou wishest them to
die. They will live if thou givest them powder
and ball; they will die if thou refusest."
Le Sueur granted them their request, but as
the Scioux never answer on the spot, especially
in matters of importance, and as he had to speak
to them about his establishment he went out of
the lodge without saying a word. The chief and
all those within followed him as far as the door
of the fort; and when he had gone in, they went
aroimd it three times, crying with all their
strength, " Atheouanan! " that is to say, " Pather,
have pity _on us." [Ate unyanpi, means Our
Father.]
The next day, he assembled in the fort the
principal men of both villages; and as it is not
possible to subdue the Scioux or to hinder them
from going to war, unless it be by inducing them
to cultivate the earth, he said to them that if
they wished to render themselves worthy of the
protection of the king, they must abandon their
erring life, and form a village near his dwelling,
where they wouM be shielded from the insults of
of their enemies; and that they might be happy
and not hungry, he would give them all the com
necessary to plant a large piece of ground; that
the king, their and his chief, in sending him, had
forbidden him-io purchase beaver skins, knowing
that this kind of hunting separates them and ex-
poses them to their enemies; and that in conse-
quence of this he had come to establish himself
on Blue Eiver and vicinity, where they had many
times assured him were many kinds of beasts,
for the skins of which he would give them all
things necessary; that they ought to reflect that
they could not do without French goods, and that
the only way not to want them was, not to go to
war with our allied nations.
As it is customary with the Indians to accom-
pany their word with a present proportioned to
the affair treated of, he gave them fifty poimds of
powder, as many balls, six guns, ten axes, twelve
armsful of tobacco, and a hatchet pipe.
On the first of December, the Mantantons in-
vited Le Sueur to a great feast. Of four of their
lodges they had made one, in which were one
hundred men seated around, and every one his
dish before him. After the meal, Wahkantape,
the chief, made them all smoke, one after another,
in the hatchet pipe which had been given them.
He then made a present to Le Sueur of a slave
and a sack of wild rice, and said to him, showing
him his men: ' ' Behold the remains of this great
village, which thou hast aforetimes seen so nu-
merous! All the others'have been killed in wax";
and the few men whom thou seest in this lodge,
accept the present thou hast made them, and are
resolved to obey the great chief of all nations, of
whom thou hast spoken to us. Thou oughtest
not to regard us as Scioux, but as French, and in-
stead of saying the Scioux are miserable, and have
no mind, and are fit for nothing but to rob and
steal from the French, thou shalt say my breth-
ren are miserable and have no mind, and we miist
D' IBERVILLE' 8 MEMOIB ON THE MISSISSIPPI TRIBES.
45
try to procure some for them. They rob us, but
I will take care that they do not lack iron, that is
to say, all kinds of goods. If thou dost this, I as-
sure thee that in a little time the Mantantons will
become Frenchmen, and they will have none of
those vices, with which thou reproachest us."
Having finished his speech, he covered his face
with his garment, and the others imitated him.
They wept ever their companions who had died
in war, and chanted an adieu to their country in
a tone so gloomy, that one could not keep from
partaking of their sorrow.
Wahkantape then made them smoke again, and
distributed the presents, and said that he was go-
ing to the Mendeoucantons, to inform them of the
resolution, and invite them to do the same.
On the twelfth, three Mendeoucauton chiefs,
and a large number of Indians of the same vil-
lage, arrived at the fort, and the next day gave
satisfaction for robbing the Frenchmen. They
brought four hundred pounds of beaver skins, and
promised that the summer following, after their
canoes were built and they had gathered their
wild rice, that they would come and establish
themselves near the French. The same day they
returned to their village east of the Mississippi.
NAMES OF THE BANDS OF SCIOUX OF THE
EAST, WITH THBIB SIGNIFICATION.
Mantantons— That is to say, Village of the
Great Lake which empties into a small one.
Mendeouacantons— Village of Spirit Lake.
QuioPETONS— Village of the Lake with one
River.
PsiouMANiTONS— Village of Wild Eice Gath-
erers.
OuADEBATONs— The Eiver Village.
OuAETEMANETONS— Village of the Tribe who
dwell on the Point of the Lake.
SoNGASQUiTONS— The Brave VOlage,
THE SCIOUX OF THE WEST.
ToucHouAESiNTONs— The Village of the Pole.
PsiNCHATONS— Village of the Red Wild Rice.
OuJALBSPOiTONS— Village divided into many
small Bands.
PsiNOTJTANHiNHiNTONS — The Great Wild
Rice Village.
TiNTANGAOTTGHiATONS — The Grand Lodge
Village.
OuAEPETONS — Village of the Leaf.
OuGHETGEODATONS — Dung Village.
OuAPEONTETONS — Village of those who shoot
in the Large Pine.
HiNHANBTONS — VUlage of the Red Stone
Quarry.
The above catalogue of villages concludes the
extract that La Harpe has made from Le Sueur's
Journal.
In the narrative of Major Long's second expe-
dition, there are just as many villages of the Gens
duLac, or M'dewakantonwan Scioux mentioned,
though the names are different. After leaving
the MUle Lac region, the divisions evidently were
different, and the villages known by new names.
Charlevoix, who visited the valley of the Lower
Mississippi in 1722, says that Le Sueur spent a
winter in his fort on the banks of the Blue Earth,
and that in the following April he went up to the
mine, about a mile above. In twenty-two days
they obtained more than thirty thousand pounds
of the substance, four thousand of which were se-
lected and sent to France.
On the tenth of February, 1702, Le Sueur carne
back to the post on the Gulf of Mexico, and found
D'lbervUle absent, who, however, arrived on the
eighteenth of the next month, with a ship from
France, loaded with supplies. After a few weeks,
the Governor of Louisiana sailed again for the
old country, Le Sueur being a fellow passenger.
On board of the ship, D'Iberville wrote a mem-
orial upon the Mississippi valley, with sugges-
tions for carrying on commerce therein, which
contains many facts furnished by Le Sueur. A
copy of the manuscript was in possession of the
Historical Society of Minnesota, from which are
the following extracts:
"If the Sioux remain in their own country,
they are useless to us, being too distant. We
could have no commerce with them except that
of the beaver. M. Le Sueur, who goes to France
to give an account of this country, is the proper per-
son to make these movements. He estimates the
Sioux at four thousand families, who could settle
upon the Missouri.
" He has spoken to me of another which he
calls the Mahas, composed of more than twelve
hundred families. The Ayooues (loways) and the
Octoctatas, their neighbors, are about three
hundred families. They occupy the lands be-
46
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
tween the Mississippi and thie Missouri, about
one hundred leagues from the IlUnois. These
savages do not know the use of arms, and a de-
scent might be made upon them in a rivpr, which
is beyond the Wabash on the west. * * *
" The Assinibouel, Quenistinos, and people of
the north, who are upon the rivers which-fall into
the Mississippi, and trade at Fort Ifelson (Hud-
son Bay), are about four hundred. We could
prevent them from going there if we wish."
" In four or five years we can establish a com-
merce with these savages of sixty or eighty thou-
sand buffalo skins; more than one hundred deer
skins, which will produce, delivered in France,
more than two million four hundred thousand
hvres yearly. One might obtain for a buffalo
skin four or five pounds of wool, which sells for
twenty sous, two pounds of coarse hair at ten
sous.
"Besides, from smaller. peltries, two hundred
thousand livres can be made yearly."
In the third volume of the " History and Sta-
tistics of the Indian Tribes," prepared under the
direction of the Commissioner of Indian affairs,
by Mr. Schoolcraft, a manuscript, a copy of which
was in possession of General Cass, is referred to as
containing the iirst enumeration of the Indians of
the Mississippi Valley. The following was made
thirty-four years earlier by D 'Iberville:
"The Sioux, Families, 4,000
Mahas, , 12,000
Octata and Ayoues, 300
Canses [Kansas], 1,500
Missouri, 1,500
Akansas, &c., 200
Manton [Mandan], 100
Panis [Pawnee], 2,000
lUiaois, of the great village and Cama-
roua [Tamaroa], 800
Meosigamea [Metchigamias], .... 200
Kikapous and Mascoutens, .... 450
Miamis, . , 500
Chactas, 4,000
Chicachas, 2,000
Mobiliens and Chohomes, 350
Concaques [Conchas], 2,000
Ouma [Houmas], 150
Colapissa, 250
Bayogoula, 100
People of the Fork, 200
Counica, &c. [Tonicas], 300
Nadeches, 1,500
Belochy, [Biloxi] rascoboula, .... 100
Total, 23,850
" The savage tribes located in the places I have
marked out, make it necessary, to establish three
posts on the Mississippi, one at the Arkansas,
another at the Wabash (Ohio), and the third at
the Missouri. At each post it would be proper
to have an officer with a detachment of ten sol-
diers with a sergeant and corporal. All French-
men should be allowed to settle there with their
families, and trade with the Indians, and .they
might establish tanneries for properly dressiag
the buifalo and deer skins for transportation.
" No Frenchman shall be allowed, to follow the
Indians on their hunts, as it tends to keep them
hunters, as is seen in Canada, and when they are
in the woods, they do not desire to become tillers
of the soil. *******
" I have said nothing in this memoir of Which
I have not personal knowledge or the most relia-
ble sources. The most of what I propose is
founded upon personal reflection in relation to
what might be done for the defence and advance-
ment of the colony. *****
* * * It will be absolutely necessary
that the king should define the limits of this
country in relation to the government of Canada.
It is important that the commandant of the
Mississippi should have a report of those who
inhabit the rivers that fall into the Mississippi,
and principally those of the river Illinois.
" The Canadians intimate to the savages that
they ought not to listen to us but to the governor
of Canada, who always speaks to them with large
presents, that the governor of Mississippi is mean
and never sends them any thing. This is true,
and what I cannot do. It is imprudent to accus-
tom the savages to be spoken to by presents, for,
with so many, it would cost 'the king more than
the revenue derived from the trade. When they
come to us, it will be necessary to bring them in
subjection, make them no presents, and compel
them to do what we wish, as if they were French-
men.
" The Spaniards have divided the Indians into'
parties on this point, and we can do the same.
When one nation does wrong, we can cease to
PENICAVT DESCRIBES LIFE AT FORT L'HUILLIEB.
47
trade with them, and threaten to draw down the
hostility of other Indians. "We rectify the diffi-
culty by having missionaries, who will bring
them into obedience secretly.
" The Illinois and Mascoutens have detained
the French canoes they find upon the Mississippi,
saying that the governors of Canada have given
them permission. I do not know whether this is
so, but if true, it follows that we have not the
liberty to send any one on the Mississippi.
"M. Le Sueur would have been taken if he
had not been the strongest. Only one of the
canoes he sent to the Sioux was plundered." * * *
Penicaut's account varies in sorne particulars
from that of La Harpe's. He calls the Mahkahto
Green Eiver instead of Blue and writes: " We
took our route by its mouth and ascended it forty
leagues, when we found another river falling in-
to the Saint Pierre, which we entered. "We
called this the Green Eiver because it is of that
color by reason of a green earth which loosening
itself from from the copper mines, becomes dis-
solved and makes it green.
" A league up this river, we found a point
of land a quarter of a league distant from the
woods, and it was upon this point that M. Le
Sueur resolved to build his fort, because we could
not go any higher on account of the ice, it being
the last day of September. Half of our people
went hunting whilst the others worked on the
fort. "We killed four hundred buffaloes, which
were our provisions for the winter, and which we
placed upon scaffolds in our fort, after having
skinned and cleaned and quartered them. "We
also made cabins in the fort, and a magazinp to
keep our goods. After having drawn up our
shallop within the inclosuxe of the fort, we spent
the winter in our cabins.
" "When we were working in our fort in the
begiiming seven French traders from Canada
took refuge there. They had been pillaged and
stripped naked by the Sioux, a wandering nation
Uving only by hunting and plundering. Among
these seven persons there was a Canadian gen-
tleman of Le Sueur's acquaintance, whom he rec-
ognized at once, and gave him some clothes, as
he did also to all the rest, and whatever else was
necessary for them. They remained with us
during the entire winter at our fort, where we
had not food enough for all, except buffalo meat
which we had not even salt to eat with. We had
a good deal of trouble the first two \\'eeks in ac-
customing ourselves to it, having fever and di-
arrhoea and becoming so tired of it as to hate the
smell. But by degrees our bodies became adapt-
ed to it so well that at the end of six weeks there
was not one of us who could not eat six pounds
of meat a day, and drink four bowls of broth.
As soon as we were accustomed to this kind of
living it made us very fat, and then there was no
more sickness.
" "When spring arrived we went to work in the
copper mine. This was the beginning of April of
this year [1701.] "We took with us twelve labor-
ers and four hunters. This mine was situated
about three-quarters of a league from our post.
"We took from the mine in twenty days more than
twenty thousand pounds weight of ore, of which
we only selected four thousand pounds of the
finest, which M. Le Sueur, who was a very good
judge of it, had carried to the fort, and which has
since been sent to France, though I have not
learned the result.
'• This mine is situated at the beginning of a
very long mountain, which is upon the bank of
the river, so that boats can go right to the mouth
of the mine itself. At this place is the green
earth, which is a foot and a half in tliickness,
and above it is a layer of earth as firm and
hard as stone, and black and burnt like coal by
the exhalation from the mine. The copper is
scratched out vnth a knife. There are no trees
upon this mountain. * * * After twenty-two
days' work, we returned to our fort. "When the
Sioux, who belong to the nation of savages who
pillaged the Canadians, came they brought us
merchandize of furs.
"They had more than four hundred beaver
robes, each robe made (5f nine skins sewed to-
gether. M. Le Sueur purchased these and many
other skins which he bargained for, in the week
he traded with the savages. * * * *
We seU. in return wares which come very dear to
the buyers, especially tobacco from Brazil, in the
proportion of a hundred crowns the pound; two
little horn-handled knives, and f oiu- leaden bul-
lets are equal to ten crowns in exchange for
sldns ; and so with the rest.
" In the beginning of May, we launched our
shallop in the water, and loaded it with green
48
EXPL0BER8 AND PIONE-EBS OF MINNESOTA.
earth that had been taken out of the river, and
with the furs we had traded for, of which we had
three canoes full. M. Le Sueur before going
held council with M. D'Evaque [or Eraque] the
Canadian gentleman, and the tliree great chiefs
of the Sioux, three brothers, and told them that
as he had to return to the sea, he desired them
to live in peace with M. D'Evaque, whom he left
in command at Fort L'Huillier, with twelve
Frenchmen. M. Le Sueur made a considerable
present to the three brothers, chiefs of the sava-
ges, desiring them to never abandon the French.
Afterward we the twelve men whom he had chosen
to go down to the sea with him embarked. In set-
ting out, M. Le Sueur promised to M. D'Evaque
and the twelve Frenchmen who remained with
him to guard the fort, to send up munitions of
war from the Illinois country as soon as he should
arrive there ; which he did, for on getting there
he sent off to him a canoe loaded with two thou-
sand pounds of lead and powder, with three of
our people in charge."
Le Sueur arrived at the French fort on the
Gulf of Mexico in safety, and in a few weeks, in
the spring of 1701, sailed for France, with his
kinsman, D'Iberville, the first governor of Lou-
isiana.
In the spring of the next year (1702) D'Evaque
came to Mobile and reported to D'Iberville, who
had come back from France, that he had been
attacked by the Foxes and Maskoutens, who killed
three Frenchmen who were working near Fort
L'Huillier, and that, being out of powder and
lead, he had been obUged to conceal the goods
which were left and abandon the post. At the
Wisconsin River he had met Juchereau, formerly
criminal judge in Montreal, with thirty-five
men, on his way to establish a tannery for buffalo
skins at the Wabash, and that at the Illinois he
met the canoe of supplies sent by Bienville,
D 'Iberville's brother.
La Motte Cadillac, in command at Detroit, in
a letter written on August 31st, 1703, alludes to
Le Sueur's expedition in these words: " Last
year they sent Mr. Boudor, a Montreal merchant,
into the country of the Sioux to join Le Su-
eur. He succeeded so well in that journey he
transported thither twenty-five or thirty thous-
and pounds of merchandize with which to trade
in all the country of the Outawas. This proved
to him an unfortunate investment, as he has
been robbed of a part of the goods by the Outa-
gamies. The occasion of the robbery by one of
our own allies was as follows. I speak with a
full knowledge of the facts as they occurred while
I was at Michillimackianc. From time immemo-
rial our allies have been at war with the Sioux,
and on my arrival there in conformity to the or-
der of M. Frontenac, the most able man who has
ever come into Canada, I attempted to negotiate
a truce between the Sioux and all our allies.
Succeeding in this negotiation I took the occa-
sion to turn their arms against the Iroquois with
whom we were then at war, and soon after I ef-
fected a treaty of peace between the Sioux and
the French and their allies which lasted two years.
"At the end of tha'; time the Sioux came, in
great numbers, to the villages of the Miamis, un-
der pretense of ratifying the treaty. They were
well received by the Miamis, and, after spending
several days in their villages, departed, apparent-
ly perfectly satisfied with their good reception, as
they certainly had every reason to be.
" The Miamis, believing them already far dis-
tant, slept quietly; but the Sioux, who had pre-
meditated the attack, returned the same night to
the principal village of the Miamis, where most
of the tribe were congregated, and, taking them
by surprise, slaughtered nearly three thousandC!*)
and put the rest to flight..
"This perfectly infuriated all tne nations.
They came with their complaints, begging me to
join with them and exterminate the Sioux. But
the war we then had on our hands did not permit
it, so it became necessary to play the orator in a
long harangue. In conclusion I advised them to
' weep their dead, and wrap them up, and leave
them to sleep coldly till the day of vengeance
should come;' telling them we must sweep the
land on this side of the Iroquois, as it was neces-
sary to extinguish even their memory, after which
the allied tribes could more easily avenge the
atrocious deed that the Sioux had just committed
upon them. In short, I managed them so well
that the affair was settled in the manner that I
proposed.
"But the twenty-five permits still existed, and
the cupidity of the French induced them to go
among the Sioux to trade for beaver. Our alUes
complained bitterly of this, saying it was injust^
TRADE FORBIDDEN WITH THE SIOUX.
49
ice to them, as they had taken up arms in our
quarrel against the Iroquois, while the French
traders were carrying munitions of war to the
Sioux to enable them to kill the rest of our aUies
as they had the Miamis.
" I immediately informed M. Frontenac, and M.
Champigny having read the communication, and
commanded that an ordinance be published at Mon-
treal forbidding the traders to go into the' country
of the Sioux for the purpose of traffic under penalty
of a thousand francs fine, the confiscation of the
goods, and other arbitrary penalties. The ordi-
nance was sent to me and faithfully executed.
The same year [1699] I descended to Quebec,
having asked to be relieved. Since that time, in
spite of this prohibition, the French have con-
tinued to trade with the Sioux, but not without
being subject to affronts and indignities from our
allies themselves which bring dishonor on the
French name. * * * I do not consider it best
any longer to allow the traders to carry on com-
merce with the Sioux, under any pretext what-
ever, especially as M. Boudor has just been
robbed by the Fox nation, and M. Jucheraux has
given a thousand crowns, in goods, for the right
of passage through the country of the allies to
his habitation.
" The allies say that Le Sueur has gone to the
Sioux on the Mississippi; that they are resolved
to oppose him, and if hejjfEers any resistance they
will not be answerable for the consequences.
It would be well, therefore, to give Le Sueur
warning by the Governor of Mississippi.
" The Sauteurs [Chippeways] being friendly
with the Sioux wished to give passage through
their country to M. Boudor and others, permit-
ting them to carry arms and other munitions of
war to this nation; but the other nations being
opposed to it, differences have arisen between
them which have resulted in the robbery of M.
Boudor. This has given occasion to the Sau-
teurs to make an outbreak upon the Sacs and
Foxes, killing thirty or forty of them. So thers
is war among the people."
50
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEIiS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER yill=
EVENTS WHICH LED TO BUII.DIKG FORT BEAUHAKNOIS OK LAKE PEPIN.
Re-Establishraent of Mackinaw.— Sieur de Louvigny at Mackinaw.— Do Lignery
at Mackinaw.— Louvigny Attacks the Foxes.— Du Luth's Post Reoccupied. —
Saint Pierre at La Pointe on Lake Superior.— Preparations for a Jesuit Mission
among the Sioux.— La Perriere Boucher's Expedition to Lake Pepin.— De
Conor and Guiguas, Jesuit Missionaries.- Visit to Poxes and Winnebagoes. —
Wisconsin River Descrihed.— Fort Beauharnois Built.— Fireworks Displayed. —
High Water at Lake Pepin.— De Gonor Visits Mackinaw.— Boucher ville, Mont-
hrun and Gmguas Captured by Indians.— Montbrun's Escape.— Boucherville's
Presents to Indians. — Exaggerated Account of Father Guiguas' Capture.^i-Dis-
patches Concerning Fort Beauharnois. — Sieur de la Jemeraye. — Saint Pierre at
Fort Beauharnois.— Trouble between Sioux and Foxes,— Sioux Visit Quehec. —
De Lusignan Visits the Sioux Country.— Saint Pierre Noticed in the Travels
of Jonathan Carver and Lieutenant Pike.
After the Fox Indians drove away Le Sueur's
men, in 1702, from the Makahto, or Blue Earth
river, the merchants of Montreal and Quebec did
not encourage trade with the tribes beyond Mack-
inaw.
D'Aigreult, a French officer, sent to inspect
that post, in the summer of 1708, reported that
he arrived there, on the 19th of August, and
found there but fourteen or fifteen Frenchmen.
He also wrote: " Since there are now only a few
wanderers at MichiUmackinack, the greater part
of the furs of the savages of the north goes to the
EngUsh trading posts on Hudson's Bay. The
Outawas are unable to make this trade by them-
selves, because the northern savages are timid,
and will not come near them, as they have often
been plundered. It is, therefore, necessary that
the French be allowed to seek these northern
tribes at the mouth of their own river, which
I
empties into Lake Superior."
Louis de la Porte, the Sieur De Louvigny, in
1690, accompanied by Nicholas Perrot, with a de-
tachment of one hundred and seventy Canadians
and Indians, came to Mackinaw, and until 1694
was in command, when he was recalled.
In 1712, Father Joseph J. Marest the Jesuit
missionary wrote, " If this country ever needs
M. Louvigny it is now ; the savages say it is ab-
solutely necessary that he should come for the
safety of the country, to unite the tribes and to
defend those whom the war has caused to return
to Michilimacinac. **«*«*
I do not know what course the Pottawatomies
will take, nor even what course they will pursue
who are here, if M. Louvigny does not come, es-
pecially if the Foxes were to attack them or us."
The next July, M. Lignery urged upon the au-
thorities the establishment of a garrison of trained
soldiers at Mackinaw, and the Intendant of Can-
ada wrote to the King of France :
" Michilimackinac might be re-established,
without expense to his Majesty, either by sur-
rendering the trade of the post to such individu-
als as will obligate themselves to pay all the ex-
penses of twenty-two soldiers and two officers; to
furnish munitions of war for the defense of the
fort, and to make presents to the savages.
" Or the expenses of the post nyght be paid by
the sale of permits, if the King should not think
proper to grant an exclusive commerce. ' It is ab-
solutely necessary to know the wishes of the King
concerning these two propositions ; and as M.
Lignery is at Michilimackinac, it will not be any
greater injury to the colony to defer the re-estab-
ment of this post, than it has been for eight or
ten years past."
The war with England ensued, and in April,
1713, the treaty of Utrecht was ratified. France
had now more leisure to attend to the Indian
tribes of the West.
Early in 1714, Mackinaw was re-occupied, and
on the fourteenth of March, 1716, an expedition
under Lieutenant Louvigny, left Quebec. His
arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long ex-
pected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and
friendly Indians, and with a force of eight hun-
dred men, he proceeded against the Foxes in
"Wisconsin. He brought with him two pieces of
cannon and a grenade mortar, and besieged the
fort of the Foxes, which he stated contained five
hundred warriors, and three thousand men, a
declaration which can scarcely be credited. After
DUSIBJS FOB A NOBIHEBN BOUTE 10 THE PACIFIC.
51
three days of skirmisliiiig, lie prepared, to mine
the fort, when the Foxes capitulated.
The paddles of the birch bark canoes and the
gay songs of the voyageurs now began to be heard
once more on the waters of Lake Superior and its
tributaries. In 1717, the post erected by Du
JLuth, on Lake Superior near the northern boun-
dary of Minnesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Eo-
bertel de la Noue.
In view of the troubles among the tribes of the
northwest, in the month of September, 1718, Cap-
tain St. Pierre, who had great influence with the
Indians of Wisconsin and Minnesota, was sent
with Ensign Linctot and some soldiers to re-oc-
cupy La Pointe on Lake Superior, now Bayfield,
in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. The
chiefs of the band there, and at Keweenaw,
had threatened war against the Poxes, who had
killed some of their number.
When the Jesuit Charlevoix returned to Prance
after an examination of the resources of Canada
and Louisiana, he urged that an attempt should
be made to reach the Pacific Ocean by an inland
route, and suggested that an expedition should
proceed from the mouth of the Missouri and fol-
low that stream, or that a post should be estab-
lished among the Sioux which should be the point
of departure. The latter was accepted, and in
1722 an allowance was made by the Prench Gov-
ernment, of twelve hundred Uvres, for two Jes-
uit missionaries to accompany those who should
establish the new post. D'Avagour, Superin-
tendent of Missions, in May, 1723, requested the
authorities to grant a separate canoe for the con-
veyance of the goods of the proposed mission,
and as it was necessary to send a commandant
to persuade the Indians to receive the mission-
aries, he recommended Sieur Pachot, an officer of
experience.
A dispatch from Canada to the Prench govern-
ment, dated October 14, 1723, announced that
Pather de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesuits, ex-
pected that, the next spring. Father Guymoneau,
and another missionary from Paris, would go to
the Sioux, but that they had been hindered by the
Sioux a few months before killing seven French-
men, on their way to Louisiana. The aged
Jesuit, Joseph J. Marest, who had been on Lake
Pepin in 1689 vsdth Perrot, and was now in Mon-
treal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who
had killed the French, but he thought the sta-
tionary Sioux would receive Christian instruction.
The hostility of the Foxes had also prevented
the establishment of a fort and mission among the
Sioux.
On the seventh of June, 1726, peace was con-
cluded by De Lignery with the Sauks, Poxes, and
Winnebagoes at Green Bay; and Linctot, who
had succeeded Saint Pierre in command at La
Pointe, was ordered, by presents and the promise
of a missionary, to endeavor to detach the Dah-
kotahs from their alliance with the Foxes. At
this time Linctot made arrangements for peace
between the Ojibways and Dahkotas, and sent
two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the
latter, with a promise that, if they ceased to fight
the Ojibways, they should have regular trade,
and a " black robe" reside in their country.
Traders and missionaries now began to prepare
for visiting the Sioux, and in the spring of 1727
the Governor of Canada wrote that the fathers,
appointed for the Sioux mission, desired a case of
mathematical instruments, a universal astro-
nomic dial, a spirit level, chain and stakes, and a
telescope of six or seven feet tube.
On the sixteenth of June, 1727, the expedition
for the Sioux country left Montreal in charge of
the Sieur de la Perriere who was son of the dis-
tinguished and respected Canadian, Pierre Bou-
cher, the Governor of Three Rivers.
La Perriere had served in Newfoundland and
been associated with Hertel de Eouville in raids
into New England, and gained an unenviable no-
toriety as the leader of the savages, while Eou-
ville led the Prench in attacks upon towns like
Haverhill, Massachusetts, where the Indians ex-
.ultingly killed the Puritan pastor, scalped his
loving wife, and dashed out his infant's brains
against a rock. He was accompanied by his
brother and other relatives. Two Jesuit fathers,
De Gonor and Pierre Michel Guignas, were also
of the party.
In Shea's " Early French Yoyages" there was
printed, for the first time, a letter from Pather
Guignas, from the Brevoort manuscripts, -wTritten.
on May 29, 1728, at Port Beauharnois, on Lake
Pepin, which contains facts of much interest.
He writes: " The Scioux convoy left the end
of Montreal Island on the 16th of the month of
June last year, at 11 a. m., and reached Michili-
52
EXFLOBSBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
mackinac the 22d of the month of July. This
post is two hundred and flfty-one leagues from
Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 46 min-
utes north latitude.
" "We spent the rest of the month at this post,
in the hope of receiving from day to day some
news from Montreal, and in the design of
strengthening ourselves against the alleged ex-
treme difftculties of getting a free passage through
the Poxes. At last, seeing nothing, we set out
on our march, the first of the month of August,
and, after seventy-three leagues quite pleasant
sail along the northerly side of Lake Michigan,
running to the southeast, we reached the Bay
[Green] on the 8th of the same month, at 5:30 p.
M. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north
latitude.
" We stopped there two days, and on the 11th
in the morning, we embarked, in a very great
impatience to reach the Foxes. On the third day
after our departure from the bay, quite late in
the afternoon, in fact somewhat in the night, the
chiefs of the Puans [Winnebagoes] came out three
leagues from their village to meet the French,
with their peace calumets and some bear meat as
a refreshment, and the next day we were received
by that small nation, amid several discharges of
a few guns, and with great demonstrations.
" They asked us with so good a grace to do
them the honor to stay some time with them that
we granted them the rest of the day from noon,
and the following day. There may be in all the
village, sixty to eighty men, but all the men and
women of very tall stature, and well made. They
are on the bank of a very pretty little lake, in a
most agreeable spot for its situation and the
goodness of the soil, nineteen leagues from the
bay and eight leagues from the Foxes.
" Early the nextmorning, the 15th of the month
of August, the convoy preferred to continue its
route, with quite pleasant weather, but a storm
coming on in the afternoon, we arrived quite wet,
still in the rain, at the cabins of the Foxes, a nation
so much dreaded, and really so little to be dreaded.
From all that we could see, it is composed of
two hundred men at most, but there is a perfect
hive of children, especially boys from ten to
fourteen years old, well formed.
'• They are cabined on a little eminence on the
bank of a small river that bears their name, ex-
tremely tortuous or wiading, so that you are con-
stantly boxing the compass. Yet it is apparently
quite vnde, with a chain of hills on both sides,
but there is only one miserable little channel
amid this extent of apparent bed, which is a kind
of marsh full of rushes and wild rice of almost
impenetrable thickness. They have nothing but
mere bark cabins, without any kind of palisade or
other fortification. As soon as the French ca-
noes touched their shore they ran down with
their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain,
and all smoked.
" We stayed among them the rest of this day,
and all the next, to know what were their designs
and ideas as to the French post among the Sioux.
The Sieur Keaume, interpreter of Indian lan-
guages at the Bay, acted efficiently there, and
Vidth devotion to the King's service. Even if my
testimony. Sir, should be deemed not impartial, I
must have the honor to tell you that Kev. Father
Chardon, an old missionary, was of very great as-
sistance there, and the presence of three mission-
aries reassured these cut-throats and assassins of
the French more than all the speeches of the best
orators could have done.
" A general council was convened in one of the
cabins, they were addressed in decided friendly
terms, and they replied in the same way. A
small present was made to them. On their side
they gave some quite handsome dishes, lined with
dry meat.
On the following Sunday, 17th of the month
of August, very early in the morning. Father
Chardon set out, with Sieur Eeaume, to return
to the Bay, and the Sioux expedition, greatly re-
joiced to have so easily got over this difficulty,
which had everywhere been represented as so in.-
surmountable, got under way to endeavor to
reach its journey's end.
" Never was navigation more tedious than
what we subsequently made from uncertainty as
to our course. Ifo one knew it, and we got
astray every moment on water and on land for
want of a guide and pilots. We kept on, as it
were feeling our way for eight days, for it was
only on the ninth, about three o'clock p. m., that
we arrived, by accident, believing ourselves still
far off, at the portage of the Ouisconsin, which is
forty-five leagues from the Foxes, countiag all
the twists and turns of this abominable river.
SITUATION AND BESCBIPTION OF FOBT BEAUHARN0I8.
53
This portage is half a league in length, and half
of that is a kind of marsh full of mud,
" The Ouisconsin is quite a handsome river,
but far below what we had been told, apparently,
as those who gave the description of it in Canada
saw it only in the high waters of spring. It is a
shallow river on a bed of quicksand, which forms
-bars almost everywhere, and these often change
place. Its shores are either steep, bare mountains
or low points with sandy base. Its course is from
northeast to southwest. From the portage to its
mouth in the Mississippi, I estimated thirty-eight
leagues. The portage is at 43 deg. 24 min. north
latitude.
" The Mississippi from the mouth of the Ouis-
consin ascending, goes northwest. This beauti-
ful, river extends between two chains of high,
bare and very sterile mountains, constantly a
league, three-quarters of a league, or where it is
narrowest, half a league t.part. Its centre is oc-
cupied by a chain of well wooded islands, so that
regarding from the heights above, you would
think you saw an endless valley watered on the
right and left by two large rivers ; sometimes, too,
you could discern no river. These islands are
overflowed every year, and would be adapted to
raising rice. Fifty-eight leagues from the mouth
of the Ouisconsin, according to my calculation,
ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which
is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of
islands at that point, where it may be half a
league wide. This river, in what I traversed of
it, is shallow, and has shoals in several places, be-
cause its bed is moving sands, like that of the
Ouisconsin.
"On the 17th of September, 1727, at noon, we
reached this lake, which had been chosen as the
bourne of our voyage. We planted ourselves on
the shore about the middle of the north side, on
a low point, where the soil is excellent. The
wood is very dense there, but is already thinned
in consequence of the rigor and length of the
winter, which has been severe for the climate,
for we are here on the parallel of 43 deg. 41 min.
It is true that the difference of the winter is
great compared to that of Quebec and Montreal,
for all that some poor judges say.
"Prom the day after our landing we put our
axes to the wood: on the fourth day following
the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat
of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve
feet long, with two good bastions. For so smaU
a space there are large buildings quite distinct and
not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight
and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide.
" All would go well there if the spot were not
inundated, but this year [1728], on the 15th of
the month of April, we were obUgedto camp out,
and the water ascended to the height of two feet
and eight inches in the houses, and it is idle to
say that it was the quantity of snow that fell
this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted
long before, and there was only a foot and a half
from the 8th of February to the 15th of March;
you could not use snow-shoes.
" I have great reason to think that this spot is
Inundated more or less every year; I have always
thought so, but they were not obUged to believe
me, as old people who said that they had lived in
this region fifteen or twenty years declared that
it was never overflowed. We could not enter
our much-devastated houses until the 30th of
April, and the disorder is even now scarcely re-
paired.
" Before the end of October [1727] all the houses
were finished and furnished, and each one found
himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then
thought only of going out to explore the hills and
rivers and to see those herds of all kinds of deer
of which they tell such stories in Canada. They
must have retired, or diminished greatly, since
the time the old voyageurs left the country; they
are no longer in such great numbers, and are
killed with difficulty.
" After beating the field, for some time, all re-
assembled at the fort, and thought of enjoying a
Uttle the fruit of their labors. On the 4th of ZSTo-
vember we did not forget it was the General's
birthday. Mass was said for him [Beauhamois,
Governor-General of Canada] in the morning,
and they were well disposed to celebrate the day
in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyro-
technists and the inconstancy of the weather
caused them to postpone the celebration to the
14th of the same month, when they set off some
very fine rockets and made the air ring with an
hundred shouts of Vive le Boy! and Vive Charles
de Beauhamois! It was on this occasion that the
wine of the Sioux was broached; it was par ex-
54
EXPL0BEB8 AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
cellence, although there are no wines here finer
than in Canada.
•' What contributed much to the amusement,
was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who
were at the time around the fort. When these
poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the
stars fall from heaven, the women and children
began to take flight, and the most courageous of
the men to cry mercy, and implore us very earn-
estly to stop the surprising play of that wonder-
ful medicine.
" As soon as we arrived among them, they as-
sembled, in a few day a, around the French fort to
the number of ninety-flve cabins, which might
make in all one hundred and fifty men; for there
are at most two men in their portable cabins of
dressed skins, and in many there is only one.
This is all we have seen except a band of about
sixty men, who came on the 26th of the month of
February, who were of those nations called Sioux
of the Prairies.
"At the end of November, the Indians set out
for their winter quarters. They do not, indeed,
go far, and we saw some of them all through the
winter; but from the second of the month of
April last, when some cabins repassed here to go
in search of them, [he] sought them in vain, du-
ring a week, for more tlian sixty leagues of the
Mississippi. He [La Perriere?] arrived yesterday
without any tidings of them.
" Although I said above, that the Sioux were
alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new
phenomena, it must not be supposed from that
they were less intelligent than other Indians we
know. They seem to me more so ; at least they
are much gayer and open, apparently, and far
more dextrous thieves, great dancers, and great
medicine men. The men are almost all large and
well made, but the women are very ugly and dis-
gusting, which does not, however, check debauch-
ei^ among them, and is perhaps an eifect of it."
In the summer of 1728 the Jesuit De Gonor
left the fort on Lake Pepin, and, by way of Mack-
inaw, returned to Canada. The Foxes had now
become very troublesome, and De Lignery and
Beaujeu marched against their stronghold, to find
they had retreated to the Mississippi Eiver.
On the 12th of October., Boucherville, his bro-
ther Montbrun, a young jadet of enterprising
spirit, the Jesuit Guignas, and other Frenchmen,
eleven in all, left Fort Pepin to go to Canada, by
way of the Illinois River. They were captured
by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, and detained
at the river " An Boeuf ," which stream was prob-
ably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twenty-
two leagues above the Illinois River, although the
same name was given by Hennepin to the Chip-
pewa River, just below Lake Pepin. They were
held as prisoners, with . the view of delivering
them to the Foxes. The night before the deliv-
ery the Sieur Montbrun and his brother and an-
other Frenchman escaped. Montbrun, leaving
his sick brother in the Illinois country, journeyed
to Canada and informed the authorities.
Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners
for several months, and the former did not reach
Detroit until June, 1729, The account of expen-
ditures made during his captivity is interesting as
showing the value of merchandize at that time.
It reads as follows:
" Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de
Boucherville was obliged to furnish in the ser-
vibe of the King, from the time of his detention
among the Kickapoos, on the 12th of October,
1728, until his return to Detroit, in the year 1729,
in the month of June. On arriving at the Kick-
apoo village, he made a present to the young men
to secure their opposition to some evil minded
old warriors —
Two barrels of powder, each fifty pounds
at Montreal price, valued at the sum of 150 Uv.
One hundred pounds of lead and balls
making the sum of 50 liv.
Four pounds of vermillion, at 12 francs
the pound 48 fr.
Four coats, braided, at twenty francs. . . 80 fr.
Six dozen knives at four francs the dozen 24 fr.
Four hundred flints, one hundred gun-
worms, two hundred ramrods and one
hundred and fifty files, the total at the
maker's prices 90 liv.
After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to
the Renards [Foxes] they wished some favors, and
1 was obliged to give them the following -which
would allow them to weep over and cover their
dead:
Two braided coats @ 20 fr. each 40fr.
Two woolen blankets @ 15 fr 30
One hundred pounds of powder @ 30 sons 75
One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous. . 25
BOUVHERVILLE'S PBESENTS WHILE IN CAPTIVITY.
56
Two pounds of vermillion @ 12 fr 24fr.
Moreover, given to the Benards to cover
their dead and prepare them for peace,
fifty pounds of powder, making 75
One hundred pounds of lead @ 10 sous. 50
Two poimds of vermillion @ 12 fr 24
During the winter a considerable party was
sent to strike hands vsdth the IDinois. Given at
that time :
Two blue blankets @ 15 fr 30
Pour men's shirts @ 6 f r 24
Four pairs of long-necked bottles @ 6 f r 24
Four dozen of knives @ 4 f r •. . 16
Gun-worms, files, ramrods, and flints, es-
timated 40
Given to engage the Kickapoos to establish
themselves upon a neighboring isle, to protect
from the treachery of the Eenards —
Four blankets, @ 15f 60f
Two pairs of bottles, 6f 24
Two pounds of vermillion, 12f 24
Four dozen butcher knives, 6f 24
Two woolen blankets, @ 15f 30
Four pairs of bottles, @ 6f 24
Four shirts, @ 6f 24
Four dozen of knives, @ 4f 16
The Eenards having betrayed and killed their
brothers, the Kickapoos, I seized the favorable
opportunity, and to encourage the latter to avenge
themselves, I gave —
Twenty-five pounds of powder,® SOsous 37f.l0s.
Twenty-five pounds of lead, @ 10s I2f.l0s.
Two guns at 30 livres each 60f
One half pound of vermilUon 6f
Flints, guns, worms and knives 20f
The Illinois coming to the Kilmpoos vil-
lage, I supported them at my expense,
and gave them powder, balls and shirts
valued at >. 60f
In departing from the Kikapoos village, I
gave them the rest of the goods for
their good treatment, estimated at 80f
In a letter, written by a priest, at Xew Orleans,
on July 12, 1730, is the following exaggerated ac-
count of the capture of Father Guignas: " We
always felt a distrust of the Fox Indians , although
they did not longer dare to undertake anything,
since Father Guignas has detached from their al-
liance the tribes of the Kikapous and Maskoutins.
You know, my Eeverend Father, that, being in
Canada, he had the courage to penetrate even to
the Sioux near the sources of the Mississippi, at
the distance of eight hundred leagues from New
Orleans and five hundred from Quebec. Obliged
to abandon this important mission by the unfor-
tunate result of the enterprise against the Foxes,
he descended the river to repair to the lUinois.
On the 15th of October in the year 1728 he was
arrested when half way by the Kickapous and
Maskoutins. For four months he was a captive
among the Indians, where he had much to suffer
and everything to fear. The time at last came
when he was to be burned alive, when he was
adopted by an old man whose family saved his
life and procured his liberty.
" Our missionaries who are among the Illinois
were no sooner acquainted with the situation
than they procured him all the alleviation they
were able. Everything which he received he em-
ployed to concUiate the Indians, and succeeded
to the extent of engaging them to conduct him to
the Illinois to make peace with the French and
Indians of this region. Seven or eight months
after this peace was concluded, the Maskoutins
and Kikapous returned again to the Illinois coun-
try, and took back Father Guignas to spend the
winter, from whence, in all probability, he wUl
return to Canada."
In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729,
by the Canadian government, the following refer-
ence is made to Fort Beauhaniois : " They agree
that the fort built among the Scioux, on the bor-
der of Lake Pepin, appears to be badly situated
on account of the freshets, but the Indians assure
that the waters rose higher in 1728 than it ever
did before. When Sieur de Laperriere located it
at that place it was on the assurance of the In-
dians that the waters did not rise so high." In
reference to the absence of Indians, is the fol-
lowing:
" It is very true that these Indians did leave
shortly after on a hunting excursion, as thQy are
in the habit of doing, for their own support and
that of their families, who have only that means
of hveUhood, as they do not cultivate the soil at
all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed
that their absence was occasioned only by having
fallen in while himting vnth a number of prairie
Scioux, by whom they were invited to occompany
them on a war expedition against the Mahas,
56
EXPLOBERS AND PIONEEBS OP MINNESOTA.
which invitation they accepted, and returned
only in the month of July following.
"The interests of religion, of the service, and
of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of
this establishment, which has been the more nec-
essary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when
routed, would have found an asylum among the
Scioux had not the French been settled there,
and the docility and submission manifested by
the Foxes can not be attributed to any cause ex-
cept the attention entertained by the Scioux for
the French, and the offers which the former
made the latter, of which the Foxes were fully
cognisant.
" It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these
favorable dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes
in check and counteract the measures they might
adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invaria-
bly reject their propositions so long as the French
remain in the country, and their trading post
shall continue there. But, despite all these "ad-
vantages and the importance of preserving that
establishment, M. de Beauhamois cannot take
any steps until he has news of the French who
asked his permission this summer to go up there
with a canoe load of goods, and until assured that
those who wintered there have not dismantled
the fort, and that the Scioux continue in the same
sentiments. Besides, it does not seem very easy,
in the present conjuncture, to maintain that post
unless there is a solid peace with the Foxes; on
the other hand, the greatest portion of the tra-
ders, who applied in 1727 for the establishment
of that post, have withdrawn, and will not send
thither any more, as the rupture with the Foxes,
through whose country it is necessary to pass in
order to reach the Scioux in canoe, has led them
to abandon the idea. But the one and the other
case might be remedied. The Foxes wiU, in all
probability, come or send next year to sue for
peace; therefore, if it be granted to them on ad-
vantageous conditions, there need be no appre-
hension when going to the Sioux, and another
company could be formed, less numerous than
the first, through whom, or some responsible mer-
chants able to afford the outfit, a- new treaty
could be made, whereby these difficulties would
be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and
that is, to send a commanding and sub-officer,
and some soldiers, up there, which are absolutely
necessary for the maintenance of good order at
that post; the missionaries would not go there
without a commandant. This article, which re-
gards the service, and the expense of which must
be on his majesty's account, obliges them to ap-
ply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their
power, induce the traders to meet that expense,
which will possibly amount to 1000 Uvres or
1500 livres a year for the commandant, and in
proportion for the officer under him; but, as in
the beginnuig of an establishment the expenses
exceed the profits, it is improbable that any corn-
pany of merchants will assume the outlay, and
in this case they demand orders on this point, as
well as his majesty's opinion as to the necessity
of preserving so useful a post, and a nation which
has already afEorded proofs of its fidelity and at-
tachment.
" These orders could be sent them by the way
of He Eoyale, or by the first merchantmen that
will sail for Quebec. The time required to re-
ceive intelligence of the occurrences in the Scioux
country, will admit of their waiting for these
orders before doing anything."
Sieur de la Jemeraye, a relative of Sieur de la
Perriere Boucher, with a few French, during the
troubles remained in the Sioux country. After
peace was established with the Foxes, Legardeur
Saint Pierre was in command at Fort Beauhar-
nois, and Father Guignas again attempted to es-
tablish a Sioux mission. In a communication
dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian au-
thorities is the following: "In regard to the
Scioux, Satat Pierre, who commanded at that
post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have
written to Sieur de Beauharnois on the tenth and
eleventh of last April, that these Indians ap-
peared well intentioned toward the French, and
had no other fear than that of being abandoned
by them. Sieur de Beauhamois annexes an ex-
tract of these letters, and although the Scioux
seem very friendly, the result only can tell whether
this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon,
for the unrestrained and inconsistent spirit which
composes the Indian character may easily change-
it. They have not come over this summer as yet,
but M. de la St. Pierre is to get them to do so
next year, and to have an eye on their proceed-
ings."
The reply to this communication from Louis
DH LVSIGNAN VISITS THE SIOUX COUNTRY.
61
XV. dated Versailles, May 10th, 1737, was in
these words : " As respects the Scioux, according
to what the commandant and missionary at that
post have written to Sieur de Beauharnois rela-
tive to the disposition of these Indians, nothing
appears to be wanting on that point.
" But their delay in coming down to Montreal
since the time they have promised to do so, must
render their sentiments somewhat suspected, and
nothing but facts can determine whether their
fidelity can be absolutely relied on. But what
must still further increase the uneasiness to be
entertained in their regard is the attack on the
convoy of M. de Verandrie, especially if this officer
has adopted the course he had informed the
Marqui^ de Beauharnois he should take to have
revenge therefor."
The particulars of the attack alluded to will be
found in the next chapter. Soon after this the
Foxes again became troublesome, and the post on
Lake Pepin was for a time abandoned by the
French. A dispatch in 1741 uses this language :
" The Marquis de Beauharnois' opinion respect-
ing the war against the Foxes, has been the more
readily approved by the Baron de Longeuil,
Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Come, de Lig-
nery, LaNoue, and Duplessis - Fabert, whom he
had assembled at his house, as it appears from
all the letters that the Count has wrii "n for sev-
eral years, that he has nothing so much at heart as
the destruction of that Indian iiation, which can
not be prevailed on by the presents and the good
treatment of the French, to live in peace, not-
withstanding all its promises.
" Besides, it is notorious that the Foxes have a
secret understanding with the Iroquois, to secure
a retreat among the latter, in case they be obliged
to abandon their villages. They have one already
secured among the Sioux of the prairies, with
whom they are allied; so that, should they be
advised beforehand of the design of the French
to wage war against them, it would be easy for
them to retire to the one or the other before their
passage could be intersected or themselves at-
tacked in their villages."
In the summer of 1743, a deputation of the
Sioux came down to Quebec, to ask that trade
might be resumed. Three years after this, four
Sioux chiefs came to Quebec, and asfed that a
commandant might be sent to Fort Beauharnois ;
wliich was not granted.
During the winter of 1745-6, De Lusignan vis-
ited the Sioux country, ordered by the govern-
ment to hunt up the "coureurs des bois," and
withdraw them from the country. They started
to return with him"; but learning that they would
be arrested at Mackinaw, for violation of law,
they ran away. While at the villages of the Sioux
of the lakes and plains, the chiefs brought to
this officer nineteen of their young men, bound
with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen, at
the Illinois. While he remained with them, they
made peace with the O jib ways of La Pointe,
with whom they had been at war for some time.
On his return, four chiefs accompanied him to
Montreal, to solicit pardon for their young braves.
The lessees of the trading-post lost many of
their peltries that winter in consequence of a fire.
Eeminiscences of St. Pierre's residence at Lake
Pepin were long preserved. Carver, in 1766, "ob-
served the ruins of a French factory, where, it
is said. Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on
a great trade with the Nadouessies before the re-
duction of Canada."
Pike, in 1805, wrote in his journal: " Just be-
low Pt. Le Sable, the French, who had driven the
Renards [Foxes] from Wisconsin, and chased
them up the Mississippi, built a stockade on this
lake, as a barrier against the savages. It became
a noted factory for the Sioux."
58
BXPLORBBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER IX.
VEUENDBYE, THE EXPLOEEB OF NOETHEKN MINNESOTA, AND DISCOVEEEE OF THE BOCKY
MOUNTAINS. '
Conversation of Verendrye with Father De Gonor. — Parentage and Early Life.—
Old Indian Map Preserved. — ^Vtrendrye's Son and Nephew Explore Pigeon
River and Reach Rainy l^ake. — Father Messayer a Companion. — Fort St. Pierre
Established.— Lake of the Woods Reached and Fort St. Charles Built.— De la
Jemeraye's Map. — Fort on the Assinahoine River. — Verendrye'a Son, Father
Ouneau and Associates Killed by Sioux, on Massacre Isle, in Lake of the Woods
—Fort La Reine.— Verendrye's Eldest Son, with Others, Reaches the Missouri
River. — Discovers the Rocky Mountains. — Returns to Lake of the Woods. —
Exploration of Saskatchewan River. — Sieur de la Verendrye Jr. — Terendrye
the Father, made Captain of the Order of St. Louis.— His Death.— The Swedish
Traveler, Ealni, Notices Verendrye. — Bougainville Describes Verendrye's Ex-
plorations. — Legardeur de St. Pierre at Fort La Reine. — Fort Jonquiere Estab-
lished.— De la Corne Succeeds St. Pierre.— St. Pierre Meets Washington at
French Creek, in Pennsylvania.— Killed in Battle, near Lake George.
Early in the year 1728, two travelers met at
the secluded post of Mackinaw, one was named
De Gonor, a Jesuit Eather, who with Guighas,
had gone with the expedition, that the September
before had built Fort Beauharnois on the shores
of Lake Pepin, the other was Pierre Gualtier Va-
rennes, the Sieur dela Verendrye the commander
of the post on Lake Nepigon of the north shore
of Lake Superior, and a relative of the Sieur de
la Perriere, the commander at Lake Pepin.
Verendrye was the son of Eene Gualtier Va-
rennes who for twenty-two years was the chief
magistrate at Three Rivers, whose vrife was Ma-
rie Boucher, the daughter of his predecessor
whom he had married when she was twelve years
of age. He became a cadet in 1697, and in 1704
accompanied an expedition to New England.
The next year he was in l^"ewf oundland and the
year following he went to Prance, joined a regi-
ment of Brittany and was in the conflict at Mal-
plaquet when the French troops were defeated
by the Duke of Marlborough. When he returned
to Canada he was obUged to accept the position
of ensign notwithstanding the gallant manner in
which he had behaved. In time he became iden-
tified with the Lake Superior region. While at
Lake Nepigon the Indians assured him that there
was a communication largely by water to the
Pacific Ocean. One, named Ochagachs, drew a
rude map of the country, which is still preserved
among the French archives. Pigeon River is
marked thereon Mantohavagane, and the River
St. Louis is marked R. fond du L. Superior, and
the Indians appear to have passed from its head-
waters to Rainy Lake. Upon the western ex-
tremity is marked the River of the West.
De Gonor conversed much upon the route to
the Pacific with Verendrye, and promised to use
his influence with the Canadian authorities to
advance the project of exploration.
Charles De Beauharnois, the Governor of Can-
ada, gave Verendrye a respectful hearing, and
carefully examined the map of the region west of
the great lakes, which had been dravm by Ocha-
gachs (Otchaga), the Indian guide. Orders were
soon given to fit out an expedition of fifty men.
It left Montreal in 1731, under the conduct of his
sons and nephew De la Jemeraye, he not joining
the party till 1733, in consequence of the deten-
tions of business.
In the autumn of 1731, the party reached Rainy
Lake, by the Nantouagan, or Groselliers river,
now called Pigeon. Father Messayer, who had
been stationed on Lake Superior, at the Grosel-
liers river, was taken as a spiritual guide. At
the foot of Rainy Lake a post was erected and
called Fort St. Pierre, and the next year, having
crossed Minittie, or Lake of the Woods, they es-
tablished Fort St. Charles on its southwestern
bank. Five leagues from Lake Winnipeg they
established a post on the Assinaboine. An un-
published map of these discoveries by De la Jem-
eraye still exists at Paris. The river Winnipeg
called by them Maurepas, in honor of the minis-
ter of France in 1734, was protected by a fort of
the same name.
About this time their advance was stopped by
the exhaustion of supplies, but on the 12th of
April, 1735, an arrangement was made for a sec-
ond equipment, and a fourth son joined the expe-
dition.
In June, 1736, while twenty-one of the expedi-
DISCOVEBY OF THE ROCKY MUUNTMNS.
59
tion were camped upon an isle in the Lake of the
Woods, they were surprised by a band of Sioux
hostile to the French allies, the Cristuiaux, and
all killed. The island, upon this account, is
called Massacre Island. A few days after, a
party of five Canadian voyageurs discovered their
dead bodies and scalped heads. Father Ouneau,
the missionary, was found upon one knee, an ar-
row in his head, his breast bare, his left hand
touching the ground, and the right hand raised.
Among the slaughtered was also a son of Ver-
endrye, who had a tomahawk in his back, and his
body adorned with garters and bracelets of porcu-
pine. The father was at the foot of the Lake of
the "Woods when he received the news of his son's
murder, and about the same time heard of the
death of his enterprising nephew, Dufrost de la
Jemeraye, the son of his sister Marie Beine de
Varennes, and brother of Madame Youville, the
foundress of the Hospitallers at Montreal.
It was under the guidance of the latter that
the party had, in 1731, mastered the difHculties
of the Xantaouagon, or Groselliers river.
On the 3d of October, 1738, they built an ad-
vanced post. Fort La Keine, on the river Assini-
bof-ls, now Asslnaboine, which they called St
Charles, and beyond was a branch called St.
Pierre. These two rivers received the baptismal
name of Verendrye, which was Pierre, and Gov-
""■nor Beauharnois, which was Charles. The post
became the centre of trade and point of departure
for explorations, either nortli or south.
It was by ascending the Assinaboine, ,and by
the present trail from its tributary, j\louse river,
they reached the country of the JMantanes, and in
1741, came to the upper Jlissouri, passed the Yel-
low Stone, and at length arrived at the Rocky
Mountains. The party was led by the eldest son
and liis brother, the chevalier. They left the
Lake of the Woods on the 29th of April, 1742,
came in sight of the Rocky Mountains on the 1st
of January, 1743, and on the 12th ascended them.
On the route they fell in with the Beaux Hom-
mes, Pioya, Petits Renards, and Arc tribes, and
stopped among the Snake tribe, but could go no
farther in a southerly direction, owing to a war
between the Arcs and Snakes.
On the 19th of May, 1744, they had returned to
the upper Missouri, and, in tlie country of the
Petite Cerise tribe, they planted on an eminence
a leaden plate of the arms of France, and raised
a monument of stones, which they called Beau-
harnois. They returned to the Lake of the Woods
on the 2d of July.
North of the Assiniboine they proceeded to
Lake Dauphin, Swan's Lake, explored the riv-
er "Des Biches," and ascended even to the
fork of the Saskatchewan, which they called Pos-
koiac. Two forts were subsequently established,
one near Lake Dauphin and the other on the
river " des Biches," called Fort Bourbon. The
northern route, by the Saskatchewan, was thought
to have some advantage over the Missouri, be-
cause there was no danger of meeting with the
Spaniards.
Governor Beauharnois having been prejudiced
against Verendrye by envious persons, De Noy-
elles was appointed to take command of the
posts. During these difficulties, we find Sieur de
la Verendrye, Jr., engaged in other duties. In
August, 1747, he arrives from Mackinaw at Mon-
treal, and in the autumn of that year he accom-
panies St. Pierre to Mackinaw, and brings back
the convoy to Montreal. In February, 1 748, with
five Canadians, five Cristenaux, two Ottawas, and
one Sauteur, he attacked the Mohawks near
Schenectady, and returned to Montreal with two
scalps, one that of a chief. On June 20th, 1748,
it is recorded that Chevalier de la Verendrye de-
pai-ted from Montreal for the head of Lake Supe-
rior. Margry states that he perished at sea in
November, 1764, by the wreck of the " Auguste."
Fortunately, Galissioniere the successor of
Beauharnois, although deformed and insignifi-
cant in appearance, was fair minded, a lover of
science,, especially botany, and anxious to push
discoveries toward the Pacific. Verendrye the
father was restored to favor, and made Captain
of the Order of St. Louis, and ordered to resume
explorations, but he died on December 6th, 1749,
while planning a tour up the Saskatchewan.
The Swedish Professor, Kalm, met him in Can-
ada, not long before his decease, and had inter-
esting conversations with him about the furrows
on the plains of the Missouri, which he errone-
ously conjectured indicated the former abode of
an agricultural people. These ruts are familiar
to modern travelers, and may be only buffalo
trails.
Father Coquard, wno had been associated with
60
EXPLOBEBS AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
Verendrye, says that they first met the Mantanes,
and next the Broehets. After these were the
Gros Ventres, the Crows, the Flat Heads, the
Black Peet, and Dog Feet, who were established
on the Missouri, even up to the falls, and that
about thirty leagues beyond they found a narrow
pass in the mountains.
Bougainville gives a more full account: he says:
'He- who most advanced this discovery was
the Sieur de la Veranderie. He went from Fort
la Eeine to the Missouri. He met on the banks
of this river the Mandans, or White Beards, who
had seven villages with pine stockades, strength-
ened by a ditch. Next to these were the Kinon-
gewiniris. or the Broehets, in three villages, and
toward the upper part of the river were three
villages of the Mahantas. All along the mouth
of the Wabeik, or Shell Eiver, were situated
twenty-three villages of the Panis. To the south-
west of this river, on the banks of the Ouanarade-
ba, or La Graisse, are the Hectanes or Snake
tribe. They extend to the base of a chain of
mountains which runs north northeast. South
of this is the river Karoskiou, or 'Cerise Pelee,
which is supposed to flow to California.
" He found in the immense region watered by
the Missouri, and in the vicinity of forty leagues,
the Mahantas, the Owiliniock, or Beaux Hom-
mes, four villages; opposite the Broehets the Black
Feet, three villages of a hundred lodges each; op.
posite the Mandans are the Ospekakaerenousques,
or Flat Heails,, four villages; opposite tha Panis
are the Arcs of Cristinaux, and Utasibaoutehatas
of Assiniboel, three villages; following these the
Makesch, or Little Foxes, two villages; tho Pi-
wassa, or great talkers, three villages; the Ka-
kokoschena, or Gens de la Pie, five villages; the
Kisldpisounouini,, or the Garter tribe, seven vil-
lages."
Galassoniere was succeeded by Jonquiere in
the governorship of Canada, who proved to be a
grasping, peevish, and very miserly person. For
the sons of Verendrye he had no sympathy, and
forming a clique to profit by their father's toils.
he determined to send two expeditions toward
the Pacific Ocean, one by the Missouri and the
other by the Saskatchewan.
Father Coquard, one of the companions ef Ve-
rendrye, was consulted as to the probability of
finding a pass in the Eocky Mountains, through
which they might, in canoes, reach the great
lake of salt water, perhaps Puget's Sound.
The enterprise was at length confided to two
experienced oflBcers, Lamarque de 'Marin and
Jacques Legardeur de Saint Pierre. The former
was assigned the way, by the Missouri, and to
the latter was given the more northern route;
but Saint Pierre in some way excited the hostil-
ity of the Cristinaux, who attempted to kUl him,
and burned Fort la Eeine. His lieutenant, Bou-
cher de Niverville, who had been sent to establish
a post toward the source of the Saskatchewan,
failed on account of sickness. Some of his men,
however, pushed on to the Eocky Mountains,
and in 1753 established Fort Jonquiere. Henry
says St. Pierre established Fort Bourbon.
In 1753, Saint Pierre was succeeded in the
command of the posts of the West, by de la
Corne, and sent to French Creek, in Pennsylva-
nia. He had been but a few days there when he
received a visit from Washington, just entering
upon manhood, bearing a letter from Governor
Dinwiddie of Virginia, complaining of the en
croachments of the French.
Soon the clash of arms between France and
England began, and Saint Pierre, at the head of
the Indian allies, fell near Lake George, in Sep-
tember, 1755, in a battle with the English. After
the seven years' war was concluded, by the treaty
of Paris, the French relinquished all their posts
in the Northwest, and the work begun by Veren-
drye, was, in 1805, completed by Lewis and
Clarke ; and the Northern Pacific Eailway is fast
approaching the passes of the Eocky Mountains,
through the valley of the Yellow Stone, and from
thence to the great land-locked bay of the ocean,
Puget's Sound.
EFFECT OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH WAR.
61
CHAPTER X.
EFFECT OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH WAB.
Bn^lish Influcnco Increasing. — Le Dnc Robbed at Lake Superior. — St. Pierre at
Mackinaw. — Escape ol Indian Prisoners. — LaRonde and Verendrye. — Influence
of Sieur iUarin. — St. Pierre Recalled from Winnipeg Region. — Interview with
Washington. — Langlade Urges Attack Upon Troops of Braddock.— Saint Pierre
Killed in Battle. — ^Marin's Boldness. — Rogers, a Partisan Ranger, Commands at
Mackinaw. — At Ticonderoga.— French Deliver up the Posts in Canada. — Capt.
Balfour Takes Possession of Mackinaw and Green Bay. — Lieut. Gorrell in Com,
mand at Green Bay. — Sioux Visit Green Bay. — Penncnsha a French Trader
Among the Sioux.~Treaty of Paris.
English influence produced increasing dissatis-
faction among the Indians that were beyond
Mackinaw. Not only were the voyageurs robbed
and maltreated at Sault St. Marie and other points
on Lake Superior, but even the commandant at
Mackinaw was exposed to insolence, and there
was no security anywhere.
On the twenty-third of August, 1747, Philip Le
Due arrived at Mackinaw from Lake Superior,
stating that he had been robbed of his goods at
Kamanistigoya, and that the Ojibways of the
lake were favorably disposed toward the Enghsh.
The Dahkotahs were-also becoming unruly in the
absence of French oflflcers.
In a few weeks after Le Due's robbery, St.
Pierre left Montreal to become commandant at
Mackinaw, and Yercheres was appointed for the
post at Green Bay. In the language of a docu-
ment of the day, St. Pierre was '' a very good
officer, much esteemed among aU the nations of
those parts ; none more loved and feared." On
his arrival, the savages were so cross, that he ad-
vised that no Frenchman should come to trade.
By promptness and boldness, he secured the
Indians who had murdered some Frenchmen,
and obtained the respect of the tribes. While
the three murderers were being conveyed in a
canoe down the St. Lavsrrence to Quebec, in charge
of a sergeant and seven soldiers, the savages, with
characteristic cunning, though manacled, suc-
ceeded in killing or drowning the guard. Cutting
their irons with an axe, they sought the woods,
and escaped to their own country. " Thus,"
■v\'rites Galassoniere, in 1748, to Coimt Maurepas, [
was lost in a great measure the fruit of Sieur St.
Pierre's good management, and of all the fatigue
I endured to get the nations who surrendered
these rascals to listen to reason."
On the twenty-first of June of the next year.
La Ronde started to La Poiute, and Verendrye
for West Sea, or Fon du Lac, Minnesota.
Under the influence of Sieur Marin, who was
in command at Green Bay in 1753, peaceful re-
lations were in a measure restored between the
French and Indians.
As the war between England and France deep-
ened, the oflBcers of the distant French posts
were called in and stationed nearer the enemy.
Legardeur St. Pierre, was brought from the Lake
Winnipeg region, and, in December, 1753, was in
command of a rude post near Erie, Pennsylvania.
Langlade, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, arrived early
in July, 1755, at Fort Duquesne. With Beauyeu
and De Lignery, who had been engaged in fight-
ing the Fox Indians, he left that fort, at nine
o'clock of the morning of the 9th of July, and, a
Uttle after noon, came near the English, who had
halted on the south shore of the Monongahela,
and were at dinner, with their arms stacked. By
the urgent entreaty of Langlade, the western
half-breed, Beauyeu, the officer in command or-
dered an attack, and Braddock was overwhelmed,
and Washington was obliged to say, " We have
been beaten, shamefully beaten, by a handful of
Frenchmen."
Under Baron Dieskau, St. Pierre commanded
the Indians, in September, 1755, during the cam-
paign near Lake George, where he fell gallantly
fighting the English, as did his commander.
The Rev. Claude Coquard, alluding to the French
defeat, in a letter to his brother, remarks:
" We lost, on that occasion, a brave officer, M.
de St. Pierre, and had his advice, as well as that
of several other Canadian officers, been followed,
Jonckson [Johnson] was irretrievably destroyed,
GM
EXPLOBEBS AND P10NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
and we should have been spared the trouble we
have had this year."
Other officers who had been stationed on the
borders of Minnesota also distinguished them-
selves during the French war. The Marquis
Montcalm, in camp at Ticonderoga, on the twen-
ty-seventh of July, 1767, writes to Vaudreuil,
Governor of Canada:
" Lieutenant Maria, of the Colonial troops, who
has exhibited a rare audacity, did not consider
himself bound to halt, although his detachment
of about four hundred men was reduced to about
two hundred, the balance having been sent back
on account of inability to follow. He carried off
a patrol of ten men, and swept away an ordinary
guard of fifty Uke a wafer; went up to the en-
emy's camp, under Fort Lydias (Edward), where
he was exposed to a severe fire, and retreated like
a warrior. He was unwilUng to amuse himself
making prisoners; he brought in only one, and
thirty-two scalps, and must have killed many men
of the enemy, in the midst of whose ranks it was
neither wise nor prudent to go in search of scalps.
The Indians generally all behaved well. * * *
The Outaouais, who arrived with me, and whom
I designed to go on a scouting party towards the
lake, had conceived a project of administering a
corrective to the English barges. * * * On
the day before yesterday, your brother formed a
detachment to accompany them. I arrived at his
camp on the evening of the same day. Lieuten-
ant de Corbiere, of the Colonial troops, was re-
turning, in consequence of a misunderstanding,
and as I knew the zeal and intelligence of that
officer, I made him set out with a new instruc-
tion to join Messrs de Langlade and Hertel de
Chantly. They remained in ambush all day and
night yesterday; at break of day the English ap-
peared on Lake St. Sacrament, to the niimber of
twenty-two barges, rmder the command of Sieur
Parker. The whoops of our Indians impressed
them with such terror that they made but feeble
resistance, and only two barges escaped."
After De Corbiere 's victory on Lake Cham-
plain, a large French army was collected at Ti-
conderoga, with which there were many Indians
from the tribes of the Northwest, and the loways
appeared for the first' time in the east.
It is an interesting fact that the English offi-
cers who were in frequent engagements with St.
Pierre, Lusignan, Marin, Langlade, and others,
becante the pioneers of the British, a few years
afterwards, in the occupation of the outposts of
the lakes, and in the exploration of Minnesota.
Rogers, the celebrated captain of rangers, sub-
sequently commander of Mackinaw, and Jona-
than Carver, the first British explorer of Minne-
sota, were both on duty near Lake Champlaiu, the
latter narrowly escaping at the battle of Fort
George.
On Christmas eve, 1757, Rogers approached
Fort Ticonderoga, to fire the outhouses, but was
prevented by discharge of the cannons of the
Fren;h.
He contented himself with killing fifteen beeves ,
on the horns of one of which he left tliis laconic
and amusing note, addressed to the commander
of the post:
'■I am obUged to you. Sir, for the repose you
have allowed me to take; I thank you for the fresh
meal you have sent ins, I request you to present
my compliments to the Marquis du Montcalm."
On the thu-teenth of March, 1758, Durantaye,
formerly at Mackinaw, had a skirmish with Rog-
ers. Both had been trained on the frontier, and
they met " as Greek met Greek." The conflict
was fierce, and the French victorious. The In-
dian allies, finding a scalp of a chief underneath
an officer's jacket, wei-e furious, and took one
hundred and fourteen scalps in return. When
the French returned, they supposed that Captain
Rogers was among the killed.
At Quebec, when Monteahn and "Wolfe fell,
there were Ojibways present assisting the French
The Indians, returning from the expeditions
against the EngUsh, were attacked with small-
pox, and many died at Mackinaw.
On the eighth of September, 1760, the French
delivered up all their posts in Canada. A few
days after the capitulation at Montreal, Major
Rogers was sent with English troops, to garrison
tli6 posts of the distant Northwest.
On the eighth of September, 1761, a year after
the surrender. Captain Balfour, of the eightieth
regiment of the British army, left Detroit, with
a detachment to take possession of the French
forts at Mackinaw and Green Bay. Twenty-five
soldiers were left at Mackinaw, in command of
Lieutenant Leslie, and the rest sailed to Grsen
Bay, under Lieutenant Gorrell of the Royal
PENNENSHA WRITES A LETTER FOR THE SIOUX.
63
Americans, where they arrived on the twelfth of
October. The fort had been abandoned for sev-
eral years, and was in a dilapidated condition.
In charge of it there was left a lieutenant, a cor-
poral, and fifteen soldiers. Two English traders
arrived at the same time, McKay from Albany,
and Goddard from Montreal.
Gorrell in his journal alludes to the Minnesota
Sioux. He writes —
" On March 1, 1763, twelve warriors of the Sous
came here. It is certainly the greatest nation of
Indians ever yet found. Not above two thousand
of them were ever armed with firearms ; the rest
depending entirely on bows and arrows, which
they use with more skiU than any other Indian
nation in America. They can shoot the wildest
and largest beasts in the woods at seventy or one
hundred yards distant. They are remarkable for
their dancing, and the other nations take the
fashions from them. ***** This nation
is always at war with the Chippewas, those who
destroyed Mishamakinak. They told me with
warmth that if ever the Chippewas or any other
Indians wished to obstruct the passage of the
traders coming up, to send them word, and they
would come and cut them off from the face of
the earth ; as all Indians were their slaves or dogs.
I told them I was glad to see them, and hoped to
have a lasting peace with them. They then gave
me a letter wrote in French, and two belts of
wampum from their king, in which he expressed
great joy on hearing of there being English at
his post. The letter was written by a French
trader whom I had allowed to go among them
last fall, with a promise of his behaving well ;
which he did, better than any Canadian I ever
knew. ***** With regard to traders, I
would not allow any to go amongst them, as I
then understood they lay out of the government
of Canada, but made no doubt they would have
traders from the ilississippi in the spring. They
went away extremely well pleased. June 14th,
1763, the traders came down from the Sack coun-
try, and confirmed the news of Landsing and liis
son being killed by the French. There came with
the traders some Puans, and four young men with
one chief of the Avoy [loway] nation, to demand
traders. *****
" On the nineteenth, a deputation of Winneba-
goes, Sacs, Foxes and Menominees arrived with
a Frenchman named Pennensha. This Pennen-
sha is the same man who wrote the letter the
Sous brought with them in French, and at the
same time held council with that great nation in
favour of the English, by which he much promo-
ted the interest of the latter, as appeared by the
behaviour of the Sous. He brought with him a
pipe from the Sous, desiring that as the road is
now clear, they would by no means allow the
Chippewas to obstruct it, or give the English any
disturbance, or prevent the traders from coming
up to them. If they did so they would send all
their warriors and cut them off."
In July, 1763, there arrived at Green Bay,
Bruce, Fisher; and Rosehoom of Albany, to en-
gage in the Indian trade.
By the treaty of Paris of 1763, France ceded to
Great Britain all of the country east of the Mis-
sissippi, and to Spain the whole of Louisiana, so
that the latter power for a time held the whole
region between the Mississippi River and the Pa-
cific Ocean, and that portion of the city of Min-
neapolis known as the East Division was then
governed by the British, while the West Division
was subject to the Spanish code.
64
EXPLOBERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOIA.
CHAPTER XI.
JONATHAN CABVEB, THE FIEST BRITISH TKAVBLEB AT FALLS OF SAiNT ANTHONY.
Carver's Early Life. — In the Battle neai- Lake George.— Arrives at Mackinaw. —
Old Fort at Green Bay, — Winnebago Village. — Description of Prairie du Chien.
Earthworks on Banks of Lake Pepin. — Sioux Bands Described. — Cave and
Em-ial Place ui Suburbs of St. Paul.— The Falls of Saint Anthony.— Burial
Rites of tLe Sioux. — Speech of a Sioux Chief. — Schiller's Poem of the Death
Song. — Sir John Herschel's Translation.— Sir E. Bulwei- Lytton's Version.—
CoiTespondence of Sir William Johnson.-.-Oarver's Prqj'ect for Opening a Route
to the Pacific— Supposed Origin of the Sioux.— Carver's Claim to Lands Ex-
amined.— Alleged Deed.— Testimony of Rev. Samuel Peters.— Communication
from Gen. Leavenworth.— Report of U. S. Senate Committee.
Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut
His grandfather, William Carver, was a native of
Wigan, Lancashire, England, and a captain in
King WilUam's army during the campaign in
Ireland, and for meritorious services received an
appointment as an officer of the colony of Con-
necticut. ,
His father was a justice of the peace in the
new world, and in 1732, the subject of this sketch
was born. At the early age of fifteen he was
called to mourn the death of his father. He then
commenced the study of medicine, but his roving
disposition could not bear the confines of a doc-
tor's office, and feeling, perhaps, that his genius
would be cramped by pestle and mortar, at the
age of eighteen he purchased an ensign's commis-
sion in one of the regiments raised during the
.French war. He was of medium stature, and of
strong mind and quick perceptions.
In the year 1757, he was captain under Colonel
Williams in the battle near Lake George, where
Saint Pierre was killed, and narrowly escaped
with his Ufe.
After the peace of 1763, between Erance and
England was declared, Carver conceived the pro-
j ect of exploring the Northwest. Lea'ving Boston
in the month of June, 1766, he arrived at Macki-
naw, then the most distant British post, in the
month of August. Having obtained a credit on
some French and EngUsh traders from Major
Bogers, the officer in command, he started with
them on the third day of September. Pursuing
the usual route to Green Bay, they arrived there
on the eighteenth.
The French fort at that time was standing,
though much decayed. It was, some years pre-
vious to his arrival, garrisoned for a short time
by an officer and thirty English soldiers, but they
having been captured by the Menominees, it was
abandoned.
In company ■with the traders, he left Green
Bay on the twentieth, and ascending Eox river,
arrived on the twenty-fifth at an island at the
east end of Lake Winnebago, containing about
fifty acres.
Here he found a Winnebago village of fifty
houses. He asserts that a woman was in author-
ity. In the month of October the party was at
the portage of the Wisconsin, and descending
that stream, they arrived, on the ninth at a town
of the Sauks. AVTiile here he visited some lead
mines about fifteen miles distant. An abundance
of lead was also seen in the village, that had been
brought from the mines.
On the tenth they arrived at the first village of
the " Ottigaumies" [Foxes] about five miles be-
fore the Wisconsin joins the Mississippi, he per-
ceived the remnants of another village, and
learned that it had been deserted about thirty
years before, and that the inhabitants soon after
their removal, built a town on the Mississippi,
near the mouth of the " Ouisconsin," at a place
called by the French La Prairie les Chiens, which
signified the Dog Plains. It was a large town,
and contained about three hundred families.
The houses were built after the Indian manner,
and pleasantly situated on a dry rich soil.
He saw here many houses of a good size and
shape. This town was the great mart where all
the adjacent tribes, and where those who inhabit
the most remote branches of the Mississippi, an-
nually assemble about the latter end of May,
bringing with them thgir furs to dispose of to the
traders. But it is not always that they conclude
their sale here. This was determined by a gen
SUPPOSIID FORTIFICATIONS NEAR LAKE PEPIN.
65
eral council of the chiefs, who consulted whether
it would be more conducive to their interest to
sell their goods at this place, or to carry them
on to Louisiana or Mackiaaw.
At a small stream called YeUow River, oppo-
site Prairie du Chien, the traders who had thus
far accompanied Carver took up their residence
for the wiatar.
From this point he proceeded in a canoe, with
a Canadian voyageur and a Mohawk Indian as
companions. Just before reaching Lake Pepin,
while his attendants were one day preparing din-
ner, he walked out and was struck with the pecu-
liar appearance of the surface of the country, and
tliought it was the site of some vast artificial
earth-work. It is a fact worthy of remembrance,
that he was the first to call the attention of the
civihzed world to the existence of ancient monu-
ments ta the Mississippi valley. We give his own
description :
"On the first of November I reached Lake
Pepin, a few miles below which I landed, and,
whilst the servants were preparing my dinner, I
ascended the bank to view the country. I had
not proceeded far before I came to a fine, level,
open plain, on which I perceived, at a little dis-
tance, a partial elevation that had the appearance
of entrenchment. On a nearer inspection I had
greater reason to suppose that it had really been
intended for this many centuries ago. Notwith-
standing it was now covered with grass, I could
plainly see that it had once been a breastwork of
about four feet in height, extending the best part
of a mile, and sufficiently capacious to cover five
thousand men. Its form was somewhat circular
and its flanks reached to the river.
" Though much defaced by time, every angle
was distinguishable, and appeared as regular and
fashioned with as much military skill as if planned
by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible,
but I thought, on examining more curiously, that
I could perceive there certainly had been one.
From its situation, also, I am convinced that it
must have been designed for that purpose. It
fronted the country, and the rear was covered by
the river, nor was there any rising ground for a
considerable way that commanded it; a few
straggling lakes were alone to be seen near it.
In many places small tracks were worn across it
by the feet of the elks or deer, and from the depth
of the bed of earth by which it was covered, I was
able to draw certain conclusions of its great anti-
quity. I examined all the angles, and every part
with great attention, and have often blamed my-
self since, for not encamping on the spot, and
drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this-
description is not the offspring of a heated imag-
ination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken trav-
eler, I find, on inquiry since my return, that
Mons. St. Pierre, and several traders have at dif-
ferent times, taken notice of similar appearances,
upon which they have formed the same conjec-
tures, but withont examining them so minutely
as I did. How a work of this kind could exist in
a country that has hitherto (according to the gen-
erally received opinion) been the seat of war to
untutored Indians alone, whose whole stock of
military knowledge has only, till within two cen-
turies, amounted to drawing the bow, and whose
only breastwork even at present is the thicket, I
know not. I have given as exact an account as
possible of this singular appearance, and leave to
future explorers of those distant regions, to dis-
cover whether it is a production of nature or art.
Perhaps the hints I have here given might lead
to a more perfect investigation of It, and give us
very different ideas of the ancient state of realms
that we at present believe to have been, from the
earliest period, only the habitations of savages."
Lake Pepin excited his admiration, as it has
that of every traveler since his day, and here he
remarks : " I observed the ruins of a French fac-
tory, where it is said Captain St. Pierre resided,
and carried on a very great trade with the Nan-
do wessies, before the reduction of Canada."
Carver's first acquaintance with the Dahkotahs
commenced near the river St. Croix. It would
seem that the erection of trading posts on Lake
Pepin had enticed them from their old residence
on Eum river and Mille Lacs.
He says: "Near the river St. Croix reside
bands of the Naudowessie Indians, called the
River Bands. Tliis nation is composed at pres-
ent of eleven bands. They were origlnaUy
twelve, but the AssinipoUs, some years ago, re-
volting and separating themselves from the oth-
ers, there remain at this time eleven. Those I
met here are termed the River Bands, because
they chiefly dwell near the banks of this river;
the other eight axe generally distinguished by the
66
EXPLOREBS AND PIONHUBS OF MINNESOTA.
title of Nadowessies of the Plains, and inhabit a
cotintry more to the westward. The names of
the former are Kehogatawonahs, the Mawtaw-
bauntowahs, and Shashweentowahs.
Arriving at what is now a suburb of the cap-
ital of Minnesota, he continues: " About thir-
teen miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, at
which I arrived the tenth day after I left Lake
Pepin, is a remarkable cave, of an amazing depth.
The Indians term it Wakon-teebe [Wakan-tipi].
The entrance into it is about ten feet wide, the
height of it five feet. The arch vnthin is fifteen
feet high and about thirty feet broad; the bottom
consists of fine, clear sand. About thirty feet
from the entrance begins a lake,. the water of
which is transparent, and extends to an unsearch-
able distance, for the darkness of the cave pre-
ents all attempts to acquire a knowledge of it.]
I threw a small pebble towards the nterior part
of it with my utmost strength. I could hear that
it fell into the water, and, notwithstanding it was
of a small size, it caused an astonishing and ter-
rible noise, that reverberated through all those
gloomy regions. I found in this cave many In-
dian hieroglyphics, which appeared very ancient,
for time had nearly covered them with moss, so
that it was with difficulty I could trace them.
They were cut in a rude manner upon the inside
of the wall, which was composed of a stone so ex-
tremely soft that it might be easily penetrated
with a knife; a stone everywhere to be formd
near the Mississippi.
" At a little distance from this dreary cavern,
is the burying-place of several bands of the Nau-
dowessie Indians. Though these people have no
fixed_ residence, being in tents, and seldom but a
few months in one spot, yet they always bring
the bones of the dead to this place.
" Ten miles below the Tails of St. Anthony,
the river St. Pierre, called by the natives Wada-
paw Menesotor, falls into the Mississippi from the
west. It is not mentioned by Father Hennepin,
though a large, fair river. This omission, I con-
sider, must have proceeded from a small island
[Pike's] that is situated exactly in its entrance."
When he reached the Minnesota river, the ice
became so troublesome that he left his canoe in
the neighborhood of what is now St. Anthony,
and walked to St. Anthony, in company with a
yovmg "Winnebago chief, who had never seen the
curling waters. The chief, on reaching the emi-
nence some distance below Cheever's, began to
invoke his gods, and offer oblations to the spirit
in the waters.
"In the middle of the Falls stands a small
island, about forty feet broad and somewhat lon-
ger, on which grow a few cragged hemlock and
spruce trees, and about half way between this
island and the eastern shore is a rock, lying a1.
the very edge of the Falls, in an oblique position
that appeared to be about five or six feet broad,
and thirty or forty long. At a little distance be-
low the Falls stands a small island of about an
acre and a half, on which grow a great number of
oak trees."
From this description, it would appear that the
Uttle island, now some distance below the Falls,
was once in the very midst, and shows that a con-
stant recession has been going on, and that in
ages long past they were not far from the Minne-
sota river.
No description is more glowing than Carver's
of the country adjacent:
" The country around them is extremely beau-
tiful. It is not an uninterrupted plain, where the
eye finds no reUef , but composed of many gentle
ascents, which in the summer are covered with
the finest verdure, and interspersed with little
groves that give a pleasing variety to the pros^
pect. On the whole, when the Falls are inclu-
ded, which may be seen at a distance of foui
miles, a more pleasing and picturesque view, I
believe, cannot be found throughout the uni-
verse."
" He arrived at the Falls on the seventeenth of
November, 1766, and appears to have ascended as
far as Elk river.
On the twenty-fifth of November, he had re-
turned to the place opposite the Minnesota, where
he had left his canoe, and this stream as yet not
being obstructed with ice, he commenced its as-
cent, with the colors of Great Britain flying at
the stem of his canoe. There is no doubt that
he entered this river, but how far he explored it
cannot be ascertained. He speaks of the Bapids
near Shakopay, and asserts that he went as far as
two hundred miles beyond Mendota. He re-
marks:
" On the seventh of December, I arrived at the
utmost of my travels towards the West, where I
SIOUX BURIAL ORATION VERSIFIED BY SCHILLER.
67
met a large party of the Naudowessie Indians,
among whom I resided some months."
After speaking of the upper bands of the Dah-
kotahs and their allies, he adds that he " left the
habitations of the hospitable Indians the latter
end of AprU, 1767, but did not part from them
for several days, as I was accompanied on my
journey by near three hundred of them to the
mouth of the river St. Pierre. At this season
these bands annually go to the great cave (Day-
ton's Bluff) before mentioned.
When he arrived at the great cave, and the In-
dians had deposited the remains of their deceased
friends in the burial-place that stands adjacent
to it, they held their great council to which he
was admitted.
When the Naudowessies brought their dead for
interment to the great cave (St. Paul), I attempted
to get an insight into the remaining burial rites,
but whether it was on account of the stench
which arose from so many dead bodies, or whether
they chose to keep this part of their custom secret
from me, I could not discover. I found, however,
that they considered my curiosity as ill-timed,
and therefore I withdrew. * *
One formality among the Naudowessies in
mourning for the dead is very different from any
mode I observed in the other nations through
which I passed. The men, to show how great
their sorrow is, pierce the flesh of their arms
above the elbows with arrows, and the women
cut and gash their legs with broken flints till the
blood flows very plentifully. * *
After the breath is departed, the body is
dressed in the same attire it usually wore, his
face is painted, and he is seated in an erect pos-
ture on a mat or skin, placed in the middle of the
hut, with his weapons by his side. His relatives
seated around, each in turn harangues the de-
ceased; and if he has been a great warrior, i-e-
counts his heroic actions, nearly to the following
purport, which in the Indian language is extreme-
ly poetical aud pleasing
"You still sit among us, brother, your person
retains its usual resemblance, and continues sim-
ilar to ours, without any visible deficiency, ex-
cept it has lost the power of action! But whither
is that breath flown, which a few hours ago sent
up smoke to the Great Spirit? Why are those
Ups silent, that lately delivered to us expressions
and pleasing language? Why are those feet mo-
tionless, that a few hours ago were fleeter than
the deer on yonder mountains? Why useless
hang those arms, that could climb the tallest tree
or draw the toughest bow? Alas, every part of
that frame which we lately beheld with admira-
tion and wonder has now become as inanimate as
it was three hundred years ago! We will not,
however, bemoan thee as if thou wast forever
lost to us, or that thy name would be buried in
oblivion; thy soul yet lives in the great coxmtry
of spirits, with those of thy nation that have gone
before thee; and though we are left behind to
perpetuate thy fame-, we will one day join thee.
" Actuated by the respect we bore thee whilst
living, we now come to tender thee the last act of
kindness in our power; that thy body might not
lie neglected on the plain, and become a prey to
the beasts of the field or fowls of the air, and we
will take care to lay it with those of thy predeces-
sors that have gone before thee; hoping at the
same time that thy spirit will feed with their
spirits, and be ready to receive ours when we
shall also arrive at the great country of souls."
For this speech Carver is principally indebted
to his imagination, but it is well conceived, and
suggested one of Schiller's poems, which Goethe
considered one of his best, and wished " he had
made a dozen such."
Sir E. Lytton Bulwerthe distinguished novelist,
and Sir John Herschel the eminent astronomer,
have each given a translation of Schiller's " Song
of the Nadowessee Chief."
SIR E. L. bulweb's translation.
See on his mat — as if of yore.
All life-like sits he here !
With that same aspect which he wore
When hght to him was dear
But where the right hand's strength ? and where
The breath that loved to breathe
To the Great Spirit, aloft in air.
The peace pipe's lusty wreath ?
And where the hawk-like eye, alas !
That wont the deer pursue.
Along the waves of rippling grass.
Or fields that shone with dew ?
68
EXPLOBEBS AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
Are these the limber, bounding feet
That swept the winter's snows ?
"What stateliest stag so fast and fleet ?
Their speed outstripped the roe's !
These arms, that then the steady bow
Could supple from it's pride,
How stark and helpless hang they now
Adown the stiffened side 1
Yet weal to him — at peace he stays
Wherever fall the snows ;
Where o'er the meadows springs the maize
That mortal never sows..
Where birds are blithe on every brake-
Where orests teem with deer —
Where glide the fish through every lake —
One chase from year to year !
With spirits now he feasts above ;
All left us to revere
The deeds we honor with our love,
The dust we bury here.
Here bring the last gift ; loud and shrill
Wail death dirge for the brave ;
What pleased him most in life, may still
Give pleasure in the grave.
We liy the axe beneath his head
He swung when strength was strong —
The bear on which his banquets fed,
The way from earth is long.
And here, new sharpened, place the knife
That severed from the clay.
From which the axe had spoiled the life,
The conquered scalp away.
The paints that deck the dead, bestow ;
Yes, place them in his hand.
That red the kingly shade may glow
Amid the spirit land.
SIB JOHir herschel's translation.
See, where upon the mat he sits
Erect, before his door.
With just the same majestic air
That once in life he wore.
But where is fled his strength of limb.
The whirlwiad of his breath,
To the Great Spirit, when he sent
The peace pipe's mounting wreath?
Where are those falcon eyes, which late
Along the plain could trace.
Along the grass's dewy waves
The reindeer's printed pace?
Those legs, which once with matchless speed,
Mew through the drifted snow.
Surpassed the stag's unwearied course.
Outran the mountain roe?
Those arms, once used with might andjnain.
The stubborn bow to twang?
See, see, their nerves are slack at last,
All motionless they hang.
'Tis well with him, for he is gone
Where snow no more is found.
Where the gay thorn's perpetual bloom
Decks all the field around.
Where wild birds sing from every spray,
Where deer come sweeping by,
Where fish from every lake afford
A plentiful supply.
With spirits now he feasts above,
And leaves us here alone,
To celebrate his valiant deeds.
And round his grave to moan.
Sound the death song, bring forth the gifts,
The last gifts of the dead, —
Let all which yet may yield him joy
Within his grave be laid.
The hatchet place beneath his head
Still red with hostile blood;
And add, because the way is long,
The bear's fat limbs for food.
The scalping-knife beside him lay,
With paints of gorgeous dye,
That in the land of souls his form
May shine triumphantly.
It appears from other sources that Carver's
visit to the Dahkotahs was of some effect ia bring-
ing about friendly intercourse between them and
the commander of the English force at Mackinaw.
CABVBS'S PBOJEOT FOB A BOUTJSJ TO THE PACIFIC.
69
TLe earliest mention of the Dahkotahs, in any
public British documents that we know of, is in
the con-espondence between Sir "William Johnson,
Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Ctolony
of New York, and General Gage, in command of
the forces.
On the eleventh of September, less than six
months after Carver's speech at Dayton's Bluff,
and the departure of a number of chiefs to the
English fort at Macldnaw, Johnson writes to
General Gage: "Though I wrote to you some
days ago, yet I would not mind saying something
again on the score of the vast expenses Incurred,
and, as I understand, still incurring at Michili-
mackinac, chiefly on pretense of making a peace
between the Sioux and Chippeweighs, with which
I think we have very little to do, in good policy
or otherwise."
Sir William Johnson, In a letter to Lord HUls-
borough, one of his Majesty's ministers, dated
August seventeenth, 1768, again refers to the
subject :
"Much greater part of those who go a trading
are men of such circumstances and disposition as
to venture their persons everywhere for extrava-
gant gains, yet the consequences to the public
are not to be slighted, as we may be led into a
general quarrel through their means. The In-
dians in the part adjacent to MichUlmackinac
have been treated with at a very great expense
for some time previous.
"Major Kodgers brings a considerable charge
against the former for mediating a peace between
some tribes of the Sioux and some of the Chippe-
weighs, which, had it been attended with success,
would only have been Interesting to a very few
French, and others that had goods in that part
of the Indian country, but the contrary has hap-
pened, and they are now more violent, and war
against one another."
Though a wilderness of over one thousand
miles intervened between the Falls of St. An-
thony and the white settlements of the English,
Carver was fully impressed with the idea that the
State now organized under the name of Minne-
sota, on account of its beauty and fertility, would
attract settlers.
Speaking of the advantages of the country, he
says that the future population wiU be "able to
convey their produce to the seaports with great
facility, the crurent of the river from its source
to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico being ex-
tremely favorable for doing this in small craft.
This might also in time befadlitated by canal' or
shorter cids, and a communication opened 6y water
with New York by way of the Lakes."
The subject of this sketch was also confident
that a route would be discovered by way of the
Minnesota river, which would open a passage
to Chma and the English settlements in the East
Indies."
Carver having returned to England, interested
"Whitworth, a member of parliament, in the
northern route. Had not the American Revolu-
tion commenced, they proposed to have buUt a
fort at Lake Pepin, to have proceeded up the
Minnesota untU they found, as they supposed
they could, a branch of the Missouri, and from
thence, journeying over the summit of lands un-
tU they came to a river which they called Ore-
gon, they expected to descend to the Pacific.
Carver, in common with other travelers, had
his theory in relation to the origin of the Dahko-
tahs. He supposed that they came from Asia.
He remarks: "But this might have been at dif-
ferent times and from various parts — from Tar-
tary, China, Japan, for the inhabitants of these
places resemble each other. * * *
"It is very evident that some of the names and
customs of the American Indians resemble those
of the Tartars, and I make no doubt but that in
some future era, and this not far distant, it wiU
be reduced to certainty that during some of the
wars between the Tartars and Chinese a part of
the inhabitants of the northern provinces were
driven from their native country, and took refuge
In some of the isles before mentioned, and from
thence found their way into America. * * •
"Many words are used both by the Chinese and
the Indians which have a resemblance to each
other, not only in their sound, but in their signi-
fication. The Chinese call a slave Shungo; and
the Noudowessie Indians, whose language, from
their little intercourse with the Europeans, is
least corrupted, term a dog Shungush [Shoan-
kali.J The former denominate one species of their
tea Shoushong; the latter call their tobacco Shou-
sas-sau [Chanshasha.] Many other of the words
used by the Indians contain the syllables die,
(!A.aMi, and ehu, after the dialect of the Chinese."
70
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
The comparison of languages has become a rich
source of historical knowledge, yet many of the
analogies traced are fanciful. The remark of
Humbolt in " Cosmos" is worthy of remembrance.
"As the structure of American idioms appears
remarkably strange to nations speaking the mod-
ern languages of "Western Europe, and who readily
suffer themselves to be led away by some acci-
dental analogies of sound, theologians have gen-
erally believed that they could trace an aflflnity
with the Hebrew, Spanish colonists with the
Basque and the English, or Erench settlers with
Gaelic, Erse, or the Bas Breton. I one day met
on the coast of Peru, a Spanish naval oflScer and
an English whaUng captain, the forifjer of whom
declared that he had heard Basque spoken at Ta-
hiti; the other, Gaelic or Erse at the Sandwich
Islands."
Carver became very poor while in England,
and was a clerk in a lottery-office. He died in
1780, and left a widow, two sons, and five daught-
ers, in New England, and also a child by another
wife that he had married in Great Britain
After his death a claim was urged for the land
upon which the capital of Minnesota now stands'
and for many miles adjacent. As there are still
many persons who believe that they have some
right through certain deeds purporting to be from
the heirs of Carver, it is a matter worthy of an
investigation.
Carver says nothing in his book of travels in re-
lation to a grant from the Dahkotahs, but after
he was buried, it was asserted that there was a
deed belonging to him in existence, conveying
valuable lands, and that said deed was executed
at the cave now in the eastern suburbs of Saint
Paul.
DEED PTJKPOETIKG TO HAVE BEEN' GIVEN AT
THE CAVE IN THE BLUFF BELOW ST. PAUL.
" To Jonathan Carver, 3 chief under the most
mighty and potent George the Third, King of the
English and other nations, the fame of whose
warriors has reached our ears, and has now been
fully told us by our good brother Jonathan, afore-
said, whom we rejoice to have come among us,
and bring us good news from his country.
"We, chiefs of the Naudowessies, who have
hereunto set our seals, do by these presents, for
ourselves and heirs forever, in return for the aid
and other good services done by the said Jona-
than to ourselves and alUes, give grant and con-
vey tp him, the said Jonathan, and to bis heirs
and assigns forever, the whole of a certain tract
or territory of land, bounded as follows, viz: from
the Ealls of St. Anthony, running on the east
bank of the Mississippi, nearly southeast, as far
as Lake Pepin, where the Chippewa joins the
Mississippi, and from thence eastward five days
travel, accounting twenty EngUsh miles per day;
and from thence again to the Falls of St. Anthony,
on a direct straight line. We do for ourselves,
heirs, and assigns, forever give unto the said Jo-
nathan, his heirs and assigns, with all the trees,
rocks, and rivers therein, reserving the sole lib-
erty of hunting and fishing on land not planted
or improved by the said Jonathan, his heirs and
assigns, to which we have aflSxed our respective
seals.
" At the Great Cave, May 1st, 1767.
"Signed, HAWNOPAWJATIN.
OTOHTGNGOOMLISHEAW. "
The original deed was never exhibited by the
assignees of the heirs. By his English wife Car-
ver had one child, a daughter Martha, who was
cared for by Sir Bichard and Lady Pearson. In
time she eloped and married a sailor. A mercan-
tile firm in London, thinking that money could
be made, induced the newly married couple, the
day after the wedding, to convey the grant to
them, with the understanding that they were to
have a tenth of the profits.
The merchants despatched an agent by the
name of Clarke to go to the Dahkotahs, and ob-
tain a new deed; but on his way he was murdered
in the state of JSTew York.
In the year 1794, the heirs of Carver's Ameri-
can wife, in consideration of fifty thousand pounds
sterUng, conveyed their interest in the Carver
grant to Edward Houghton of Vermont. In the
year 1806, Samuel Peters, who had been a tory
and an Episcopal minister during the Revolu-
tionary war, alleges, in a petition to Congress,
that he had also purchased of the heirs of Carver
their rights to the grant.
Before the Senate committee, the same' year,
he testified as follows:
"In the year 1774, 1 arrived there (London),
and met Captain Carver. In 1775, Carver had a
hearing before the king, praying his majesty's
approval of a deed of land dated May first, 1767,
UNITED STATES BEJECT CABVEB'S CLAIM.
71
and sold and granted to him by the Naudowissies.
The result was his majesty approved of the exer-
tions and bravery of Captain CaiTer among the
Indian nations, near the Falls of St. Anthony, in
the Mississippi, gave to said Carver 1371Z. 13s. 8d.
sterling, and ordered a frigate to be prepared,
and a transport ship to carry one hundred and
fifty men, under command of Captain Carver, with
four others as a committee, to sail the next June
to New Orleans, and then to ascend the Missis-
sippi, to take possession of said territory conveyed
to Captain Carver ; but the battle of Bunker Hill
prevented."
In 1821, General Leavenworth, having made
Inquiries of the Dahkotahs, in relation to the
alleged claim, addressed the following to the
commissioner of the land oflBce :
" Sir: — Agreeably to your request, I have the
honour to inform you what I have understood
from the Indians of the Sioux Nation, as well as
some facts within my own knowledge, as to what
is commonly termed Carver's Grant. The grant
purports to be made by the chiefs of the Sioux
of the Plains, and one of the chiefs uses the sign
of a serpent, and the other of a turtle, purport-
ing that their names are derived from those ani-
mals.
"The land lies on the east side of the Mississ-
ippi. The Indians do not recognize or acknowl
edge the grant to be vaUd, and they among others
assign the following reasons:
"1. The Sioux of the Plains never owned a
foot of land on the east side of the Mississippi.
The Sioux Nation is divided into two grand di-
visions, viz: The Sioux of the Lake; or perhaps
more literally Sioux of the Eiver, and Sioux of
the Plain. The former subsists by himting and
fishing, and usually move from place to place by
water, in canoes, during the summer season, and
travel on the ice in the winter, when not on
their hunting excursions. The latter subsist en-
tirely by hunting, and have no canoes, nor do
they know but little about the use of them. They
reside in the large prairies west of the Mississippi,
and follow the buffalo, upon which they entirely
subsist; these are called Sioux of the Plain, and
never owned land east of the Mississippi.
" 2. The Indians say they have no knowledge
of any such chiefs as those who have signed the
grant to Carver, either amongst the Sioux of the
River or the Sioux of the Plain. They say that
if Captain Carver did ever obtain a deed or
grant, it was signed by some foolish young men
who were not chiefs and who were not author-
ized to make a grant. Among the Sioux of the
River there are no such names.
" 3. They say the Indians never received any-
thing for the land, and they have no intention to
part with it without a consideration. From my
knowledge of the Indians, I am induced to think
they would not make so considerable a grant, anct
have it to go into full effect without receiving a
substantial consideration.
'• 4. They have, and ever have had, the pos-
session of the land, and intend to keep it. I
know that they are very particular in making
every person who wishes to cut timber on that
tract obtain their permission to do so, and to ob-
tain payment for it. In the month of May last,
some Frenchmen brought a large raft of red cedar
timber out of the Chippewa River, which timber
was cut on the tract before mentioned. The In-
dians at one of the villages on the Mississippi,
where the principal chief resided, compelled the
Frenchmen to land the raft, and would not per-
mit them to pass until they had received pay for
the timber, and the Frenchmen were compelled
to leave their raft with the Indians until they
went to Prairie du Chien, and obtained the nec-
essary articles,'and made the payment required."
On the twenty-third of January, 1823, the Com-
mittee of Public Lands made a report on the
claim to the Senate, which, to every disinterested
person, is entirely satisfactory. After stating
the facts of the petition, the report continues:
" The Rev. Samuel Peters, in his petition, fur-
ther states that Lefei, the present Emperor of
the Sioux and Naudowessies, and Red Wing, a
sachem, the heirs and successors of the two grand
chiefs who signed the said deed to Captain Car-
ver, have given satisfactory and positive proof
that they allowed their ancestors' deed to be gen-
uine, good, and valid, and that Captain Carver's
heirs and assigns are the owners of said territory,
and may occupy it free of all molestation.
The committee have examined and considered
the claims thus exhibited by the petitioners, and
remark that the original deed is not produced, nor
any competent legal evidence offered of its execu-
tion ; nor is there any proof that the persons, who
72
EXPL0BEB8 AND PIONEESS OF MINNESOTA.
it is alleged made the deed, were the chiefs of
said tribe, nor that (if chiefs) they had authority
to grant and give away the land belongiag to their
tribe. The paper annexed to the petition, as a
copy of said deed, has no subscribing witnesses ;
and it would seem impossible, at this remote pe-
riod, to ascertaiu the important fact, that the per-
sons who signed the deed comprehended and
understood the meaning and effect of their act.
" The want of proof as to these facts, would
interpose in the way of the claimants insuperable
difllculties. But, in the opinion of the committee ,
the claim is not such as the United States are
under any obligation to allow, even if the deed
were proved in legal form.
" The British government, before the time when
the alleged deed bears date, had deemed it pru-
dent and necessary for the preservation of peace
with the Indian tribes under their sovereignty,
protection and dominion, to prevent British sub-
jects from purchasing lands from the Indians,
and this rule of policy was made known and en-
forced by the proclamation of the king of Great
Britain, of seventh October, 1763, which contains
an express prohibition.
" Captain Carver, aware of the law, and know-
ing that such a contract could not vest the legal
title in him, applied to the British government to
ratify and confirm the Indian grant, and, though
it was competent for that government then to
confirm the grant, and vest the title of said land
in him, yet, from some cause, that government .
did not think proper to do it.
"The territory has since become the property
of the United States, and an Indian grant not
good against the British government, would ap-
pear to be not bindiag unon the United States
government.
" What benefit the British government derived
from the services of Captain Carver, by his trav-
els and residence among the Indians, that gov-
ernment alone could determine, and alone could
judge what remuneration those services deserved.
" One fact appears from the declaration of Mr.
Peters, in his statement in writing, among the
papers exhibited, namely, that the British gov-
ernment did give Captain Carver the sum of one
thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds
six shillings and eight pence sterling. To the
United States, however. Captain Carver rendered
no services which could be assumed as any equit-
able ground for the support of the petitioners'
claim.
" The committee being of opioion that the
United States are not bound in law and equity to
confirm the said alleged Indian grant, recom-
mend the adoption of the resolution:
" ' Besolved, That the prayer of the petitioners
ought not to be granted." '
Lord Palmerston stated in 1839, that no trace
could be found in the records of the British
office of state papers, showing any ratification of
the Carver grant.
EXPLOBATIOh'S BY LIEUTENANT Z. M.' PIKE.
73
CHAPTER XII.
EXPLOEATIOir BY THE FIRST UNITED STATES ARMY OFFICER, LIETTTENASTT Z. M. PIKE.
"niainjr Posts at the begmning of Ifineteentli Centuryl— Sandy Lake Fort.—
Leeoo Lake Fort.— William Morrison, before Schoolcraft at Itasca Lake.— Divi-
sion of Worthwest Territory. — Organization of Indiana, Michigan and Upper
Lonisiona. — Notices of Wood, Frazor, Fisher, Cameron, Faribault. — Early
Traders.— Pike's Council at Mouth of Minnesota River.— Grant for Military
Posts.—fincampment at Falls of St. Anthony. — Block House near Swan River.
— Tisit to Sandy and Leech Lakes. — British Flag Shot at and Lowered. —
Tbompaon, Topographer of Northwest Company. — Pike at Dickson's Trading
Post. — Returns to Mendota. — Fails to find Carver's Cave. — Conference with
Little Crow. —Cameron sells Liquor to Indians.
At the beginning of the present century, the
region now known as Minnesota, contained no
white men, except a few engaged in the fur trade.
In the treaty effected by Hon. John Jay, Great
Britain agreed to withdraw her troops from aU
posts and places within, certain boundary lines,
on or before the first of June, 1796, but aU Brit-
ish settlers and traders might remain for one
year, and enjoy all their former privileges, with-
out being obliged to be citizens of the United
States of America.
In the year 1800, the trading posts of Minnesota
were chiefly held by the Northwest Company,
and their chief traders resided at Sandy Lake,
Leech Lake, and Ton du Lac, on St. Louis Elver.
In the year 1794, this company built a stockade
one hundred feet square, on the southeast end of
Sandy Lake. There were bastions pierced for
small arms, in the southeast and in the northwest
comer. The pickets which surrounded the post
were thirteen feet high. On the north side there
was a gate ten by nine feet ; on the west side, one
six by five feet, and on the east side a third gate
six by five feet. Travelers entering the main
gate, saw on the left a one story building twenty
feet square, the residence of the superintendent,
and on the left of the east gate, a building twenty-
flve by fifteen, the quarters of the voyagenis.
Entering the western gate, on the left was a stone
house, twenty by thirty feet, and a house twenty
by forty feet, used as a store, and a workshop,
and a residence for clerks. On the south shore
of Leech Lake there was another establishment,
i little larger. The stockade was one hundred
and fifty feet square. The main building was
sixty by twenty-five feet, and one and a half story
In height, where resided the Director of the firr
trade of the Fond du Lac department of the STorth-
west Company. In the centre was a small store,
twelve and a half feet square, and near the main
gate was flagstaff fifty feet in height, from
which used to float the flag of Great Britain.
William Morrison was, in 1802, the trader at
Leech Lake, and in 1804 he was at Elk Lake, the
source of the Mississippi, thirty-two years after-
wards named by Schoolcraft, Lake Itasca.
The entire force of the Northwest Company,
west of Lake Superior, in 1805, consisted of three
accountants, nineteen clerks, two interpreters,
eighty-five canoe men, and with them were
twenty-nine Indian or half-breed women, and
about fifty children.
On the seventh of May, 1800, the Northwest
Territory, which included all of the western
country east of the Mississippi, was divided.
The portion not designated as Ohio, was organ-
ized as the Territory of Indiana.
On the twentieth of December, 1803, the
province of Louisiana, of which that portion of
Minnesota west of the Mississippi was a part,
was oflBcially delivered up by the Erench, who
had just obtained it from the Spaniards, accord-
ing to treaty stipulations.
To the transfer of Louisiana by France, after
twenty days' possession, Spain at first objected ;
but in 1804 vidthdrew all opposition.
President Jefferson now deemed it an object
of paramount importance for the United States
to explore the country so recently acquired, and
make the acquaintance of the tribes residing
therein ; and steps were taken for an expedition
to the upper Mississippi.
Early in March, 1804, Captain Stoddard, of the
United States army, arrived at St. Louis, the
agent of the French Republic, to receive from
74
EXPLOBEMS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
the Spanish authorities the possession of the
country, which he immediately transferred to the
United States.
As the old settlers, on the tenth of March, saw
the ancient flag of Spain displaced hy that of the
United States, the tears coursed down their
cheeks.
On the twentieth of the same month, the terri-
tory of Upper Louisiana was constituted, com-
prising the present states of Arkansas, Missouri,
Iowa, and a large portion of Minnesota.
On the eleventh of January, 1805, the tsrri-
tory of Michigan was organized.
The first American officer who visited Minne-
sota, on business of a pubUc nature, was one who
was an ornament to his profession, and in energy
and endurance a true representative of the citi-
zens of the United States. "We refer to the
gallant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, a native of
New Jersey, who afterwards fell in battle at
York, Upper Canada, and whose loss was justly
mourned by the whole nation.
When a young lieutenant, he was ordered by
General Wilkinson to visit the region now known
as Minnesota, and expel the British traders who
were found violating the laws of the United
States, and form alliances with the Indians.
With only a few common soldiers, he was obliged
to do the work of several men. At times he
would precede his party for miles to reconnoitre,
and then he would do the duty of hunter.
During the day he would perform the part of
surveyor, geologist, and astronomer, and at night,
though hungry and fatigued, his lofty enthu-
siasm kept him awake until he copied the notes,
and plotted the courses of the day.
On the 4th day of September, 1805, Pike ar-
rived at Prairie du Chien, from St. Louis, and
was politely treated by three traders, all born un-
der the flag of the United States. One was named
Wood, another Prazer, a native of Vermont,
who, when a young man became a clerk of one
Blakely, of Montreal, and thus became a fur
trader. The third was Henry Fisher, a captain
of the Militia, and Justice of the Peace, whose
wife was a daughter of Goutier de Verville.
Fisher was said to have been a nephew of Pres-
dent Monroe, and later in life traded at the
sources of the Minnesota. One of his daughters
was the mother of Joseph Bolette, Jr., a mem-
ber of the early Minnesota Legislative assem-
blies. On the eighth of the month Lieutenant
Pike left Prairie du Chien, in two batteaux, with
Sergeant Henry Kennerman, Corporals William
E. Mack and Samuel Bradley, and ten privates.
At La Crosse, Frazer, of Prairie du Chien,
overtook him, and at Sandy point of Lake Pepta
he found a trader, a Scotchman by the name of
Murdoch Cameron, with his son, and a young
man named John EudsdeU. On the twonty-
first he breakfasted with the Kaposia band of
Sioux, who then dwelt at the marsh below Day-
ton's BlufE, a few miles below St. Paul. The
same day he passed three miles from Mendota
the encampment of J. B. Faribault, a trader and
native of Lower Canada, then about thirty years
of age, in which yictnity he continued for more
than fifty years, tie married Pelagie the daugh-
ter of Francis Klnnie by an Indian woman,
and tis eldest son, Alexander, bom soon after
Pike's visit, was the founder of the town of
Faribault.
Arriving at the confluence of the Minnesota
and the Mississippi Elvers, Pike and his soldiers
encamped on the Northeast point of the island
which still bears his name. The next day was
Sunday, and he visited Cameron, at his trading
post on the Minnesota Elver, a short distance
above Mendota.
On Monday, the 23d of September, at noon,
he held a Council with the Sioux, under a cover-
ing made by suspending saUs, and gave an ad-
mirable talk, a portion of which was as follows :
" Brothers, I am happy to meet you here, at
this council fire which your father has sent me to
kindle, and to take you by the hands, as our chil-
dren. We having but lately acquired from the
Spanish, the extensive territory of Louisiana, our
general has thought proper to' send out a number
of his warriors to visit all his red children ; to tell
them his will, and to hear what request they may
have to make of their father. I am happy the
choice fell on me to come this road, as I find
my brothers, the Sioux, ready to listen to my
words.
" Brothers, it is the wish of our government to
establish military posts on the Upper Mississippi,
at such places as might be thought expedient. I
have, therefore, examined the country, and have
pitched on the mouth of the river St. Croix, this
GRANT OF LAND FROM THE SIOUX.
75
place, and tlie i alls of St. Aathony ; I therefore
wish you to grant to the United States, nine
miles square, at St. Croix, and at this place, from
a league below the confluence of the St. Peter's
and Mississippi, to a league above St. Anthony,
extending three leagues on each side of the river ;
and as we are a people who are accustomed to
have all our acts written down, in order to have
them handed to our children, I have drawn up a
form of an agreement, which we will both sign,
in the presence of the traders now present. After
we know the terms, we will fill it up, and have it
read and interpreted to you.
" Brothers, those posts are intended as a bene-
fit to you. The old chiefs now present must see
that their situation improves by a communication
' with the whites. It is the intention of the Umted
States to establish at those posts factories, in
which the Indians may procure all their things
at a cheaper and better rate than they do now, or
ttian your traders can afford to sell them to you,
as they aie single men, who come from far in
small boats; but your fathers are many and
strong, and will come with a strong arm, in large
boats. There will also be chiefs here, who can
attend to the wants of their brothers, without
their sending or going all the way to St. Louis,
and will see the traders -that go up your rivers,
and know that they are good men. * * * *
"Brothers, I now present you with some of
your father's tobacco, and some other trifling
things, as a memorandum of my good will, and
before my departure I will give you some liquor
to clear your throats."
The traders, Cameron and Frazer, sat with
Pike. His interprflter was Pierre Rosseau.
Among the Chiefs present were Le Petit Cor-
beau (Little Crow), and Way-ago Enagee, and
L'Orignal Leve or Rising Moose. It was with
difficulty that the chiefs signed the following
agreement; not that they objected to the lan-
guage, but because they thought their word
should be taken, without any mark ; but Pike
overcame their objection , by saying that he wished
them to sign it on his account.
" Whereas, at a conference held between the
United States of America and the Sioux na-
tion of Indians,.Lieutenant Z. M. Pike, of the
army of the United States, and the chiefs and
warriors of said triije. have a«freed to the follow- '
ing articles, which, when ratified and approved of
by the proper authority, shall be binding on both
parties :
Aet. 1. That the Sioux nation grant unto the
United States, for the purpose of establishment
of military posts, nine miles square, at the mouth
of the St. Croix, also from below the confluence
of the Mississippi and St. Peter's, up the Missis-
sippi to include the Palls of St. Anthony, extend-
ing nine miles on each side of the river ; that the
Sioux Nation grants to the United States the fuU
sovereignty and power over said district forever.
Art. 2. That in consideration of the above
grants, the- United States shall pay [filled up by
the Senate with 2,000 dollars].
Aet. 3. The United States promise, on their
part, to permit the Sioux to pass and repass, hunt,
or make other use of the said districts, as they
have formerly done, without any other exception
than those specified in article first.
In testimony whereof, we, the undersigned,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, at the
mouth of the liver St. Peter's, on the 23d day of
September, 1805. '
Z. M. PIKE, [L. S.]
1st Lieutenant and agent at the above conference.
his
LE PETIT COEBEAU, M [L. S.]
mark
his
WAY-AGO ENAGEE, XI [L. S.]
mark "
The following entries from Pike's Journal, des-
criptive of the region around the city of Minne-
apolis, seventy-five years ago, are worthy of pres-
ervation:
"Sept. 26th, 37iMrsdo;/.— Embarked at the usual
hour, and after much labor in passing through
the rapids, arrived at the foot of the Palls about
three or four o'clock ; unloaded my boat, and had
the principal part of her cargo carried over the
portage. With the other boat, however, full
loaded, they were not able to get over the last
shoot, and encamped about six yards below. I
pitched my tent and encamped above the shoot.
The rapids mentioned in this day's march, might
properly be called a continuation of the Falls of
St. Anthony, for they are equally entitled to this
appellation, with the Falls of the PeUware aad
76
EXFL0REB8 AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
Susquehanna. Killed one deer. Distance nine
miles.
Sept. 27tli, Friday. Brought over the residue
of my loading this morning. Two men arrived
from Mr. Frazer, on St. Peters, for my dispatches.
This business, closing and sealing, appeared like
a last adieu to the civilized world. Sent a large
packet to the General, and a letter to Mrs. Pike,
with a short note to Mr. Frazer. Two young
Indians brought my flag across by land, who ar-
rived yesterday, just as we came in sight of the
Fall. I made them a present for their punctual-
ity and expedition, and the danger they were ex-
posed to from the journey. Carried our boats out
of the river, as far as the bottom of the hill. . .
Sept. 28th , Saturday.— Brought my barge oyer,
and put her in the river above the Falls. While
we were engaged with her three-fourths miles
from camp, seven Indians painted black, appeared
on the heights. We had left our guns at the
camp and were entirely defenceless. It occurred
tome that they were the small party of Sioux who
were obstinate, and would go to war, when the
other part of the bands came in; these they
proved to be ; they were better armed than any I
had ever seen ; having guns, bows, arrows, clubs,
spears, and some of them even a case of pistols.
I was at that time giving my men a dram ; and
giving the cup of liquor to the first, he drank it
off ; but I was more cautious with the remainder.
I sent my interpreter to camp with them, to wait
my coming ; wishing to purchase one oi their war
clubs, it being made of elk horn, and decorated
with inlaid work. This and a set of bows and
arrows I wished to get as a curiosity. But the
liquor I had given him began to operate, he came
back for me, but refusing to go till I brought my
boat, he returned, and (I suppose being offended)
borrowed a canoe and crossed the river. In the
afternoon got the other boat near the top of the
hill, when the props gave way, and she sUd all the
way down to the bottom, but fortunately without
injuring any person. It raining very hard, we
left her. Killed one goose and a racoon.
Sept. 29th, Sunday. — I killed a remarkably
large racoon. Got our large boat over the port-
age, and put her in the river, at the upper land-
ing ; this night the men gave sufficient proof of
their fatigue, by all throwing themselves down to
sleep, preferring rest to supper. This day I had
but fifteen men out of twenty-two ; the others
were sick. This voyage could have been per-
formed with great convenience, if we had taken
our departure in June. But the proper time
would be to leave the Illinois as soon as the ice
would permit, when the river would be of a good
height.
Sept. 30th, Monday. — Loaded my boat, moved
over and encamped on the Island. The large boats
loading likewise, we went over and put on board.
In the mean time, I took a survey of the Falls,
Portage, etc. If it be possible to pass the Falls
in high water, of which I am doubtful, it must
be on the East side, about thirty yards from
shore ; as there are three layers of rocks, one be-
low the other. The pitch off of either, is not
more than five feet ; but of this I can say more
on my return.
On the tenth of October, the expedition
reached some large island below Sauk Rapids,
where in 1797, Porlier and Joseph EenvlUe had
wintered. Six days after this, he reached the
Rapids in Morrison county, which stUl bears his
name, and he writes : ' 'When we arose in the
morning, found that snow had fallen during the
night, the ground was covered and it continued
to snow. This, indeed, was but poor encourage-
ment for attacking the Rapids, in which we were
certain to wade to oiu: necks. I was determined,
however, if possible to make la riviere de Cor-
beau, [Crow Wing River], the highest point was
made by traders in their bark canoes. We em-
barked, and after four hours work, became so
benumbed vnth cold that our limbs were perfectly
useless. We put to shore on the opposite side of
the river, about two-thirds of the way up the
rapids. Built a large Are ; and then discovered
that our boats were nearly half fuU of water;
both having sprung large leaks so as to oblige me
to keep three hands bailing. My sergeant (Ken-
nerman) one of the stoutest men I ever knew,
broke a blood-vessel and vomited nearly two
quarts of blood. One of my corporals (Bradley)
. also evacuated nearly a pint of blood, when he
attempted to void his urine. These imhappy
circumstances, in addition to the inabUity of
four other men whom we were obliged to leave
on shore, convinced me, that if I had no regard
for my own health and constitution, I should
have some for those poor fellows, who were Mil-
PIKE'S BLOCK MOUSE NEAR SWAN RIVEB.
77
ing themselves to obey my orders. After we had
breakfast and refreshed ourselves, we went down
to our boats on the rocks, where I was obliged to
leave them. I then informed my men that we
would return to the camp and there leave some
of the party and oui large boats. This informa-
tion was pleasing, and the attempt to reach the
camp soon accomplished. My reasons for this
step have partly been already stated. The nec-
essity of imloading and refitting my boats, the
beauty and convenience of the spot for buUditig
huts, the fine pine trees for peroques, and the
quantity of game, were additional inducements.
We immediately xmloaded our boats and secured
their cargoes. In the evening I went out upon a
small, but beautiful creek, which emptied into
the Falls, for the purpose of selecting pine trees
to make canoes. Saw five deer, and killed one
buck weighing one hundred and thirty-seven
pounds. By my leaving men at this plaije, and
from the great quantities of game in its vicinity,
I was ensured plenty of provision for my return
voyage. In the party left behind was one hunter,
to be continually employed, who would keep our
stock of salt provisions good. Distance two
hundred and thirty-three and a half mUes above
ttie Palls of St. Anthony.
Having left his large boats and some soldiers
at this point, he proceeded to the vicinity of
Swan Biver where he erected a block house, and
on the thirty-first of October he writes : "En-
closed my little work completely with pickets.
Hauled up my two boats and turned them over
on each side of the gateways ; by which means
a defence was made to the river, and had it not
been for various political reasons, I would have
laughed at the attack of eight hundred or a
thousand savages, if all my party were within.
For, except accidents, it would only have aflord-
ed amusement, the Indians having no idea of
taking a place by storm. Found myself power-
fully attacked with the fantastics of the brain,
called ennui, at the mention of which I had
hitherto scofied ; but my books being packed up,
I was like a person entranced, and could easily
conceive why so many persons who have been
confined to remote places, acquire the habit of
drinking to excess, and many other vicious prac-
tices, which have been adopted merely to pass
time.
During the next month he himted the buffalo
which were thjen in that vicinity. On the third
of December he received a visit from Robert
Dickson, afterwards noted in the history of the
country, who was then trading about sixty miles
below, on the Mississippi.
On the tenth of December with some sleds he
continued his journey northward, and on the last
day of the year passed Pine Eiver. On the third
of January, 1806, he reached the trading post at
Red Cedar, now Cass Lake, and was quite indig-
nant at finding the British flag floating from the
staff. The night after this his tent caught on
fire, and he lost some valuable and necessary
clt thing. On the evening of the eighth he reach-
ed Sandy Lake and was hospitably received by
Grant, the trader in charge. He writes .
" Jan. 9th, Thursday. — Marched the corporal
early, in order that our men should receive
assurance of our safety and success. He carried
with him a small keg of spirits, a present from
Mr. Grant. The estabUshnaent of this place was
formed twelve years since, by the North-west
Company, and was formerly under the charge of
a Mr. Charles Brusky. It has attained at present
such regularity, as to permit the superintendent
to live tolerably comfortable. They have horses
they procured from Red River, of the Indians ;
raise plenty of Irish potatoes, catch pike, suckers,
pickerel, and white fish in abundance. They
have also beaver, deer, and moose ; but the pro-
vision they chiefly depend upon is wild oats, of
which they purchase great quantities from the
savages, giving at the rate of about one doUar
and a half per bushel. But flour, pork, and salt,
are almost interdicted to persons not principals
in the trade. Flour sells at half a dollar ; salt a
doUar ; pork eiglity cents ; sugar half a dollar ;
and tea four dollars and fifty cents per pound.
The sugar is obtained from the Indians, and is
made from the maple tree."
He remained at Sandy Lake ten days, and on
the last day two men of the Northwest Company
arrived with letters from Fon du Lac Superior,
one of which was from Athapuscow, and had
been since May on the route.
On the twentieth of January began his journey
to Leech Lake, which he reached on the first of
February, and was hospitably received by Hugh
78
EXPL0BER8 AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
McGillis, the head, of the Northwest Company at
this post.
A Mr. Anderson, in the employ of Eobert
Dickson, was residing at the west end of the lake.
While here he hoisted the American flag in the
fort. The English yacht still flying at the top of
the flagstaff, he directed the Indians and his sol-
diers to shoot at it. They soon broke the iron
pin to which it was fastened, and it fell to the
ground. He was informed by a venerable old
Ojibway chief, called Sweet, that the Sioux dwelt
there when he was a youth. On the tenth of
Eebruary, at ten o'clock, he left Leech Lake with
Corporal Bradley, the trader McGillis and two of
his men, and at sunset arrived at Bed Cedar, now
Cass Lake. At this place, in 1798, Thompson,
employed by the Northwest Company for three
years, in topographical surveys, made some ob-
servations. He believed that a line from the
Lake of the "Woods would touch the sources of
the Mississippi. Pike, at this point, was- very
kindly treated by a Canadian named Roy, and his
Ojibway squaw. On his return home, he reached
Clear Elver on the seventh of April, where he
found his canoe and men, and at night was at
Grand Rapids, Dickson's trading post. He talked
until four o'clock the next morning with this
person and another trader named PorUer. He
forbade while there, the traders Greignor [Grig-
non] and La Jennesse, to sell any more liquor to
Indians, who had become very drunken and un-
ruly. On the tenth he again reached the Palls
of Saint Anthony. He writes in his journal as
follows : ,
, April 11th, Friday. — Although it snowed very
hard we brought over both boats, and descended
the river to the island at the entrance of the St.
Peter's. I sent to the chiefs and informed them
I had something to communicate to them. The
Pils de Pincho immediately waited on me, and
informed me that he would provide a place for
the purpose. About sundown I was sent for and
introduced into the council-house, where I found
a great many chiefs of the Sussitongs, Gens de
Feuilles, and the Gens du Lac. The Yanctongs
had not yet come down. They were all awaiting
for my arrival. There were about one hundred
lodges, or six hundred people; we were saluted
on our crossing the river with ball as usual. The
council-house was two large lodges, capable of
containing three hundred men. In the upper
were forty chiefs, and as many pipes set against
the poles, alongside of which I had the Santeur's
pipes arranged. I then informed them in short
detail, of my transactions with the Santeurs; but
my interpreters were not capable of making them-
selves understood. I was therefore obliged to
omit mentioning every particular relative to the
rascal who fired on my sentinel, and of the scoun-
drel who broke the Pols Avoins' canoes, and
threatened my life; the interpreters, however, in-
formed them that I wanted some of their princi-
pal chiefs to go to St. Louis; and that those who
thought proper might descend to the prairie,
where we would give them more explicit infor-
mation. They all smoked out of the Santeur's
pipe, excepting three, who were painted black,
and were some of those who lost their relations
last winter. I invited the Pils de Pinchow, and
the son of the KiUeur Rouge, to come over and
sup with me; when Mr. Dickson and myself en-
deavored to explain what I intended to have said
to them, could I have made myself understood;
that at the prairie we would have all things ex-
plained; that I was desirous of making a better
report of them than Captain Lewis could do from
their treatment of him. The former of those
savages was the person who remained around my
post all last winter, and treated my men so well;
they endeavored to excuse their people.
"Apkil 12th, Saturday. — Embarked early. Al-
though my interpreter had been frequently up the
river, he could not tell me where the cave (spoken
of by Carver) could be foimd ; we carefully
sought for it, but in vain. At the Indian village,
a few miles below St. Peter's, we were about to
pass a few lodges, but on receiving a very partic-
ular invitation to come on shore, we landed, and
were received in a lodge kindly; they presented
us sugar. I gave the proprietor a dram, and was
about to depart when he demanded a kettle of
liquor; on being refused, and after I had left the
shore, he told me he did not like the arrange-
ments, and that he would go to war this summer.
I directed the interpreter to tell him that if I
returned to St. Peter's with the troops, I would
settle that affair with him. On our arrival at the
St. Croix, I foimd the Pettit Corbeau with his
people, and Messrs. Prazer and Wood. We had
a conference, when the Pettit Corbeau made
CAMEBON SELLS LIQUOB TO INDIANS.
many apologies for the misconduct of his people;
he represented to us the different maimers in
which the young warriors had been inducing him
to go to war; that he had been much blamed for
dismissing his party last fall; but that he was de-
termined to adhere as far as lay in his power to
our instructions; that he thought it most prudent
to remain here and restrain the warriors. He
then presented me with a beaver robe and pipe,
and his message to the general. That he was
determined to preserve peace, and make the road
clear; also_a remembrance of his promised medal.
I made a reply, calculated to confirm him in his
good intentions, and assured him that he should
not be the less remembered by his father, although
not present. I was informed that, notwithstand-
ing the instruction of his license, and my par-
ticular request, Murdoch Cameron had taken
liquor and sold it to the Indians on the river St.
Peter's, and that his partner below had been
equally imprudent. I pledged myself to prose-
cute them according to law; for they have been
the occasion of great confusion, and of much
injury to the other traders. This day met a
canoe of Mr. Dickson's loaded with provisions,
under the charge of Mr. Anderson, brother of
the Mr. Anderson at Leech Lake. He politely
oilered me any provision he had on board (for
which Mr. Dickson had given me an order), but
not now being in want, I did not accept of any.
This day, for the first time, I observed the trees
beginning to bud, and indeed the climate seemed
to have changed very materially since we passed
the Falls of St. Anthony."
The strife of political parties growing out of
the French Eevolution, and the declaration of
war against Great Britain in the year 1812, post-
poned the military occupation of the Upper
Mississippi by the United States of America, for
several years.
80
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE YAXIiET OF THE TTPPEB MISSISSIPPI DUUJKG SECOND WAR "WITH GREAT BRITAIN.
Dickson and other traders hostile— American stocltade at rrairie du Chien— Fort
Shelby siurendcra to Lt. Col. 'William McKay— Loyal traders Provencalle and
Faribault— Itising Moose or One-eyed Sioux— Capt. Bulger evacuates Fort
McKay — Itttellisenco of Peace. ^
Notwithstanding the professions of friendship
made to Pike,- ra the second war with Great Brit-
ain, Dickson and others were found bearing arms
against the Bepubllc.
A year after Pike left Prairie du Chien, it was
evident, that under some secret influence, the
Indian tribes were combining against the United
States. Intheyearl809,McholasJarrotdeclared
that the British traders were furnishing the sav-
ages with guns for hostUe purposes. On the first
of May, 1812, two Indians were apprehended at
Chicago, who were on their way to meet Dickson
at Green Bay. They had taken the precaution
to hide letters in their moccasrns, and bury them
in the ground, and were allowed to proceed after
a brief detention. Prazer, of Prairie du Chien,
who had been with Pike at the Council at the
mouth of the Minnesota Biver, was at the port-
age' of the Wisconsin when the Indians dehvered
these letters, which stated that the British flag
would soon be flying again at Mackinaw. At
Green Bay, the celebrated warrior. Black Hawk,
was placed in charge of the Indians who were to
aid the British. The American troops at Macki-
naw were obliged, on the seventeenth of July,
1812, to capitulate without firing a single gun.
One who was made prisoner, writes from Detroit
to the Secretary of "War :
" The persons who commanded the Indians are
Eobert Dickson, Indian trader, and John Askin,
Jr., Indian agent, and his son. The latter two
were painted and dressed after the manner
of the Indians. Those who commanded the
Canadians are John Johnson, Crawford, Pothier,
Armitinger, La Croix, Eolette, Franks, Living-
ston, and other traders, some of whom were lately
concerned in smuggling British goods into the
Indian country, and, in conjunction with others,
have been using their utmost efforts, several
months before .the declaration of war, to excite
the Indians to take up arms. The least resist-
ance from the fort would have been attended
with the destruction of all the persons who feU
into the hands of the British, as I have been as-
sured by some of the British traders,"
On the first of May, 1814, Governor Clark,
with two hundred men, left St. Louis, to build a
fort at the jimction of the "Wisconsin and Missisr
sippi. Twenty days before he arrived at Prairie
du Chien, Dickson had started for Mackinaw
with a band of Dahkotahs and "Winnebagoes.
The place was left in command of Captain Deace
and the Mackinaw Pencibles. The Dahkotahs
refusing to co-operate, when the Americans made
their appearance they fled. The Americans took
possession of the old Mackinaw house, in which
they found nine or ten trunks of papers belong-
ing to Dickson. Prom one they took the follow-
ing extract :
" ' Arrived, from below, a few "Winnebagoes
with scalps. Gave them tobacco, six pounds
powder and six pounds ball.' "
A fort was immediately commenced on the
site of the old residence of the late H. L. Dous-
man, which was composed of two block-houses
in the angles, and another on the bank of the
river, with a subterranean communication. In
honor of the governor of Kentucky it was named
" Shelby."
The fort was in charge of Lieutenant Perkins,
and sixty rank and file, and two gunboats, each
of which carried a six-pounder; and several
howitzers were commanded by Captains Yeiser,
Sullivan, and Aid-de-camp Kennerly.
The traders at Mackinaw, learning that the
Americans had built a fort at the Prairie, and
knowing that as long as they held possession
they would be cut ofC fromi the trade with the
LOYALTY OF FARIBAULT AND THE ONE-EYED SIOUX.
81
Dahkotahs, inunediately raised an expedition to
capture the garrison.
The captain was an old trader by the name of
McKay, and imder htm was a sergeant of ar-
tillery, with a brass six-pounder, and three or
four volunteer companies of Canadian voyageurs,
oflScered by Captains Griguon, Eolette and An-
derson, with Lieutenants Brisbois and Duncan
Graham, all dressed in red coats, with a number
of Indians.
The Americans had scarcely completed tfieir
rude fortification, before the British force, guid-
ed by Joseph Bolette, Sr., descended in canoes
to a point on the Wisconsin, several miles from
the Prairie, to which they marched in battle
array. McKay sent a flag to the Port demanding
a surrender. Lieutenant Perkins repUed that he
would defend it to the last.
A fierce encounter took place, in which the
Americans were worsted. The ofllcer was
wounded, several men were kUled and one of
their boats captured, so that it became necessary
to retreat to St. Louis. Port Shelby after its
capture, was called Port McKay.
Among the traders a few remained loyal, es-
pecially Provencalle and J. B. Paribault, traders
among the Sioux. Paribault was a prisoner
among the British at the time Lieut. Col. Wm.
McKay was preparing to attack Port Shelby, and
he refused to perform any service, Paribault's
wife, who was at Prairie du Chien, not knowing
that her husband was a prisoner in the hands of
the advancing foe, fled with others to the Sioux
village, where is now the city of Winona. Fari-
bault was at length released on parole and re-
turned to his trading post.
Pike writes of his flag, that " being in doubt
whether it had been stolen by the Indians, or had
fallen overboai d and floated away, I sent for my
friend the Orignal Leve." He also caU<5 the
Chief, Eising Moose, and gives his Sioux name
Tahamie. He was one of those, who in 1805,
signed the agreement, to surrender land at the
junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Elvers
to the United States. He had but one eye,
having lost the other when a boy, belonged to
the Wapasha band of the Sioux, and proved
true to the flag which had waved on the day he
sat in council -v^ith Pike.
In the fall of 1814, with another of the same
6
nation, he ascended the Missouri under the pro-
tection of the distinguished trader, Manual Lisa,
as far as the An Jacques or James Elver, and
from thence struck across the country, enlisting
the Sioux in favour of the United States, and at
length arrived at Prairie du Chien. On his arri-
val, Dickson accosted him, and inquired from
whence he came, and what was his business ; at
the same time rudely snatching his bundle from
his shoulder, and searching for letters. The
" one-eyed warrior " told him that he was from
St. Louis, and that he had promised the white
chiefs there that he would go to Prairie du Chien,
and that he had kept his promise
Dickson then placed him in confinement in
Port McKay, as the garrison was called by the
British, and ordered him to divulge what infor-
mation he possessed, or he wo aid put him to
death. But the faithful fellow said he would
impart nothing, and that he was ready for death
if he wished to kill him. Pinding that confine-
ment had no effect, Dickson at last liberated him.
He then left, and visited the bands of Sioux on
the Upper Mississippi, with which he passed the
winter. When he returned in the spring, Dick-
son had gone to Mackinaw, and Capt. A. Bulger,
of the Eoyal New Foundland Eegiment, was in
command of the fort.
On the twenty-third of May, 1815, Capt. Bul-
ger, wrote from Port McKay to Gov. Clark at St.
Louis : " Official intelligence of peace reached
me yesterday. I propose evacuating the fort,
taking with me the guns captured in the fort. *
* * * I have not the smallest hesitation in
declaring my decided opinion, that the presence
of a detachment of British and United States
troops at the same time, would be the means of
embroiling one party or the other in a fresh rup-
ture with the Indians, which I presume it is the
wish of both governments to avoid."
The next month the " One-Eyed Sioux," with
three other Indians and a squaw, visited St. Louis,
and he informed Gov. Clark, that the British
commander left the caimons in the fort when he
evacuated, but in a day or two came back, took
the cannons, and fired the fort with the American
flag flying, but that he rushed in and saved it
from being burned. Prom this time, the British
flag ceased to float in the Valley of the Missis-
sippi.
82
EXPLOBEBS AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTEE XIV.
long's expedition, ^. D. i817, IN A SIX-OABED SKIFF, TO THE FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY.
Carver a Grandsons.— Eoque, Sioux Interpreter.— Wapashaw's Tillage and Its
Vicinity.— A Sacred Dance.— Indian ViUaso Below Dayton's Bluff.— Carver's
Cave.— Fountain Cave.— Falls of St. Anthony Described.— Site or a Fort.
Major Stephen H. Long, of the Engineer Corps
of the United States Army, learning that there
was little or no danger to be apprehended from
the Indians, determined to ascend to the Ealls of
Saint Anthony, in a six-oared skifE presented to
him by Governor Clark, of Saint Louis. His
party consisted of a Mr. Hempstead, a native of
New London, Connecticut, who had been living
at Prairie du Chien, seven soldiers, and a half-
breed interpreter, named Boque. A bark canoe
accompanied them, containing Messrs. Gun and
King, grandsons of the celebrated traveler, Jona-
than Carver.
On the ninth ot July, 1817, the expedition left
Prairie du Chien, and on the twelfth arrived at
" Trempe a I'eau." He writes :
" When we stopped for breakfast, Mr. Hemp-
stead and myself ascended a high peak to take a
■view of the country. It is known by the name
of the Kettle Hill, having obtained this appella-
tion from the circumstance of its having numer-
ous piles of stone on its top, most of them
fragments of the rocky stratifications which
constitute the principal part of the hill, but some
of them small piles made "by the Indians. These
at a distance have some similitude of kettlec
arranged along upon the ridge and sides of the
hiU. Prom this, or almost any other eminence in
its neighborhood, the beauty and grandeur of the
prospect would baflle the skill of the most inge-
nious pencil to depict, and that of the most ac-
complished pen to describe. Hills marshaled
into a variety of agreeable shapes, some of them
towering into lofty peaks, while others present
broad summits embellished with contours and
slopes in the most pleasing manner ; champaigns
and waving valleys; forests, lawns, and parks
alternating with each other ; the humble Missis-
sippi meandering far below, and occasionally
losing itseli la numberless islands, give variety
and beauty to the picture, while rugged cUfls and
stupendous precipices here and there present
themselves as if to add boldness and majesty to
the scene. In the midst of this beautiful scenery
is situated a village of the Sioux Indians, on an
extensive lawn eaUed. the Aux Aisle Prairie ; at
which we lay by for a short time. On our arrival
the Indians hoisted two American flags, and we
returned the compliment by discharging our
blunderbuss and pistols. They then fired several
guns ahead of us by way of a salute, after which
we landed and were received with much friend-
ship. The name of their chief is Wauppaushaw,
or the Leaf, commonly called by a name of the
same import in French, La Peuille, or La Eye,
as it is pronounced in English. He is considered
one of the most honest and honorable of any of
the Indians, and endeavors to inculcate into the
minds of his people the sentiments and principles
adopted by himself. He was not at home at the
time I called, and I had no opportunity of seeing
him. The Indians, as I suppose, with the ex-
pectation that I had something. to communicate
to them, assembled themselves at the place
where I landed and seated themselves upon the
grass. I inquired if their chief was at home,
and was answered in the negative. I then told
them I should be very glad to see him, but as he
w".,s absent I would call on him again in a few
days when I should return. I further told them
that cur father, the new President, wished to ob-
tain some more information relative to his red
children, and that I was on a tour to acquire any
intelligence he might stand in need of. With
this they appeared weU satisfied, and permitted
Mr. Hempstead and myself to go through their
village. While I was in the ■wigwam, one of th«
subordinate chiefs, whose name was Wazzecoota,
or Shooter from the Pine Tree, volunteered to
INITIATION OF A WAUUIOS. BY A SAO BED DANOE.
83
accompany me np the river. I accepted of his
services, and he was ready to attend me on the
tour in a very short time. When we hove in
sight the Indians were engaged in a ceremony
called the Bea/r Dwnae; a ceremony which they
are in the habit of performing when any young
man is desirous of bringing himself into partic-
ular notice, and is considered a kind of initiation
into the state of manhood. I went on to the
ground where they had their performances,
which were ended sooner than usual on account
of our arrival. There was a kind of a, flag made
of fawn skin dressed with the hair on, suspended
on a pole. Upon the flesh side of it were drawn
certain rude figures indicative of the dream
which it is necessary the young man should have
dreamed, before he can be considered a proper
candidate for this kind of initiation; with this a
pipe was suspended by way of sacrifice. Two
arrows were stuck up at the foot of the pole,
and fragments of painted feathers, etc., were
strewed about the ground near to It. These per-
tained to the religious rites attending the cere-
mony, which consists in bewailing and self-mor-
tification, that the Good Spirit may be induced
to pity them and succor their undertaking.
"At the distance of two or three hundred
yards from the flag, is an excavation which they
call the bear's hole, prepared for the occasion.
It is about two feet deep, and has two ditches,
about one foot deep, leading across it at right an-
gles. The young hero of the farce places himself
in this hole, to be hunted by the rest of the young
men, all of whom on this occasion are dressed in
their best attire and painted in their neatest style.
The hunters approach the hole in the direction of
one of the ditches, and discharge their guns,
which were previously loaded for the purpose
with blank cartridges, at the one who acts the
part of the bear; whereupon he leaps from his
den, having a hoop in each hand, and a wooden
lance; the hoops serving as forefeet to aid him
in characterizing his part, and his lance to defend
him from his assailants. Thus accoutred he
dances round the place, exhibiting various feats
of activity, while the other Indians pursue him
and endeavor to trap him as he attempts to re-
turn to his den, to effect which he is privileged to
use any violence he pleases with impunity against
his assailants, even to taking the life of any of
them.
" This part of the ceremony is performed three
times, that the bear may escape from his den
and return to it again through three of the ave-
nues communicating with it. On being hunted
from the fourth or last avenue, the bear must
make his escape through all his pursuers, if pos-
sible, and flee to the woods, where he is to remain
through the day. This, however, is seldom or
never accomplished, as all the young men exert
themselves to the utmost in order to trap him.
When caught, he must retire to a lodge erected for
his reception in the field, where he is to be se-
cluded 'from all society through the day, except
one of his particular friends whom he is allowed
to take with him as an attendant. Here he
smokes and performs various other rites which
superstition has led the Indians to believe are sa-
cred. After this ceremony is ended, the young
Indian is considered qualified to act any pari; as
an efficient member of their community. The
Indian, who has the good fortune to catch the
bear and overcome him when endeavoring to
make his escape to the wood, is considered a
candidate for preferment, and is, on the first suit-
able occasion, appointed the leader of a small war
party, in order that he may further have an op-
portunity to test his^ prowess and perform more
essential service in behalf of his nation. It is
accordingly expected that he will kill some of
their enemies and return with their scalps. I re-
gretted very much that I had missed the oppor-
tunity of witnessing this ceremony, which is
never performed except when prompted by the
particular dreams of one or other of the young
men, who is never complimented twice in the
same maimer on aocoimt of his dreams."
On the sixteenth he approached the vicinity of
where is now the capital of Minnesota, and
writes: "Set sail at halt past four this morning
with a favorable breeze. Pased an Indian bury-
ing ground on our left, the first that I have seen
surrounded by a fence. In the center a pole is
erected, at the foot of which religious rites are
performed at the burial of an Indian, by the
particular friends and relatives of the deceased.
Upon the pole a flag is suspended when any per-
son of extraordinary merit, or one who is very
much beloved, is buried. In the inclosure were
84
EXPLQBERS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
two scafiolds erected also, about six feet high
and sis feet square. Upon one of them were two
coffins containing dead bodies. Passed a Sioux
village on our right containing fourteen cabins.
The name of the chief is the Petit Corbeau, or
Little Eaven. The Indians were all absent on a
hunting party up the River St. Croix, which
is but a little distance across the country from
the village. Of this we were very glad, as this
band are said to be the most notorious beggars
of all the Sioux on the Mississippi. One of their
cabins is furnished with loop holes, and is sit-
uated so near the water that the opposite side
of the river is within musket-shot range from
the building. By this means the Petit CorJDeau
is enabled to exercise a command over the pass-
age of the river and has in some Instances com-
pelled traders to land with their goods, and in-
duced them, probably through fear of offending
him, to bestow presents to a considerable amount,
before he would suffer them to pass. The cabins
are a kind of stockade buildings, and of a better
appearance than any Indian dwelhngs I have
before met with.
" Two miles above the village, on the same
side of the river, is Carver's Cave, at which we
stopped to breakfast. However interesting it
may have been, it does not possess that character
in a very high degree at present. We descend-
ed it with lighted candles to its lower extremity.
The entrance is very low and about eight feet
broad, so that a man in order to enter it must be
completely prostrate. The angle of descent
within the cave is about 25 deg. The flooring
is an inclined plane of quicksand, formed of the
rock in which the cavern is formed. The dist-
ance from its entrance to its inner extremity is
twenty-four paces, and the width in the broadest
part about nine, and its greatest height about
seven feet. In shape it resembles a bakers's oven.
The cavern was once probably much more ex-
tensive. My interpreter informed me that, since
his remembrance, the entrance was not less
than ten feet high and its length far greater than
at present. The rock in which it is formed is
a very white sandstone, so friable that the frag-
ments of it will almost crumble to sand when
taken into the hand. A few yards below the
mouth of the cavern is a very copious spring of
fine water issuing from the bottom of the clifE.
" Five miles above this is the Fountain Cave,
on the same side of the river, formed in the same
kind of sandstone but of a more pure and fine
quality. It is far more curious and interesting
than the former. The entrance of the cave is a
large winding hall about one hundred and fifty
feet in length, fifteen feet in width, and from
eight to sixteen feet in height, finely arched
overhead, and nearly perpendicular. Next suc-
ceeds a narrow passage and difficult of entrance,
which opens into a most beautiful circular room,
finely arched above, and about forty feet in di-
ameter. The cavern then continues a meander-
ing course, expanding occasionally into small
rooms of a circular form. We penetrated about
one hundred and fifty yards, till our candles
began to fail us, when we returned. To beauti-
fy and embellish the scene, a fine crystal stream,
flows through the cavern, and cheers the lone-
some dark retreat with its enlivening murmurs.
The temperature of the water in the cave was
46 deg., and that of the air 60 deg. Entering
this cold retreat from an atmosphere of 89 deg.,
I thought it not prudent to remain in it long
enough to take its several dimensions and me-
ander its courses ; particularly as we had to wade
in water to our knees in many places in order to
penetrate as far as we went. The fountain sup-
plies an abundance of water as fine as I ever
drank. This cavern I was informed by my
interpreter, has been discovered but a few years.
That the Indians formerly living in its neighbor-
hood knew nothing of it till within six years
past. That it is not the same as that described
by Carver is evident, not only from this circum-
stance, but also from the circumstance that in-
stead of a stagnant pool, and only cine accessible
room of a very different form, this cavern has
a brook running through it, and at least four
rooms in succession, one after the other. Car-
ver's Cave is fast filUng up with sand, so that
no water is now found in it, whereas this, from
the very nature of the place, must be enlarging,
as the fountain will carry along with its current
all the sand that falls into it from the roof and
sides of the cavern."
On the night of the sixteenth, he arrived at the
Falls of Saint Anthony and encamped on the east
shore just below the cataract. He writes in his
journal :
DESCBIPTION OF FALLS OF SAINT ANTHONY.
85
"The place -where we encamped last night need-
ed no embellishment to render it romantic in the
highest degree. The banks on both sides of the
river are about one hundred feet high, decorated
with trees and shrubbery of various kinds. The
post oak, hickory, walnut, linden, sugar tree,
white birch, and the American box ; also various
evergreens, such as the pine, cedar, juniper,
etc., added their embellishments to the scene.
Amongst the shrubery were the prickly ash,
plum, and cherry tree, the gooseberry, the black
and red raspberry, the chokeberry, grape vine,
etc. There were also various kinds of herbage
and flowers, among which were the wild parsley,
rue, spikenard, etc., red and white roses, morning
glory and various other handsome flowers. A
few yards below us was a beautiful cascade of
flne spring water, pouring down from a project-
ing precipice about one hundred feet hight. On
our left was the Mississippi hurrying through its
channel with great velocity, and about three
quarters of a mile above us, in plain view, was
the majestic cataract of the Tails of St. Anthony.
The murmuring' of the cascade, the roaring of the
river, and the thunder of the cataract, all contrib-
uted to render the scene the most interesting and
magnificient of any I ever before witnessed.''
"The perpendicular fall of the water at the
cataract, was stated by Pike in his journal, as six-
teen and a half feet, which I found to be true by
actual measurement. To this height, however,
four or five feet may be added for the rapid des-
cent which immediately succeeds to the perpen-
dicular fall within a few yards below. Immedi-
ately at the cataract the river is divided into two
parts by an island which extends considerably
above and below the cataract, and is about five
hundred yards long.. The channel on the right
side of the Island is about three times the width
of that on the left. The quanity of water pass-
ins through them is not, however, in the same
proportion, as about one-third part of the whole
passes through the left channel. In the broadest
channel, just below the cataract, is a small island
also, about fifty yards in length and thirty in
breadth. Both of these islands contain the same
kind of rocky formation as the banks of the river,
and are nearly as high. Besides these, there are
immediately at the foot of the cataract, two
islands of very inconsiderable size, situated in
the right channel also. The rapiu-s commence
several hundred yards above the cataract and
continue about eight miles below. The fall of
the water, beginning at the head of the rapids,
and extending two hundred and sixty rods down
the river to where the portage road commences,
below the cataract is, according to Pike, fifty-
eight feet. If this estimate be correct the whole
fall from the head to the foot of the rapids, is not
probably much less than one hundred feet. But
as I had no instrument sufficiently accurate to
level, where the view must necessarily be pretty
extensive, I took no pains to ascertain the extent
of the fall. The mode I adopted to ascertain
the height of a cataract, was to suspend a line
and plummet from the table rock on the south
side of the river, which at the same time had
very little water passing over it as tlie river was
unusually low. The rocky formations at this
place were arranged in the following order, from
the surface downward. A coarse kind of lime-
stone in thin strata containing considerable silex;
a kind of soft friable stone of a greenish color
and slaty fracture, probably containing Ume,
aluminum and silex ; a very beautiful satratiflca-
tion of shell limestone, in thin plates, extremely
regular in its formation and containing a vast
number of shells, all apparently of the same
kind. This formation constitutes the Table Hock
of the cataract. The next in order is a white or
yellowish sandstone, so easily crumbled that it
deserves the name of a sandbank rather than that
of a rock. It is of various depths, from ten to
fifty or seventy-five feet, and is of the same char-
acter with that found at the caves before des-
cribed. The next in order is a soft friable sand-
stone, of a greenish color, similar to that resting
upon the shell limestone. These stratifications
occupied the whole space from the low water
mark nearly to the top of the bluffs. On the east,
or rather north side of the river, at the Falls, are
high grounds, at the distance of half a mile from
the river, considerably more elevated than the
bluffs, and of a hilly aspect.
Speaking of the bluff at the confluence o^ ohe
Mississippi and Minnesota, he writes: "A military
work of considerable magnitude might be con-
structed on the point, and might be rendered
sufficiently secure by occupying the commanding
height in the rear in a suitable manner, as the
HXPL0BER8 AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
latter would, control not only the point, but all
the neighboring heights, to the full extent of a
twelve pounder's range. The work on the point
would be necessary to control the navigation of
the two rivers. But without the commanding
work in the rear, would be liable to be greatly
annoyed from a height situated directly opposite
on the other side of the Mississippi, which is
here no more than about two hundred and fifty
yards wide. This latter height, however, would
not be eligible for a permanent post, on account
of the numerous ridges and ravines situated im-
mediately in its rear."
EARLY HISTOBT OF BED BIVEB VALLEY.
87
CHAPTER XV.
THOMAS DOUGLAS, EABL OF SELiaEK, AND THE BED EFVEK VALLEY.
Early travelers to Lake Winnipeg — Earliest Map liy the Indian Otchaga — Benin's
allusion to it— Verendrye's Map— De la Jemeraye's Map — Fort La Reine— Fort
on Red River abandoned— Origin of name Red Lake— Earl of Selkirk— Ossini-
boia described — Scotcii immigrants at Pembina — Strife of trading companies —
Earl of Selkirk visits America— Governor Seraple Killed— Romantic life of John
Tanner, and his son James— Letter relative to Selkirk's tour through Minne-
sota.
The valley of the Bed River of the North is
not only an important portion of Minnesota, but
has a most interesting history.
While there is no evidence that Groselliers, the
first white man who explored Minnesota, ever
■visited Lake "Winnipeg and the Red River, yet he
met the Assineboines at the head of Lake Supe-
rior and at Lake Nepigon, while on his way by a
northeasterly trail to Hudson's Bay, and learned
something of this region from them.
The first person, of whom we have an account,
who visited the region, was an Englishman, who
came in 1692, by way of York River, to Winni-
peg.
Ochagachs, or Otchaga, an intelligent Indian, in
1728, assured Pierre Gualtier de Varenne, known
in history as the Sieur Verendrye, while he was
stationed at Lake Nepigon, that there was a
communication, largely by water, west of Lake
Superior, to the Great Sea or Pacific Ocean. The
rude map, drawn by this Indian, was sent to
France , and is still preserved. Upon it is marked
Kamanistigouia, the fort first established bj^ Du
Luth. Pigeon River is called Mantohavagane.
Lac Sasakanaga is marked, and Rainy Lake is
named Tecamemiouen. The river St. Louis, of
Minnesota, is R. fond du L. Superior. The
French geographer, BelUn, in his "Remarks
upon the map of North America," published in
1755, at Paris, alludes to this sketch of Ochagachs,
and says it is the earliest drawing of the region
west of Lake Superior, in the Depot de la Marine.
After this Verendrye, in 1737, drew a map,
which remains unpubUshed, which shows Red
Lake in Northern Minnesota, and the point of
the Big Woods in the Red River Valley. There
is another sketch in the archives of France,
drawn by De la Jemeraye. He was a nephew of
Verendrye, and, under his uncle's orders, he was
in 1731, the first to advance from the Grand
Portage of Lake Superior, by way of the Nalao-
uagan or GroseUiers, now Pigeon River, to Rainy
Lake. On this appears Fort Rouge, on the south
bank of the Assineboine at its junction with the
Red River, and on the Assineboine, a post estab-
lished on October 3, 1738, and called Fort La
Reine. Bellin describes the fort on Red River,
but asserts that it was abandoned because of its
vicinity to Fort La Reine, on the north side of
the Assinnebolne, and only about nine miles by
a portage, from Swan Lake. Red Lake and Red
River were so called by the early French explo-
rers, on accoimt of the reddish tint of the waters
after a storm.
Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, a wealthy,
kind-hearted but ■visionary Scotch nobleman, at
the commencement of the present century formed
the design of planting a colony of agriculturists
west of Lake Superior. In the year 1811 he
obtained a grant of land from the Hudson Bay
Company called Ossiniboia, which it seems
strange has been given up by the people of Man-
itoba. In the autumn of 1812 a few Scotchmen
with their families arrived at Pembina, in the
Red River Valley, by way of Hudson Bay, where
they passed the winter. In the winter of 1813-14
they were again at Fort Daer or Pembina. The
colonists of Red River were rendered very un-
happy by the strife of rival trading companies.
In the spring of 1815, McKenzie and Morrison,
traders of the Northwest company, at Sandy
Lake, told the Ojibway chief there, that they
would give him and his band all the goods and
rum at Leech or Sandy Lakes, if they would an-
noy the Red River settlers.
The Earl of Selkirk hearing of the distressed
i condition of his colony, sailed for America, and
88
EXPL0BMR8 AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
in the fall of 1815, arrived at New York City.
Proceeding to Montreal he found a messenger
who had traveled on foot in mid-wiater from the
Bed Kiver by vray of Eed Lake and Fon du Lac,
of Lake Superior. He sent back by this man,
kiad messages to the dispirited settlers, but one
night he was way-laid near Fon du Lac, and
robbed of his canoe and dispatches. An Ojib-
way chief at Sandy Lake, afterwards testified
that a trader named Grant offered him rum and
tobacco, to send persons to intercept a bearer of
dispatches to Eed Eiver, and soon the messenger
was brought in by a negro and some Indians.
Failing to obtain military aid from the
British authorities in Canada, Selkirk made an
engagement with four officers and eighty privates,
of the discharged Meuron regiment, twenty of
the De WattevUle, and a few of the Glengary
Fencibles, which had served in the late war with
the United States, to accompany him to Red
Kiver. They were to receive monthly wages for
navigating the boats to Bed Biver, to have lands
assigned them, and a free passage if they wished
to return.
When he reached Sault St. Marie, he received
the intelUgence that the colony had again been
destroyed, and that Semple, a mild, amiable, but
not altogether judicious man, the chief governor
of the factories and territories of the Hudson
Bay company, residiag at Bed Eiver, had been
killed.
Schoolcraft, in 1832, says he saw at Leech
Lake, Majegabowi, the man who had killed Gov.
Semple, after he feU wounded from his horse.
Before he heard of the death of Semple, the
Earl of Selkirk had made arrangements to visit
Ms colony by way of Fon du Lac, on the St. Louis
Eiver, and Eed Lake of Minnesota, but he now
changed his mind, and proceeded with his force
to Fort William, the chief trading post of the
Northwest Company on Lake Superior ; and ap-
prehending the principal partners, warrants of
commitment were issued, and they were forward-
ed to the Attorney-General of Upper Canada.
While Selkirk was engaged at Fort William,
a party of emigrants in charge of Miles McDon-
nel. Governor, and Captain D'Orsomen, went
forward to reinforce the colony. At Eainy
Lake they obtained the guidance of a man who
had all the characteristics of an Indian, and yet
had a bearing which suggested a different origin.
By his efficiency and temperate habits, he had se-
cured the respect of his employers, and on the Earl
of Selkirk's arrival at Eed Biver, his attention was
called to him, and in his welfare he became
deeply interested. By repeated conversations
with him, memories of a different kind of exist-
ence were aroused, and the light of other days
began to brighten. Though he had forgotten his
father's name, he furnished sufficient data for
Selkirk to proceed with a search for his relatives.
Visiting the United States tn 1817, he pubUshed
a circular in the papers of the Western States,
which led to the identification of the man.
It appeared from his own statement, and
those of his friends, that his name was John
Tanner, the son of a minister of the gospel, who,
aboutthe year 1790, Uved on the Ohio river, near
the Miami. Shortly after his location there, a
band of roving Indians passed near the house,
and found John Tanner, then a little boy, filling
his hat with "wahiuts from under a tree. They
seized him and fled. The party was led by an
Ottawa whose wife had lost a son. To compen-
sate for his death, the mother begged that a boy
of the same age might be captured.
Adopted by the band, Tanner grew up an
Indian in his tastes and habits, and was noted
for bravery. Selkirk was successful in finding
his relatives. After twenty-eight years of separ
ration, John Tanner in 1818, met his brother
Edward near Detroit, and went with him to his
home in Missouri. He soon left his brother, and
went back to the Indians. For a time he was
interpreter for Henry E. Schoolcraft, but became
lazy and ill-natured, and in 1836, skulking behind
some .bushes, he shot and killed Schoolcraft's
brother, and fled to the wilderness, where, in
1847, he died. His son, James, was kindly treat-
ed by the missionaries to the Ojibways of Minne-
sota; but he walked in the footsteps pf his father.
In the year 1851, he attempted to impose upon
the Presbyterian muuster in Saint Paul, and,
when detected, called upon the Baptist minister,
who, beheving him a penitent, cut a hole in the
ice, and received him into the church by immer-
sion. In time,'the Baptistsfound him out, when
he became an Unitarian missionary, and, at last,
it is said, met a death by violence.
Lord Selkirk was in the Eed Biver VaUey
jEARL of SELKIRK VISITS SAINT LOUIS.
80
during the summer of ISlTrand on the eighteenth
of July concluded a treaty with the Crees and
Saulteaux, for a tract of land beginning at the
mouth of the Red Eiver, and extending along
the same as far as the Great Forks (now Grand
Forks) at the mouth of Eed Lake River, and
along the Assinniboine Eiver as far as Musk Rat
Eiver, and extending to the distance of six miles
from Fort Douglas on every side, and likewise
from Fort Daer (Pembina) and also from the
Great Forks, and in other parts extending to the
distance of two miles from the banks of the said
rivers.
Having restored order and confidence, attend-
ed by three or four persons he crossed the plains
to the Minnesota River, and from thence pro-
ceeded to St. Louis. The Indian agent at
Prairie du Chien was not pleased with Selkirk's
trip through Minnesota; and on the sixth of
February, 1818, wrote the Governor of Illinois
under excitement, some groundless suspicions :
•' What do you suppose, sir, has been the re-
sult of the passage through my agency of this
British nobleman? Two entire bands, and part
of a third, all Sioux, have deserted us and joined
Dickson, who has distributed to them large quan-
tities of Indian presents, together with flags,
medals, etc. Knowing this, what must have been
my feelings on hearing that his lordship had met
with a favourable reception at St. Louis. The
newspapers announcing his arrival, and general
Scottish appearance, all tend to discompose me ;
believing as I do, that he is plotting ■ with his
friend Dickson our destruction — sharpening the
savage scalping knife, and colonizing a tract of
country, so«remote as that of the Red River, for
the purpose, no doubt, of monopolizing the fur
and peltry trade of this river, the Missouri and
their waters ; a trade of the first importance to
our )Vestern States and Territories. A courier
who had arrived a few days since, confirms the
belief that Dickson is endeavouring to undo what
I have done, and secure to the British govern-
ment the affections of the Sioux, and subject the
Northwest Company to his lordship. * * *
Dickson, as I have before observed, is situated
near the head of the St. Peter's, to which place
he transports his goods from Selkirk's Red River
establishment, in carts made for the purpose.
The trip is performed in five days, sometimes
less. He is directed to build a fort on the high-
est land between Lac du Traverse and Eed River,
which he supposes will be the established lines.
This fort will be defended by twenty men, mth
two small pieces of artillery."
In the year 1820, at Berne, Switzerland, a cir-
cular was issued, signed, R. May D'Uzistorf,
Captain, in his Britannic Majesty's service, and
agent Plenipotentiary to Lord Selkirk. Like
many documents to induce emigration, it was so
highly colored as to prove a delusion and a
snare. The climate was represented as "mild
and healthy." " Wood either for building or
fuel in the greatest plenty," and the country
supplying "in profusion, whatever can be re-
quired for the convenience, pleasure or comfort
of life." Remarkable statements considering
that every green thing had been devoured the
year before by grasshoppers.
Under the influence of these statements, a num-
ber were induced to embark. In the spring of
1821, about two hundred persons assembled on
the banks of the Rhine to proceed to the region
west of Lake Superior. Having desce'nded the
Rhine to the vicinity of Rotterdam, they went
aboard the sMp "Lord Wellington," and after a
voyage across the Atlantic, and amid the ice-
floes of Hudson's Bay, they reached York Fort.
Here they debarked, and entering batteaux, as-
cended Nelson River for twenty days, when they
came to Lake AVinnipeg, and coasting along the
west shore they reached the Red River of the
North, to feel that they had been deluded, and
to long for a milder clime. If they did not sing
the Switzer's Song of Home, they appreciated its
sentiments, and gradually these immigrants re-
moved to the banks of the Mississippi River.
Some settled in ^Minnesota, and were the first to
raise cattle, and tUl the soil.
90
EXPL0BEB8 AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER Xyi.
rOET SNELITNG DTTEIHG ITS OCCUPANCY BY COMPAISTEES OF THE .FIFTH EEGIMENT tT. S. IKFANTBY.
A. D. 1819, TO A. D. 1827.
Orders for military occupation of Upper Mississippi— Leavenworth and Forsytli
at Prairie da Chien — Birth in Camp — Troops arrive at Mendota — Cantonment
Estaiilished — Wheat carried to Pembina — Notice of Devotion, Prescott, and
Major Taliaferro — Camp Cold Water Established— Col. Snelling takes command
— Impressive Scene — Otlicers in 1820 — Condition of the Fort in 1821 — Saint
Anthony Mill — ^Alexis Bailly taltes cattle to Pembina — Notice of Beltrami —
Arrival of first Steamboat — Ma,ior Long's Expedition to Horthern Boundary-
Beltrami visits the northern sources of the Mississippi — First flour mill — First
Sunday School — Great flood in 1826. African slaves at the Fort — Steamboat
Arrivals — Duels — ^Notice of William Joseph Snelling — Indian fight at the Fort —
Attacic upon Iteel boats — General Gaines* report — Eemoval of Fifth Regiment —
Death of Colonel Snelling.
The rumor that Lord Selkirk was founding a
colony on the borders of the United States, and
that, the British trading companies within the
boundaries of what became the territory of Min-
nesota, convinced the authorities at Washington
of the importance of a military occupation of the
valley of the Upper Mississippi.
By direction of Major General Brown, the fol-
lowing order, on the tenth of Tebruary, 1819, was
issued :
"Major General Macomb, commander of the
Pifth Military department, will without delay,
concentrate at Detroit the Fifth Regiment of In-
fantry, excepting the recruits otherwiso directed
by the general order herewith transmitted. As
soon as the navigation of the lakes will admit, he
will cause the regiment to be transported to Port
Howard; from thence, by the way of the Pox
and Wisconsin Rivers, to Prairie du Chien, and,
after detaching a sufficient number of companies
to garrison Ports Crawford and Armstrong, the
remainder will proceed to the mouth of the River
St. Peter's, where they will establish a post, at
which the headquarters of the regiment will be
located. The regiment, previous to its depar-
tiu:e, will receive the necessary supplies of cloth-
ing, provisions, arms, and ammunition. Imme-
diate application will be made to Brigadier Gen-
eral Jesup, Quartermaster General, for funds
necessary to execute the movements required by
this order."
On the thirteenth of April, this additional order
was issued, at Detroit :
"The season having now arrived when the
lakes may be navigated with safety, a detach-
ment of the Pifth Regiment, to consist of Major
Marston's and Captain Powle's companies, under
the command of Major Muhlenburg, will proceed
to Green Bay. Surgeon's Mate, R. M. Byrne, of
the Fifth Regiment, will accompany the detach-
ment. The Assistant Deputy Quartermaster
General will furnish the necessary transport, and
will send by the same opportunity two hundred
barrels of provisions, which he will draw from the
contractor at this post. The provisions must be
examined and inspected, and properly put up for
transportation. Colonel Leavenworth will, vsdth-
out delay, prepare his regiment to move to the
post on the Mississippi, agreeable to the Divi-
sion order of the tenth of February. The Assist-
ant Deputy Quartermaster General will furnish
the necessary transportation, to be ready by the
first of May next. The Colonel will make requi-
sition for such stores, ammunition, tools and
implements as may be required, and he be able to
take with him on the expedition. Particular in-
structions will be given to the Colonel, explaining
the objects of his expedition."
EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1819.
On Wednesday, the last day of June, Col. Leav-
enworth and troops arrived from Green Bay, at
Prairie du Chien. Scarcely had they reached
this point when Charlotte Seymour, the wife of
Lt. jSTathan Clark, a native of Hartford, Ct.,
gave birth to a daughter, whose first baptismal
name was Charlotte, after her mother, and the
second Ouisconsin, given by the officers in view
of the fact that she was bom at the junction of
that stream with the Mississippi.
In time Charlotte Ouisconsin married a youug
Lieutenant, a native of Princeton, New Jersey,
and a graduate of West Point, and still resides
with her husband. General H. P. Van Cleve, in
COL. LEAVENWORTH ARBIVES AT MENDOTA
01
the city of Minrz-sapolis, living to do good as she
has opportunity.
In June, under instructions from the "War
Department, Major Thomas Forsytli, connected
with the oflBce of Indian affairs, left St. Louis
with two thousand dollars worth of goods to be
distributed among the Sioux Indians, in accor-
dance with the agreement of 1805, already re-
ferred to, by the late General Pike.
About nine o'clock of the morning of the fifth
of July, he joined Leavenworth and his command
at Prairie du Chien. Some time was occupied by
Leavenworth awaiting the arrival of ordnance,
provisions and recruits, but on Sunday morning,
the eighth of August, about eight o'clock, the
expedition set out for the point now known as
Mendota. The flotilla was quite imposing; there
were the Colonel's barge, fourteen batteaux with
ninety-eight soldiers and ofBcers, two large canal
or Mackinaw boats, filled with various stores, and
Porsyth'D keel boat, containing goods and pres-
ents fov the Indians. On the twenty-third of
Augus*', Forsyth reached the mouth of the Min-
nesota with his boat, and the next morning Col.
Leave'aworth arrived, and selecting a place at
Mendota, near the present railroad bridge, he
ordered the soldiers to cut down trees and make
a clearing. On the next Saturday Col. Leaven-
worth, Major Vose, Surgeon Purcell, Lieutenant
Clark and the wife of Captain Gooding ivited
the PaUs of Saint Anthony with Porsyth, in
his keel boat.
Early in September two more boats and a bat-
teaux, with officers and one hundred ajid twenty
recruits, arrived.
During the winter of 1820, Laidlow and others,
in behalf of Lord Selkirk's Scotch settlers at
Pembina, whose crops had been destroyed by
grasshoppers, passed the Cantonment, on their
way to Prairie du Chien, to purchase wheat.
Upon the fifteenth of AprU they began their
return vsdth their Mackinaw boats, each loaded
with two himdred bushels of wheat, one hundred
of oats, and thirty of peas, and reached the mouth
of the Minnesota early in May. Ascending this
stream to Big Stone Lake, the boats were drawn
on rollers a mile and a half to Lake Traverse,
and on the third pf June arrived at Pembina and
cheered the desponding and needy settlers of the
Selkirk colony.
The first sutler of the post was a Mr. Devotion.
He brought with him a young man named Phi-
lander Prescott, who was bom in ISOl, at Phelps-
town, Ontario county, Xew York. At first they
stopped at Mud Hen Island, in the Mississippi
below the mouth of the St. Croix River. Coming
up late in the year 1819, at the site of the pres-
ent town of Hastings they found a keel-boat
loaded with supplies for the cantonment, in charge
of Lieut. OUver, detained by the ice.
Amid all the changes of the troops, Mr. Pres-
cott remained nearly all his life in the vicinity of
the post, to which he came when a mere lad, and
was at length killed in the Sioux Massacre.
EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1820
In the spruig of 1820, Jean Baptiste Faribault
brought up Leavenworth's horses from Prairie
du Chien.
The first Indian Agent at the post was a former
army officer, Lawrence Taliaferro, pronounced
Toliver. As he had the confidence of the Gov-
ernment for twenty-one successive years, he is
deserving of notice.
His family was of Italian origin, and among
the early settlers of Virginia. He was born in
1794, in King William county in that State, and
when, in 1812, war was declared against Great
Britain, with four brothers, he entered the army,
and was commissioned as Lieutenant of the
Thirty-flfth Infantry. He behaved gallantly at
Fort Erie and Sackett's Harbor, and after peace
was declared, he was retained as a First Lieuten-
ant of the Third Infantry. In 1816 he was sta-
tioned at Fort Dearborn, now the site of Chicago.
"WhUe on a furlough, he called one day upon
President Monroe, who told him that a fort would
be built near the Palls of Saint Anthony, and an
Indian Agency established, to which he offered
to appoint him. His commission was dated
March 27th, 1819, and he proceeded in due time
to his post.
On the fifth day of May, 1820, Leavenworth
left his winter quarters at Mendota, crossed the
stream and made a summer camp near the
present military grave yard, which in consequence
of a fine spring has been called " Camp Cold
Water." The Indian agency, under Taliaferro,
remained for a time at the old cantonment.
The commanding officer estabhshed a fine
92
EXPLOBEBS AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
garden in the bottom lands of the Mmnesota,
and on the fifteenth of June the earliest garden
peas were eaten. The first distuiguished visitors
at the new encampment were Governor Lewis
Cass, of Michigan, and Henry Schoolcraft, who
arrived in July, by way of Lake Superior and
Sandy Lake.
The relations between Col. Leavenworth and
Indian Agent Taliaferro were not entirely har-
monious, growing out of a disagreement of views
relative to the treatment of the Indians, and on
the day of the arrival of Governor Cass, Tel-
iaf erro writes to Leavenworth :
" As it is now understood that I am agent for
Indian affairs in this country, and you are about
to leave the upper Mississippi, in all probability
in the course of a month or two, I beg leave to
suggest, for the sake of a general understanding
with the Indian tribes in this country, that any
medals, you may possess, would by being turned
over to me, cease to be a topic of remark among
the different Indian tribes under my direction.
I will pass to you any voucher that may be re-
quired, and I beg leave to observe that any pro- ,
gress in influence is much impeded in conse-
quence of this frequent intercourse with the gar-
rison."
In a few days, the disastrous effect of Indians
mingligg with the soldiers was exhibited. On
the third of August, the agent wrote to Leaven-
worth:
" His Excellency Governor Cass during his
visit to this post remarked to me that the Indians
jn this quarter were spoiled, and at the same
time said they should not be permitted to enter
the camp. An unpleasant affair has lately taken
place ; I mean the stabbing of the old chief
Mahgossau by his comrade. This was caused,
doubtless, by an anxiety to obtata the chief's
whiskey. I beg, therefore, that no whiskey
whatever be given to any Indians, unless it be
through their proper agent. While an overplus
of whiskey thwarts the beniflcent and humane
policy of the government, it entails misery upon
the Indians, and endangers their lives."
A few days after this note was v/ritten Josiah
SneUing, who had been recently promoted to the
Colonelcy of the Fifth Eegiment, arrived with
his family, relieved Leavenworth, and infused
new life and energy. A little wMle before his
arrival, the daughter of Captain Gooding was
married to Lieutenant Green, the Adjutant of
the regiment, the first marriage of white persons
in Minnesota. Mrs. Snelling, a few days after
her arrival, gave birth to a daughter, the first
white child bom in Minnesota, and after a brief
existence of thirteen months, she died and was
the first interred in the_ military grave yard, and
for years the stone which marked its resting
place, was visible.
The earliest manuscript in Minnesota, written
at the Cantonment, is dated October 4, 1820, and
is in the handwriting of Colonel Snelling. It
reads : " In justice to Lawrence Taliaferro, Esq.,
Indian Agent at this post, we, the undersigned,
officers of the Fifth Eegiment here stationed,
have presented him this paper, as a token, not
only of our individual respect and esteem, but as
an entire approval of his conduct and deportment
as a public agent in this quarter. Given at St.
Peter, this 4th day of October, 1820.
J. Snelling, H. Clakk,
Col. 5th Inf. Lieutenant.
S. Bttbbank, Jos. Haeb,
Br. Major. Lieutenant.
David Pbeet, Ed. Puecbll,
Captain. Surgeon,
D. Gooding, P. E. Geeen,
Brevet Captain. Lieut, and Adjt.
J. Plympton, W. G. Camp,
Lieutenant. Lt. and Q. M.
E. A. McCabe, H. Wilkins,
Lieutenant. Lieutenant."
During the summer of 1820, a party of the
Sisseton Sioux killed on the Missouri, Isadore
Poupon, a half-breed, and Joseph Andrews, a
Canadian engaged in the fur trade. The Indian
Agent, through Colin Campbell, as interpreter,
notified the Sissetons that trade would cease
with them, until the murderers were delivered.
At a council held at Big Stone Lake, one of the
murderers, and the aged father of another, agreed
to surrender themselves to the commanding
ofllcer.
On the twelfth of November, accompamed by
their friends, they approached the encampment
in solemn- procession, and marched to the centre
of the parade. First appeared a Sisseton bear-
ing a British flag ; then the murderer and the de-
voted father of another, their arms pinioned, and
ABBIVAl, OF THE FIBST STEAMBOAT.
93
large wooden splinters thrust through the flesh
above the elbows indicating their contempt for
pain and death ; in the rear followed friends and
relatives, with them chanting the death dirge.
Having arrived in front of the guard, fire was
kindled, and the British flag burned ; then the
murderer delivered up his medal, and both prison-
ers were surrounded. Col. Snelling detained tl;e
old chief, while the murderer was sent to St.
Louis for trial.
EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1821.
Col. Snelling built the fort in the shape of a
lozenge, in view of the projection between the
two rivers. The first row of barracks was of
hewn logs, obtained from the pine forests of Eum
River, but the other buildings were of stone.
Mrs. Van Cleve, the daughter of Lieutenant,
afterwards Captain Clark, writes :
" In 1821 the fort, although not complete, was
fit for occupancy. My father had assigned to
him the quarters next beyond the steps leading
to the Commissary's stores, and during the year
my little sister Juliet was born there. At a later
period my father and Major Garland obtained
permission to build more commodious quarters
outside the walls, and the result was the two
stone houses afterwards occupied by the Indian
Agent and interpreter, lately destroyed."
Early in August, a yoimg and intelligent mixed
blood, Alexis Bailly, in after years a member of
the legislature of Minnesota, left the cantonment
with the first drove of cattle for the Selkirk Set-
tlement, and the next winter returned with Col.
Robert Dickson and Messrs. Laidlow and Mac-
kenzie.
The next month, a party of Sissetons visited
the Indian Agent, and told him that they had
started with another of the murderers, to which
reference has been made, but that on the way he
had, through fear of being hung, killed himself.
This fall, a mill was constructed for the use of
the garrison, on the west side of St. Anthony
PallSjUnder the supervision of LieutenantMcCabe.
During the fall, George Gooding, Captain by
brevet, resigned, and became Sutler at Prairie du
Chien. He was a native of Massachusetts, and
entered the army as ensign in 1808. In 1810 he
became a Second Lieutenant, and the next year
was wounded at Tippecanoe.
In the middle of October, there embarked on
the keel-boat " Saucy Jack," for Prairie du Chien,
Col. Snelling, Lieut. Baxley, Major Taliaferro,
and Mrs. Gooding,
EVENTS OF 1822 AND 1823.
Early in January, 1822, there came to the Fort
from the Red River of the North, Col. Robert
Dickson, Laidlow, a Scotch farmer, the superin-
tendent of Lord Selkirk's experimental farm, and
one Mackenzie, on their way to Prairie du Chien.
Dickson returned with a drove of cattle, but
owing to the hostility of the Sioux his cattle were
scattered, and never reached Pembina.
During the winter of 1823, Agent TaliafeiTO
was in Washington. While returning in March,
he was at a hotel in Pittsburg, when he received
a note signed G. C. Beltrami, who was an Italian
exile, asking permission to accompany him to the
Indian territory. He was tall and commanding
in appearance, and gentlemanly in bearing, and
Taliaferro was so forcibly impressed as to accedo
to the request. After reaching St. Louis they
embarked on the first steamboat for the Upper
Mississippi.
It was named the Virginia, and was built in
Pittsburg, twenty-two feet in width, and one
hundred and eighteen feet in length, in charge of
a Captain Crawford. It reached the Fort on the
tenth of May, and was saluted by the discharge
of cannon. Among the passengers, besides the
iVgent and the Italian, were Major Biddle, Lieut.
Russell, and others.
The arrival of the Virginia is an era in the
history of the Dahkotah nation, and will proba-
bly be transmitted to their posterity as long as
they exist as a people. They say their sacred
men, the night before, dreamed of seeing some
monster of the waters, which frightened them
very much.
As the boat neared the shore, men, women,
and children beheld with silent astonishment,
supposing that it was some enormous water-spirit,
coughing, puffing out hot breath, and splashing
water in every direction. When it touched the
landing their fears prevailed, and they retreated
some distance; but when the blowing off of
steam commenced they were completely un-
nerved : mothers forgetting their children, with
streaming hair, sought hiding-places ; chiefs, re-
94
BXPL0BEE8 AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
nouncing their stoicism, scampered away like
afErigMed animals.
The peace agreement beteen the Ojibways and
Dahkotahs, made through the influence of Gov-
ernor Cass, was of brief duration, the latter be-
ing the first to violate the provisions.
On the fourth of June, Taliaferro, the Indian
agent among the Dahkotahs, took advantage of
the presence of a large number of Ojibways to
renew the agreement for the cessation of hostili-
ties. Tlie council hall of the agent was a large
room of logs, in which waved conspicuously the
flag of the United States, surrounded by British
colors and medals that had been delivered up
from time to time by Indian chiefs.
Among the Dahkotah chiefs present were
Wapashaw, Little Crow, and Penneshaw ; of the
Ojibways there were Kendouswa, Moshomene,
and Pasheskonoepe. After mutual accusations
and excuses concerning the infraction of the pre-
vious treaty, the Dahkotahs lighted the calumet,
they having been the first to infringe upon the
agreement of 1820. After smoking and passing
the pipe of peace to the Ojibways, who passed
through the same formalities, they all shook
hands as a pledge of renewed amity.
The morning after the council, Plat Mouth,
the distinguished Ojibway chief, arrived, who
had left his lodge vowing that he would never be
at peace with the Dahkotahs. As he stepped from
his canoe, Penneshaw held out his hand, but was
repulsed with scorn. The Dahkotah warrior
immediately gave the alarm, and in a moment
runners were on their way to the neighbormg
villages to raise a war party.
On the sixth of June, the Dahkotahs had assem-
bled, stripped for a fight, and surrounded the
Ojibways. The latter, fearing the worst, con-
cealed their women and children behind the old
barracks which had been used by the troops while
the fort was being erected. At the solicitation of
the agent and commander of the fort, the Dahko-
tahs desisted from an attack and retired.
On the seventh, the Ojibways left for their
homes ; but, in a few hours, while they were
making a portage at Palls of St. Anthony, they
were again approached by the Dahkotahs, who
would have attacked them, if a detachment of
troops had not arrived from the fort.
A rumor reaching Penneshaw 's village that he
had been killed at the falls, his mother seized an
Ojibway maiden, who had been a captive froiB
infancy, and, with a tomahawk, cut her in two.
Upon tlie return of the son in safety he was much
gratified at what he considered the prowess of
his parent.
On the third of July, 1823, Major Lon'g, of the
engineers, arrived at the fort in command of an
expedition to explore the Minnesota River, and
the region along the northern boundary line of
the United States. Beltrami, at the request of
Col. Snelling, was permitted to be of the party,
and Major Taliaferro kindly gave him a horse
and equipments.
The relations of the Italian to Major Long were
not pleasant, and at Pembina Beltrami left the
expedition, and with a " bois brule ", and two
Ojibways proceeded and discovered the northern
sources of the Mississippi, and suggested where
the western sources would be found ; which was
verified by Schoolcraft nine years later. About
the second week in September Beltr.ami returned
to the fort by way of the Mississippi, escorted by
forty or fifty Ojibways, and on the 25th departed
for New Orleans, where he published his discov-
eries in the French language.
The mill which was constructed in 1821, for
sawing lumber, at the Falls of St. Anthony, stood
upon the site of the Holmes and Sidle Mill, in
Minneapolis, and in 1823 was fitted up for grind-
ing flour. Tlie following extracts from corres-
pondence addressed to Lieut. Clark, Commissary
at Fort Snelling, will be read with interest.
Under the date of August 5th, 1823, General
Gibson writes : " Prom a letter addressed by
Col. Snelling to tlie Quartermaster General,
dated the 2d of April, I learn that a large quan-
tity of wheat would be raised this summer. The
assistant Commissary of Subsistence at St. Louis
has been instructed to forward sickles and a pair
of millstones to St. Peters. If any flour is manu-
factured from the wheat raised, be pleased to let
me know as early as practicable, that I may deduct
the quantity manufactured at the post from the
quantity advertised to be contracted for."
In another letter. General Gibson writes :
" Below you vnll find the amount charged on the
books against the garrison at Ft. St. Anthony,
for certain articles, and forwarded for the use of
the troops at that post, which you wiU deduct
FIB8T FLOUR MILL IN MINNESOTA.
95
from the payments to be made for flour raised
and turned over to you for issue :
One pair buhr millstones $250 11
337 pounds plaster of Paris. ' 20 22
Two dozen sickles 18 00
Total $288 83
Upon the 19tli of January, 1824, the General
writes: " The mode suggested by Col. Snelling,
of fixing the price to be paid to the troops for the
flour furnished by them is deemed equitable and
just. You wUl accordingly pay for the flour
$3.33 per barrel."
Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve, now the oldest
person living who was connected with the can-
tonment in 1819, in a paper read before the De-
partment of American History of the Minnesota
Historical Society in January, 1880, wrote :
" In 1823, Mrs. Snelling and my mother estab-
lished the first Sunday School in the Northwest.
It was held in the basement of the commanding
officer's quarters, and was productive of much
good. Many of the soldiers, with their families,
attended. Joe. Brown, since so well know in
this country, then a drummer boy, was one of
the pupils. A Bible class, for the officers and
their wives, was formed, and all became so inter-
ested in the history of the patriarchs, that it fur-
nished topics of conversation for the week. One
day after the Sunday School lesson on the death of
Moses, a member of the class meeting my mother
on the parade, after exchanging the usual greet-
ings, said, in saddened tones, ' But don't you feel
sorry that Moses is dead ? '
Early in the spring of 1824, the Tully boys
were rescued from the Sioux and brought to the
fort. They were children of one of the settlers
of Lord Selkirk's colony, and with their parents
and others, were on their way from Bed River
Valley to settle near Fort SneUing.
The party was attacked by Indians, and the
parents of these children murdered, and the boys
captured. Through the influence of Col. Snell-
ing the children were ransomed and brought
to the fort. Col. Snelling took ^lohn and
my father Andrew, the younger of the two.
Everyone became interested in the orphans, and
we loved Andrew as if he had been our own lit-
tle brother. John died some two years after his
arrival at the fort, and Mrs. Snelling asked me
when I last saw her if a tomb stone had been
placed at his grave, she as requested, during a
visit to the old home some years ago. She said
she received a promise that it should be done,
and seemed quite disappointed when I told her it
had not been attended to."
Andrew Tully, after being educated at an
Orphan Asylum in New York City, became a
carriage maker, and died a few years ago in that
vicinity.
EVENTS OF THE YEAR A. D. 1824.
In the year 1824 the Fort was visited by Gen.
Scott, on a tour of inspection, and at his sug-
gestion, its name was changed from Fort St.
Anthony to Fort Snelling. The following is an
extract f roni his report to the War Department :
" This work, of which the War Department is
in possession of a plan, reflects the highest credit
on Col. Snelling, his officers and men. The de-
fenses, and for the most part, the public store-
houses, shops and quarters being constructed of
stone, the whole is likely to endure as long as the
post shall remain a frontier one. The cost of
erection to the government has been the amount
paid for tools and iron, and the per diem paid
to soldiers employed as mechanics. I wish to
suggest to the General in Chief, and through him
to the War Department, the propriety of calling
this work Fort Snelling, as a just compliment
to the meritorious officer under whom it has
been erected. The present name, (Fort St. An-
thony), is foreign to all our associations, and is,
besides, geographically incorrect, as the work
stands at the junction of the Mississippi and
St. Peter's [Minnesota] Elvers, eight miles be-
low the great falls of the Mississippi, called
after St. Anthony."
In 1824, Major Taliaferro proceeded to Wash-
ington with a delegation of Gliippeways and Dah-
kotahs, headed by Little Crow, the gi-and father
of the chief of the same name, who was engaged
in the late horrible massacre of defenceless
women and children. The object of the visit, was
to secure a convocation of all the tribes of the
Upper Mississippi, at Prairie du Cheui, to define
their boundary lines and establish friendly rela-
tions. When they reached Prairie du Chein,
Wahnatah, a Yankton chief, and also Wapashaw,
by the whisperings of mean traders, became dis-
96
EXPL0BEE8 AND PI0NEEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
affected, and wished to turn back. Little Crow,
perceiving this, stopped all hesitancy by the fol-
lowing speech: "My friends, you can do as you
please. I am no coward, nor can my ears be
pulled about by evil counsels. We are here and
should go on, and do some good for our nation.
I have taken our Father here (Taliaferro) by the
coat tail, and will follow him until I take by the
hand, our great American Father."
While on board of a steamer on the Ohio
Eiver, Marcpee or the Cloud, in consequence of a
bad dream, jumped from the stern of the boat,
and was supposed to be drowned, but he swam
ashore and made his way to St. Charles, Mo.,
there to be murdered by some Sacs. The re-
mainder safely arrived in Washington and ac-
complished the object of the visit. •The Dahko-
tahs returned by way of New York, and while
there were anxious to pay a visit to certain par-
ties with Wm. Dickson, a half-breed son of Col
Kobert Dickson, the trader, who in the war of
1812-15 led the Indians of the Northwest against
the United States.
After this visit Little Crow carried a new
double-barreled gun, and said that a medicine
man by the name of Peters gave it to him for
signing a certain paper, and that he also prom-
ised he would send a keel-boat full of goods to
them. The medicine man referred to was the
Bev. Samuel Peters, an Episcopal clergyman,
who had made himself obnoxious during the
Eevolution by his tory sentiments, and was sub-
sequently nominated as Bishop of Vermont.
Peters asserted that in 1806 he had purchased
of the heirs of Jonathan Carver the right to a
tract of land on the upper Mississippi, embracing
St. Paul, alleged to have been given to Carver by
the Dahkotahs, in 1767.
The next year there arrived, in one of the keel-
boats from Prairie du Chien, at Port Snelling a
box marked Col. Eobert Dickson. On opening, it
was found to contain a few presents from Peters
to Dickson's Indian wife, a long letter, and a
copy of Carver's alleged grant, written on parch-
ment.
EVENTS OF THE TEARS 1825 AND 1826.
On the 30th of October, 1825, seven Indian
women in canoes, were drawn into the rapids
above the Palls of St. Anthony. All were saved
but a lame girl, who was dashed over the cata-
ract, and a month later her body was found at
Pike's Island in front of the fort.
Forty years ago, the means of communication
between Fort Snelling and the civilized world
were very limited. The mail in winter was usu-
ally carried by soldiers to Prairie du Chien. On
the 26th of January, 1826, there was great joy in
the fort, caused by the return from furlough of
Lieutenants Baxley and Eussell, who brought
with them the first mail received for five months.
About this period there was also another excite-
ment, cause by the seizure of liquors in the trad"
ing house of Alexis Bailey, at New Hope, now
Mendota.
During the months of February and March, in
this year, snow fell to the- depth of two or three
feet, and there was great suffering among the
Indians. On one occasion, thirty lodges of Sisse-
ton and other Sioux were overtaken by a snow
storm on a large prairie. The storm continued
for three days, and provisions grew scarce, for
the party were seventy in number. At last, the
stronger men, with the few pairs of snow-shoes
in their possession, started for a trading post one
hundred miles distant. They reached their des-
tination half alive, and the traders sympathizing
sent four Canadians with supplies for those left
behind. After great toil they reached the scene
of distress, and found many dead, and, what was
more horrible, the living feeding on the corpses
of their relatives. A mother had eaten her dead
child and a portion of her own father's arms.
The shock to her nervous system was so great
that she lost her reason. Her name was Pash-
uno-ta, and she was both young and good look-
ing. One day in September, while at Fort Snell-
ing, she asked Captain Jouett if he knew which
was the best portion of a man to eat, at the. same
time taking him by the collar of his coat. He
replied with great astonishment, "No !" and she
then said, "The arms." She then asked for a
piece of his servant to eat, as she was nice and
fat. A few days after this she dashed herself
from the bluffs near Fort Snelling, into the river.
Her body was found just above the mouth of the
Minnesota, and decently interred by the agent.
The spring of 1826 was very backward. On
the 20th of March snow fell to the depth of one
or one and a half feet on a level, and drifted in
NEOBO SLAVES AT FOBT 8NELLINQ.
97
heaps from six to fifteen feet in height. On the
6th of April, early in the day, there was a violent
storm, and the ice was still thick in the river.
During the storm flashes of lightning were seen
and thunder heard. On the 10th, the thermome-
ter was four degrees above zero. On the 14th
there was raiu, and on the next day the St. Peter
river broke up, but the ice on the Mississippi re-
mained firm. On the 21st, at noon, the ice began
to move, and carried away Mr. Faribault's houses
on the east side of the river. For several days
the river was twenty feet above low water mark,
and all the houses on low lands were swept off.
On the second of May, the steamboat Lawrence,
Captain Eeeder, arrived.
Major Taliaferro had inherited several slaves,
which he used to hire -to oflBcers of the garrison.
On the 31st of March, his negro boy, "William,
was employed by Col. Snelling, the latter agree-
ing to clothe him. About this time, William at-
tempted to shoot a hawk, but instead shot a small
boy, named Henry CuUum, and nearly killed him.
In May, Captain Plympton, of the Fifth Infantry,
wished to purchase his negro woman, Eliza, but
he refused, as it was his intention, ultimately, to
free his slaves. Another of his negro girls, Har-
riet, was married at the fort, the Major perform-
ing the ceremony, to the now historic Dred Scott,
who was then a slave of Surgeon Emerson. The
only person that ever purchased a slave, to retain
in slavery, was Alexis Bailly, who bought a man
of Major Garland. The Sioux, at first, had no
prejudices' against negroes. They called them
" Black Frenchmen," and placing their hands on
their woolly heads would laugh heartily.
The foUovnng is a list of the steamboats that
had arrived at Fort Snelling, up to jMay 26, 1826 :
1 Virgmia, May 10, 1823 ; 2 Neville ; 3 Put-
nam, April 2, 1825 ; 3 Mandan ; 5 Indiana ; 6 Law-
rence, May 2, 1826 ; 7 Sciota ; 8 Eclipse ; 9 Jo-
sephine; 10 Fulton; 11 Bed Bover; 12 Black
Eover ; 13 Warrior ; 14 Enterprise ; 15 ^^olant.
Life within the walls qf a fort is sometimes the
exact contrast of a paradise. In the year 1826 a
Pandora box was opened, among the officers, and
dissensions began to prevail. One young officer,
a graduate of West Point, whose father had been
a professor in Princeton College, fought a duel
with, and slightly wounded, William Joseph, the
talented son of Colonel SneUing, who was then
7
twenty-two years of age, and had been three years
at West Point. At a Court Martial convened to
try the officer for violating the Articles of War,
the accused objected to the testimony of Lieut.
William Alexander, a Tennesseean, not a gradu-
ate of the Military Academy, on the ground that
he was an infidel. Alexander, hurt by this allu-
sion, challenged the objector, and another duel
was fought, resulting only in slight injuries to
the clothing of the combatants. Inspector Gen-
eral E. P. Gaines, after this, visited the fort, and
in his report of the inspection he wrote : "A
defect in the discipline of this regiment has ap-
peared in the character of certain personal con-
troversies, between the Colonel and several of his
yoxmg officers, the particulars of which I forbear
to enter into, assured as I am that they will be
developed in the proceedings of a general court
martial ordered for the trial of Lieutenant Hun-
ter and other officers at Jefferson Barracks.
" From a conversation with the Colonel I can
have no doubt that he has erred in the course
pursued by him in reference to some of the con-
troversies, inasmuch as he has intimated to his
officers his willingness to sanction in certain cases,
and even to participate in personal conflicts, con-
trary to the twenty-fifth. Article of War."
The Colonel's son, WiUiam Joseph, after this
passed several years among traders and Indians,
and became distinguished as a poet and brilliant
author.
His "Tales of the Northwest," published in
Boston in 1820, by Hilliard, Gray, Little & WH-
kins, is a work of great literary ability, and CatUn
thought the book was the most faithful picture of
Indian life he had read. Some of his poems were
also of a high order. One of his pieces, deficient
in dignity, was a caustic satire upon modem
American poets, and was published under the
title of " Truth, a Gift for Scribblers."
Nathaniel P. WilUs, who had winced under
the last, wrote the following lampoon :
" Oh, smelling Joseph I Thou art like a cur.
I'm told thovi once did live by himting fur :
Of bigger dogs thou smellest, and, in sooth.
Of one extreme, perhaps, can tell the truth.
'Tis a wise shift, and shows thou know'st thy
powers.
To leave the ' North West tales,' and take to
smelling oiirs."
EXPLOHEBS AND PIOWEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
In 1832 a second edition of " Truth " appeared
witli additions and emendations. In this ap-
peared the following pasquinade upon "Willis :
"I live by hunting fur, thou say'st, so let it he,
But tell me, Natty ! Had I hunted thee,
Had not my time been thrown away, young sir,
And eke my powder ? Puppies have no fur.
Our tails ? Thou ownest thee to a tail,
I've scanned thee o'er and o'er
But, though I guessed the species right,
I was not sure before.
Our savages, authentic travelers say,
To natural fools, religious homage pay,
Hadst thou been bom in wigwam's smoke, and
died ia,
Nat ! thine apotheosis had been certain."
Snelling died at Chelsea, Mass., December six-
teenth, 1848, a victim to the appetite which en-
enslaved Robert Burns.
In the year 1826, a small party of Ojibways
(Chippeways) came to see the Indian Agent,
and three of them ventured to visit the Colum-
bia Pur Company's trading house, two miles
from the Port. While there, they became
aware of their danger, and desired two of the
white men attached to the establishment to
accompany them back, thinking that their pres-
ence might be some protection. They were in
error. As they passed a little copse, three Dah-
kotahs sprang from behind a log with the speed of
light, flred their pieces into the face of the fore-
most, and then fled. The guns must have been
double loaded, for the man's head was literally
blown from his shoulders, and his white com-
panions were spattered with brains and blood.
The survivors gained the Port without further
molestation. Their comrade was buried on the
spot where he fell. A staff was set up on his
grave, which became a landmark, and received
the name of The Murder Pole. The murderers
boasted of their achievement and with impunity.
They and their tribe thought that they had struck
a fair blow on their ancient enemies, in a becom-
ing manner. It was only said, that Toopunkah
Zeze of the village of the Batture aiix Fievres,
and two others, had each acquired a right to
wear skunk skins on their heels and war-eagles'
feathers on their heads.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1827.
On the twenty-eighth of May, 1827, the Ojib-
way chief at Sandy Lake, Kee-wee-zais-hish
called by the English, Plat Mouth with seven
warriors and some women and children, in all
amounting to twenty-four, arrived about sunrise
at Port Snelling. "Walking to the gates of the
garrison, they asked the protection of Colonel
Snelling and Taliaferro, the Indian agent. They
were told, that as long as they remained under
the United States flag, they were secure, and
were ordered to encamp within musket shot of
the high stone walls of the fort.
During the afternoon, a Dahkotah, Toopunkah
Zeze, from a village near the first rapids of the
Minnesota, visited the Ojibway camp. They
were cordially received, and a feast of meat and
com and sugar, was soon made ready. The
wooden plates emptied of their contents, they
engaged in conversation, and whiiled the peace
pipe.
That night, some ofiicers and their friends were
spending a pleasant evening at the head-quarters
of Captain Clark, which was in one of the stone
houses which used to stand outside of the walls
of the fort. As Captain Cruger was walking on
the porch, a bullet whizzed by, and rapid firing
was heard.
As the Dahkotahs, or Sioux, left the Ojibway
camp, notwithstanding their friendly talk, they
tur-ned and discharged their guns with deadly aim
upon their entertainers, and ran off with a shout
of satisfaction. The report was heard by the
sentinel of the fort, and he cried, repeatedly,,
" Corporal of the guard !" and soon at the gates,
were the Ojibways, with their women and the
wounded, telling their tale of woe in wild and in-
coherent language. Two had been killed and six
wounded. Among others, was a little girl about
seven years old, who was pierced through both
thighs with z bullet. Surgeon McMahon made
every effort to save her life, but without avail.
Plat Mouth, the chief, reminded Colonel Snel-
ling that he had been attacked while under the
protection of the United States flag, and early the
next morning. Captain Clark, with one hundred
soldiers, proceeded towards Land's End, a tra-
ding-post of the Columbia Pur Company, on the
Minnesota, a mile above the former residence of
TBAQIC SCENE UNDEB THE WALLS OF THE FORT.
99
Franklin. Steele, where the Dahkotahs were sup-
posed to be. The soldiers had just left the large
gate of the fort, when a party of Dahkotahs, in
battle array, appeared on one of the prairie
hUls. Alter some parleying they turned their
backs, and being pursued, thirty-two were cap-
tured near the trading-post.
Colonel Snelling ordered the prisoners to be
brought before the Ojibways, and two being
pointed out as participants in the slaughter of the
preceding night, they were delivered to the
aggrieved party to deal with in accordance with
their customs. They were led out to the plain
in front of the gate of the fort, and when placed
nearly without the range of the Ojibway guns,
they were told to run for their lives. With the
rapidity of deer they bounded away, but the Ojib-
way bullet flew faster, and after a few steps, they
fell gasping on the ground, and were soonhfeless.
Then the savage nature displayed itself in all its
hideousness. Women and children danced for
joy, and placing their fingers in the bullet holes,
from which the blood oozed, they licked them
with delight. The men tore the scalps from the
dead, and seemed to luxuriate in the privilege of
plunging their knives through the corpses. After
the execution, the Ojibways returned to the fort,
and were met by the Colonel. He had prevented
all over whom his authority extended from wit-
nessing the scene, and had done his best to con-
fine the excitement to the Indians. The same
day a deputation of Dahkotah warriors received
audience, regretting the violence that had been
done by their young men, and agreeing to deliver
up the ringleaders.
At the time appointed, a son of Flat Mouth,
with those of the Ojibwa party that were not
wounded, escorted by United States troops,
inarched forth to meet the Dahkotah deputation,
on the prairie just beyond the old residence of
the Indian agent. With much solemnity two
more of the guilty were handed over to the
assaulted. One was fearless, and with firmness
stripped himself of his clothing and ornaments,
and distributed them. The other could not face
death with composrire. He was noted for a hid-
eous haxe-lip, and had a bad reputation among
his fellows. In the spirit of a coward he prayed
for life, to the mortification of his tribe. The
same opportunity was presented to them as to the
first, of running for their lives. At the first fire
the coward fell a corpse; but his brave compan-
ion, though wounded, ran on, and had nearly
reached the goal of safety, when a second bullet
killed him. The body of the coward now became
a common object of loathing for both Dahkotahs
and Ojibways.
Colonel SnelUng told the Ojibways that the
bodies must be removed, and then they took the
scalped Dahkotahs, and dragging them by the
heels, threw them off the bluff into the river, a
hundred and fifty feet beneath. The dreadful
scene was now over ; and a detachment of troops
was sent with the old chief Flat Mouth, to escort
him out of the reach of Dahkotah vengeance.
An eyewitness wrote : " After tliis catastrophe,
all the Dahkotahs quitted the vicinity of Fort Snel-
ling, and did not return to it for some months.
It was said that they formed a conspiracy to de-
mand a council, and kill the Indian Agent and
the commanding officer. If this was a fact, they
had no opportunity, or wanted the spirit, to exe-
cute their purpose.
" The Flat Mouth's band lingered in the fort
till their wounded comrade died. He was sensi-
ble of his condition, and bore his pains with great
fortitude. When he felt his end approach, he
desired that his horse might be gaily caparisoned,
and brought to the hospital whidow, so that he
might touch the animal. He then took from his
medicine bag a large cake of maple sugar, and held
it forth. It may seem strange, but it is true, that
the beast ate it from his hand. His features
were radiant with delight as he fell back on the
pillow exhausted. His horse had eaten the sugar,
he said, and he was sure of a favorable reception
and comfortable quarters in the other world.
Half an hour after, he breathed his last. We
tried to discover the details of his superstition,
but could not succeed. It is a subject on which
Indians unwillingly discourse."
In the fall of 1826, all the troops at Prairie du
Chien had been removed to Fort Snelling, the
commander taking with him two Winnebagoes
that had been confined in Fort Crawford. After
the soldiers left the Prairie, the Indians in the
vicinity were quite insolent.
In Jime, 1827, two keel-boats passed Prairie du
Chien on the way to Fort Snelling with provis-
ions. When they reached Wapashaw village, on
100
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA..
the site of the present town of Winona, the crew
were ordered to come ashore by the Dahfeotahs.
Complying, they found themselves surrounded by
Indians with hostile intentions. The boatmen
had no fire-arms, but assuming a bold mien and a
defiant voice, the captain of the keel-boats ordered
the savages to leave the decks ; which was suc-
cessful, The boats pushed on, and at Bed Wing
and Kaposia the Indians showed that they were
not friendly, though they did not molest the
boats. Before they started on their return from
Fort SneUing, the men on board, amounting to
thirty-two, were all provided with muskets and a
barrel of ball cartridges.
When the descending keel-boats passed Wapa-
shaw, the Dahkotas were engaged in the war
dance, and menaced them, but made no attack.
Below this point one of the boats moved in ad-
vance of the other, and when near the mouth of
the Bad Axe, the half-breeds on board descried
hostile Indians on the banks. As the channel
nea,red the shore, the sixteen men on the first
boat were greeted with the war whoop and a vol-
ley of rifle balls from the excited Winnebagoes,
killing two of the crew. Bushing into their ca-
noes, the Indians made the attempt to board the
boat, and two were successful. One of these
stationed himself at the bow of the boat, and
fired with kilUng efEect on the men below deck.
An old soldier of the last war with Great Britain,
called Saucy Jack, at last despatched him, and
began to rally the fainting spirits on board. Du-
ring the fight the boat had stuck on a sand-bar.
With four companions, amid a shower of balls
from the savages, he plunged into the water and
piished off the boat, and thus moved out of reach
of the galling shots of the Winnebagoes. As
they floated down the river during the night,
they heard a wail in a canoe behind them, the
voice of a father mourning the death of the son
who had scaled the deck, and was now a corpse
in possession of the white men. The rear boat
passed the Bad Axe river late in the night, and
escaped an attack.
The first keel-boat arrived at Prairie du Chein,
with two of their crew dead, four wounded, and
the Indian that had been killed on the boat. The
two dead men had been residents of the Prairie,
and now the panic was increased. On the morn-
ing of the twenty-eighth of June the second
keel -boat appeared, and among her passengers
was Joseph SneUing, the talented son of the
colonel, who wrote a story of deep interest, based
on the facts narrated.
At a meeting of the citizens it was resolved to
repair old Port Crawford, and Thomas McNair
was appointed captain. Dirt was thrown around
the bottom logs of the fortification to prevent its
being fired, and young Snelling was put in com-
mand of one of the block-houses. On the next
day a voyageur named Loyer, and the well-known
trader Duncan Graham, started through the in-
terior, west of the Mississippi, with intelligence
of the murders, to Port Snelling. IntelUgence
of this attack was received at the fort, on the
evening of the ninth of July, and Col. Snelling
started in keel boats with four companies to Port
Crawford, and on the seventeenth four more
companies left under Major Powle. After an
absence of six weeks, the soldiers, without firing
a gun at the enemy, returned.
A few weeks after the attack upon the keel
boats General Gaines inspected the Port, and,
subsequently in a communication to the War
Department wrote as follows ;
" The main points of defence against an enemy
appear to have been in some respects sacrificed,
in the effort to secure the comfort and conven-
ience of troops in peace. These are important
considerations, but on an exposed frontier the
primary object ought to be security against the
attack of an enemy.
" The buildings are too large, too numerous,
and extending over a space entirely too great,
enclosing a large parade, five times greater than
is at all desireable in that climate. The build-
ings for the most part seem well constructed, of
good stone and other materials, and they contain
every desirable convenience, comfort and securi-
ty as barracks and store houses.
" The work may be rendered very strong and
adapted to a garrison of two hundred men by re-
moving one-half the buildings, and with the ma-
terials of which they are constructed, building a
tower sufficiently high to command the hUl be-
tween the Mississippi and St. Peter's [Minnesota],
and by a block house on the extreme point, or
brow of the cUff, near the commandant's quarters,
to secure most effectually the banks of the river,
and the boats at the landing.
DEATH OF COL. JOSIAH SNELLING.
101
"Much creuit ij due to Colonel Snelling, liis
oflBcers and men, for their immense labors and
excellent workmanship exhibited in the construc-
tion of these barracks and store houses, but this
has been effected too much at the expense of the
discipline of the regiment."
From reports made from 1823 to 1826, the health
of the troops was good. In the year ending Sep-
tember thirty, 1823, there were but two deaths ;
in 1824 only six, and in 1825 but seven.
In 181':$ there were three desertions, in 1824
twenty-two, and in 1825 twenty-nine. Most of
the deserters were fresh recruits and natives of
America, Ten of the deserters were foreigners,
and five of these were bom in Ireland. In 1826
there were eight companies numbering two hun-
dred and fourteen soldiers quartered in the Fort*
During the fall of 1827 the Pifth Eegiment was
relieved by a part of the First, and the next year
Colonel Snelling proceeded to Washington on bus-
iness, where he died with inflammation of the
braiu. Major General Macomb announcing his
death in an order, vtrote :
" Colonel Snelling joined the army in early
youth. In the battle of Tippecanoe, he was
distinguished for gallantry and good conduct.
Subsequently and during the whole late war with
Great Britain, from the battle of Brownstown to
the termination of the contest, he was actively
employed in the field, with credit to himself, and
honor to his country."
102
EXPL0BER8 AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTEE XVII.
OCCTJRRENCES IN THE VICINITY OF FOET SNELLING, CONTINUED.
Arrival of J. N. Nicollet— Marriage of James Wells— Nicollet's letter from Falls-
of St. Anthony— Perils of Martin McLeod— Cliippeway treachery— Sioux Re
yenge— Rum River and Stillwater tattles— Grog shops near the Port.
On the second of July 1836, the steamboat
Saint Peter landed supplies, and among its
passengers was the distinguished French as-
tronomer, Jean !N". McoUet (jSTicolay). Major
Taliaferro on the twelfth of July, wrote;
" Mr. Nicollet, on a visit to the post for scientific
research, and at present in my family, has shown
me the late work of Henry B. Schoolcraft on the
discovery of the source of the Mississippi ; which
claim is ridiculous in the extreme." On the
twenty-seventh, McoUet ascended the Mississippi
on a tour of observation.
James Wells, a trader, who afterwards was a
member of the legislature, at the house of Oliver
Cratte, near the fort, was married on the twelfth
of September, by Agent Taliaferro, to Jane, a
daughter of Duncan Graham. Wells was killed
in 1862, by the Sioux, at the time of the massacre
in the Minnesota Valley.
Nicollet in September returned from his trip
to Leech Lake, and on the twenty-seventh wrote
the following to Major TaUaferro the Indian
Agent at the fort, which is supposed to be the
earUest letter extant written from the site of the
city of Minneapolis. As the principal hotel and
one of the finest avenues of that city bears his
name it is worthy of preservation. He spelled
his name sometimes Nicoley, and the pronuncia-
tion in English, would be Nicolay, the same as
if written Mcollet in Prench. The letter shows
that he had not mastered the English language :
" St. Anthony's Palls, 27th September, 1836,
Dbab Friend : — I arrived last evening about
dark; all well, nothing lost, nothing broken,
happy and a very successful journey. But I
done exhausted, and nothing can relieve me, but
the pleasure of meeting you again under your
hospitable roof, and to see all the friends of the
garrison who have been so kind to me.
" This letter is more particularly to give you
a very extraordinary tide. Flat Mouth, the chief
of Leech Lake and suite, ten in number are with
me. The day before yesterday I met them again
at Swan river where they detained me one day.
I had to bear a new harangue and gave answer.
All terminated by their own resolution that they
ought to give you the hand, as well as to the
Guiuas of the Fort (Colonel Davenport.) I
thought it my duty to acquaint you with it be-
forehand. Peace or war are at stake of the visit
they pay you. Please give them a good welcome
until I have reported to you and Colonel Daven-
port all that has taken place during my stay
among the Pillagers. But be assured I have not
trespassed and that I have behaved as would
have done a good citizen of the U. S. As to
Schoolcraft's statement alluding to you, you will
have full and complete satisfaction from Flat
Mouth himself. In haste, your friend, J. N.
jSTicgley."
events of a. d. 1837.
On the seventeenth of March, 1837, there ar-
rived Martin McLeod, who became a prominent
citizen of Minnesota, and the legislature has
given his name to a county.
He left the Red Kiver country on snow shoes,
with two companions, one a Polander and the
other an Irishman named Hays, and Pierre Bot-
tineau as interpreter. Being lost in a violent
snow storm the Pole and Irishman perished. He
and his guide, Bottineau, lived for a tune on the
flesh of one of their dogs. After being twenty-
six days without seeing any one, the survivors
reached the trading post of Joseph R. Brown, at
Lake Traverse, and from thence they came to
the fort.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1838.
In the month of April, eleven Sioux were slain
in a dastardly manner, by a party of Ojibways,
INDIAN BATTLES AT BUM BIVEB AND STILLWATEB.
103
under the noted and elder Hole-in-the-Day. The
Chippeways feigned the warmest friendship, and
at dark lay down in the tents by the side of the
Sioux, and in the night silently arose and killed
them. The occurrence took place at the Chippe-
way River, about thirty miles from Lac qui Parle,
and the next day the Kev. Gr. H. Pond, the Indian
missionary, accompanied by a Sioux, \.ent out
and buried the mutilated and sealpless bodies.
On the second of August old Hole-in-the-Day,
and some O jib ways, came to the fort. They
stopped first at the cabin of Peter Quinn, whose
wife was a half-breed Chippeway, about a mUe
from the fort.
The missionary, Samuel W. Pond, told the
agent that the Sioux, of Lake Calhoun were
aroused, and on their way to attack the Chippe-
ways. The agent quieted them for a time, but
two of the relatives of those slaiii at Lac qui Parle
in April, hid themselves near Quinn's house, and
as Hole-in-the-Day and his associates were pass-
ing, they fired and killed one Chippeway and
wounded another. Obequette, a Chippeway from
Eed Lake, succeded, however, in shooting a
Sioux while he was in the act of scalping his
comrade. The Chippeways were brought within
the fort as soon as possible, and at nine o'clock
a Sioux was confined in the guard-house as a
Notwithstanding the murdered Chippeway had
been buried in the graveyard of the fort for safety,
an attempt was made on the part of some of the
Sioux, to dig it up. On the evening of the sixth,
Major Plympton sent the Chippeways across the
river to the east side, and ordered them to go
home as soon as possible.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1839.
On the twentieth day of June the elder Hole-
in-the-Day arrived from the Upper Mississippi
with several hundred Chippeways. Upon their
return homeward the Mississippi and Mille Lacs
band encamped the first night at the Palls of Samt
Anthony, and some of the Sioux visited them and
smoked the pipe of peace.
On the second of July, about sunrise, a son-in-
law of the chief of the Sioux band, at Lake Cal-
houn, named Meekaw or Badger, was killed and
scalped by two Chippeways of the Pillager band,
relatives of him who lost his lifp near Patrick
Quinn's the year before. The excitement was
intense among the Sioux, and immediately war
parties started in pursuit. Hole-in-the-Day's
band was not sought, but the Mille Lacs and
Saint Croix Chippeways. The Lake Calhoun
Sioux, vnth those from the villages on the
Minnesota, assembled at the Palis of Saint
Anthony, and on the morning of the fourth
of July, came up with the Mille Lacs
Chippeways on Rum River, before simrise. Not
long after the war whoop was raised and the
Sioux attacked, killing and wounding ninety.
The Kaposia band of Sioux pursued the Saint
Croix Chippeways, and on the third of July found
them in the Penitentiary ravine at Stillwater,
imder the influence of whisky. Aitkin, the old
trader, was with them. The sight of the
Sioux tended to make them sober, but in the fight
twenty-one were killed and twenty-nine were
wounded.
"Whisky, during the year 1839, was freely in-
troduced, in the face of the law prohibiting it.
The first boat of the season, the Ariel, came to
the fort on the fourteenth of April, and brought
twenty barrels of whisky for Joseph R. Brown,
and on the twenty-first of May, the Glaucus
brought six barrels of liquor for David Paribault.
On the thirtieth of June, some soldiers went to
Joseph R. Brown's groggery on the opposite side
of the Mississippi, and that night forty - seven
were in the guard-house for dxmikenness. The
demoralization then existing, led to a letter by
Surgeon Emerson on duty at the fort, to the Sur-
geon General of the United States army, in which
he writes :
" The whisky is brought here by citizens who
are pouring in upon us and settling themselves
on the opposite shore of the Mississippi river,
in defiance of our worthy commanding officer.
Major J. Plympton, whose authority they set
at naught. At this moment there is a
citizen named Brown, once a soldier in
the Fifth Infantry, who was discharged at
this post, while Colonel Snelling commanded,
and who has been since employed by the Ameri-
can Pur Company, actually building on the land
marked out by the land officers as the reserve,
and within gunshot distance of the fort, a very
expensive whisky shop."
104
EXPL0BBB8 AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER XVIII.
nSTDIAN TRIBES IK MINNESOTA AT THE TIME OF ITS ORGANIZATION.
Sioux or Dahkotah people— Meaningof words Sioux and Dalikotali— liarly villages
— Residence of Sioux in 1849— Tlie Winneliagoes— The Ojibways or Cliippeways.
The three Indian nations who dwelt in this
region after the organization of Minnesota, were
the Sioux or Dahkotahs ; the Ojibways or Chip-
peways ; and the Ho-tchun-graws or Wumeba-
goes.
SIOUX OR DAHKOTAHS.
They are an entirely different group from the
Algonquin and Iroquois, who were found by the
early settlers of the Atlantic States, on the banks
of the Connecticut, Mohawk, and Susquehanna
Rivers.
When the Dahkotahs were first noticed by the
European adventurers, large numbers were occu-
pying the Mille Lacs region of country, and appro-
priately called by the voyageur, "People of the
Lake," "Gens du Lac." And tradition asserts that
here was the ancient centre of this tribe. Though
we have traces of their warring and hunting on the
shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory
evidence of their residence, east of the Mille Lacs
region, as they have no name for Lake Superior.
The word Dahkotah, by which they love to be
designated, signifies allied or joined together in
friendly compact, and is equivalent to " E pluri-
bus unum," the motto on the seal of the United
States.
In the history of the mission at La Pointe,
Wisconsin, published nearly two centuries ago, a
a writer, referring to the Dahkotahs, remarks :
"For sixty leagues from the extremity of the
Upper Lake, toward sunset ; and, as it were in
the centre of the western nations, they have all
united their force by a general league.'"
The Dahkotahs in the earliest documents, and
even until the present day, are called Sioux, Scioux,
or Soos. The name originated with the early voy-
ageurs. For centuries the Ojibways of Lake
Superior waged war against the Dahkotahs ; and.
whenever they spoke of them, called them Nado-
waysioux, which signifies enemies.
The French traders, to avoid exciting the atten-
tion of Indians, while conversing in their pres-
ence, were accustomed to designate them by
names, which would not be recognized.
The Dahkotahs were nicknamed Sioux, a word
composed of the two last syllables of the Ojibway
word for foes
Under the influence of the French traders, the
eastern Sioux began to wander from the Mille
Lacs region. A trading post at O-ton-we-kpa-
dan, or Rice Creek, above the Falls of Saint
Anthony, induced some to erect th^ir summer
dwellings and plant corn there, which took the
place of wild rice. Those who dwelt here were
called Wa-kpa-a-ton-we-dan Those who dwell on
the creek. Another division was Imown as the
Ma-tan-ton-wan.
Less than a hundred years ago, it is said that
the eastern Sioux, pressed by the- Chippeways,
and influenced by traders, moved seven miles
above Fort SneUing on the Minnesota River.
MED-DAY-WAH-KAWN-TWAWNS.
In 1849 there were seven villages of Med-day-
wah-kawn-twawn Sioux. (1) Below Lake Pepin,
where the city of Winona is, was the village of
Wapashaw. This band was called Kee-yu-ksa,
because with them blood relations intermarried.
Bounding or Whipping Wind was the chief. (2)
At the head of Lake Pepin, under a lofty bluff,
was the Red Wing village, called Ghay-mni-chan
Hill, wood and water. Shooter was the name
of the chief. (3) Opposite, and a little below the
Pig's Eye Marsh, was the Kaposia band. The
word, Kapoja means light, given because these
people are quick travelers. His Scarlet People,
better known as Little Crow, was the chief, and
is notorious as the leader in the massacre of 1862.
On the Minnesota River, on the south side
NOTICE OF THE HOTCHONGRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES.
105
a few miles above Fort Snelling, was Black Dog
village. The inhabitants were called, Ma-ga-yu-
tay-shnee. People who do not a geese, be-
cause they found it profitable to sell game at Fort.
Snelling. Grey Iron was the chief, also known
as Pa-ma-ya-yaw, My head aches.
At Oak Grove, on the north side of the nver,
eight miles above the fort, was (5) Hay-ya-ta-o-
ton-wan, or Inland Village, so called because
they formerly lived at Lake Calkoun. Contigu-
ous was (6) 0-ya-tay-shee-ka, or Bad People,
Known as Good Beads Band and (7) the largest
village was Tin-ta-ton-wan, Prairie Village;
Shokpay, or Six, was the chief, and is now the
Dite of the town of Shakonee.
West of this division of the Sioux were—
WAR-PAY-KU-TAY.
The "VVar-pay-ku-tay, or leaf shooters, who
occupied the country south of the Minnesota
around the sources of the Cannon and Blue Earth
Elvers.
WAE-PAY-TWAWNS.
North and west of the last were the War-pay-
twawns, or People of the Leaf, and their princi-
pal village was Lac qui Parle. They numbered
about fifteen hundred.
SE-SEB-TWAWNS.
To the west and southwest of these bands of
Sioux were the Se-see-twawns (Sissetoans), or
Swamp Dwellers. This band claimed the land
west of the Blue Earth to the James River, and
the guardianship of the Sacred Red Pipestone
Quarry. Their principal village was at Traverse,
and the number of the band was estimated at
thirty-eight hundred.
HO-TCHUN-GEAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES.
The Ho-tchun-graws, or Winnebagoes, belong
to the Dahkotah family of aborigines. Cham-
plain, although he never visited them, mentions
them. Nicollet, who had been in his employ,
visited Green Bay about the year 1635, and an
early Relation mentions that he saw the Ouini-
pegous, a people called so, because they came
from a distant sea, which some French erron-
eously called Puants. Another writer speak-
ing "of tbese people says: "This people are
called ' Les Puants ' not because of any bad odor
peculiar to them, but because they claim to have
come from the shores of a far distant lake,
towards the north, whose waters are salt. They
call themselves the people ' de I'eau puants,' of
the putrid or bad water."
By the treaty of 1837 they were removed to
Iowa, and by another treaty in October, 1846,
they came to Minnesota in the spring of 1848,
to the country between the Long Prairie,
and Crow "Wing Rivers. The agency was located
on Long Prairie River, forty miles from the
Mississippi, and in 1849 the tribe numbered
about twenty-five hundred souls.
In February 1855, another treaty was made
with them, and that spring they removed to lands
on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic
caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Con
gress, by a special act, without consulting them,
in 1863, removed them from their fields in Min-
nesota to the Missouri River, and in the words
of a missionary, "they* were, like the Sioux,
dumped ia the desert, one hundred miles above
Fort Randall"
OJIBWAY OR CHIPPBWAY NATION.
The Ojibways or Leapers, when the French
came to Lake Superior, had their chief settlement
at Sault St. Marie, and were called by the French
Saulteurs, and by the Sioux, Hah-ha-tonwan,
Dwellers at the Falls or Leaping Waters.
When Du Luth erected his trading post at the
western extremity of Lake Superior, they had not
obtained any foothold in Minnesota, and were
constantly at war with their hereditary enemes,
the Nadouaysioux. By the middle of the
eighteenth century, they had pushed in and occu-
pied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points
between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which
had been dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1820
the principal villages of Ojibways in Minnesota
were at Fond du Lac, Leech Lake and Sandy
Lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands.
Since then, other treaties have been made, until
in the year 1881, they are confined to a few res-
ervations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity.
106
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTEE XIX.
EARLY MISSIONS AMONG THE OJIBWAYS AND DAHKOTAHS OF MINNESOTA.
Jesuit Missions not permanent— Fi-esbyterian Mission at Macltinaw— Visit of Rev.
A. Coe and J D. Stevens to Fort Snelling — Notice of Ayers, Hall, and Boutwell
— Formation of the word Itasca — The Brothers Pond— Arrival of Dr. William-
son— Presbj-terian Chnrch at Fort Snelling — Mission at Lake Harriet — Mourn-
ing for the Dead — Church at Lac-qui parle— Father Ravoux — Mission at Lake
Pokeguuia — Attack hy the Sioux — Chippeway attack at Pig's Eye — Death of
Rev. Sherman Hall— Methodist Missions Rev. S. W. Pond prepares a Sioux
Grammar and Dictionary Swiss Presbyterian Jilission.
Bancroft the distinguislied Mstorian, catching
the enthusiasm of the narratives of the early
Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, their
missions to the Northwest ; yet it is erroneous
to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any perma-
nent influence on the Aborigines.
Shea, a devoted member of the Roman Catho-
lic Church, in his History of American CathoUc
Missions writes : " In 1680 Father Engalran was
apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at
Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le-
Clerq nor Hennepin, the Becollect writers of the
' West at this time, make any mention, or in any
way allude to their existence." He also says
that "Father Menard had projected a Sioux
mission ; Marquette, Allouez, Druilletes, all en-
tertained hopes of reaUzing it, and had some
intercourse with that nation, but none of them
ever succeeded in establishing a mission."
Father Hennepin wrote: " Can it be possible,
that, that pretended prodigious amount of savage
converts could escape ,the sight of a multitude
of French Canadians who travel every year ?
* * * * How comes it to pass that these
churphes so devout and so numerous, should be
invisible, when I passed through so many
countries and nations ¥ "
After the American Fur Company was formed,"
the island of Mackinaw became the residence of
the principal agent for the Xorthwest, Eobert
Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian.
In the month of June, 1820, the Rev. Dr.
Morse, father of the distinguished inventor of
the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackinaw,
and in consequence of statements published by
him, upon his return, a Presbyterian Missionary
Society in the state of New York sent a graduate
of Union College, the Rev. W. M. Ferry, father
of the present United States Senator from Michi-
gan, to explore the field. In 1823 he had estab-
lished a large boarding school composed of
children of various tribes, and here some were
educated who became wives of men of intelli-
gence and influence at the capital of Minnesota.
After a few years, it was detemuned by the
Mission Board to modify its plans, and in the
place of a great central station, to send mission-
aries among the several tribes to teach and to
preach.
In pursuance of this poUcy, the Rev. Alvan
Coe, and J. D. Stevens, then a licentiate who
had been engaged in the Mackinaw Mission,
made a tour of exploration, and arrived on
September 1, 1829, at Fort Snelling. In the
journal of Major Lawrence TaUaferro, which
is in possession of the Minnesota Historical
Society, is the following enixy : " The Rev.
Mr. Coe and Stevens reported to be on their way
to this post, members of the Presbyterian church
looking out for suitable places to make mission-
ary establishment for the Sioux and Chippeways,
found schools, and instruct in the arts and agri-
culture."
The agent, although not at that time a commu-
nicant of the Church, welcomed these visitors,
and afforded them every facility in visiting the
Indians. On Sunday, the 6th of September, the
Rev. Mr. Coe preached twice in the fort, and the
next night held a prayer meeting at the quarters
of the commanding officer. On the next Sunday
he preached again, and on the 14th, with Mr.
Stevens and a hired guide, returned to Mackinaw
by way of the St. Croix river. During this visit
the agent offered for a Presbyterian mission the
mill which then stood on the^ite of Minneapolis,
and had been erected by the government, as well as
FOBMATION OF THE WOBD ITASKA.
107
the farm at Lake Calhoun, which was begun to
teach the Sioux agriculture.
CHIPPEWAT MISSiaKS.
In 1830, Y. Ayer, one of the teachers at Mack-
inaw, made an exploration as far as La Pointe,
and returned.
Upon the 30th day of August, 1831, a Macki-
naw boat about forty feet long arrived at La
Pointe, bringing from Mackinaw the principal
trader, Mr. Warren, Eev. Sherman Hall and wife,
and Mr. Frederick Ayer, a catechist and teacher.
Mrs. Hall attracted great attention, as she was
the first white woman who had visited that
region: Sherman Hall was born on April 30,
1801, at Wethersfleld, Vermont, and ia 1828
graduated at Dartmouth College, and completed
his theological studies at Andover, Massachu-
setts, a few weeks before he journeyed to the
Indian country.
His classmate at Dartmouth and Andover, the
Bev W. T. Boutwell still living near Stillwater,
became his yoke-fellow, but remained for a time
at Mackinaw, which they reached about the mid-
dle of July. In June, 1832, Henry K. School-
craft, the head of an exploring expedition, invited
Mr. Boutwell to accompany him to the sources of
the Mississippi.
When the expedition reached Lac la Biche or
Elk Lake, on July 13, 1832, Mr. Schoolcraft, who
was not a Latin scholar, asked the Latin word for
truth, and was told "Veritas." He then wanted
the word which signified head, and was told
"caput." To the astonishment of many, School-
craft struck off the first sylable, of the word
ver-i-tas and the last sylable of ca-put, and thus
coined the word Itasca, which he gave to the
lake, and which some modem writers, with all
gravity, tell us was the name of a maiden who
once dwelt on its banks. Upon Mr. Boutwell's
return from this expedition he was at first asso-
ciated with Mr. Hall in the mission at La Pointe.
In 1833 the mission band which had centered
at La Pointe diffused their influence. In Octo-
ber Rev. Mr. Boutwell went to Leech Lake, Mr.
Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wiscon-
sin, and Mr. E. P. Ely, now in California, became
a teacher at Aitkin's trading post at Sandy Lake.
SIOUX MISSIONAMES.
Mr. Boutwell, of Leech Lake Station, on the
sixth of May, 1S34, happened to be on a visit to
Port SnelUng. While there a steamboat arrived,
and among the passengers were two young men,
brothers, natives of Washington, Connecticut,
Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond, who had come,
constrained by the love of Christ, and without con-
ferring with flesh and blood, to try to improve
the Sioux.
Samuel, the older brother, the year before, had
talked with a liquor seller in Galena, Illinois, who
had come from the Bed River country, and the
desire was awakened to help the Sioux ; and he
wrote to his brother to go \^1th him.
The Rev. Samuel W. Pond still hves at Shako-
pee, in the old mission house, the first building of
sawed lumber erected in the valley of the ATinn p.-
sota, above Port SnelUng.
MISSIONS AMONG THE SIOUX A. D. 1835.
About this period, a native of South Carolina,
a graduate of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania,
the Re\'. T. S. WilUamson, jM. D., wlio previous
to liis ordination had been a respectable physi-
cian in Ohio, was appointed by the American
Board of Poreign Missions to visit the Dahkotahs
with the view of ascertaming what could be done
to introduce Christian instruction. Having made
inquiries at Prairie du Chien and Port Snelling,
he reported the field was favorable.
The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches,
through their joint Missionary Society, appointed
the following persons to labor in Minnesota :
Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M. D., missionary
and physician; Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary;
Alexander Huggins, farmer ; and their wives ;
Mi^s Sarah Poage, and Lucy Stevens, teachers;
who were prevented during the year 1834, by the
state of navigation, from entering upon their
work.
During the winter of 1834-35, a pious ofiicer
of the army exercised a good influence on his
fello^v officers and soldiers under his command.
In the absence of a chaplain of ordained minis-
ter, he, like General Havelock, of the British
army in India, was accustomed not only to drill
the soldiers, hut to meet them in bis own quar-
ters, and reason with them " of righteousness,
temperance, and judgment to come."
In the month of May, 183-5, Dr. Williamson
and mission band arrived at Fort Snelling, and
108
BXPL0BEB8 AND PI0NEER8 OF MINNESOTA.
were hospitably received by the officers of the
garrison, the Indian Agent, and Mr. Sibley, Agent
of the Company at Mendota, who had been in
the country a few months.
On the twenty-seventh of this month the Rev.
Dr. Williamson united in marriage at the Fort
Lieutenant Edward A. Ogden to Eliza Edna, the
daughter of Captain G. A. Loomis, the first
marriage service in which a clergyman officiated
in the present State of Minnesota.
On the eleventh of June a meeting was held
at the Eort to organize a Presbyterian Church,
sixteen persons who had been communicants,
and six who made a profession of faith, one of
whom was Lieutenant Ogden, were enrolled as
members.
Four elders were elected, among whom were
Capt. Gustavus Loomis and Samuel W. Pond.
The next day a lecture preparatory to administer-
ing the communion, was delivered, and on Sun-
day, the 14th, the first organized church in the
Valley of the Upper Mississippi assembled for
the first time in one of the Company rooms of the
Fort. The services in the morning were conducted
by Dr. "Williamson. The afternoon service com-
menced at 2 o'clock. The sermon of Mr. Stevens
was upon a most appropriate text, 1st Peter, ii:25 ;
" For ye were as sh«ep going astray, but are now
returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your
souls." After the discourse, the sacrament of the
Lord's supper was administered.
At a meeting of the Session on the thirty-first
of July, Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary, was in-
vited to preach to the church, " so long as the
duties of his mission will permit, and also to pre-
side at all the meetings of the Session." Captain
Gustavus Loomis was elected Stated Clerk of the
Session, and they resolved to observe the monthly
concert of prayer on the first Monday of each
month, for the conversion of the world.
Two points were selected by the missionaries
as proper Spheres of labor. Mr. Stevens and
family proceeded to Lake Harriet, and Dr. Wil-
liamson and family, in June, proceeded to Lac
qui Parle.
As there had never been a chaplain at Fort
Snelling, the Rev. J. D. Stevens, the missionary
at Lake Harriet, preached on Sundays to the
Presbyterian church, there, recently organized.
Writing on January twenty-seventh, 1836. he
says, in relation to his field of labor :
" Yesterday a portion of this band of Indians,
who had been some time absent from this village,
returned. One of the number (a woman) was
informed that a brother of hers had died during
her absence. He was not at this village, but
with another band, and. the information had just
reached here. In the evening they set up a most
piteous crying, or r9,ther wailing, which con-
tinued, with some little cessations, during the
night. The sister of the deceased brother would
repeat, times without number, words which may
be thus translated into English : ' Come, my
brother, I shall see you no more for ever.' The
night was extremely cold, the thermometer
standing from ten to twenty below zero. About
sunrise, next morning, preparation was made for
performing the ceremony of cutting their flesh,
in order to give relief to their grief of mind.
The snow was removed from the frozen ground
over about as large a space as would be required
to place a small Indian lodge or wigwam. In the
centre a very small fire was kindled up, not to
give warmth, apparently, but to cause a smoke.
The sister of the deceased, who was the chief
mourner, came out of her lodge followed by
three other women, who repaired to the place
prepared. They were all barefooted, and nearly
naked. Here they set up a most bitter lamenta-
tion and crying, mingling their wailings with the
words before mentioned. The principal mourner
commenced gashing or cutting her ankles and
legs up to the knees with a sharp stone, until her
legs were covered with gore and flowing blood ;
then in like manner her arms, shoulders, and
breast. The others cut themselves in the same
way, but not so severely. On this poor infatuated
woman I presume there were more than a hun-
dred long deep gashes in the flesh. I saw the
operation, and the blood instantly followed the
instrument, and flowed down upon the flesh. She
appeared frantic with grief. Through the pain
of her wounds, the loss of blood, exhaustion of
strength by fasting, loud and long-continued and
bitter groans, or the extreme cold upon her al-
most naked and lacerated body, she soon sunk
upon the frozen ground, shaking as with a violent
fit of the ague, and writhing in apparent agony.
' Surely,' I exclaimed, as I beheld the bloody
A ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY.
109
scene, 'the tender mercies of the heathen are
cruelty 1'
'' The little church at the fort begins to mani-
fest something of a missionary spirit Their con-
tributions are considerable for so small a nmnber.
I hope they will not only be willing to contribute
Uberally of their substance, but will give them-
selves, at least some of them, to the missionary
work.
" The surgeon of the military post, Dr. Jarvis,
has been very assiduous in his attentions to us in
our sickness, and has very generously made a do-
nation to our board of twenty-five dollars, being
the amount of his medical services in our family.
" On the nineteenth instant we commenced a
school with six full Indian children, at least so in
all their habits, dress, etc.; not one could speak a
word of any language but Sioux. The school has
since increased to the number of twenty-five. I
am now collecting and arranging words for a dic-
tionary. Mr. Pond is assiduously employed in
preparing a small spelling-book, which we may
forward next mail for printing.
On the fifteenth of September, 1836, a Presby-
terian church was organized at Lac-qui-Parle, a
branch of that in and near Port Snelling, and
Joseph Renville, a mixed blood of great influ-
ence, became a communicant. He had been
trained in Canada by a Eoman Catholic priest,
but claimed the right of private judgment. Mr.
Renville's wife was the first pure Dahkotah of
whom we have any record that ever joined the
Church of Christ. This church has never become
extinct, although its members have been neces-
sarily nomadic. After the treaty of Traverse des
Sioux, it was removed to Hazlewood. Driven
from thence by the outbreak of 1862, it has be-
came the parent of other churches, in the valley
of the upper Missouri, over one of which John
Renville, a descendant of the elder at Lac-qul-
Parle, is the pastor.
EOMAN CATHOLIC jaSSIOir ATTEMPTED.
Father Eavoux, recently from Prance, a sin-
cere and earnest priest of the Church of Rome,
came to Mendota in the autumn of 1841, and
after a brief sojourn with the Rev. L. Galtier,
who had erected Saint Paul's chapel, which has
given the name of Saint Paul to the capital of
Minnesota, he ascended the Minnesota River
and visited Lac-qui-Parle.
Bishop Loras, of Dubuque, wrote the next year
of his visit as foUows : " Our young missionary,
M. Ravoux, passed the winter on the banks of
Lac-qui-Parle, without any other support than
Providence, without any other means of conver-
sion than a burning zeal, he has wrought in the
space of six months, a happy revolution among
the Sioux. Prom the time of his arrival he has
been occupied night and day in the study of their
language. ***** When he Instructs
the savages, he speaks to them with so much fire
whilst showing them a large copper crucifix which
he carries on his breast, that he makes the strong-
est impression upon them.''
The impression, however was evanescent, and
he soon retired from the field, and no more efforts
were made in this direction by the Church of
Rome. This young Mr. Ravoux is now the highly
respected vicar of the Roman Catholic diocese of
Minnesota, and justly esteemed for his simpUcity
and unobtrusiveness.
CHIPPEWAY jnSSIONS AT POKEGUMA.
Pokegmna is one of the " Mille Lacs," or thou-
sand beautiful lakes for which Minnesota is re-
markable. It is about four or five miles in extent,
and a mile or more in width.
This lake is situated on Snake River, about
twenty miles above the junction of that stream
with the St. Croix.
In the year 1836, missionaries came to reside
among the Ojibways and Pokegmna, to promote
their temporal and spmtual welfare. Their mis-
sion house was built on the east side of the lake ;
but the Indian village was on an island not far
from the shore.
In a letter written in 1837, we find the fol-
lowing: "The young women and girls now
make, mend, wash, and iron after our man-
ner. The men have learned to build log houses,
drive team, plough, hoe, and handle an American
axe with some skill in cutting large trees, the
size of which, two years ago, would have afforded
them a sufficient reason why they should not med-
dle with them."
In May, 1841, Jeremiah Russell, who was In-
dian farmer, sent two Chippeways, aecompanied
by Elam Greeley, of Stillwater, to the Falls of
Saint Croix for supplies. On Saturday, the
fifteenth of the month they arrived there, and
110
MlXPLOnmiS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
the next day a steamboat came up with the
goods. The captain said a war party of Sioux,
headed by Little Crow, was advancing, and the
two Chippeways prepared to go back and were
their friends.
They had hardly left the Palls, on their re-
turn, before they saw a party of Dahkotahs. The
sentinel of the enemy had not noticed the ap-
proach of the young men. In the twirtkling of
an eye, these two young Ojibways raised their
guns, flred, a'nd killed two of Little Crow's sons.
The discharge of the guns revealed to a sentinel,
that an enemy was near, and as the Ojibways
were retreating, he fired, and mortally wounded
one' of the two.
According to custom, the corpses of the chief's
sons were dressed, and then set up with their
faces towards the country of their ancient ene-
mies. The wounded Ojibway was horribly
mangled by the infuriated party, and his limbs
strewn about in every direction. His scalped
head was placed in a kettle, and suspended in
front of the two Dahkotah corpses.
Little Crow, disheartened Ijy the loss of his two
boys, returned with his party to Kaposia. But
other parties were in the field.
It was not till Friday, the twenty-first of May,
that the death of one of the young Ojibways
sent by Mr. Bussell, to the Palls of Saint Croix,
was known at Pokeguma.
Mr. Eusfell on the next Sunday, accompanied
by Captain "William Holcomb and a half-breed,
went to the mission station to attend a reUgious
service, and while crossing the lake in returning,
the half-breed said that it was rumored that the
Sioux were approaching. On Monday, the twen-
ty-fourth, three young men left in a canoe to go
to the west shore of the lake, and from thence to
Mille Lacs, to give intelligence to the Ojibways
there, of the sldrmish that had already occurred.
They ■ took with them two Indian girls, about
twelve years of age, who were pupils of the mis-
sion school, for the purpose of bringing the canoe
back to the island. Just as the three were land-
ing, twenty or thirty Dahkotah warriors, with a
war whoop emerged from their concealment be-
hind the trees, and fired into the canoe. The
young men instantly sprang into the water, which
was shallow, returned the fire, and ran into the
woods, escaping without material injury.
The little girls, in their fright, waded into the
lake; but were pursued. Their parents upon
the island, heard the death cries of their children.
Some of the Indians around the mission-house
jumped -into their canoes and gained the island.
Others went into some fortified log huts. The
attack upon the canoe, it was afterwards learned,
was premature. The party upon that side of the
lake were ordered not to fire, until the party
stationed in the woods near the mission began.
There were in all one himdred and eleven
Dahkotah warriors, and all the fight was in the
vicinity of the mission-house, and the Ojibways
mostly engaged in it were those who had been
under religious instruction. The rest were upon
the island.
The fathers of the murdered girls, burning for
revenge, left the island in a canoe, and drawing
it up on the shore, hid behind it, and fired upon
the Dahkotahs and killed one. The Dahkotahs
advancing upon them, they were obliged to
escape. The canoe was now launched. One lay
on his back in the bottom; the other plunged
into the water, and, holding the canoe with one
hand, and swimming with the other, he towed
his friend out of danger. The Dahkotahs, in-
furiated at their escape, fired volley after volley
at the swimmer, but he escaped the balls by
putting his head under water whenever he saw
them take aim, and waiting till he heard the
discharge, he would then look up and breathe.
After a fight of two hours, the Dahkotahs re-
treated, with a loss of two men. At the request
of the parents, Mr. E. P. Ely, from whose
notes the writer has obtained these facts, be-
ing at that time a teacher at the mission,
went across the lake, with two of his friends, to
gather the remains of his murdered pupils. He
foimd the corpses on the shore. The heads cut
ofE and scalped, with a tomahawk buried in the
brains of each, were set up in the sand near the
bodies. The bodies were pierced in the breast,
and the right arm of one was taken away. Re-
moving the tomahawks, the bodies were brought
back to the island, and in the afternoon were
buried in accordance with the simple but solemn
rites of the Church of Christ, by members of the
mission.
SIOUX MISSIONABIES BEFOBE THE TB.EATlEt>.
Ill
The sequel to tMs story is soon told. The In-
dians of Pokeguma, after the fight, deserted their
village, and went to reside with their countrymen
near Lake Superior.
In July of the following year, 1842, a war party
was formed at Fond du Lac, about forty in num-
ber, and proceeded towards the Dahkotah country.
Sneaking, as none but Indians can, they arrived
imnoticed at the little settlement below Saint
Paul, commonly called "Pig's Eye," which is
opposite to what was Kaposia, or Little Crow's
village. Finding an Indian woman at work in
the garden of her husband, a Canadian, by the
name of GameUe, they killed her ; also another
woman, with her infant, whose head was cut off.
The Dahkotahs, on the opposite side, were mostly
intoxicated ; and, flying across in their canoes but
half prepared, they were worsted in the en-
counter. They lost thirteen warriors, and one of
their number, known as the Dancer, the Ojib-
ways are said to have skinned.
Soon after this the Chippeway missions of the
St. Croix Valley were abandoned.
In a little while Bev. Mr. Boutwell removed to
the vicinity of Stillwater, and the missionaries,
Ayer and Spencer, went to Red Lake and other
points in Mianesota.
In 1853 the Eev. Sherman Hall left the Indians
and became pastor of a Congregational church at
Sauk Eapids, where he recently died.
METHODIST MISSIONS.
In 1837 the Eev. A. Brunson commenced a
Methodist mission at Kaposia, about four mUes
below, and opposite Saint Paul. It was afterwards
removed across the river to Red Eock. He was
assisted by the Eev. Thomas W. Pope, and the
latter was succeeded by the Rev. J. Holton.
The Eev. Mr. Spates and others also labored
for a brief period among the Ojibways.
FBBSBTTEBIAN MISSIONS CONTINTJBD.
At ihe stations the Dahkotah language was dil-
igently studied. Rev. S. W. Pond had prepared
a dictionary of three thousand words, and also a
small grammar. The Rev. S. R. Riggs, who
joined the mission in 1837, in a letter dated
February 24, 1841, writes: "Last summer
after returning from Fort SneUtng, I spent five
weeks in copying again the Sioux vocabulary
which we had collected and arranged at this sta-
tion. It contained then about 5500 words, not
including the various forms of the verbs. Since
that time, the words collected by Dr. "Williamson
and myself, have, I presume, increased the num-
ber to six thousand. ***** In this con-
nection, I may mention that during the winter of
1839-40, Mrs. Eiggs, with some assistance, wrote
an English and Sioux vocabulary containing
about three thousand words. One of Mr. Een-
ville's sons and three of his daughters are en-
gaged in copying. In committing the grammati-
cal principles of the language to writing, we have
done something at this station, but more has been
done by Mr. S. W. Pond."
Steadily the number of Indian missionaries
increased, and in 1851, before the lands of the
Dahkotahs west of the Mississippi were ceded to
the whites, they were disposed as follows by the
Dahkotah Presbytery.
Lac-qui-parle, Eev. S. R. Riggs, Rev. M. IvT.
Adams, Missionaries, Jonas Pettijohn, Mrs.
Fanny Pettijohn, ilrs. Mary Ann Riggs, Mis.
Mary A. M. Adams, Miss Sarah Rankin, .Is-
sistants.
Traverse des Sioux, Eev. Robert Hopkins, Mis-
sionary ; Mrs. Agnes Hopkins, Alexander G.
Huggins, Mrs. Lydia P. Iluggins, Assistants.
Shakpay, or Shukpay, Rev. Samuel W. Pond,
Missionary; Mrs. Sarah P. Pond, Assistant.
Oak Grove, Eev. Gideon H. Pond and wife.
Kaposia, Eev. Thomas Williamson, M. D.,
Missionary and Physician; Mrs. Margaret P.
WUUamson, Miss Jane S. WiUiamson, Assistants.
Bed Wing, Eev. John F. Alton, Eev. Joseph
W. Hancock, Missionaries; Mrs. Nancy H. Alton,
Mrs. Hancock, Assistants.
The Rev. Daniel Gavin, the Svriss Presbyte-
rian Missionary, spent the ■ninter of 1839 in Lac-
qui-Paiie and was afterwards married to a niece
of the Eev. J. D. Stevens, of the Lake Harriet
ilission. Mr. Stevens became the farmer and
teacher of the Wapashaw band, and the first
white man who Uved where the city of Winona
has been built. Another missionary from Switz-
erland, the Eev. Mr. Denton, married a Miss
Skinner, formerly of the Mackinaw mission.
During a portion of the year 1839 these Swiss
missionaries lived with the American mission-
aries at camp Cold Water near Fort Snelling,
but their chief field of labor was at Bed Wing.
112
EXPLOBBBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA..
CHAPTER XX.
TREAD OF PIOmSEBS IN THE SAINT CEOIX VAX/LET AND ELSEWHEllE.
Origin of the name Saint Croix — Du Luth, first Explorer — French Post on the St.
Croix — Pitt, an early pioneer — Early settlers at Saint Croix Falls — First women
there — Marine Settlement— Joseph R. Brown's town site— Saint Croix County
orpanized— Piopripfors of Stillwater— A dead Negro woman— Pig's Eye, origin
of name— Rise of Saint Paul— Dr. Williamson secures fii-st school teacher for
Saint Paul— Description of first school room— Saint Croix County re-organized
— Rev. W. T. Boutwell, pioneer clergyman.
The Saint Croix river, according to Le Sueur,
named after a Frencliman who was drowned at
its mouth, was one of the earliest throughfares
from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. The first
white man who directed canoes upon its waters
was Du Luth, who had in 1679 explored Minne-
sota. He thus describes his tour in a letter, first
published by Harrisse : " In June, 1680, not be-
ing satisfied, with having made my discovery by
land, I took two canoes, with an Indian who was
my interpreter, and four Frenchmen, to seek
means to make it by water. With this view I
entered a river which empties eight leagues from
the extremity of Lake Superior, on the south
side, where, after havmg cut some trees and
broken about a hundred beaver dams, I reached
the upper waters of the said river, and then I
made a portage of half a league to reach a lake,
the outlet which fell into a very fine river,
which took i^ e down into the Mississippi. There
I learned from eight cabins of Nadouecioux that
the Bev. Pather Louis Hennepin, Recollect, now
at the convent of Saint Germain, with t"wo other
Prenchmen had been robbed, and carried off as
slaves for more than three hundred leagues by
the Nadouecioux themselves."
He then relates how he left two Prenchmen
with his goods, and went with his interpreter and
two Prenchmen in a canoe down the Mississippi,
and after two days and two nights, found Henne-
pin, Accault and Augelle. He told Hennepin
that he must return with him through the country
of the Pox tribe, and writes : " I preferred to re-
trace my steps, manifesting to them [the Sioux]
the just indignation I felt against them, rather
than to remain after the violence they had done
to the Rev. Pather and the other two Prenchmen
with him, whom I put in my canoes and brought
them to Michilimackinack."
After this, the Saint Croix river became a chan
nel for commerce, and Bellin writes, that before
1755, the Prench had erected a fort forty leagues
from its mouth and twenty from Lake Superior.
The pine forests between the Saint Croix and
Minnesota had been for several years a tempta-
tion to energetic men. As early as November,
1836, a Mr. Pitt went with a boat and a party of
men to the Falls of Saint Croix to cut pine tim-
ber, with the consent of the Chippeways but the
dissent of the United States authorities.
Inl837 while the treaty was being made by Com-
missioners Dodge and Smith at Port SneUing, on
one Sunday Pranklin Steele, Dr. Pitch, Jeremiah
Russell, and a Mr. Maginnis left Port SnelUng
for the Palls of Saint Croix in a birch bark canoe
paddled by eight men, and reached that point
about noon on Monday and commenced a log
cabin. Steele and Maginnis remained here,
while the others, dividing into two parties, one
under Pitch, and the other under RusseU, search-
ed for pine land. The first stopped at Sun Rise,
while Russel went on to the Snake River. About
the same time Robbinet and Jesse B. Taylor
came to the Falls in the interest of B. P. Baker
who had a stone trading house near Port Snelling,
since destroyed by fire. On the fifteenth of July,
1838, the Palmyra, Capt. Holland, arrived at
the Port, with the ofiieial notice of the ratifica-
tion of the treaties ceding the lands between the
Saint Croix and Mississippi.
She had on board C. A. Tuttle, L. W. Stratton
and others, with the machinery for the projected
mills of the Northwest Lumber Company at the
Palls of Saint Croix, and reached that point on
the seventeenth, the first steamboat to disturb the
waters above Lake Saint Croix. The steamer
Gypsy came to the fort on the twenty-first of
WOMEN IN TRE VALLEY OF THE SAINT CBOIX.
113
October, with goods for the Chippeways, and was
chartered for four hundred and fifty dollars, to
carry them up to the Falls of Saint Croix. In
passing through the lake, the boat grounded near
a projetted town called StambaughviUe, after S.
C. Stambaugh, the sutler at the fort. On the
afternoon of the 26th, the goods were landed, as
stipulated.
The agent of the Improvement Company at the
falls was Washington Libbey, who left in the fall
of 1838, and was succeeded by Jeremiah EusseU,
Stratton acting as millwright in place of Calvin
Tuttle. On the twelfth of December, BusseU and
Stratton walked down the river, cut the first tree
and built a cabin at Marine, and sold their claim.
The first women at the Tails of Saint Croix were
a Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Sackett, and the daughter of a
Mr. Young. During the winter of 18.38-9, Jere-
miah Eussell married a daughter of a respectable
and gentlemanly trader, Charles H. Oakes.
Among the first preachers were the Eev. W. T.
Boutwell and Mr. Seymour, of the' Chippeway
Mission at Pokeguma. The Bev. A. Brunson, of
Prairie du Chien, who visited this region in 1838,
wrote that at the mouth of Snake Elver he found
Franklin Steele, with twenty-five or thirty men,
cutting timber for a mill, and when he oflered to
preach Mr. Steele gave a cordial assent.
On the sixteenth of August, Mr. Steele, Living-
ston, and others, left the Falls of Saint Croix in a
barge, and went aroimd to Fort SneUing.
The steamboat Fayette about the middle of
May, 1839, landed sutlers' stores at Fort SneU-
ing and then proceeded with several persons of
intelUgence to the Saint Croix river, who settled
at Marine.
The place was called after Marine in Madison
county, Illinois, where the company, consisting
of Judd, Hone and others, was formed to build
a, saw mill in the Saint Croix Valley. The mUl
at Marine commenced to saw lumber, on August
24, 1839, the first in Minnesota.
Joseph E. Brown, who since 1838, had lived at
Chan Wakan, on the west side of Grey Cloud
Island, this year made a claim near the upper
end of the city of Stillwater, which he called
Dahkotah, and was the first to raft lumber down
the Saint Croix, as weU as the first to represent
the citizens of the vaUey in the legislature of
Wisconsin.
s
UntU the year 1841, the jurisdiction of Craw-
ford coimty, Wisconsin, extended over the delta
of country between the Saint Croix and Missis-
sippi. Joseph E. Brown having been elected as
representative of the county, in the territorial
legislature of Wisconsin, succeeded in obtaining
the passage of an act on November twentieth,
1841, organizing the county of Saint Croix, with
Dahkotah designated as the county seat.
At the time prescribed for holding a court in
the new county, it is said that the judge of the
district arrived, and to his surprise, found a
claim cabin occupied by a Frenchman. Speedily
retreating, he never came again, and judicial
proceedings for Saint Croix county ended for
several years. Phineas Lawrence was the first
sheriff of this county.
On the tenth of October, 1843, was commenced
a settlement which has become the tovrai of Still-
water. The names of the proprietors were John
McKusick from Maine, Calvin Leach from Ver-
mont, Elam Greeley from Maine, and Elias
MoKean from Pennsylvania. They immediately
commenced the erection of a sawmill.
John H. Fonda, elected on the twenty-second
of September, as coroner of Crawford county,
Wisconsin, asserts that he was once notified that
a dead body was lying in the water opposite Pig's
Eye slough, and immediately proceeded to the
spot, and on taking it out, recognized it as the
body of a negro woman belonging to a certain
captain of the United States army then at Fort
Crawford. The body was cruelly cut and bruised,
but no one appearing to recognise it, a verdict of
" Found dead," was rendered, and the corpse was
buried. Soon after, it came to light that the
woman was whipped to death, and thrown into
the river during the night.
The year that the Dahkotahs ceded their lands
east of the Mississippi, a Canadian Frenchman
by the name of Parrant, the ideal of an Indian
whisky seller, erected a shanty in what is now
the city of Saint Paul. Ignorant and overbear-
ing he loved money more than his own soul.
Destitute of one eye, and the other resembling
that of a pig, he was a good representative of
Caliban. Some one writing from his groggery
designated it as " Pig's Eye." The reply to the
letter was directed in good faith to" Pig's Eye"
lU
EXPL0BER8 AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
Some years ago the editor of the Saint Paul
Press described the occasion in these words :
" Edmund Brisette, a clerkly Frenchman for
those days, who lives, or did live a little while
ago, on Lake Harriet, was one day seated at a
table in Parrant's cabin, with pen and paper
about to write a letter for Parrant (for Parrant,
like CharlemagrQ, could not write) to a friend
of the latter in Canada. The question of geog-
raphy puzzled Brissette at the outset of 'the
epistle ; where should he date a letter from a
place without a name ? He looked up inquir-
ingly to Parrant, and met the dead, cold glare of
the Pig's Eye fixed upon him, with an irresist-
ible suggestiveness that was inspiration to
Brisette."
In 1842, the late Henry Jackson, of Mahkahto,
settled at the same spot, and erected the first
store on the height just above the lower landing,
Roberts and Simpson followed, and opened
small Indian trading shops. In 1846, the site of
Saint Paul was chiefly occupied by a few shanties
owned by " certain lewd fellows of the baser
sort," who sold rum to the soldier and Indian.
It was despised by all decent white men, and
known to the Dahkotahs by an expression in
their tongue which means, the place where they
sell minne-wakan [supernatural water].
The chief of the Kapdsiaband in 1846, was shot
by his own brother in a drunken revel, but sur-
viving the wound, and apparently alarmed at the
deterioration under the influence of the modem
harpies at Saint Paul, went to Mr. Bruce, Indian
Agent, at Fort Snelling, and requested a mis-
sionary. The Indian Agent in his report to gov-
ernment, says :
" The chief of the Little Crow's band, who re-
sides below this place (Fort Snelling) about nine
miles, in the immediate neighbourhood of the
whiskey dealers, has requested to have a school
established at his village. He says they are de-
termined to reform, and for the future, will try
to do better. I wrote to Doctor Williamson soon
after the request was made, desiring him to take
charge of the school. He has had charge of the
mission school at Lac qui Parle for some years ;
is well qualified, and is an excellent physician."
In November, 1846, Dr. "WilUamson came from
Lac qui Parle, as requested, and became a resi-
dent of Kaposia. While disapproving of their
practices, he felt a kindly iaterest in the whites
of Pig's Eye, which place was now beginning to
be called, after a little log chapel which had been
erected at the suggestion of Eev. L. Galtier, and
called Saint Paul's. Though a missionary among
the Dahkotahs, he was the first to take steps to
promote the education of the whites and half-
breeds of Minnesota. In the year 1847, he wrote
to ex-Governor Slade, President of the National
Popular Education Society, in relation to the
condition of what has subsequently become the
capital of the state.
In accordance with his request. Miss H. E.
Bishop came to his mission-house at Kaposia,
and, after a short time, was introduced by him
to the citizens of Saint Paul. The first school-
house in Minnesota besides those connected with
the Indian missions, stood near, the site of the
old Brick Presbyterian church, corner of Saint
Peter and Third street, and is thus described by
the teacher :
•' The school was commenced in a little log
hovel, covered with bark, and chinked with mud,
previously used as a blacksmith shop. On three
sides of the interior of this humble log cabin,
pegs were driven into the logs, upon which boards
were laid for seats. Another seat was made by
placing one end of a plank between the cracks
of the logs, and the other upon a chair. This
was for visitors. A rickety cross-legged table in
the centre, and a hen's nest in one corner, com-
pleted the furniture."
Saint Croix county, in the year 1847, was de-
tached from Crawford county, Wisconsin, and
reorganized for judicial purposes, and Stillwater
made the county seat. In the month of June
the United States District Court held its session
in the store-room of Mr. John McKusick ; Judge
Charles Dunn presiding. A large number of
lumbermen had been attracted by the pineries
in the upper portion of the valley of Saint Croix,
and Stillwater was looked upon as the center of
the lumbering interest.
The Rev. Mr. Boutwell, feeUng that he could
be more useful, left the Ojibways, and took up
his residence near Stillwater, preaching to the
lumbermen at the Falls of Saint Croix, Marine
Mills, Stillwater, and Cottage Grove. In a letter
speaking of Stillwater, he says, " Here is a little
village sprung up like a gourd, but whether it is
to perish as soon, God only knows."
NAMES PROPOSED FOR MINNESOTA TERRITORY.
115
CHAPTER XXI.
ETENTS PRELIMIKART TO THE ORGAKIZATION OF THE MINNESOTA TEBRITORT.
fVlaconsin State Boundaries — First Bill for the Organization of Minnesota Terri-
tory, A. D. 1846 — Change of Wisconsin Boundary — Memorial of Saint Croix
Valley citizens — Various names proposed for the New Territory — Convention at
Stillwater — H. H. Sibley elected Delegate to Congress.— Derivation of word
Minaesota.
Three years elapsed from the time that the
territory of Mihnesota was proposed in Congress,
to the final passage of the organic act. On the
sixth of August, 1846, an act was passed by Con-
gress authorizing the citizens of Wisconsin Ter-
ritory to frame a constitution and form a state
government. The act fixed the Saint Louis river
to the rapids, from thence south to the Saint
Croix, and thence down that river to its junction
with the Mississippi, as the western boundary.
On the twenty -third of December, 1846, the
delegate from Wisconsin, Morgan L. Martin, in-
troduced a bill in Congress for the organization
of a territory of Minnesota. This bill made its
western boundary the Sioux and Bed River of
the North. On the third of March, 1847, per-
mission was granted to Wisconsin to change her
boundary, so that the western Umit would pro-
ceed due south from the first rapids of the Saint
Louis river, and fifteen miles east of the most
easterly point of Lake Saint Croix, thence to the
Mississippi.
A number in the constitutionai convention of
Wisconsin, were anxious that Eum river should
be a part of her western boundary, while citizens
of the valley of the Saint Croix were desirous
that the Chippeway river should be the limit of
Wisconsin. The citizens of AVisconsin Territory,
in the valley of the Saint Croix, and about Fort
SnelUng, wished to be included in the projected
new territory, and on the twenty-eighth of March,
1848, a memorial signed by H. H. Sibley, Henry
M. Eice, Franklin Steele, William B. Marshall,
and others, was presented to Congress, remon-
strating against the proposition before the con-
vention to make Bum river a part of the bound-
ary line of the contemplated state of Wisconsin.
On the twenty-ninth of May, 1848, the act to
admit Wisconsin changed the boundary line to
the present, and as first defined in the enabling
act of 1846. After the bill of Mr. Martin was
introduced into the House of Representatives in
1846 it was referred to the Committee on Terri-
tories, of which 2ilr. Douglas was chairman. On
the twentieth of January, 1847, he reported in
favor of the proposed territory with the name
of Itasca. On the seventeenth of February, be-
fore the bill passed the House, a discussion arose
in relation to the proposed name. Mr. Win-
throp of Massachusetts proposed Chippewa as a
substitute, alleging that this tribe was the prin-
cipal in the proposed territory, which was not
correct. Mr. J. Thompson of Mississippi disliked
all Indian names, and hoped the territory would
be called Jackson. Mr. Houston of Delaware
thought that there ought to be one territory
named after the " Father of his country," and
proposed Washington. All of the names pro-
posed were rejected, and the name in the original
bill inserted. On the last day of the session,
March third, the bill was called up in the Senate
and laid on the table.
When Wisconsin became a state the query
arose whether the old territorial government did
not continue in force west of the Saint Croix
river. The first meeting on the subject of claim-
ing territorial privileges was held in the building
at Saint Paul, known as Jackson's store, near the
corner of Bench and Jackson streets, on the
bluff. This meeting was held in July, and a
convention was proposed to consider their posi-
tion. The first public meeting was held at Still-
water on August fourth, and Messrs. Steele and
Sibley were the oiily persons present from the
west side of the Mississippi. This meeting is-
sued a call foi a general convention to take steps
to secure an early territorial organization, to
assemble on the twenty-sixth of the month at
116
EXPLOBEBS AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
the same place. Sixty-two delegates answered
the call, and among those present, were "W. D.
Phillips, J. W. Bass, A. Larpenteur, J. M. Boal,
and others from Saint Paul. To the convention
a letter was presented from Mr. Catlin, who
claimed to be acting governor, giving his opinion
that the Wisconsin territorial organization was
still in force. The meeting also appointed Mr.
Sibley to visit Washington and represent their
views; but the Hon. John H. Tweedy having
resigned his office of delegate to Congress on
September eighteenth, 1848, Mr. Catlin, who had
made Stillwater a temporary residence, on the
ninth of October issued a proclamation ordering
a special election at Stillwater on the thirtieth,
to iill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation.
At this election Henry H. Sibley was elected as
delegate of the citizens of the remaining portion
of Wisconsin Territory. His credentials were
presented to the House of Eepresentatives, and
the committee to whom the matter was referred
presented a majority and minority report; but
the resolution introduced by the majority passed
and Mr. Sibley took his seat as a delegate from
WisconsLU Territory on the fifteenth of January,
1849.
Mr. H. M. Eice, and other gentlemen, visited
Washington during the winter, and, uniting with
Mr. Sibley, used all their energies to obtain the
organization of a new territory.
Mr. Sibley, in an interesting communication to
the Minnesota Historical Society, writes : " When
my credentials as Delegate, were presented by
Hon. James Wilson, of Kew Hampshire, to the
House of Eepresentatives, there was some curi-
osity manifested among the members, to see what
kind of a person had been elected to represent the
distant and wild territory claiming representation
in Congress. I was told by a Kew England mem-
ber with whom I became subsequently quite inti-
mate, that there was some disappointment when
I made my appearance, for it was expected that
the delegate from this remote region would make
his debut, if not in fuU Indian costume, at least,
with some peculiarities of dress and manners,
characteristic of the rude and semi-civilized peo-
ple who had sent him to the Capitol."
The territory of Minnesota was named after
the largest tributary of the Mississippi within its
limits. The Sioux call the Missouri Minnesho-
shay, muddy water, but the stream after which
this region is named, Minne-sota. Some say that
Sota means clear; others, turbid; Schoolcraft,
bluish green. Nicollet wrote. " The adjective
Sotah is of difficult translation. The Canadians
translated it by a pretty equivalent word, brouille,
perhaps more properly rendered into EngUsh by
blear. I have entered upon this explanation be
cause the word really means neither clear nor
turbid, as some authors have asserted, its true
meaning being found in the Sioux expression
Ishtah-sotah, blear-eyed. " From the fact that the
word signifies neither blue nor white, but the
peculiar appearance of the sky at certain times,
by some, Minnesota has been defined to mean the
sky tinted water, which is certainly poetic, and the
late Eev. Gideon H. Pond thought quite correct.
MINNESOTA IN THE £EGINNI?:a.
117
CmVPTER XXII.
MINNESOTA FEOM ITS ORGANIZATION AS A TEKRITOET, A. D. 1849, TO A. D. 1854.
Appearance of the Country, A. D. 1849 — Arrival of first Editor — Governor
Ramsey arrives — Guefat of H. H. Sibley — Proclamation issued — Governor
Ramsey and H. M. Rice move to Saint Paul — Fourth of July Celebration —
First election — Early newspapers — First Courts — First Legislature — Pioneer
KewB Carrier's Address — Wedding at Fort Snelling — Territorial Seal — Scalp
Dance at Stillwater — First Steamboat at Falls of Saint Anthony — Presbyterian
Chapel burned — Indian council iit Fort Snelling — First Steamboat above Saint
Anthony — First boat atthe Blue Earth River — Congressional election — Visit.of
Fredriha Bremer — Indian newspaper — Other newspapers — Second Legislature
— ^University of Minnesota — Teamster killed by Indians — Sioux Treaties — Third
Legislature— Laud slide at Stillwater — Death of first Editor — Fourth Legislature
Baldwin School, now Macalester College — Indian light in Saint Paul.
On the third of March, 1849, the bill was passed
by Congress for organizing the territory of
Minnesota, whose boundary on the west, extended
to the Missouri Biver. At this time, the region was
little more than a wilderness. The west bank of
the Mississippi, from tlie Iowa line to Lalie
Itasca, was unceded by the Indians.
At Wapashaw, was a trading post in charge of
Alexis Bailly, and here also resided the ancient
voyageur, of fourscore years, A. Eocque.
At the foot of Lake Pepin was a store house
kept by Mr. F. S. Richards. On the west shore of
the lake lived the eccentric Wells, whose wife
was a bois brule, a daughter of the deceased
trader, Duncan Graham.
The two unfinished buildings of stone, on
the beautiful bank opposite the renowned
Maiden's Rock, and the surrounding skin lodges
of his wife's relatives and friends, presented a
rude but picturesque scene. Above the lake was
a cluster of bark wigwams, the Dahkotah village
of Raymneecha, now Red "Wing, at which was a
Presbyterian mission house.
The next settlement was Kaposia, also an In-
dian village, and the residence of a Presbyterian
missionary, the Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D.
On the east side of the Mississippi, the first set-
tlement, at the mouth of the St. Croix, was Point
Douglas, then as now, a small hamlet.
At Red Rock, the site of a former Methodist
mission statioi i , there were a few farm ers . Saint
Paul was just emerging from a collection of In-
dian whisky shops and birch roofed cabins of
half-breed voyageurs. Here and there a frame
tenement was erected, and, under the auspices of
the Hon. H. M. Rice, who had obtained an inter-
est in the town, some warehouses were con-
structed, and the foundations of the American
House, a frame hotel, which stood at Third and
Exchange street, were laid. In 1849, the popu-
lation had increased to two hundred and fifty
or three hundred inhabitants, for rumors had
gone abroad that it might be mentioned in the
act, creating the territory, as the capital
of Minnesota. More than a month after
the adjournment of Congress, just at eve,
on the ninth of AprU, amid terrific peals of
thunder and torrents of rain, the weekly steam
packet, the first to force its way through the icy
barrier of Lake Pepin, rounded the rocky point
whistling loud and long, as if the bearer of glad
tidings. Before she, was safely moored to the
landing, the shouts of the excited villagers were
heard announcing that there was a territory of
Minnesota, and that Saint Paul was the seat of
government.
Every successive steamboat arrival poured out
on the landing men big with hope, and anxious
to do something to mould the future of the new
state.
Nine days after the news of the existence of the
territory of Minnesota was received, there arrived
James M. Goodhue with press, type, and printing
apparatus. A graduate of Amherst college, and
a lawyer by profession, he wielded a sharp pen,
and wrote editorials, which, more than anything
else, perhaps, induced immigration. Though a
man of some faults, one of the counties properly
bears his name. On the twenty-eighth of April,
he issued from his press the first n'umber of the
Pioneer.
On the twenty - seventh of May, Alexander
Ramsey, the Governor, and family, arrived at
Saint Paul, but owing to the crowded state of pub-
118
EXPLGBEBS AND PIONEJSBS 01'' MINNESOTA.
lie houses, immediately proceeded ia the steamer
to the establishment of the Far Company, known
as Mendota, at the junction of the Minnesota and
Mississippi, and became the guest of the Hon. H.
H. Sibley.
On the first of June, Governor Eamsey, by pro-
clamation, declared the territory duly organized,
with the following officers ; Alexander Ramsey,
of Pennsylvania, Governor ; C. K. Smith, of Ohio,
Secretary ; A. Goodrich, of Tennessee, Chief
Justice ; D. Cooper, of Pennsylvania, and B. B.
Meeljer, of Kentucky, Associate Judges ; Joshua
L. Taylor, Marshal ; H. L. Moss, attorney of the
United States.
On the eleventh of June, a second proclama-
tion was issued, dividing the territory into three
temporary judicial districts. The first comprised
the county of St. Croix ; the county of La Pouite
and the region north and west of the Mississippi,
and north of the Minnesota and of a fine running
due west from the headwaters of the Minnesota
to the Missouri river, constituted the second ;
and the country west of the Mississippi and south
of the Mimiesota, formed the third district.
Judge Goodrich was assigned to the first. Meeker
to the second, and Cooper to the third. A court
was ordered to be held at Stillwater on the second
Monday, at the Falls of St. Anthony on the third,
and at Mendota on the fourth Monday of August.
Until the twenty -sixth of June, Governor
Eamsey and family had been guests of Hon. H.
H. Sibley, at Mendota. On the afternoon of
that day they arrived at St. Paul, in a birch-bark
canoe, and became permanent residents at the
capital. The house first occupied as a guber-
natorial mansion, was a small frame building that
stood on Third, between Robert and Jackson
streets, formerly known as the New England
House.
A few days after, the Hon. H. M. Rice and
family moved from Mendota to St. Paul, and oc-
cupied the house he had erected on St. Anthony
street, near the corner of Market.
On the first of July, a land oflice was estab-
Ushed at Stillwater, and A. Van Vorhes, after a
few weeks, became the register.
The anniversary of our 1^ ational Indepenaence
was celebrated in a becoming manner at the cap-
ital. The place selected for the address, was a
grove that stood on the sites of the City HaU and
the I3aldwkL School building, and the late Prank-
lia Steele was the marshal of the day.
On the seventh of July, a proclamation was is-
sued, dividing the territory into seven council
districts, and ordering an election to be held on
the first day of August, for one delegate to rep-
resent the people in the House of Representatives
of the United States, for nine councillors and
eighteen representatives, to constitute the Legis-
lative Assembly of Minnesota.
In this month, the Hon. H. M. Rice despatch-
ed a hoat laded with Indian goods from the
the Falls of St. Anthony to Crow "Wing, which
was towed by horses after the manner of a canal
boat.
The election on the first of August, passed ofE
with little excitement, Hon. H, H. Sibley being
elected delegate to Congress without opposition.
David Lambert, on what might, perhaps, be
termed the old settlers' ticket, was defeated in
St. Paul, by James M. Boal. The latter, on the
night of the election, was honored with a ride
through town on the axle and fore-wheels of an
old wagon, which was drawn by his admiring
but somewhat undisciplined friends.
J. L. Taylor having decUned the office of
United States Marshal; A. M. Mitchell, of Ohio,
a graduate of "West Point, and colonel of a regi-
ment of Ohio volunteers in the Mexican war, was
appointed and arrived at the capital early in
August. V
There were three papers published in the ter-
ritory soon after its organization. The first was
the Pioneer, issued on April twenty-eighth, 1849,
under most discouraging circumstances. It was
at first the intention of the witty and reckless
editor to have called his paper " The Epistle of
St. Paul." About the same time there was issued
in Cincinnati, under the auspices of the late Dr.
A. EandaU, of California, the first number of
the Register. The second number of the paper
was printed at St. Paul, in July, and the office
was on St. Anthony, between Washington and
Market Streets, About the first of June, James
Hughes, afterward of Hudson, Wisconsin, arrived
vmh a press and materials, and established the
Minnesota Chronicle. After an existence of a
few weeks two papers were discontinued ; and,
in their place, was issued the " Chronicle and
DSSCmPTION OF THE TJEIfPORARY CAPITOL.
119
Begister," edited by Nathaiel McLean and John
P. Owens.
The first courts, pursuant to proclamation of
the governor, were held in the month of August.
At Stillwater, the court was organized on the
thirteenth of the month, Judge Goodrich pre-
siding, and Judge Cooper by coui-tesy, sitting on
the bench. On the twentieth, the second Judi-
cial district held a couit. The room used was
the old government mill at Minneapolis. The
presiding judge was B. B. Meeker ; tlie foreman
of the grand jury, rranklin Steele. On the last
Monday of the month, the court for the third
judicial district was organized in the large stone
warehouse of the fur company at JMendota. The
presiding judge was David Cooper. Governor
Bamsey sat on the right, and Judge Goodrich on
the left. Hon. H. II. Sibley was the foreman of
the grand jury. As some of the jurors could not
speak the English language, "W. H. Forbes acted
as interpreter. The charge of Judge Cooper was
lucid, scholarly, and dignified. At the request
of the grand jury it was afterwards published.
On Monday, the third of September, the first
Legislative Assembly convened in the " Central
IIoiise,Tin Saint Paul, a building at the corner
of Minnesota and Bench streets, facing the
Mississippi river which answered the double
purpose of capitol and hotel. On the first
floor of the main building was the Secreta-
ry's office and Representative chamber, and in
the second story was the library and Council
chamber. As the flag was run up the staff in
front of the house, a number of Indians sat on a
rocky bluff in the vicinity, and gazed at what to
them was a novel and perhaps saddening scene ;
for if the tide of immigration sweeps in from the
Pacific as it has from the Atlantic coast, they
must soon dwindle.
The legislature having organized, elected the
following permanent ofiBcers: David Olmsted,
President of Council ; Joseph E. Brown, Secre-
ary ; H. A. Lambert, Assistant. In the House
of Bepresentatives, Joseph ^V. Furber was elect-
ed Speaker: W. D. Phillips, Clerk; L. B. ^Vait,
Assistant.
On Tuesday afternoon, both houses assembled
in the dining hall of the hotel, and after prayer
was offered by Rev. E. D. Neill, Governor Ram-
sey delive'red his message. The message was ably
written, and its perusal afforded satisfaction at
home and abroad.
The first session of the legislature adjourned on
the first of November. Among other proceed-
ings of interest, was the creation of the following
counties: Itasca, Wapashaw, Dahkotah, Vah-
nahtah, Mahkahto, Pembina "Washington, Ram-
sey and Benton. The three latter counties com-
prised the country that up to that time had been
ceded by the Indians on the east side of the Mis-
sissippi, Stil.'water was declared the county seat
of Washington, Saint Paul, of Ramsey, and '■ the
seat of justice of the county of Benton was to be
within one-quarter of a mile of a point on the east
side of the Mississippi, directly opposite the mouth
of Sauk river."
EVENTS OF A. D 1850.
By the active exertions of the secretary of th*
territory, C. K. Smith, Esq., the Historical
Society of Minnesota was incorporated at the
first session of the legislature. Tlie opening an-
nual address was delivered in the then Methodist
(now Swedenborgian) church at Saint Paul, on
the first of January, 1850.
The following account of the proceedings is
from the Chronicle and Register. "The first
public exercises of the Minnesota Historical
Society, took place at the Methodist church, Saint
Paul, on the first inst., and passed off higlily
creditable to all concerned. The day was pleasant
and the attendance large. At the appointed
hour, the President and both Vice-Presidents of
the society being absent ; on motion of Hon. C.
K. Smith, Hon. Chief Justice Goodrich was
called to the chair. The same gentleman then
moved that a committee, consisting of Messrs.
Parsons K. Johnson, John A. Wakefield, and B.
W. Branson, be appointed to wait upon the
Orator of the day, Rev. Mr. Neill, and inform
him that the audience was waiting to hear his
address.
" ^Ir. ]Srein was shortly conducted to the pulpit;
and after an eloquent and approriate prayer by
the Rev. ^Ir. Parsons, and music by the band, he
proceeded to deliver his discourse upon the early
French missionaries and "\^oyageurs into Minne-
sota. AYe hope the society will provide for its
publication at an early day.
After some brief remarks by Rev. Mr,
120
EXFLOKMiUH AJSD FlOJSJiiJilliH OF MINNESOTA.
Hobart, upon the objects and ends of history, the
ceremonies were concluded with a prayer by
that gentleman. The audience dispersed highly
delighted with all that occurred.''
At this early period the Minnesota Pioneer
issued a Carrier's New Year's Address, which
was amusing doggerel. The reference to the
future greatness and ignoble origin of the capital
of Minnesota was as follows : —
The cities on this river must be three,
Two that are bui .'; and one that is to be.
One, is the mart of aU the tropics yield,
The cane, the orange, and the cotton-field,
And sends her ships abroad and boasts
Her trade extended to a thousand coasts ;
The other, central for the temperate zone,
Gamers the stores that on the plains are grown,
A place where steamboats from all quarters,
range,
To meet and speculate, as 'twere on 'change.
The third will lie, where rivers confluent flow
Prom the wide spreading north through plains
of snow ;
The mart of all that boundless forests give
To make mankind more comfortably live,
The land of manufacturing industry,
The workshop of the nation it shall be.
Propelled by this wide stream, you'll see
A thousand factories at Saint Anthony :
And the Saint Croix a hundred mills shall drive.
And all its smiling villages shall thrive ;
But then my town — remember that high bench
With cabins scattered over it, of French ?
A man named Henry Jackson's living there.
Also a man — why every one knows L. Bobair,
Below Fort Snelling, seven miles or so.
And three above the village of Old Crow ?
Pig's Eye ? Yes ; Pig's Eye ! That's the spot !
A very funny name ; is't not ?
Pig's Eye's the spot, to plant my city on.
To be remembered by, when I am gone.
Pig's Eye converted thou shalt be, like Saul :
Thy name henceforth shall be Saint Paul.
On the evening of New Year's day, at Fort
SneUing, there was an assemblage which is only
seen on the outposts of civUization. In one of
the stone edifices, outside of the wall, belonging
to the United States, there resided a gentleman
who had dwelt in_Mianesota since the year 1819,
and for many years had been in the employ of
the government, as Indian interpreter. In youth
he had been a member of the Columbia Fur Com-
pany, and conforming to the habits of traders,
had purchased a Dahkotah wife who was wholly
ignorant of the English language. As a family
of children gathered around hun he recognised
the relation of husband and father, and consci-
entiously discharged his duties as a parent. His
daughter at a proper age was sent to a boarding
school of some celebrity, and on the night re-
ferred to was married to an intelligent young
American farmer. Among the guests present
were the offtcers of the garrison in full uniform,
with their wives, the United States Agent for
the Dahkotahs, and family, the bois brules of
the neighborhood, and the Indian relatives of the
mother. The mother did not make her appear-
ance, but, as the minister proceeded with the
ceremony, the Dahkotah relatives, wrapped in
their blankets, gathered in the hall and looked
in through the door.
The marriage feast was worthy of the occa-
sion. In consequence of the numbers, the
ofiicers and those of European extraction partook
first ; then the bois brules of OJibway and Dah-
kotah descent; and, finally, the native Ameri-
cans, who did ample justice to the plentiful sup-
ply spread before them. ,
Governor Kamsey, Hon. H. H. Sibley, and the
delegate to Congress devised at "Washington, this
winter, the territorial seal . The design was Falls
of St. Anthony in the distance. An immigrant
ploughing the land on the borders of the Indian
country, full of hope, and looking forward to the
possession of the himting grounds beyond. An
Indian, amazed at the sight of the plough, and
fleeing on horseback towards the setting sim.
The motto of the Earl of Dunraven, "Qusb
sursum volo videre". (I wish to see what is above)
was most appropriately selected by Mr. Sibley,
but by the blunder of an engraver it appeared on
the territorial seal, "Quo sursum velo videre,"
which no scholar could translate. At length was
substituted, "L' Etoile du Nord," "Star of the
North," while the device of the .setting sim
remained, and this is objectionable, as the State
of Maine had already placed the North Star on
her escutcheon, with the motto "Dirigo," "I
guide.'' Perhaps some future legislature may
SCAIjP dance in 8TILLWATEB.
121
direct the first motto to be restored and correctly
engraved.
In the montn of April, there was a renewal of
hostilities between the Dahkotahs and Ojibways,
on lands that had been ceded to the United States.
A war prophet at Red Wing, dreamed that he
ought to raise a war party. Announcing the fact,
' a number expressed their willingness to go on such
an expedition. Several from the Kaposia village
also joined the party, under the leadership of a
worthless Indian, who had been confined in the
guard-house at Fort SneUing, the year previous,
for scalping his wife.
Passing up the valley of the St. Croix, a rew
miles above Stillwater the party discovered on the
snow the marks of a keg and footprints. These
told them that a man and woman of the Ojibways
had been to some whisky dealer's, and were re-
turning. Following their trail, they found on
Apple river, about twenty miles from Stillwater,
a band of O j ibway s encamped in one lodge . Wait-
ing tin daybreak of Wednesday, April second, the
Dahkotahs commenced firing on the unsuspecting
inmates, some of whom were drinMng from the
contents of the whisky keg. The camp was com-
posed of fifteen, and all were murdered and scalp-
ed, with the exception of a lad, who was made a
captive.
Oh Thru-sday, the victors came to StiUwater,
and danced the scalp dance around the captive
boy, in the heat of excitement, striking him in the
face with the scarcely cold and bloody scalps of
his relatives. The child was then taken to Ka-
posia, and adopted by the chief. Governor Ram-
sey immediately took measures to send the boy to
his friends. At a conference held at the Gov-
ernor's mansion, the boy was delivered up, and,
on being led out to the kitchen by a little son of
the Governor, since deceased, to receive refresh-
ments, he cried bitterly, seemingly more alarmed
at being left with the whites than he had been
while a captive at Kaposia.
Prom the first of April the waters of the Mis-
sissippi began to rise, and on the thirteenth, the
lower floor of the warehouse, then occupied by
William Constans, at the foot of Jackson street,
St. Paul, was submerged. Taking advantage of
the freshet, the steamboat Anthony Wayne, for a
purse of two hundred dollars, ventured through
the swift current above Fort Snelling, and reached
the Falls of St. Anthony. The boat loft the fort
after dinner, with Governor Ramsey and other
guests, also the band of the Sixth Regiment on
board, and reached the falls between three and
four o'clock in the afternoon. The whole town,
men, women and children, lined the shore as the
boat approached, and welcomed this first arrival,
with shouts and waving handkerchiefs.
On the afternoon of May fifteenth, there might
have been seen, hurrying through the streets of
Saint Paul, a number of naked and painted braves
of the Kaposia band of Dahkotahs, ornamented
with all the attire of war, and panting for the
scalps of their enemies. A few hours before, the
warlike head chief of the Ojibways, young Hole-
in-the-Day , having secreted his canoe in the retired
gorge which leads to the cave in the upper sub-
urbs, with two or three associates had crossed the
river, and, almost in sight of the citizens of the
town, had attacked a small party of Dahkotahs,
and murdered and scalped one man. On receipt
of the news. Governor Ramsey granted a parole
to the thirteen Dahkotahs confined in Fort SneU-
ing, for participating in the Apple river massacre.
On the morning of the sixteenth of May, the
first Protestant church edifice completed in the
white settlements, a small frame building, buUt
for the Presbj'terian church, at Saint Paul, was
destroyed by fire, it being the first conflagration
that had occurred since the organization of the
territory.
One of the most interesting events of the year
1850, was the Indian council, at Fort Snelling.
Governor Ramsey had sent runners to the differ-
ent bands of the Ojibways and Dahkotahs, to
meet liim at the fort, for the purpose of en-
deavouring to adjust their diflBculties.
On Wednesday, the twelfth of June, after
much talking, as is customary at Indian councils,
the two tribes agreed as they had frequently done
before, to be friendly, and Governor Ramsey
presenting to each party an ox. the council was
dissolved.
On Thursday, the Ojibways visited St. Paul
for the first time, young Hole-in-the-Day being
dressed in a coat of a captain of United States
infantry, which had been presented to him at the
fort. On Friday, they left in the steamer Gov-
ernor Ramsey, which had been built at St. An-
thony, and ]ust commenced running between
122
EXPLORERS AND PIOISEERS OF MINNESOTA.
that point and Sauk Rapids, for their homes in
the wilderness of the Upper Mississippi.
The summer of 1850 was the commencement
of the navigation of the Minnesota River by
steamboats. With the exception of a steamer
that made a pleasure excursion as far as Shokpay,
in 1841, no large vessels had ever disturbed the
waters of this stream. In June, the " Anthony
Wayne," which a few weeks before had ascended
to the Falls of St. Anthony, made a trip. On
the eighteenth of July she made a second trip,
going almost to Mahkahto. The " Jifominee "
also navigated the stream for some distance.
On the twenty-second of July the ofBcijrs of
the " Yankee," taking advantage of the high
water, determined to navigate the stream as far
as possible. The boat ascended to near the Cot-
tonwood river.
As the time for the general election in Septem-
ber approached, considerable excitement was
manifested. As there were no political issues
before the people, parties were formed based on
personal preferences. Among those nominated
for delegate to Congress, by various meetings,
were H. H. Sibley, the former delegate to Con-
gress, David Olmsted, at that time engaged in
the Indian trade, and A. M. Mitchell, the United
States marshal. Mr. Olmsted withdrew Ms
name before election day, and the contest was
between those interested in Sibley and Mitchell.
The friends of each betrayed the greatest zeal,
and neither pains nor money were spared to in-
sure success. Mr. Sibley vi-as elected by a small
majority. For the first time in the territory,
soldiers at the garrisons voted at this election,
and there was considerable discussion as to the
propriety of such a course.
Miss Fredrika Bremer, the well known Swedish
novelist, visited Minnesota in the montli of
October, and was the guest of Governor Ramsey.
During November, the Dahkotah Tawaxitku
Kin, or the Dahkotah Friend, a monthly paper,
was commenced, one-half in the Dahkotah and
one-half in the English language. Its editor was
the Rev. Gideon H. Pond, a Presbyterian mis-
sionary, and its place of publication at Saint Paul.
It was published for nearly two years, and, though
it failed to attract the attention of the Indian
mind, it conveyed to the English reader much
correct information in relation to the habits, the
belief, and superstitions, of the Dahkotahs.
On the tenth of December, anew paper, owned
and edited by Daniel A. Robertson, late United
States marshal, of Ohio, and called the Minne-
sota Democrat, made its appearance.
During the summer there had been changes in
the editorial supervision of the " Chronicle and
Register." For a brief period it was edited by
L. A. Babcock, Esq., who was succeeded by W.
G. Le Due.
About the time of the issuing of the Demo-
crat, C. J. Henniss, formerly reporter for the '
United States Gazette, Philadelphia, became the
editor of the Chronicle.
The first proclamation for a thanksgiving day
was issued in 1850 by the governor, and the
twenty-sixth of December was the time appointed
and it was generally observed.
EVEKTS OF A. D. 1851.
On Wednesday, January first, 1851, the second
Legislative Assembly assembled in a three-story
brick building, since destroyed by fire, that stood
on St. Anthony street, between Washington and
Franklin. D. B. Loomis was chosen Speaker of
the Council, and J.I. E. Ames Speaker of the
House. This assembly was characterized by '
more bitterness of feeling than any that' has
since convened. The preceding delegate election
had been based on personal preferences, and
cliques and factions manifested themselves at an
early period of the session.
The locating of the penitentiary at Stillwater,
and the capitol building at St. Paul gave some
dissatisfaction. By the efforts of J. W. North,
Esq., a bill creating the University of Minnesota
at or near the Falls of St. Anthony, was passed,
and signed by the Governor. This institution,
by the State Constitution, is now the State Uni-
versity.
During the session of this Legislature, the pub-
lication of the " Chronicle and Register" ceased.
About the middle of May, a war party Of Dah-
kotahs discovered near Swan River, an Ojibway
with a keg of whisky. The latter escaped, with
the loss of his keg. The war party, drinking the
contents, became intoxicated, and, firing upon
some teamrters they met driving their wagons
with goods to the Indian Agency, killed one of
LANDS WEST OF THE MfSHISSTPPI CEDED.
323
them, Andrew Swarfcz, a resident of St. Paul.
The news was conveyed to Fort Bipley, and a
party of soldiers, with Hole-in-the-day as a guide,
started in pursuit of the murderers, but did not
succeed in capturing them. Through the influ-
ence of Little Six, the Dahkotah chief, whose vil-
lage was at (and named after him) Shok-
pay, five of the offenders were arrested and
placed in the guard house at Port Siielling. On
Monday, June ninth, they left the fort in a wagon,
guarded by twenty-five dragoons, destined for
Sauk Bapids for trial. As they departed they all
sang their death song, and the coarse soldiers
amused themselves by makiug signs that they
were going to be hung. On the first evening of
the journey the five culprits encamped with the
twenty-five dragoons. Handcuffed, they were
placed in the tent, and yet at midnight they all
escaped, only one being wounded by the guard-
What was more remarkable, the wounded man
was the first to bring the news to St. Paul. Pro-
ceeding to Koposia, his wouiid was examined by
the missionary and physteian, Dr. Williamson;
and then, fearing an arrest, he took a oanoe and
paddled up the Minnesota. The excuses offered
by the dragoons was, that all the guard but one
fell asleep.
The first paper published in Minnesota, beyond
the capital, was the St. Anthony Express, which
made its appearance during the last week of
April or May.
The most important event of the year 1851
was the treaty with the Dahkotahs, by which the
west side of the Mississippi and the valley of the
Minnnesota Kiver were opened to the hardy immi-
grant. The commissioners on the part of the
United States were Luke Lea, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, and Governor Eamsey. The
place of meeting for the upper bands was Trav-
erse des Sioux. The commission arrived there
on the last of June, but were obliged to wait
many days for the assembling of the various
bands of Dahkotahs.
On the eighteenth of July, all those expected
having arrived, the Sissetons and Wahpayton
Dahkotahs assembled in grand council with the
United States commissioners. After the usual
feastings and speeches, a treaty was concluded
on Wednesday, July twenty-third. The pipe
having been smoked by the commissioners. Lea
and Eamsey, it was passed to the chiefs. The
paper containing the treaty was then read in
English and translated into the Dahkotah by the
Rev. S. E. Eiggs, Presbyterian Missionary among
this people. This finished, the chiefs came up
to the secretary's table and touched the pen; the
white men present then witnessed the document^
and nothing remained but the ratification of the
United States Senate to open that vast country
for the residence of the hardy immigrant.
During tbe first week in August, a treaty was
also concluded beneath an oak bower, on Pilot
Knob, Mendota, with the M'dewakantonwan and
Wa'ipaykootay bands of Dahkotahs. About sixty
of the chiefs and principal men touched the pen,
and Little Crow, who had beeen in the misssion-
school at Lac qui Parle, signed his own name.
Before they separated Colonel Lra and Governor
Eamsey gave them a few words of advice on
various subjects connected with their fTiture well-
being, but particularly on the subject of educa-
tion and temperance. Tbe treaty was interjiret-
ed to them by the Be v. G. H. Pond, a gentleman
who was conceded to be a most correct speaker
of the Dahkotah tongue.
The day after the treaty these lower bands
received thirty thousand dollars, which, bj' the
treaty of 1837, was set apart for education ; but,
by the misrepresentations of interested half-
breeds, the Indians were made to believe that
it ought to be given to them to be employed as
they pleased.
The next week, with their sacks filled with
money, they thronged the streets of St. Paul,
purchasing whatever pleased their fancy.
On the seventeenth of September, a new paper
was commenced in St. Paul, under the auspices
of the "Whigs," and John P. Owens became
editor, which relation he sustained until the fall
of 1857.
The election for members of the Legislature,
and county officers occurred on the fourteenth of
October; and, for the first time, a regular Demo-
cratic ticket was placed before the people. The
parties called themselves Democratic and Anti-
organization, or Coalition,
In the month of November Jerome Puller ar-
rived, and taok the place of Judge Goodrich as
Chief Justice of Minnesota, who was removed;
and, about the same time, Alexander Wilkin was
12i
BXPL0BBB8 AND PI0NBEB8 OF MINNESOTA.
appointed secretary of the territory in place of
0. K. Smith.
The eighteenth of December, pursuant to
proclamation, was observed as a day of Thanks-
giviag.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1852.
The third Legislative Assembly commencsd its
sessions in one of the scfafiaes on Tliird below
Jackson street, which became a portion of the
Merchants' Hotel, on the seventh of January,
1852.
This session, compared with the previous,
formed a contrast as great as that between a
boisterous day in March and a cahn June morn-
ing. The minds of the population were more
deeply interested in the ratification of the treaties
made with the Dahkotahs, than in poUtical dis-
cussions. Among othf^r Ipja-islation of interest
was the creation of Heiinepin county.
On Saturday, the ,?C'irteenth of February, a
dog-train arrived at S' Paul from the north,
with the distinguished Arctic explorer. Dr. Kae.
He had been in search of the long-missing Sir
John Tranklin, by way of the Mackenzie river,
and was now on his way to Europe.
On the fourteenth of May,, an interesting lusus
naturae occurred at Stillwater. On the prairies,
beyond the eleyated bluffs which encircle the
business portion of the town, there is a lake which
discharges its waters through a ravine, and sup-
pli(>,d McKusick's mill.' Owing to heavy rains,
the hills became saturated with water, and the
lake very full. Before daylight the citizens heard
the " voice of many waters," and looking out, saw
rushing down through the ravine, trees, gravel
and diluvium. Nothing impeded its course, and
as it issued from the ravine it spread over the
town site, covering up barns and small tenements,
and, continuing to the lake shore, it materially
improved the landing, by a deposit of many tons
of earth. One of the editors of the day, alluding
to the fact, quaintly remarked, that " it was a
very extraordinary movement of real estate."
During the summer, Elijah Terry, a young
man who had left St. Paul the previous March,
and went to Pembina, to act as teacher to the
mixed bloods in that vicinity, was murdered un-
der di/itressing circumstances. With a bois brule
he had started to the woods on the morning of
his death, to hew timber. While there he was
fired upon by a small party of Dahkotahs ; a ball
broke his arm, and he was pierced with arrows.
His scalp was wrenched from his head, and was
afterwards seen among Sisseton Dahkotahs, near
Big Stone Lake.
About the last of August, the pioneer editor
of Minnesota, James M. Goodhue, died.
At the November Term of the United States
District Court, of Eamsey county, a Dahkotah,
named Yu-ha-zee, was tried for the murder of a
German woman. With others she was travel-
ing above Shokpay, when a party of Indians, of
whom the prisoner was one, met them; and,
gathering about the wagon, were much excited.
The prisoner punchfed the woman first with his
gun, and, being threatened by one of the party,
loaded and flred, kiUiag the woman and woimd-
ing one of the men.
On the day of his trial he was escorted from
Eort SnelUng by a company of mounted dragoons
in full dress. It was an impressive scene to
witness the poor Indian half hid in his blanket,
in a buggy with the civil oflEicer, surrounded with
all the pomp and circumstance of war. The jury
found him guilty. On being asked if he had
anything to say why sentence of death should
not be passed, he replied, through the interpreter,
that the band to which he belonged would remit
their annuities if he could be released. To this
Judge Hayner, the successor of Judge Fuller,
replied, that he had no authority to release
him; and, ordering him to rise, after some
appropriate and impressive remarks, he pro-
nounced the first sentence of death ever pro-
nounced by a judicial oflScer in Minnesota. The
prisoner trembled while the judge spoke, and
was a piteous spectacle. By the statute of Min-
nesota, then, one convicted of murder could not
be executed until twelve months had elapsed, and
he was confined until the governor of the ter-
orrity should by warrant order his execution.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1853.
The fourth Legislative Assembly convened on
the fifth of January, 1853, in the two story brick
edifice at the corner of Third and Minnesota
streets. The Council chose Martin McLeod as
presiding ofiScer, and the House Dr. David Day,
INDIAN FIGHT IN 8TBEEI8 OF ST. PAUL.
125
Speaker. Governor Eamsey's message was an
interesting document.
The Baldwin school, now known as Macalester
College, was incorporated at this session of the
legislature, and was opened the following June.
On the ninth of April, a party of Ojibways
killed a Dahkotah, at the village of Shokpay. A
war party, from Kaposia, then proceeded up the
valley of the St. Croix, and killed an Ojibway.
On the morning of the twenty-seventh, a band
of ^Ojibway warriors, naked, decked, and fiercely
gesticulating, might have been seen in the busiest
street of the capital, in search of their enemies.
Just at that time a small party of women, and
one man, who had lost a leg in the battle of Still-
water, arrived in a canoe from Kaposia, at the
Jackson street landing. Perceiving the Ojib-
ways, they retreated to the building then known
as the " Pioneer" office, and the Ojibways dis-
charging a volley through the windows, wounded
a Dahkotah woman who soon died. Por a short
time, the infant capital presented a sight
similar to that witnessed in ancient days in
Hadley or Deerfield, the then frontier towns of
Massachusetts. Messengers were despatched to
Fort Snelling for the dragoons, and a party of
citizens mounted on horseback, were quickly in
pursuit of those who with so much boldness had
sought the streets of St. Paul, as a place to
avenge their wrongs. The dragoons soon fol-
lowed, with Indian guides scenting the track of
the Ojibways, like bloodhounds. The next day
they discovered the transgressors^ near the Palls
of St. Croix. The Ojibways manifesting what
was supposed to be an insolent spirit, the order
was given by the lieutenant in command, to fire,
and he whose scalp was afterwards daguerreo
typed, and which was engraved for Graham's
Magazine, wallowed in gore.
During the summer, the passenger, as he stood
on the hurricane deck of any of the steamboats,
might have seen, on a scaffold on the bluffs in
the rear of Kaposia, a square box covered with a
coarsely fringed red cloth. Above it was sus-
pended a piece of the Ojibway's scalp, whose
death had caused the affray in the streets of St.
Paul. AVithin, was the body of the woman who
had been shot in the " Pioneer " building, while
seeking refuge. A scalp suspended over the
corpse is supposed to be a consolation to the soul,
and a great protection in the journey to the spirit
land.
On the accession of Pierce to the presidency of
the United States, the officers appointed mider
the Taylor and Fillmore administrations were
removed, and the following gentlemen substitu-
ted : Governor, W. A. Gorman,\)f Indiana ; Sec-
retary, J. T. Eosser, of Virginia ; Chief Justice,
"W. H. Welch, of Minnesota ; Associates, Moses
Sherburne, of Maine, and A. G. Chatfield, of
Wisconsin. One of the first official acts of the
second Governor, was the making of a treaty
vsdth the Winnebago Indians at Watab, Benton
county, for an exchange of country.
On the twenty-ninth of June, D. A. Robertson,
who by his enthusiasm and earnest advocacy of
its principles had done much to organize the
Democratic party of Minnesota, retired from the
editorial chair and was succeeded by David Olm-
sted.
At the election held in October, Henry M.
Eice and Alexander Wilkin were candidates
for deUgate to Congress. The former was elect-
ed by a decisive majority.
126
EXPL0REB8 AND PIONEEBS OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER XXIII.
EVENTS FROM A. D. 1854 TO THE ADMISSION OF MINNESOTA TO THE UNION.
Fifth Legislature — Execution of Yuhazce — Sixth Legislature — First bridge over the
Mississippi — Arctic Explorer — Seventh Legislature — Indian girl killed near
Bloomington Ferry — Eighth Legislature — Attempt to Remove the Capital —
Special Session of the Legislature — Convention to frame a State Constitution —
Admission of Minnesota to the Union.
The fifth, session of the legislature was com-
menced in the building just completed as the
Capitol, on January fourth, 1854. The President
of the Council was S. B. Olmstead, and the Speak-
er of the House of Eepresentatives was N. C. D.
Taylor.
Governor Gorman delivered his first annual
message on the tenth, and as his predecessor,
urged the importance of railway communications,
and dwelt upon the necessity of fostering the in-
terests of education, and of the lumbermen.
The exciting bill of the session was the act in-
corporating the Minnesota and Northwestern
Eailroad Company, introduced by Joseph P..
Brown. It was passed after the hour of midnight
on the last day of the session. Contrary to the
expectation of his friends, the Governor signed
the bill.
On the afternoon of December twenty-seventh,
the first public execution In Minnesota, in accord-
ance with the forms of law, took place. Yu-ha-
zee, the Dahkotah who had been convicted in
November, 1852, for the murder of a German
woman, above Shokpay, was the individual.
The scaffold was erected on tlie open space be-
tween an inn called the Pranklin House and the
rear of the late Mr. J. W. Selby's enclosure
in St. Paul. About two o'clock, the prisoner,
dressed in a white shroud, left the old log pris-
on, near the court house, and entered a carriage
vrith the officers of the law. Being assisted up
the steps that led to the scaffold, he made a few
remarks in his own language, and was then exe-
cuted. Numerous ladies sent in a petition to
the governor, asking the pardon of the Indian,
to which that officer in declining made an appro-
priate reply.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1855.
The sixth session of the legislature convened
on the third of January, 1855. W. P. Murray
was elected President of the Council, and James
S. Norris Speaker of the House.
About the last of January, the two houses ad-
journed one day, to attend the exercises occa-
sioned by the opening of the first bridge of
any kind, over the mighty Mississippi, from
Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. It was at
Palls of Saint Anthony, and made of wire, and
at the time of its opening, the patent for the
land on which the west piers were built, had not
been issued from the Land Office, a striking evi-
dence of the rapidity with which the city of
Minneapolis, which now surrounds the Falls, has
developed.
On the twenty-ninth of March, a convention
was held at Saint Anthony, which led to the
formation of the Republican party of Minnesota.
This body took measures for the holding of a
territorial convention at St. Paul, which con-
vened on the twenty-fifth of July, and William
R. Marshall was nominated as delegate to Con-
gress. Shortly after the friends of Mr. Sibley
nominated David Olmsted and Henry M. Rice,
the former delegate was also a candidate. The
contest was animated, and resulted in the elec-
tion of Mr. Rice.
About noon of December twehfth, 1855, a four-
horse vehicle was seen driving rapidly through
St. Paul, and deep was the interest when it was
announced that one of the Arctic exploring party,
Mr. James Stewart, was on his way to Canada
with reUcs of the world -renowned and world-
mourned Sir John Pranklin. Gathering together
the precious fragments found on Montreal Island
and vicinity, the party had left the region of ice-
bergs on the ninth of August, and after a con-
tinued land journey from that tune, had reached
PliOPOSEJJ SEMO VAL OF TUK SEAT OF GO VFltyjJFJST.
11
Saint Paul on that day, en route to the Hudson
Bay Company's quarters in Canada.
• EVENTS OF A. D. 1856.
The seventh session of the Legislative Assem-
bly was begun on the second of January, 1856,
and again the exciting question was the Minne-
sota and Northwestern Railroad Company.
John B. Brisbin was elected President of the
Council, and Charles Gardner, Speaker of the
House.
This year was comparatively devoid of interest.
The citizens of the territory were busily engaged
in making claims in newly organized counties,
and in enlarging the area of civilization.
On the twelfth of June, several Ojibways
entered the farm house of Mr. Whallon, who re-
sided in Hennepin county, on the banks of the
Minnesota, a mile below the Bloomington ferrj'.
The wife of the farmer, a friend, and three child-
ren, besides a little Dahkotah girl, who had been
brought up in the mission-house at Kaposia, and
so changed in manners that her origin was
scarcely perceptible, were sitting in the room
when the Indians came in. Instantly seizing
the little Indian maiden, they threw her out of
the door, Idlled and scalped her, and fled before
the men wlio were near by, in the field, could
reach the house.
EVENTS OF A. D. 1857.
The procurement of a state organization, and
a grant of lands for railroad purposes, were the
topics of political interest during the year 1857.
The eighth Legislative Assembly convened at
the capitol on the seventh of January, and J. B.
Brisbin was elected President of the Council, and
J. W. Furber, Speaker of the House.
A bill changing the seat of government to
Saint Peter, on the Minnesota Biver, caused
much discussion.
On Saturday, February twenty -eighth, Mr.
Balcombe offered a resolution to report the bill
for the removal of the seat of government, and
should Mr. Kolette, chairman of the committee,
fail, that W. W. Wales, of said committee, report
a copy of said bill.
Mr. Setzer, after the reading of the resolution,
moved a call of the Council, and Mr. Eolette ^vas
found to be absent. The chair ordered the ser-
geant at arms to report Mr Eolette ui his seat.
Mr. Balcombe moved that farther proceedings
under the call be dispensed with ; which did not
prevail. From that time until the next Thursday
afternoon, March the fifth, a period of one hun-
dred and twenty-three hoiurs, the Council re-
mained in th€ir chamber without recess. At that
time a motion to adjourn prevailed. On Friday
another motion was made to dispense with the
call of the Council, which did not prevail. On
Saturday, the Council met, the president declared
tlie call still pending. At seven and a half p. m.,
a committee of the House was amiounced. The
chair ruled, that no communication from the
House could be received while a call of the Coun-
cil was pending, and the committee withdrew.
A motion was again made during the last night
of the session, to dispense with all further pro-
ceedings under the call, which prevailed, with
one vote only in the negative.
Mr. Ludden then moved that a committee be
appointed to wait on the Governor, and inquire if
he had any further communication to make to
the Council.
Mr. Lowry moved a call of the Council, which
was ordered, and the roll being called, Messrs.
Rolette, Thompson and Tillotson were absent.
At twelve o'clock at night the president re-
sumed the chair, and announced that the time
limited by law for the continuation of the session
of the territorial legislature had expired, and he
therefore declared the Council adjourned and the
seat of government remained at Saint Paul.
The excitement on the capital question was in-
tense, and it was a strange scene to see members
of the Council, eating and sleeping in the hall of
legislation for days, waittag for the sergeant-at-
arms to report an absent member in his seat.
On the twenty-third of February, 1857, an act
passed the United States Senate, to authorize
the people of Minnesota to form a constitution,
preparatory to their admission into the Union
on an equal footing with the original states.
Governor Gorman called a special session
of the legislature, to take into consideration
measures that would give efficiency to the act.
The extra session convened on ^Vpril twenty-
seventh, and a message was transmitted by Sam-
uel Medary, who had been appointed governor
in place of W. A. Gorman, whose term of ofiice
128
EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.
had expired. The extra session adjourned on
the twenty-third of May ; and in accordance
with tne provisions of the enabling act of Con-
gress, an. election was held on the first Monday
in June, for delegates to a convention which was
to assemble at the capitol on the second Monday
in July. The election resulted, as was thought,
in giving a majority of delegates to the Kepubli-
can party.
At midnight previous to the day fixed for the
meeting of the convention, the Republicans pro-
ceeded to the capitol, because the enabling act
had not fixed at what hour on the second Mon-
day the convention should assemble, and fear-
ing that the Democratic delegates might antici-
pate them, and elect the officers of the body.
A little before twelve, a. m., on Monday, the
secretary of the territory entered the speaker's
rostrum, and began to call the body to order;
and at the same time a delegate, J. W. North,
who had in his possession a written request from
the majority of the delegates prsccnt, proceeded
to do the same thing. The secretary of the ter-
ritory put a motion to adjourn, and the Demo-
cratic members present voting in the affirmative,
they left the hall. The Republicans, feeling that
they were in the majority, remained, and in due
time organized, and proceeded with the business
specified in the enabling act, to form a constitu-
tion, and. take all necessary steps for the estab-
lishment of a state government, in conformity
with the Federal Constitution, subject to the
approval and ratification of the people of the
proposed state.
After several days the Democratic wing also
organized in the Senate chamber at the capitol,
and, claiming to be the true body, also proceeded
to form a constitution. Both parties were re-
markably orderly and intelligent, and everything
was marked by perfect decorum. After they had
been, in session some weeks, moderate counsels
prevailed, and a committee of conference was
appointed from each body, which resulted in
both adopting the constitution framed by tlft
Democratic wing, on the twenty-ninth of Aug-
gust. According to the provision of the consti-
tution, an election was held for state officers
and the adoption of the constitution, on the
second Tuesday, the thirteenth of October. The
constitution was adopted by almost a unanimous
vote. It provided that the territorial ofticers
should retain their oflBces until the state was ad-
mitted into the Union, not anticipating the
long delay which was experienced.
The first session of the state legislature com-
menced on the first Wednesday of December, at
the capitol, in the city of Saint Paul ; aiid during
the month elected Henry M. Rice and James
Shields as their Representatives in the United
States Senate.
EVENTS OP A. D. 1868.
On the twenty-ninth of January, 1858, Mr.
Douglas submitted a bill to the United States
Senate, for the admission of Minnesota into the
Union. On the first of Pebruary, a discussion
arose on the bill, in which Senators Douglas,
Wilson, Gwin, Hale, Mason, Green, Brown, and
Crittenden participated. Brown, of Mississippi,
was opposed to the admission of Minnesota, un-
til the Kansas question was settled. Mr. Crit-
tenden, as a Southern man, could not endorse till
that was said by the Senator from Mississippi ;
and his words of wisdom and moderation during
this day's discussion, were worthy of remem-
brance. On April the seventh, the bill passed
the Senate with only three dissenting votes ; and
in a short time the House of Representatives
concurred, apd on May the eleventh, the Presi-
dent approved, and Minnesota was fully rec-
ognized as one of the United States of America.
FIRST STATE LEaiSLATUBE.
129
OUTLINE HISTORY
OF TEE
STATE OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTEE XXIV.
PIEST STATE iEGISLATUBE STATE BAItWAT BONDS
MINNESOTA DUEING THE CIVIL WAB— BBGIMENTS
■ — THE SIOUX OUTBBBAX.
The transition of Minnesota from a territorial
to a state organization occurred at the peripd when
the whole republic was suffering from financial em-
barrassments.
By an act of congress approved by the president
on the 5th of March, 1857, lands had been granted
to Minnesota to aid ia the construction of railways.
During an extra session of the legislature of Min-
nesota, an act was passed in May, 1857, giving
the congressional grant to certain corporations to
build railroads.
A few months after, it was discovered that the
corporators had neither the money nor the credit
to begin and complete these internal improve-
ments. In the winter of 1858 the legislature again
listened to the siren voices of the railway corpora-
tions, untU their words to some members seemed
like "apples of gold in pictures of silver," and an
additional act was passed submitting to the people
an amendment to the constitution which provided
for the loan of the publio credit to the land grant
railtoad companies to the amount of $5,000,000,
upon condition that a certain amount of labor on
the roads was performed.
Some of the citizens saw in the proposed meas-
tire "a cloud no larger than a man's hand," which
vpould lead to a terrific storm, and a large publio
meeting was convened at the capitol in St. Paul,
and addressed by ex-Governor Gorman, D. A.
Robertson, WUliamE. Marshall and others depre-
9
ciating the engrafting of such a peculiar amend-
ment into the constitution; but the people were
poor and needy and deluded and would not lis-
ten; their hopes and happiness seemed to depend
upon the plighted faith of railway corporators, and
on April the 15th, the appointed election day,
25,023 votes were deposited for, while only 6,733
votes were oast against the amendment.
FIEST STATE LEGISLATUBE.
The election of October, 1857, was carried on
with much partisan feeling by democrats and re-
publicans. The returns from wilderness precincts
were unusually large, and in the counting of votes
for governor, Alexander Eamsey appeared to have
received 17,550, and Henry H. Sibley 17,796 bal-
lots. Governor Sibley was declared elected by a
majority of 246, and duly recognized. The first
legislature assembled on the 2d of December,
1857, before the formal admission of Minnesota
into the Union, and on the 25th of March, 1858,
adjourned until June the 2d, when it again met.
The next day Governor Sibley delivered his mes-
sage. His term of ofEoe was arduous. On the
4th of AugTist, 1858, he expressed his determina-
tion not to deliver any state bonds to the railway
companies unless they would give first mortgages,
with priority of lien, upon their lands, roads and
franchises, in favor of the state. One of the com-
panies applied for a mandamus from the supreme
court of the state, to compel the issue of the
bonds without the restrictions demanded by the
governor.
In November the court, Judge Plandrau dis-
senting, directed the governor to issue state bonds
as soon as a railway company delivered their first
130
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
mortgage bonds, as provided by the amendment
to the constitution. But, as was to be expected,
bonds sent out under such peculiar circumstances
were not sought after by capitalists. Moreover,
after over two million dollars in bonds had been
issued, not an iron rail had been laid, and only
about two hundred and fifty miles of grading had
been completed.
In his last message Governor Sibley in refer-
ence to the law in regard to state credit to railways,
says: "I regret to be obliged to state that the
measure has proved a failure, and has by no means
accomplished what was hojied from it, either in
providing means for the issue of a safe currency
or of aiding the companies in the completion of
the work upon the roads.''
ACT FOB NOBMAIi SCHOOLS.
Notwithstanding the pecuniary complications of
the state, during Governor Sibley's administra-
tion, the legislature did not entirely forget that
there were some interests of more importance than
railway construction, and on the 2d of August,
1858, largely through the influence of the late
John D. Ford, M. D., a public spirited citizen of
Winona, an act was passed for the establishment
of three training schools for teachers.
FIKST STEAMBOAT ON THE BBBf BIVBE OB THE
NOBTH.
In the month of June, 1859 an important route
was opened between the Mississippi and the Bed
Biver of the North. The then enterprising firm
of J. 0. Burbank & Co., of St. Paul, having se-
cured from the Hudson Bay Company the trans-
portation of their supplies by way of the Missis-
sippi, in place of the tedious and treacherous routes
through Hudson's Bay or Lake Superior, they
purchased a little steamboat on the Bed Biver of
the North which had been built by Anson North-
rup, and commenced the carrying of freight and
passengers by land to Breokenridge and by water
to Pembina.
This boat had been the first steamboat which
moved on the Mississippi above the falls of St.
Anthony, to which there is a reference made upon
the 121st page.
Mr. Northrup, after he purchased the boat, with
a large number of wagons carried the boat and
machinery from Crow Wing on the Mississippi
and on the 8th of April, 1859, reached the Bed
Biver not far from the site of Fargo.
SECOND STATE LEGISLATUEB.
At an election held in October, 21,335 votes were
deposited for Alexander Eamsey as governor, and
17,532 for George L. Becker. Governor Eamsey,
in an inaugural delivered on the second of Jan-
uary, 1860, devoted a large space to the discus-
sion of the difficulties arising from the issue of
the railroad bonds. He said: "It is extremely
desirable to remove as speedily as possible so vex-
ing a question from our state politics, and not al-
low it to remain for years to disturb our elections,
possibly to divide our people into bond and anti-
bond parties, and introduce, annually, into our
legislative halls an element of discord and possi-
bly of corruption, aUtoend justas similar compli-
cations ia other states have ended. The men who
will have gradually engrossed the posession of all
the bonds, at the cost of a few cents on the dollar,
will knock year after year at the door of the legisla-
ture for their payment in full, the press will be
subsidized; the cry of repudiation will be raised;
all the ordinary and extraordinary means of pro-
curing legislation in doubtful cases will be freely
resorted to, until finally the bondholders wiU pile
up almost fabulous fortunes. * * * * It is
assuredly true that the present time is, of all
others, alike for the present bondholder and the
people of the state, the very time to arrange, ad-
just and settle these unfortunate and deplorable
railroad and loan complications."
The legislature of this year passed a law sub-
mitting an amendment to the constitution which
would prevent the issue of any more railroad bonds.
At an election in November, 1860, it was voted on,
and reads as follows : "The credit of the state
shall never be given on bonds in aid of any in-
dividual, association or corporation; nor shall there
be any further issue of bonds denominated Min-
nesota state railroad bonds, under what purports
to be an amendment to section ten, of article nine,
of the constitution, adopted April 14, 1858, which
is hereby expunged from the constitution, saving,
excepting, and reserving to the state, nevertheless,
all rights, remedies and forfeitures accruing under
said amendment."
FIBST WHITE PEESON EXECUTED.
On page 126 there is a notice of the first In-
dian hung under the laws of Minnesota. Oo
March 23, 1860 the first white person was executed
and attracted considerable attention from the fact,
the one who suffered the penalty of the law was a
woman.
Michael Bilansky died on the 11th of March,
1859, and uptjn examination, he was found to have
THE PinST REGIMENT INFANTRY.
131
been poisoned. Anna, his fourth wife, was tried
for the offence, found guilty, and on the 3d of De-
cember, 1859, sentenced to be hung. The oppo-
nents to capital punishment secured the passage of
an act, by the legislature, to meet her case, but it
was vetoed by the governor, as unconstitutional.
Two days before the execution, the unhappy wo-
man asked her spiritual adviser to write to her
parents in North Carolina, but not to state the
cause of her death. Her scaffold was erected
within the square of the Bamsey county jail.
THIRD STATE IiBGISLATDKB.
The third state legislature assembled on the 8th of
January, 1861, and adjourned on the 8th of March.
As Minnesota was the first state which received
1,280 acres of land in each township, for school
purposes, Governor Eamsey in his annual message
occupied several pages, in an able and elaborate
argument as to the best methods of guarding and
selling the school lands, and of protecting the
school fund.
His predecessor in oflce, while a member of the
convention to frame the constitution, had spoken
in favor of dividing the school funds among the
townships of the state, subject to the control of
the local officers.
MINNESOTA DUBING THE CIVHi WAB.
The people of Minnesota had not been as excited
as the citizens of the Atlantic states on the ques-
tion which was discussed before the presidential
election of November, 1860, and a majority had
calmly declared their preference for Abraham Lin-
coln, as president of the repubhc.
But the blood of her quiet and intelligent popu-
lation was stirred on the morniug of April 14»
1861, by the intelligence iu the daily newspapers
that the day before, the insurgents of South Caro-
lina had bombarded Port Sumter, and that after a
gallant resistance of thirty-four hours General
Eobert Anderson and the few soldiers of his com-
mand had evacuated the fort.
Governor Eamsey was in Washington at this
period, and called upon the president of the repub-
lic with two other citizens from Minnesota, and
was the first of the state governors to tender the
services of his fellow citizens. The offer of a regi-
ment was accepted. The first company raised un-
der the call of Minnesota was composed of ener-
getic young men of St. Paul, and its captain was
the esteemed William H. Acker, who afterwards
fell in battle.
On the last Monday of April a 'camp for the
First regiment was opened at Fort SneUing.
More companies having offered than were necessary
on the 80th of May Governor Bamsey sent a tele-
gram to the secretary of war, offering another
regiment.
THE PIBST EEGIMBNT.
On the 14th of June the First regiment was or-
dered to Washington, and on the 21st it embarked
at St. Paul on the steamboats War Eagle and
Northern Belle, with the following ofScers :
Willis A. Gorman, Colonel — ^Promoted to be
brigadier general October 7, 1861, by the advice
of Major General Winfield Scott.
Stephen Miller, Lt. Colonel — Made colonel of 7th
regiment August, 1862.
William H. Dike, Major — Besigned October 22,
1861.
WOliam B. Leach, Adjiitant — Made captain and
A. A. G. February 23, 1862.
Mark W. Downie, Quartermaster — Captain
Company B, July 16, 1861.
Jacob H. Stewart, Surgeon — Prisoner at Bull
Bun, July 21, 1861. Paroled at Biohmond, Vir-
ginia.
Charles W. Le BoutUlier, Assistant Surgeon —
Prisoner at Bull Bun. Surgeon 9th regiment.
Died April, 1863.
Edward D. Neill, Chaplain — Commissioned July
13, 1862, hospital chaplain U. S. A., resigned in
1864, and appointed by President Lincoln, one
of his secretaries.
After a few days in Washington, the regi-
iment was sent to Alexandria, Virginia, where
until the 16th of July it remained. On the
morning of that day it began with other
troops of Franklin's brigade to movetoward
the enemy, and that night encamped in the val-
ley of Pohick creek, and the next day marched
to Sangster's station on the Orange & Alexandria
railroad. The third day Centreville was reached.
Before daylight on Sunday, the 21st of July, the
soldiers of the First regiment rose for a march to
battle. About three o'clock in the morning they
left camp, and after passing through the hamlet of
Centreville, halted for General Hunter's column to
pass. At dayhght the regiment again began to
move, and after crossing a bridge on the Warren-
ton turnpike, turned into the woods, from which at
about ten o'clock it emerged into an open coun-
try, from which could be seen an artillery engage-
ment on the left between the Union troops under
Hunter, and the insurgents commanded by Evans.
132
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
An hour after this the regiment reached a branch
of Bull Eun, and, as the men ■were thirsty, began
to fill their empty canteens. While thus occu-
pied, and as the St. Paul company under Captain
WUkins was crossing the creek, an order came
for Colonel Gorman to hurry up the regiment.
The men now moved rapidly through the wood-
land of a hillside, stepping over some of the dead
of Bumside's command, and hearing the cheers
of victory caused by the pressing back of the in-
surgent troops. At length the regiment, passing
Sudley church, reached a clearing in the woods,
and halted, while other troops of Franklin's brig-
ade passed up the Sudley church road. Next
they passed through a narrow strip of woods and
occupied the cidtivatsd field from which Evans and
Bee of the rebel army had been driven by the
troops of Bumside, Sykes and others of Hunter's
division.
Crossing the Sudley road, Biokett's battery un-
limbered and began to fire at the enemy, whose
batteries were between the Bobinson and Henry
house on the south side of the Warrenton turn-
pike, while the First Minnesota passed to the right.
After firing about twenty minutes the battery was
ordered to go down the Sudley road nearer the
enemy, where it was soon disabled. The First
Minnesota was soon met by rebel troops advancing
under cover of the woods, who supposed the reg-
iment was a part of the confederate army.
Javan B. Irvine, then a private citizen af St.
Paul, on a visit to the regiment, now a captain in
the "United States army, wrote to his wife: "We
had just formed when we were ordered to kneel
and fire upon the rebels who were advancing under
the cover of the woods. We fired two volleys
through the woods, when we were ordered to rally
in the woods in our rear, which all did except the
first platoon of our own company, which did not
hear the order and stood their ground. The
rebels soon came out from their shelter between
us and their battery. Colonel Gorman mistook
them for friends and told the men to cease firing
apon them, although they had three secession
flags directly in front of fheir advancing columns.
This threw our men into confusion, some declaring
they are friends; others that they are enemies. I
called to our boys to give it to them, and fired
away myself as rapidly as possible. The rebels
themselves mistook us for Georgia troops, and
waved their hands at us to cease firing. I had
just loaded to give them another charge, when a
lieutenant-colonel of a Mississippi regiment rode
out between us, waiving his hand for us to stop
firing. I rushed up to him and asked 'If he was a
secessionist?' He said 'He was a Mississippian.'
I presented my bayonet to his breast and com-
manded him to surrender, which he did after some
hesitation. I ordered him to dismount, and led
him and his horse from the field, in the meantime
disarming him of his sword and pistols. I led him
off about two miles and placed him in charge of
a lieutenant with an escort of cavalry, to be taken
to General McDowell. He requested the officer to
allow me to accompany him, as he desired my pro-
tection. The ofhoer assured him that he would
be safe in their hands, and he rode off. I retained
his pistol, but sent his sword with him." In an-
other letter, dated the 25th. of July, Mr. Irvine
writes from Washington : "I have just returned
from a visit to Lieutenant-Colonel Boone, who is
confined in the old Capitol. I found him in a
pleasant room on the third story, snrrotmded by
several southern gentlemen, among whom was
Senator Breckenridge. He was glad to see me,
and appeared quite well after the fatigue of the
battle of Sunday. There were with me Chaplain
Neill, Captains Wilkin and ColviUe, and Lieuten-
ant Ooates, who were introduced."
The mistake of several regiments of the Union
troops in supposing that the rebels were friendly
regiments led to confusion and disaster, which was
followed by panic.
SECOND KBGIMBNT.
The Second Minnesota Begiment which had
been organized in July, 1861, left Fort SneUing
on the eleventh of October, and proceeding to
Louisville, was incorporated with the Army of the
Ohio. Its officers were: Horatio P. Van Cleve,
Colonel. Promoted Brigader General March 21,
1862. James George, Lt. Colond. Promoted
Colonel; rasigned June 29, 1864. Simeon Smith,
Major. Appointed Paymaster U. S. A., Septem-
ber, 1861. Alexander Wilkin, Major. Colonel
9th Minnesota, August, 1862. Eeginald Bingham,
Swrgeon. Dismissed May 27, 1862. M. C. Toll-
man, AssH Surgeon. Promoted Surgeon. Timothy
Oressey, Chaplain. Eesigned October, 10, 1863.
Daniel D. Heaney, Adjutant. Promoted Captain
Company O. William S. Grow, Quarter Master.
Eesigned, January, 1863.
SHABP SHOOTBES.
A company of Sharp Shooters under Captain
F, Peteler, proceeding to Washington, on the 11th.
MINNESOTA DUBING THE REBELLION.
133
of October was assigned as Co., A, '2d Kegiment
TJ. S. Sharp Shooters.
THIRD REGIMENT.
On the 16th of November, 1861, the Third Beg-
iment left the State and went to Tennessee. Its
officers were: Henry Q. Lester, CotoTieZ. Dismissed
Decmber 1, 1862. Benjamin F. Smith, Lt. Colonel.
Eesigned May 9, 1862. John A. Hadley, Major.
Resigned May 1, 1862. B. C. Olin, Adjutant. —
Eesigned. 0. H, Blakely, Adjutant. Levi Butler.
Surgeon. — ^Resigned September 30, 1863. Francis
Millipan, AssH Surgeon. — Eesigned April 8, 1862.
Chauncey Hobart, Chaplain. — Eesigned June 2,
1863.
AETtLLEHY.
In December, the First Battery of Light Artil-
lery left the State, and reported for duty at St.
Louis, Missouri
CAVALRT.
During the fall, three companies of oavaby
were organized, and proceeded to Benton Barracks,
Missouri. Ultimately they were incorporated
with the Fifth Iowa Cavalry.
MOVEMENTS OF MINNESOTA TROOPS IN 1862.
On Sunday the 19th of January, 1862, not far
from Somerset and about forty miles from DanviUe,
Kentucky, about 7 o'clock in the morning, Ool.
Van Cleve was ordered to meet the enemy. In
ten minutes the Second Minnesota regiment was
in line of battle. After supporting a battery for
some time it continued the march, and pro-
ceeding half a mile found the enemy behind the
fences, and a hand to hand fight of thirty minutes
ensued, resulting in the flight of the rebels. Gen.
Zollicoffer and Lieut. Peyton, of the insurgents
were of the killed.
BATTLE OF PITTSBTJEQ LANDING.
On Sunday, the 6th of April occurred the battle
of Pittsburg Landing, in Tennessee. Minnesota
was there represented by the First Minnesota bat-
tery, Captain Emil Munch, which was attached to
the division of General Prentiss. Captain Munch
was severely wounded. One of the soldiers of his
command wrote as follows: "Sunday morning,
just after breakfast, an officer rode up to our Cap-
tain's tent and told him to prepare for action. *
* * * * We wheeled into battery and opened
upon them. * * * Tiie first time we wheeled
one of our drivers was killed; his name was Colby
Stinson. Haywood's horse was shot at almost the
same time. The second time we came into bat-
tery, the captain was wounded in the leg, and his
horse shot under him. They charged on our guns
and on the sixth platoon howitzer, but they got
hold of the wrong end of the gun. We then lim-
bered up and retreated within the line of battle.
While we were retreating they shot one of our
horses, when we had to stop and take him out,
which let the rebels come up rather close. When
within about six rods they fired and wounded
Corporal Davis, breaking his leg above the "ankle."
As the artUlery driver was picked up, after be-
ing fatally wounded, at the beginning of the fight
he said, 'Don't stop with me. Stand to your guns
like men,' and expired.
PXBST REGIMENT AT YORKTOWN SIEGE.
Early in April the First regiment as a
part of Sedgwick's division of the Army
of the Potomac arrived near Yorktown,
Virginia, and was stationed between the
Warwick and York rivers, near Wynnes' miU. Dur-
ing the night of the 30th of May, there was a con-
tinual discharge of cannon by the enemy, but just
before daylight the next day, which was Sunday,
it ceased and the pickets cautiously approaching
discovered that the rebels had abandoned their
works. The next day the regiment was encamped
on the field where Comwallis surrendered to Wash-
ington.
BATTLE OP FAIR OAKS.
While Gorman's brigade was encamped at
Goodly Hole creek, Hanover county, Virginia, an
order came about three o'clock of the afternoon of
Saturday, the thirty-first day of May to
to cross the Ohicahominy and engage in
the battle which had been going on for a few
hours. In a few minutes the First Minnesota was
on the march, by a road which had been out
through the swamp, and crossed the Chicahominy
by a rude bridge of logs, with both ends com-
pletely submerged by the stream swollen by re-
cent rains, and rising every hour.
About 5 o'clock in the afternoon the First Min-
nesota as the advance of Gorman's brigade reached
the scene of action, and soon the whole brigade
with Kirby's battery held the enemy in check at
that point.
The next day they were in line of battle but not
attacked. Upon the field around a country farm
house they encamped.
BATTLE OF SAVAGE STATION.
Just before daylight on Sunday, June the 29th,
Sedgwick's, to which the First Minnesota belonged,
left the position that had been held since the bat-
134
OUTLINE BISTORT OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
tie of Fair Oaks, and had not proceeded more than
two miles before they met the enemy in a peach
orchard, and after a sharp conflict compelled
them to retire. At about 5 o'clock the afternoon
of the same day they again met the enemy at
Savage Station, and a battle lasted till dark. Bur-
gess, the color sergeant who brought ofl' the flag
from the Bull Eun battle, a man much respected,
was kiUed instantly.
On Monday, between White Oak swamp and
WiUis' church, the regiment had a skii-mish, and
Captain ColviUe was slightly wounded. Tuesday
was the 1st of July, and the regiment was drawn
up at the dividing line of Henrico and Charles
City county, in sight of James river, and although
much exposed to the enemy's batteries, was not
actually engaged. At midnight the order was
given to move, and on the morning of the 2d of
July they tramped upon the wheat fields at Har-
rison's Landing, and in a violent rain encamped.
MOVEMENTS OE OTHER TB00P3.
The Fourth regiment left Fort Snelling for Ben-
ton barracks, Missouri, on the 21st of April, 1862,
with the following oiEcers:
John B. Sanborn, CoZorae^— Promoted brigadier
general.
Minor T. Thomas, Lt. CoZoraeZ— Made colonel of
8th regiment August 24, 1862.
A. Edward Welch, Major — Died at Nashville
February 1, 1864.
John M. Thompson, Adjutant — Captain Com-
pany E, November 20, 1862.
Thomas B. Hunt, Qaartermaster — Made captain
and A. Q. M. April 9, 1863.
John H. Murphy, Surgeon — ^Resigned July 9,
1863.
Elisha W. Cross, Assistant Swrgeon — Promoted
July 9, 1863.
Asa S. Fiske, OTmplain — Resigned Oct. 3, 1864.
FIETH KEGIMBNT.
The Second Minnesota Battery, Captain W. A.
Hotchkiss, left the same day as the Fourth regi-
ment. On the 13th of May the Fifth regiment
departed from Fort Snelling with the following
officers: Eudolph Borgesrode, colonel, resigned
August 31, 1862; Lucius P. Hubbard, heutenant-
oolonel, promoted colonel August 31, 1862, elected
governor of Minnesota 1881; William B. Gere,
major, promoted lieutenant- colonel; Alpheus R.
French, adjutant, resigned March 19, 1863; W.
B. MoGrorty, quartermaster, resigned September
15, 1864; F. B. Etheridge, surgeon, resigned Sep-
tember 3, 1862 ; V. B. Kennedy, assistant surgeon,
promoted surgeon; J. F. Chaffee, chaplain, re-
signed June 23, 1862; John Ireland, chaplain, re-
signed April, 1863.
Before the close of May the Second, Fourth and
Fifth regiments were in conflict with the insur-
gents, near Corinth, Mississippi.
BATTIiB OF lUKA.
On the 18th of September, Colonel Sanborn,
acting as brigade commander in the Third divis-
ion of the Army of the Mississippi, moved his
troops, including the Fourth Mionesota regiment,
to a position on the Tuscumbia road, and formed
a hue of battle.
BATTLE OE CORINTH.
Li a few days the contest began at luka, culmi-
nated at Corinth, and the Fourth and Fifth regi-
ments and First Minnesota battery were engaged.
On the 3d of October, about five o'clock, Colo-
nel Sanborn advanced his troops and received a
severe fire from the enemy. Captain Mowers
beckoned with ilis sword during the firing, as if
he wished to make an important communication,
but before Colonel Sanborn reached his side he
fell, having been shot through the head. Before
daylight on the 4th of October the Fifth regiment,
under command of Colonel L. F. Hubbard, was
aroused by the discharge of artillery. Later in
the day it became engaged with the enemy, and
drove the rebels out of the streets of Corinth. A
private writes: "When we charged on the enemy
General Rosecrans asked what little regiment that
was, and on being told said 'The Fifth Minnesota
had saved the town.' Major Coleman, General
Stanley's assistant adjutant- general, was with us
when he received his bullet- wound, and his last
words were, "Tell the general that the Fifth Min-
nesota fought nobly. God bless the Fifth.' "
OTHER MOVEMENTS.
A few days after the fight at Corinth the Sec-
ond Minnesota battery, Captain Hotchkiss, did
good service with BueU's army at Perryville, Ky.
In the battle of Fredericksburg, Va., on the
13th of December, the First Minnesota regiment
supported Kirbey's battery as it had done at Fair
Oaks.
THIRD REGIMENT HUMIIjIATED.
On the morning of the 13th of July, near Mur-
freesboro, Ky., the Third regiment was in the pres-
ence of the enemy. The colonel called a council
of officers to decide whether they should fight,
and the first vote was in the affirmative, but an-
THE SIOVX OUTBREAK.
135
other vote being taken it was decided to surrender.
Lieutenant- Colonel 0. W. Griggs, Captains An-
drews and Hoyt voted each time to fight. In
September the regiment returned to Minnesota,
humiliated by the want of good judgment upon
the part of their colonel, and was a:ssigned to duty
in the Indian country.
THE SIOUX OTJTBBEAK.
The year 1862 will always be remembered as the
period of the uprising of the Sioux, and the
slaughter of the unsuspecting inhabitants of the
scattered settlements in the Minnesota valley.'
Elsewhere in this work will be found a detailed ac-
coimt of the savage cruelties. In this place we
only give the narrative of the events as related by
Alexander Bamsey, 4hen the governor of Min-
nesota.
"My surprise may therefore be judged, when, on
August 19th, while busy in my office, Mr. Wm. H.
Shelley, one of our citizens who had been at the
agency just before the outbreak, came in, dusty
and exhausted with a fifteen hours' ride on horse-
back, bearing dispatches to me of the most start-
ling character from Agent Galbraith, dated Au-
gust 18th, stating that the same day the Sioux at
the lower agency had risen, murdered the settlers,
and were plundering and burning all the build-
ings in that vicinity. As I beUeve no particulars
regarding the manner in which the news were first
conveyed to me has been published, it might be
mentioned here. Mr. Shelley had been at Ked-
wood agency, and other places in that vicinity,
with the concurrence of the agent, recruiting men
for a company, which was afterwards mustered into
the Tenth regiment under Captain James O'Gor-
man, formerly a clerk of Nathan Myrick, Esq., a
trader at Eedwood, and known as the Benville
Bangera. He (Shelley) left Eedwood, he states,
on Saturday, August 16th, with forty-five men,
bound for Port SneUing. Everything was quiet
there theu. It may be well to note here that one
of the supposed causes of the outbreak was the
fact that the Indians had been told that the gov-
ernment needed soldiers very badly, that many
white men had been killed, and that all those in
that locality were to be marched south, leaving
the state unprotected. Seeing the men leave on
Saturday may have strengthened this belief. Stop-
ping at Eort Eidgely that night, the Benville
Bangers the next day continued their march, and
on Monday afternoon arrived at St. Peter. Gal-
braith was with them. Here he was overtaken by
a messenger who had ridden down from Bed-
wood that day, hearing the news of the ten-ible
occurrences of that morhing. This messenger was
Mr. — Dickinson, who formerly kept a hotel at
Henderson, but was living on the reservation at
that time. He was in great distress about the
safety of his family, and returning at once was
killed by the Indians.
"When Agent Galbraith received the news, Mr.
SheUey states, no one would at first believe it,
as such rumors are frequent in the Indian country.
Mr. Dickinson assured him of the truth with such
earnestness, however, that his accoimt was finally
credited and the Benville Bangers were at once
armed and sent back to Port Bidgely, where they
did good service in protecting the post.
"Agent Galbraith at once prepared the dispatches
to me, giving the terrible news and calling for aid.
No one could be found who would volunteer to
carry the message, and Mr. Shelley ofiered to
come himself. He had great difficulty in getting
a horse ; but finally secured one, and started for
St. Paul, a distance of about ninety miles, about
dark. He had not ridden a horse for some years,
and as may be well supposed by those who have
had experience in amateur horseback-riding, suf-
fered very much from soreness; but rode all night
at as fast a gate as his horse could carry him,
spreading the startling news as he went down the
Minnesota valley. Beaching St. Paul about 9 A.
M., much exhausted he made his way to the capitol,
and laid before me his message. The news soon
spread 'through the city and created intense ex-
citement.
"At that time, of course, the full extent and
threatening nature of the outbreak could not be
determined. It seemed serious, it is true, but in
view of the riotous conduct of the Indians at
Yellow Medicine a few days before, was deemed a
repetition of the emeute, which would be simply
local in its character, and easily quelled by a small
force and good management on the part of the
authorities at the agency.
"But these hopes, (that the outbreak was a local
one) were soon rudely dispelled by the arrival, an
hour or two later, of another courier, George C.
Whitcomb, of Forest City, bearing the news of
the murders at Acton. Mr. Whitcomb had ridden
to Chaska or Carver on Monday, and came down
from there on the small steamer Antelope, reaching
the city an hour or two after Mr. Shelley.
"It now became evident that the outbreak was
136
OUTLINE HI8T0BT OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
more general than had at &st been credited, and
that prompt and vigorous measures would be re-
quired for its suppression and the protection of
the inhabitants on the frontier. I at once pro-
ceeded to Port Snelling and consulted with the
authorities there (who had abeady received dis-
patches from Fort Eidgely) regarding the out-
break and the best means to be used to meet the
danger.
"A serious difficulty met us at the outstart. The
only troops at Fort Snelling were the raw recruits
who had been hastily gathered for the five regi-
ments. Most of them were without arms or suit-
able clothing as yet; some not mustered in or
properly officered, and those who had arms had
no fixed ammunition of the proper calibre. We
were without transportation, quartermaster's or
commissary stores, und, in fact, devoid of anything
with which to commence a campaign against two
or three thousand Indians, well mounted and
armed, with an abundance of ammunition and
provisions captured at the agency, and flushed
with the easy victories they had just won over the
unarmed settlers. Finally four companies were
fully organized, armed and uniformed, and late at
night were got off on two small steamers, the An-
telope and Pomeroy, for Shakopee, from which
point they would proceed overland. It was ar-
ranged that others should follow as fast as they
could be got ready.
"This expedition was placed under the manage-
ment of H. H. Sibley, whose long residence in the
country of the Sioux had given him great influ-
ence with that people, and it was hoped that the
chiefs and older men were stiU sensible to reason,
and that with his diplomatic ability he could bring
the powers of these to check the mad and reck-
less disposition of the "young men," and that if
an opportunity for this failed that his knowledge
of Indian war and tactics would enable him to
overcome them in battle. And I think the result
indicated the wisdom of my choice.
•'I at once telegraphed all the facts to President
Lincoln, and also telegraphed to Governor Solo-
mon, of Wisconsin, for one hundred thousand cart-
ridges, of a calibre to fit our rifles, and the requi-
sition was kindly honored by that patriotic officer,
and the ammunition was on its way next day.
The governors of Iowa, Illinois and Michigan were
also asked for arms and ammunition.
During the day other messengers arrived from
Fort Bidgely, St. Peter and other points on
the upper Minnesota, with intelligence of the
most painful character, regarding the extent and
ferocity of the massacre. The messages all pleaded
earnestly for aid, and intimated that without
speedy reinforcements or a supply of arms, Fort
Eidgely, New Ulm, St. Peter and other points
would imdoubtedly fall into the hands of the
savages, and thousands of persons be butchered
The principal danger seemed to be to the settle-
ments in that region, as they were in the vicinity
of the main body of Indians congregated to await
the payments. Comers arrived from various
points every few hours, and I spent the whole
night answering their calls as I could.
"Late that night, probably after midnight, Mr.
J. T. Branham, Sr., arrived from Forest City, after
a forced ride on horseback of 100 miles, bearing
the following message:
;(:*»** ***
"PoKBST City, Aug. 20, 1862, 6 o'clock a. m.
His Excellency, Alexander Banisey, Governor,
etc. — Sir: In advance of the news from the Min-
nesota river, the Indians have opened on us in
Meeker. It is war I A few propose to make a
stand here. Send us, forthwith, some good guns
and ammunition to match. Tours truly,
A. C. Smith.
Seventy-five stands of Springfield rifles and sev-
eral thousand rounds of ball cartridges were at
once issued to George 0. Whitcomb, to be used in
arming a company which I directed to be raised
and enrolled to use these arms; and Gen. Sibley
gave Mr. Whitcomb a captain's commission for
the company. Transportation was furnished him,
and the rifles were in Forest City by the morning
of the 23d, a portion having been issued to a
company at Hutchinson on the way up. A com-
pany was organized and the arms placed in their
hands, and I am glad to say they did good service
in defending the towns of Forest City and Hutch-
inson on more than one occasion, and many of the
Indians are known to have been killed with them.
The conduct and bravery of the courageous men
who guarded those towns, and resisted the assaults
of the red savages, are worthy of being commemo-
rated on the pages of our state history."
MOVEMENT OF MINNESOTA BBGIMENTS 1863.
On the 3d of April, 1863, the Fourth regiment
was opposite Grand Gulf, Mississippi, and in a
few days they entered Port Gibson, and here Col.
Sanborn resumed the command of a brigade. On
the 14th of May the regiment was at the battle
BATTLE OF GETTTSBURO.
137
of Raymond, and on the 14th partibipated in the
buttle of Jackson. A newspaper correspondent
writes: "Captain L. B. Martin, of the Fourth
Minnesota, A. A. G. to Colonel Sanborn, seized the
flag of the 59th Indiana infantry, rode rapidly be-
yond the skirmishers, (Co. H, Fourth Minnesota,
Lt. Geo. A. Clark) and raised it over the dome of
the capitol" of Mississippi. On the 16th the regi-
ment was in the battle of Champion Hill, and fpur
days later in the siege of Vioksburg.
FIFTH EEQIMENT.
The Fifth regiment reached Grand Gulf on the
7th of May and was in the battles of Eaymond
and Jackson, and at the rear of Vioksburg.
BATTLE OF GETTYSBniia.
The First regiment reached Gettysburg, Pa.,
on the Ist of July, and the next morning Han-
cook's corps, to which it was attached, moved to a
ridge,- the right resting on Cemetery HiU, the left
near Sugar Loaf Mountain. The line of battle
was a semi-ellipse, and Gibbon's division, .to
which the regiment belonged occupied the
center of the curve nearest the enemy. On tho
2d of July, about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Gen-
eral Hancock rode up to Colonel Colville, and
ordered him to charge upon the advancing foe.
The muzzles of the opposing maskets were not far
distant and the conflict was terrific. When the
sun set Captain Muller and Lieutenant Farrer were
kflled; Captain Periam mortally wounded; Colonel
Colville, Lieut-Colonel Adams, Major Downie,
Adjutant PeUer, Lieutenants Sinclair, Demerest,
DeGray and Boyd, severely wounded.
On the 3d of July, about 10 o'clock in the morn-
ing, the rebels opened a terrible artUlery fire,
which lasted untU 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and
then the infantry was suddenly advanced, and
there was a fearful conflict, resulting in the defeat
of the enemy. The loss on this day was also very
severe. Captain Messick, in command of the
First regiment, after the wounding of Colville,
and Adams and Downie, was killed. Captain Farrell
was mortally wounded, and Lieutenants Harmon,
HeffelfiBger, and May were wounded. Color-Ser-
geant E. P. Perkins was wounded on the 2d of
July. On the 3d of July Corporal Dehn, of the
color guard was shot through tte hand and the
flag staff out in two. Corporal H. D. O'Brien
seized the flag with the broken staff and waving
it over his head rushed up to the muzzles of the
enemy's muskets and was wounded in the hand,
but Corporal W. N. Irvine instantly grasped the
flag arvd held it up. Marshall Sherman of com-
pany E, captured the flag of the 28th Virginia
regiment.
THE SECOND EEGIMENT.
The Second regiment, under Colonel George,
on the 19th of September fought at Chicamauga,
and in the first day's fight, eight were killed and
forty-one wounded. On the 25th of November,
Lieutenant-Colonel Bishop in command, it moved
against the enemy at Mission Eidge, and of the
seven non-commissioned officers in the color guard,
six were killed or wounded.
The Fourth regiment was also in the vicinity of
Chattanooga, but did not suffer any loss.
EVENTS OF 1864.
The Third regiment, which after the Indian ex-
pedition had been ordered to Little Eock, Arkan-
sas, on the 30th of March, 1864, had an engage-
ment near Augusta, at Fitzhugh's Woods. Seven
men were killed and sixteen wounded. General
C. C. Andrews, in command of the force, had his
horse killed by a bullet.
' FIRST KBGIMENT.
The First regiment after three year's service
was mustered out at Fort Snelling, and on the
28th of April, 1864, held its last dress parade, in
the presence of Governor Miller, who had once
been their Heutenant-colonel and commander. In
May some of its members re-enlisted as a battal-
ion, and again joined the Army of the Potomac.
SIXTH, SEVENTH, NINTH AND TENTH EBGIMENTS.
The Sixth regir'»ut, which had been in the ex-
pedition against the Sioux, in June, 1864, was as-
signed to the 16th army corps, as was the Seventh,
Ninth and Tenth, and on the 13th of July, near
Tupelo, Mississippi, the Seventh, Ninth and Tenth,
with portions of the Fifth, were in battle. Dur-
ing the first day's fight Surgeon Smith, of the
Seventh, was fatally wounded through the neck.
On the morning of the 14th the battle began in
earnest, and the Seventh, under Colonel W. E.
Marshall, made a successful charge. Colonel Al-
exander Wilkin, of the Ninth, was shot, and fell
dead from his horse.
THE FOUBTH EEGIMENT.
On the 15th of October the Fourth regiment
were engaged near Altoona, Georgia.
THE EIGHTH EEGIMENT.
On the 7th of December the Eighth was in bat-
tle near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and fourteen
were killed and seventy-six wounded.
138
OUTLINE HISTORY OF TEE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
BATTLE OF NASHVILIiB.
During the month of December the Fifth,
Seventh, Ninth and Tenth regiments did good ser-
vice before Nashville. Colonel L. F. Hubbard, of
the Fifth, commanding a brigade, after he had
been knocked off his horse by a ball, rose, and on
foot led his command over the enemy's works.
Colonel "W. R. Marshall, of the Seventh, in com-
mand of a brigade, made a gallant charge, and
Lieutenant- colonel S. P. Jennison, of the Tenth,
one of the first on the enemy's parapet, received a
severe wound.
MINNESOTA TBOOPS IN 18&5.
In the spring of 1865 the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh,
Ninth and Tenth regiments were engaged in the
siege of Mobile. The Second and Fourth regi-
ments and First battery were with General Sher-
man in his wonderful campaign, and the Eighth
in the month of March was ordered to North Car-
olina. The battalion, the remnant of the First,
was with the Army of the Potomac until Lee's sur-
render.
Arrangements were soon perfected for disband-
ing the Union army, and before the close of the
summer all the Minnesota regiments that had been
on duty were discharged.
LiST OF MINNESOTA EBGIMENTS AND TEOOPS.
First, Organized April
1851,
Discharged May 5, 1364
Second "
July
"
July 11, 1865
Third
Oct.
"
Sept.
Fourth "
Deo.
"
Aug. '
Fifth
May,
1862,
Sept.
Sixth
Aug.
"
Aug.
Seventh "
"
' " •
Eighth
"
' "
Ninth
"
' *' *
Tenth
**
» u *
Eleventh "
1364
» >( t
AKTILLEBT.
First Regiment, Heavy, May, 1861. Discharged Sept. 1865.
BATTERIES.
First, October, 1881. Discharged June, 1865.
Second, Deo. " " July "
Third, Feb. 1863 " Feb. 1868.
CAVALBI.
KangeTS, March, 1863. Discharged Deo. 1863.
Brackett's, Oct. 1861. " June 1866.
2dKeg't, July, 1863.
SHAEPSHOOTEBS.
Company A, organized in 1861,
B, " " 1862.
CHAPTER XXV.
STATE AFFAIKS PEOM A. D. 1862 to A. D. 1882.
In consequence of the Sioux outbreak. Gov-
ernor Ramsey called an extra session of the legis-
lature, which on the 9lh of September, 1862, as-
sembled.
As long as Indian hostilities continued, the flow
of immigration was checked, and the agricultural
interests suffered; but notwithstanding the dia-
turbed condition of affairs, the St. Paul & Paoiflo
Railroad Company laid ten miles of rail, to the
FaUs of St. Anthony.
EIETH STATE IjBGISLATUKB.
During the fall of 1862 Alexander Ramsey had
again been elected governor, and on the 7th of
January, 1863, deUveredthe annual message before
the Fifth state legislature. During this session he
was elected to fiU the vacancy that would take
place in the United States senate by the expira-
tion of the term of Henry M. Rice, who had been
a senator from the time that Minnesota was organ-
ized as a state. Aftep Alexander Ramsey became a
senator, the lieutenant-governor, Henry A. Swift,
became governor by constitutional provision.
GOVTSENOE STEPHEN A. MILLBB
At the election during the fall of 1863, Stephen
A. Miller, colonel of the Seventh regiment, was
elected governor by a majority of about seven
thousand votes, Henry T. Welles being his com-
petitor, and representative of the democratic party.
During Governor Miller's administration, on the
10th of November, 1865, two Sioux chiefs, Little
Six and Medicine Bottle, were hung at Fort Snel-
ling, for participation in the 1862 massacre.
GOVBENOB W. E. MABSHALIi.
In the fall of 1865 WilHam R. Marshall, who
had succeeded his predecessor as colonel of the
Seventh regiment, was nominated by the republi-
can party for governor, and Henry M. Rice by the
democratic party. The former was elected by
about five thousand majority. In 1867 Governor
Marshall was again nominated for the office, and
Charles E. Flandrau was the democratic candidate,
and he was again elected by about the same major-
ity as before.
GOVBENOB HOEAOB AUSTIN.
Horace Austin, the judge of the Sixth judicial
district, was in 1869 the republican candidate' for
governor, and received 27,238 votes, and George
L. Otis, the democratic candidate, 25,401 votes.
In 1871 Governor Austin was again nominated,
BOOKT MOUNTAIN LOCUST.
139
and received 45,883 votes, while 30,092 ballots
were oast for Winthrop Young, the democratic
candidate. The important event of his adminis-
tration was the veto of an act of the legislature
giving the internal improvement lands to certain
railway corporations.
Toward the close of Governor Austin's adminis-
tration, William Seeger, the state treasurer, was im-
peached for a wrong tise of public funds. He
plead guilty and was disqualified from holding
any office of honor, trust or profit in the state.
GOVEENOB OUSHMAN K. DAVIS.
The republicans in the fall of 1873 nominated
Cnshman K. Davis for governor, who received
40,741 votes, while 35,245 ballots were thrown for
the democratic candidate, Ara Barton.
The summer that he was elected the locust
made its appearance in the land, and in certain
regions devoured every green thing. One of the
first acts of Governor Davis was to relieve the
farmers who had sufi'ered from the visitation of
locusts. The legislature of 1874 voted relief, and
the people of the state voluntarily contributed
clothing and provisions.
During the administration of Governor Davis the
principle was settled that there was nothing in the
charter of a railroad company limiting the power
of Minnesota to regulate the charges for freight
and travel.
WOMEN ALLOWED TO VOTE FOE SOHOOi OFEICEBS.
At the election in November, 1875, the people
sanctioned the following amendment to the con-
stitution: "The legislature may, notwithstanding
anything in this article, [Article 7, section 8] pro-
vide, by law that any woman at the age of
twenty-one years and upwards, may vote at any
election held for the purpose of chosipg any officer
of schools, or upon any measure relating to schools,
and may also provide that any such woman shall
be eligible to hold any office solely pertaining to
the management of schools."
GOVERNOB J. S. PIDDSBUBY.
John 8. Pillsbury, the republican nominee, at
the election of November, 1875, received 47,073
for governor while his democratic competitor, D.
L. Buell obtained 35,275 votes. Governor Pillsbury
in his inaugural message, delivered on the 7th of
January, 1876, urged upon the legislature, as his
predecessors had done, the importance of provid-
ing for the payment of the state railroad bonds.
EAID ON NOETHEIELD BANK.
On the 6th of September, 1876, the quiet citi-
zens of Minnesota were excited by a telegraphic
announcement that a band of outlaws from Mis-
souri had, at mid-day, ridden into the town of
Northfield, recklessly discharging firearms, and
proceeding to the bank, kOled the acting cashier
in an attempt to secure its funds. Two of the
desperadoes were shot in the streets, by firm resi-
dents, and in a brief period, parties from the
neighboring towns were in pursuit of the assassins.
After a long and weary search four were sur-
rounded in a swamp in Watonwan county, and one
was killed, and the others captured.
At the November term of the fifth district court
held at Faribault, the criminals were arraigned,
and under an objebtionable statute, by pleading
guilty, received an imprisonment for life, instead
of the merrited death of the gallows.
THE BOOKT MOUNTAIN LOCUST.
As early as 1874 in some of the counties of
Minnesota, the Kocky Mountain locust, of the
same genus, but a different species from the Eu-
rope and Arctic locust, driven eastward by the
failure of the succulent grasses of the upper Mis-
souri valley appeared as a short, stout-legged, da-
vouring army, and in 1875 the myriad of eggs
deposited were hatched out, and the 'insects bom
within the state, flew to new camping grounds, to
begin their devastations.
In the spring the locust appeared in some coun-
ties, but by an ingenious contrivance of sheet
iron, covered with tar, their numbers were speedily
reduced. It was soon discovered that usually
but one hatching of eggs took place in the same
district, and it was evident that the crop of 1877
would be remunerative. When the national
Thanksgiving was observed on the 26th of No-
vember nearly 40,000,000 bushels of wheat had
been garnered, and many who had sown in tears,
devoutly thanked Him who had given plenty, and
meditated upon the words of the Hebrew Psahn-
ist, "He maketh peace within thy borders and
filleth thee with the finest of the wheat."
GOVEENOB PILLSBUBT's SECOND TEBM.
At the election in November, 1877, Governor
Pillsbury was elected a second time, receiving
59,701, while 39,247 votes were cast forWilham L.
Banning, the nominee of the democratic party.
At this election the people voted to adopt two im-
portant amendments to the constitution.
BIENNIAL SESSION OE THE LEGISLATUEE,
One provided for a biennial, in place of the an-
nual session of the legislature, in these words:
140
OUTLINE HI8T0B7 OS' THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
"The legislatare oi the state shall consist of a
senate and house of representatives, who shall
meet biennially, at the seat of government of the
state, at such time as shall be prescribed by law,
but no session shall exceed the term of sixty
days."
CHRISTIAN rNSTBTJOTION EXOIitJDBD FEOM SCHOOLS.
The other amendment excludes Christian and
other religious instructions from all of the edu-
cational institutions of Minnesota in these words:
"But in no case, shall the moneys derived as afore-
said, or' any portion thereof, or any public moneys,
or property be appropriated or used for the sup-
port of schools wherein the distinctive doctrines,
or creeds or tenets of any particular Christian or
other religious sect, are promulgated or taught."
IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGE PAGE.
The personal unpopularity of Sherman Page,
judge of the Tenth judicial district, culminated by
the house of representatives of the legislature of
1878, presenting articles, impeaching him, for con-
duet unbecoming a judge: the senate sitting as a
coiirt, examined the charges, and on the 22d of
June, he was ac quitted.
GOVBBNOB PIIiIiSBUKY'S THIRD TEEM.
The republican party nominated John S. Pills-
bury for a third term as governor, and at the elec-
tion in November, 1879, he received 57,471 votes,
while 42,444 were given for Edmund Eioe, the rep-
resentative of the democrats.
With a persistence which won the respect of the
opponents of the measui-e, Governor Pillsbury con-
tinued to advocate the payment of the state rail-
road bonds. The legislature of 1870 submitted an
amendment to the constitution, by which the "iu-
ternal improvement lands" were to be sold and the
proceeds to be used in cancelling the bonds, by the
bondholders agreeing to purchase the lands at a
certain sum per acre. The amendment was
adopted by a vote of the people, but few of the
bondholders accepted the provisions, and it failed
to effect the proposed end. The legislature of
1871 passed an act for a commission to make an
equitable adjustment of the bonds, but at a special
election in May it was rejected.
The legislature of 1877 passed an act for calling
m the railroad bonds, and issueing new bonds,
which was submitted to the people at a special
election on the 12th of June, and not accepted.
The legislature of 1878 proposed a constitu-
tional aniendment offering the internal improve-
ment lands in exchange for railroad bonds, and the
people at the November election disapproved of the
proposition. Against the proposed amendment
45,669 votes were given, and only 26,311 in favor.
ITBST BIENNIAL SESSION.
The first biennial session of the legislature con-
vened in January, 1881, and Governor Pillsbury
again, in his message of the 6th of January, held
up to the view of the legislators the dishonored
railroad bonds, and the duty of providing for their
settlement. In his argument he said:
"The liability having been voluntarily incurred,
whether it was wisely created or not is foreign to
the present question. It is certain that the obli-
gations were fairly given for which consideration
was fairly received; and the state having chosen
foreclosure as her remedy, and disposed of the
property thus acquired unconditionally as her own,
the conclusion ' seems to me irresistible that she
assumed the payment of the debt resting upon
such property by every principle of law and
equity. And, moreover, as the state promptly
siezed the railroad property and franchises, ex-
pressly to indemnify her for payment of the bonds,
it is difiScult to see what possible justification there
can be for her refusal to make that payment."
The legislature in March passed an act for the
adjustment of these bonds, which being brought
before the supreme court of the state was declared
void. The court at the same time declared the
amendment to the state constitution, which pro-
hibited the settlement of these bonds, without the
assent of a popular vote, to be a violation of the
clause in the constitution of the United States of
America prohibiting the impairment of the obliga-
tion of contracts. This decision cleared the -way
for final action. Governor Pillsbm-y called an
extra session of the legislature in October, 1881,
which accepted the offer of the bondholders, to be
satisfied with 'a partial payment, and made provis-
ions for cancelling bonds, the existence of which
for more than twenty years had been a humiliation
to a large majority of the thoughtful and intelli-
gent citizens of Minnesota, and a blot upon the
otherwise fair name of the commonwealth.
aOVEENOB HUBBABD.
Lucius F. Hubbard, who had been colonel of
the Fifth Kegiment, was nominated by the repub-
hcan party, and elected in November, 1881, by a
large majority over the democratic nominee, E,
W. Johnson. He entered upon his duties in Jan-
uary, 1882, about the time of the present chapter
going to press.
HISTORY OB' STATE INSTITUTION^.
141
CHAPTER XXVI.
OAPITOIi ^PBNITENTIABY — 'nNIVEKSITY — DEAP AND
DtTMB INSTITTJTION SCHOOL FOR BLIND AND
IMBBOrLES^ INSANE ASYLUMS STATE EBBOEM
SCHOOL NOBMAL SCHOOLS.
Among the public buildings ot Minnesota, the
capitol is entitled to priority of notice,
TEMPOEAET CAPITOLS.
In the absence of a capitol the first legislature
of the territory of Minnesota convened on Mon-
day, the 3d of September, 184.9, at St. Paul, in
a log building covered with pine boards painted
white, two stories high, which was at the time a
public inn, afterward known as the Central Housj,
and kept by Robert Kennedy. It was situated on
the high bank of the river. The main portion of
the building was used for the library, secretary's
office, courioil chamber and house of representa-
tives' hall, while the annex was occupied as the
dining-room of the hotel, with rooms for travelers
in the story above. Both houses of the legisla-
ture met in the dining-hall to listen to the first
message of Governor Eama'ey.
The permanent location of the capital was not
settled by the first legislature, and nothing could
be done toward the erection of a capitol with the
$20,000 appropriated by congress, as the perma-
nent seat of government had not been designated.
William B. Marshall, since governor, at that
time a member of the house of representatives
from St. Anthony, with others, wished that point
to be designated as the capital.
Twenty years after, in some remarks before ths
Old Settlers' Association of Hennepin county, Ex-
Governor Marshall alluded to this desire. He
said: "The original act [of congress] made
St. Paul the temporary capital, but provided that
the legislature might determine the permanent
capital. A bill was introduced by the St. Paul
delegation to fix the permanent capital there. I
opposed it, endeavoring to have St. Anthony made
the seat of government. We succeeded in defeat-
ing the bill which sought to make St. Paul the
permanent capital, but we could not get through
the bill fixing it at St. Anthony. So the question
remained open in regard to' the permanent capital
until the next session in 1851, when a compromise
was effected by which the capitol was to be at St.
Paul, the State University at St. Anthony, and
the Penitentiary at Stillwater. At an early day,
as well as now, caricatures and burlesques were
in vogue. Young WiUiam Randall, of St. Paul,
now deceased, who had some talent in the graphic
line, drew a picture of the elforts at capitol re-
moval. It was a building on wheels, with ropes
attached, at which I was pictured tugging, while
Brunson, Jackson, and the other St. Paul mem-
bers, wer? holding and checking the wheels, to
prevent my moving it, with humorous speeches
proceeding from the mouths of the parties to the
contest."
The second territorial legislature assembled on
the 2d of January, 1871, in a brick building three
stories in height, which stood on Third street in
St. Paul, on a portion of the site now occupied by
the Metropolitan Hotel, and before the session
closed it was enacted that St. Paul should be the
permanent capital, and commissioners were ap-
pointed to expend the congressional appropriation
for a capitol.
When the Third legislature assembled, in Jan-
uary, 1852, it was stUl necessary" to occupy a
hired building known as Goodrich's block, which
stood on Third street just below the entrance of
the Merchants' Hotel. In 1853, the capitol not
being finished, the fourth legislature was obliged
to meet in a two-story brick building at the corner .
of Third and Minnesota streets, and directly in the
rear of the wooden edifice where the first legisla-
ture in 184:9 had met.
THE CAPITOL.
After it was decided, in 1851, that St. Paul was
to be the capital of the territory, Charles BaziUe
gave the square bounded by Tenth, Eleventh,
Wabasha, and Cedar streets for the capitol.
Apian was adopted by the building commission-
ers, and the contract was taken by Joseph Daniels,
a builder, who now resides in Washington as a
lawyer and claim agent. The building was of
brick, and at first had a front portico, supported
by four Ionic columns. It was two stories above
the basement, 139 feet long and nearly 54 feet in
width, with an extension in the rear 44x52 feet.
In July, 1853, it was so far completed .as to allow
the governor to occupy the executive office.
SPEECHES OP EX-PBESIDENT FILLMOEE AND GEOEaE
BANCBOET.
Before the war it was used not only by the legis-
lature, and for the offices of state, but was granted
142
OUTLINE HI8T0BT OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
for important meetings. On the 8th of June a
large excursion party, under the auspices of the
builders of the Chicago & Eock Island railway,
arrived at St. Paul from the latter point, ia five
large steamboats, and among the passengers were
some of the most distinguished scholars, statesmen
and divines of the republic. At night the popu-
lation of St. Paul filled the capitol, and the more
sedate listened in the senate chamber to the stir-
ring speeches of Ex-President PiUmore; and the
historian, George Bancroft, who had been secre-
tary of the navy, and minister plenipotentiary to
Great Britain, while at a later period of the night
the youthful portion of the throng danced in the
reom then used by the supreme court.
The " Pioneer " of the next day thus alludes to
the occasion : " The ball in honor of the guests
of the excursion came off, in fine style. At an
early hour, the assembly having been called to or-
der, by the Hon. H. H. Sibley, a welcoming speech
was delivered by Governor Gorman, and replies
were made by Ex-President Fillmore and the
learned historian Bancroft. ******
The dancing then commenced and was kept up till
a, late hour, when the party broke up, the guests
returning to the steamers, and our town's people
to their homes, all" delighted with the rare enter-
tainment."
HON. W. H. SBWAKD'S SPEECH.
On the 8th of September, 1860, the capitol was
visited by Hon. William H. Seward. At mid-day
he met by invitation the members of the Histori-
cal Society in their rooms at the Capitol, and an
address of welcome was made by the Et. Eev.
Bishop Anderson, of Eupert's Land, to which he
made a brief response.
In the afternoon, crowds assembled in the
grounds to listen to an expected speech, and every
window of the capitol was occupied with eager
faces. Standing upon the front steps, he ad-
dressed the audience in the language of a patriot
and a statesman, and among his eloquent utter-
ances, was the following prediction.
" Every step of my progress since I reached the
northern Misissippi has been attended by a great
and agreeable surprise. I had, early, read the
works in which the geographers had described the
scenes upon which I was entering, and I had
studied them in the finest productions of art, but
still the grandeur and luxuriance of this region
had not been conceived. Those sentinel walls that
look down upon the Mississippi, seen as I beheld
them, in their abundant verdure, just when the
earliest tinge of the fall gave luxuriance to the
forests, made me think how much of taste and
genius had been wasted in celebrating the high-
lands of Scotland, before the civilized man had
reached the banks of the Mississippi; and the
beautiful Lake Pepin, seen at sunset, when the
autumnal green of the hills was lost in the deep
blue, and the genial atmosphere reflected the rays
of the sxm, and the skies above seemed to move
down and spread their gorgeous drapery on the
scene, was a piece of upholstery, such as none
but the hand of nature could have made, and it
was but the vestibule of the capitol of the state
of Minnesota. ***** *****
* * * Here is the place, the central place
where the agriculture of the richest region of
North America must pour its tribute. On the
east, all along the shore of Lake Superior, and
west, stretching in one broad plain, in a belt quite
across the continent, is a country where State after
State is to arise, and where the productions for the
support of humanity, in old and crowded States,
must be brought forth.
"This is then a commanding field, but it is as
commanding in regard to the destiny of this coun-
try and' of this continent, as it is, ia regard to the
commercial future, for power is not permanently
to reside on the eastern slope of the Alleghany
Mountains, nor in the sea-ports. Sea-ports have
always been overrun and controlled by the people
of the interior, and the power that shall communi-
cate and express the will of men on this continent
is to be located in the Mississippi valley and at the
sources of the Mississippi and Saint Lawrence.
"In our day, studying, perhaps what might
seem to others trifling or visionary, I had cast
about for the future and ultimate central seat of
power of North American people. I had looked
at Quebec, New Orleans, Washington, Cincinnati,
St. Louis, and San Francisco, and it had been the
result of my last conjecture, that the seat of power
in North America could be found in the valley of
Mexico, and that the glories of the Aztec capital
would be surrendered, at its' becoming at last the
capital of the United States of America, but I
have corrected that view. I now believe that the
ultimate seat of government in this great Conti-
nent, will be found somewhere within the circle or
HiaTORT OF STATE INSTITUTIONS,
143
radius not very far from the spot where I now
stand."
FLAG PEBSBNTATION.
In a few months after this speech, Mr. Seward
was chosen by President Lincoln, inaugurated
March 4, 1861, as secretary of state, and the next
great crowd in front of the capitol was collected
by the presentation of a flag by the ladies of St.
Paul to the First Minnesota regiment which had
been raised for the suppression of the slave-holders
rebellion. On May the 25th, 1861, the regiment
came down from their rendezvous at Fort Snelling,
and marched to the capital grounds. The wife of
Governor Eamsey, with the flag in hand, appeared
on the front steps, surrounded by a committee of
ladies, and presenting it to Colonel Gorman, made
a brief address in which she said: "Prom this
capitol, to the most remote frontier cottage, no
heart but shall send up a prayer for your safety;
no eye but shall follow with affection the flutter-
ings of your banner, and no one but shall feel
pride, when you crown the banner as you will
crown it, with glory."
As the State increased in population it was nec-
essary to alter and enlarge the building, and in
1873, a wing was added fronting on Exchange
street, and the cupola was improved. The legis-
lature of 1878 provided for the erection of another
wing, at an expense of $14,000, fronting on Waba-
sha street. The building, by successive additions,
was in length 204 feet, and in width 150 feet, and
the top of the dome was more than 100 feet from
the ground.
THE OAPITOIi IN FLAMES..
On the morning of the 1st of March, 1881, it
was destroyed by fire. About 9 o'clock ia the
the evening two gentlemen, who lived opposite,
discovered the capitol was on fixe, and immedia-
tely, by the telegraph, an alarm notified the firemen
of the city, and the occupants of the capitol.
The flames rapidly covered the cupola and licked
the flag flying fi-om the staff on top. One of the
reporters of the Pioneer Press, who was in the
senate chamber at the time, graphically describes
the scene within.
He writes: "The senate was at work on third
reading of house bills; Lieutenant Governor GU-
man in his seat, and Secretary Jennison reading
something about restraining cattle in Bice county ;
the senators were lying back listening carelessly.
when the door opened and Hon. Michael Doran
annoimced that the building was on fire. All eyes
were at once turned in that direction, and the
flash of the flames was visible from the top of the
gallery, as well as from the hall, which
is on a level with the floor of the senate. The panic
that ensued had a different effect upon the differ-
ent persons, and those occupying places nearest the
entrance, pushing open the door, and rushing pell
mell through the blinding smoke. Two or three
ladies happened to be in the vicinity of the doors,
and happily escaped uninjured. But the opening
of the door produced a draft which drew into the
senate chamber clouds of smoke, the fire in the
meantime having made its appearance over the
center and rear of the gallery. All this occurred
so suddenly that senators standing near the re-
porter's table and the secretary's desk, which were
on the opposite side of the chamber from the en-
trance, stood as if paralyzed, gazing in mute as-
tonishment at the smoke that passed in through
the open doors, at the flames over the gallery, and
the rushing crowd that blocked the door-ways.
The senate suddenly and formally adjourned.
President Gilman, however stood in his place,
gavel in hand, and as he rapped his desk, loud and
often he yelled: "Shut that door! Shut that
door!"
"The cry was taken up by Colonel Crooks and
other senators, and the order was finally obeyed,
after which, the smoke clearing away, the senators
were enabled to collect their senses and decide
what was best to be done. President Gilman,
stiU standing up in his place, calm and collected
as if nothing unusual had happened, was encour-
aging the senators to keep cool. Colonel Crooks
was giving orders as if a battle was raging around
him.
"Other senators were giving such advice as oc-
curred to them, but unfortunately no advice was
pertinent except to keep cool and that was all.
Some were importuning the secretary and his as-
sistants to save the records, and General Jennison,
his hands fuU of papers, was waiting a chance to
walk out with them. But that chance looked re-
mote, indeed, for there, locked in the senate cham-
ber, were at least fifty men walking around, some
looking at each other in a dazed sort of » way;
others at the windows looking out at the snow-cov-
ered yard, now illuminated from the flames, that
were heard roaring and craokhng overhead.
144
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
From some windows men were yelling to the lim-
ited crowd below: "Get some ladders! Send for
ladders!" Other windows were occupied. About
this time terror actually siezed the members, when
Senator Buck remarked that the fire was raging
overhead, and at the same moment burnmg brands
began to drop through the large ventilators upon
the desks and floor beneath.
"Then, for a moment, it seemed as if all hopes of
escape were out off. *****
But happily the flames having made their way
through the dome, a draught was created strong
enough to clear the halls of smoke. The dome
was almost directly over the entrance of the senate
chamber, and burning brands and timbers had
fallen down through the glass ceiling in front of
the door, rendering escape in that dii-ector im-
possible.
"But a small window leading from the cloak room
of the senate chamber to the first landing of the
main stairway furnished an avenue of escape, and
through this little opening every man in the sen-
ate chamber managed to get out.
"The windows were about ten feet high, but Mr.
Michael Doran and several other gentlemen stood
at the bottom, and nobly rendered assistance to
those who came tumbling out, some headlong,
some sideways and some feet foremost.
" As the reporter of the Pioneer-Press came out
and landed on his feet, he paused for a moment to
survey the scene overhead, where the flames were
lashing themselves into fury as they played under-
neath the dome, and saw the flag-staff burning,
and coals dropping down like fiery hail.
"It took but a few minutes for the senators to get
out, after which they assembled on the outside,
and they had no sooner gained the street than the
ceiling of the senate chamber fell in, and in ten
minutes that whole wing was a mass of flames."
Similar scenes took place in the hall of the
house of representatives. A young lawyer, with
a friend, as soon as the fire was noticed, ran into
the law library and began to throw books out of
the windows, but in a few minutes the density of
the smoke and the approach of the flames com,
pelled them to desist, and a large portion of the
library was burned. The portraits of Generals
Sherman and Thomas which were hung over the
stairway were saved. The books of the Histori-
cal Society, in the basement, were removed, but
were considerably damaged. In three hours the
bare walls alone remained of the oapitol which
for nearly thirty years had been familiar to the
law-makers and public men of Minnesota.
Steps were immediately taken to remove the
debris and build a new capitol, upon the old site.
The foundation walls have been laid, and in the
course of a year the superstructure will be com-
pleted.
THE PBNITENTIAET.
Before the penitentiary was built, those charged
or convicted of crime were placed in charge of the
commandants of Fort SnelUng or Eipley, and kept
at useful employment under nulitary supervision.
At the same time it was decided to erect a capitol
at St. Pauljit was also determined that the territorial
prison should be built at or within half a mile of
Stillwater. A small lot was secured in 1851 in
what was called the Battle ravine, in consequence of
the conflict between the Sioux and Ohippeways de-
scribed on the 103d page. Within a stone wall was
erected ofllces of the prison, with an annex con-*
taining six cells. A warden's house was built
on the outside of the wall. In 1853, an addition
of six cells was made and on the 5th of March,
1863, F. E. Delano entered upon his duties as
warden. His reports to the legislature show that
for several years there was little use for the cells.
The prison was opened for criminals on the 1st of
September,1853,anduntilJanuary, 1858 there had
been received only five convicts, and forty-one
county cind thirty city prisoners awaiting trial.
The use of the prison by the counties and city as
a temporary place of confinement led to some
misunderstanding between the warden and Wash-
ington county, and the grand jury of that county
in November, 1857, complained that the warden
was careless in discharge of his duties. The jury,
among other complaints sent the following ironi-
cal statement: "It was also found in such exami-
nation that one Maria RofBn, committed on charge
of selling spirituous liquors to the Indians within
the territory of the United States escaped in the
words of the record, 'by leaving the prison' and it
is a matter of astonishment to this grand jury
that she so magnanimously consented to leave the
penitentiary behind her."
Francis O. J. Smith acted as warden for a brief
period after Delano, and then H. N. Setzer. In
1859, the number of cells had increased to sixteen,
and among the inmates was a hitherto respectable
BISTORT OF STATE INSTITUTIONS.
lio
citizen sentenced for fifteen years for robbing a
post-office.
In 1860 John S. Proctor became warden, and
after eight years of efficient serFice, was succeeded
by Joshua L. Taylor. By successive additions
in 1869 nearly ten acres were enclosed by prison
walls, and during this year extensive shops were
built. The State in 1870 erected a costly prison
at an expense of about $80,000, which, besides a
chapel and necessary offices, contained two hun-
dred and ninety-nine cells.
A. C. Webber succeeded Taylor as Warden in
March, 1870, and the followmg October, Henry
A. Jackman took his place, and continued in office
until August, 1874, when the present incumbent,
J. A. Eeed, was appointed.
It has been the policy of the State to hire the
convicts to labor for contractors, in workshops
within the walls. At present the inmates are
largely engaged in the making of agricultural
machines for the firm of Seymour, Sabin & Go.
THE tTNIVEBSlTT 01' MINNESOTA.
The Territorial Legislature of 1851, passed an
act establishing the University of Minnesota at or
near the Falls of St. Anthony, and memorialized
Congress for a grant of lands for the Institution.
Soon after, Congress ordered seventy-two sections
of laud to be selected and reserved for the use of
said University.
As the Regents had no funds, Franklin Steele
gave the site now the public square, on Second
Street in the East Division, opposite the Minnesota
Medical College. Mr. Steele and others at their
own expense erected a wooden building thereon,
for a Preparatory Department, and the Eev. E. W.
Merrill was eugiiged as Principal. At the close
of the year 1853, the Eegents reported that there
was ninety- four students in attendance, but that
the site selected being too near the Falls, they had
purchased of Joshua L. Taylor and Paul B. George
about twenty-five acres, a mile eastward, on
the heigth overlooking the Falls of St. Anthony.
Governor Gorman, in his message in 1854 to
the Legislature said : "The University of Minne-
sota exists as yet only in name, but the time has
come when a substantial reality may and should
be created." But the Eegents could not find any
patent which would compress a myth into reality,
for not an acre of the land grant of Congress was
available. The Governor in his message therefore
lidded: "It would not embarrass our resources,
10
in my judgment, if a small loan was effected to
erect a building, and establish one or two profes-
sorships, and a preparatory department, such loan
to be based upon the townships of land appropri-
ated for the sole use of the University."
' While it was pleasing to loc; 1 pride to have p
building in prospect which could be seen from
afar, the friends of education shook their heads,
and declared the prospect of borrowing money to
build a University building before the common
school system was organized was visionary, and
would be unsuccessful. The idea, however, con-
tinued to be agitated, and the Eegents at length
were authorized by the Legislature of 1856, to
issue bonds in the name of the University, under
its corporate seal, for fifteen thousand dollars, to
be secured by the mortgage of the University
building which had been erected on the new site,
and forty thousand dollars more were authorized
to be issued by the Legislature of 1858, to be
secured by a lien on the lands devoted for a Ter-
ritorial University. With the aid of these loans a
costly and inconvenient stone edifice was con-
structed, but when finished there was no demand
for it, and no means for the payment of interest or
professors.
In the fall of 1858, in the hope that the Uni-
versity might be saved from its desperate condi-
tion, the Eegents elected the Eev. Edward D.
Neill as Chancellor. He accepted the position
Avithout any salary being pledged, and insisted
that a University must necessarily be of slow de-
velopment, and must succeed, not precede, the
common schools, and contended that five years
might elapse before anything could be done for a
University which would be tangible and visible.
He also expressed the belief that in time, with
strict watchfulness, the heavy load of debt could
be lifted.
The Legislature of 1860 abolished the old board
of Eegents of the Territorial University by pass-
ing an act for a State University, which had been
prepared by the Chancellor, and met the approval
of Chancellor Tappan, of Michigan University.
Its first section declared "that the object of the
State University established by the Constitution of
the State, at or near the Falls of St. Anthony,
shall be to provide the best and most efficient
means of imparting to the youth of the State an
education more advanced than that given in the
public schools, and a thorough knowledge of the
146
OUTLINE EIBTORY OF THB STATE OF MINNESOTA.
branches of literature, the arts and eoienoes, with
their various applications."
This charter also provided for the appointment
of five Eegents, to be appointed by the Governor,
and confirmed by the Senate, in place of the
twelve who had before been elected by the Legis-
lature. The Legislature of 1860 also enacted that
the Chancellor shoiild be ex-officio State Superin-
tendent of Publio Listruction.
The first meeting of the Regents of the State
University was held on the fifth of April, 1860,
and steps were taken to secure the then useless edi-
fice from further dilapidation. The Chancellor
urged at this meeting that a large portion of the
territorial land grant would be absorbed in pay-
ment of the moneys used in the erection of
a building in advance of the times, and that
the only way to secure the existence of a State
University was by asking Congress for an addi-
tional two townships, or seventy-two sections of
land, which he contended coiild be done under the
phraseology of the enabling act, which said : "That
seventy-two sections of land shall be set apart and
reserved for the use and support of a State Univer-
sity to be selected by the Oovemor of said State,"
etc.
The Eegents requested the Governor to suggest
to the authorities that it was not the intention of
Congress to turn over the debts and prospectively
encumbered lands of an old and badly managed
Territorial institution, but to give the State that
was to be, a grant for a State University, free
from all connection with the Territorial organiza-
tion. The Governor communicated these views
to the authorities at Washington, but it was not
till after years of patient waiting that the land was
obtained by an act of Congress.
At the breaking out of the civil war in 1861,
the Chancellor became Chaplain of the First Regi-
ment of Minnesota Volunteers, and went to the
seat of war, and the University affairs continued to
grow worse, and the University building was a
by-word and hissing among the passers by. Dar-
ing the year 1863, some of the citizens of St. An-
thony determined to make another effort to extri-
cate the institution from its difficulties, and the
legislature of 1864 passed an act abolishing the
board of Eegents, and creating three persons sole
regents, with power to liquidate the debts of the
institution. The Regents under this law were
John 8. Pillsbury and O. 0. Merriman, of St. An-
thony, and John Nicols, of St. Paul.
The increased demand for pine lands, of which
the University owned many acres, and the sound
discretion of these gentlemen co-operated in pro-
curing, happy results. In two years Governor
Marshall, in his message to the legislature, was
able to say: "The very able and successful man-
agement of the affairs of the institution, under the
piesent board of Eegents, relieving it of over one
hundred thousand dollars of debt, and saving over
thirty thousand acres of land that was at one time
supposed to be lost, entitles Messrs. Pillsbury,
Merriman, and Nicols to the lasting gratitude of
the State."
The legislature of 1867 appropriated $5,000 for
a preparatory and Normal department, and the
Eegents this year chose as principal of the school,
the Eev. W. W. Washburn, a graduate of the Uni-
versity of Michigan, and Gabriel Campbell, of the
same institution, and Ira Moore as assistants. The
legislature of 1868 passed an act to reorganize the
University, and to establish an Agricultural Col-
lege therein.
Departing from the policy of the University of
Michigan, it established what the Eegents wished,8
department of Elementary instruction. It also pro-
vided for a College of Science, Literature and the
Arts; a College of Agriculture and Meolianics with
Military Tactics; a college of Law, and a College
of Medicine.
The provision of the act of 1860, for the appoint-
ment of Eegents was retained, and the number to
be confirmed by the Senate, was increased from
five to seven.
The new board of Eegents was organized in
March, 1868. John S. Pillsbury, of St. Anthony,
President; O. C. Merriman, of St. Anthony, Sec-
retary, and John Nicols, of St. Paul, Treasurer.
At a meeting of the Eegents in August, 1869,
arrangements were made for coUegiate work by
electing as President and Professor of mathematics
William W. Polwell.
President Folwell was bom in 1835, in Seneca
county. New York, and graduated with distinction
in 1827, at Hobart College in Geneva, New York.
For two years he was a tutor at Hobart, and then
went to Europe. Upon his return the civil war was
raging, and he entered the 60th New York Volun-
teers. After the army was disbanded he engaged
in business in Ohio, but at the time of his election
to the presidency of the University, was Professor •
of mathematics, astronomy, and German at Ken-
yon College.
HI8T0BT OP STATE INSTITUTIONS.
147
THE FACULTY.
The present faculty of the institution is as fol-
lows:
WilUam W. Folwell, instructor, political science.
Jabez Brooks, D. D., professor, Greek, and in
charge of Latin.
Newton H. WinoheU, professor, State geologist,
C. N. Hewitt, M. D., professor, Public Health.
John G. .Moore, professor, German.
Moses Marston, Ph. D., professor, English lit-
erature.
0. W. Hall, professor, geology and biology.
John 0. Hutchinson, "assistant .professor, Greek
and mathematics.
John S. Olark, assistant professor, Latin.
Matilda J. Campbell, instructor, German and
English.
Maria L. Sanford, professor, rhetoric, and elocu-
tion.
William A. Pike, 0. E., professor, engineering
and physics.
John F. Downey, professor, mathematics and
astronomy.
James A. Dodge, Ph. D., professor, chemistry.
Alexander T. Ormond, professor, mental and
moral philosophy and history.
Charles W. Benton, professor, French.
Edward D. Porter, professor, agriculture.
William H. Leib, instructor, vocal music.
William P. Decker, instructor, shop work and
drawing.
Edgar C. Brown, U. S. A., professor, military
science.
James Bowen, instructor, practical horticulture.
THE OAMPTJS AND BUILDINGS.
The campus of the university since it was orig-
inally acquired, has been somewhat enlarged, and
now consists of about fifty acres in extent, undu-
lating in surface, and well wooded with native
trees. The buildings are thus far but two in
number, the plan of the original building, which
in outline was not unlike the insane asylum build-
ing at St. Peter, having been changed by the
erection in 1876, of a large four-story structure
built of stone and surmounted by a tower. This
building is 186 feet in length and ninety in
breadth, exclusive of porches, having three stories
above the basement in the old part- The walls
are of blue limestone and the roof of tin. The
rooms, fifty-three in number, as well as all the
corridors are heated by an efEcient steam appara-
tus, and are thoroughly ventilated. Water is sup-
plied from the city mains, and there is a stand-
pipe running from the basement through the roof
with hose attached on all the floors for protection
against fire. The assembly hall, in the third
story, is 87x55 feet, 24 feet high, and will seat
with comfort 700 people, and 1,200 can be accom-
modated.
THE AGBIOULTUEAL BUILDING
is the first of the special buildings for the separ-
ate colleges, and was built in 1876. It is of
brick, on a basement of blue stone, 146x54 feet.
The central portion is two stories in height. The
south wing, 46x25 feet, is a plant house of double
sash and glass. The north wing contains the
chemical laboratory. There are class rooms for
chemistry, physics and agriculture, and private
laboratories for the professors. A large room in
the second story is occupied by the museum of
technology and agriculture, and the basement is
filled up with a carpenter shop, a room with vises
and tools at which eight can work, and another
room fitted with eight forges and a blower — the
commencement of the facihties for practical in-
struction.
DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION.
Of all the public institutions of Minnesota, no
one has had a more pleasing history, and more
symmetrical development than the Institution for
the education of the deaf and dumb and the blind
at Faribault.
The legislature of 1858, passed an act for the
establishment of "The Minnesota State Institute
for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb," within
two miles of Faribault, in Bice county, upon con-
dition that the town or county, should within one
year from the passage of the law give forty acres
of land for its use. The condition was complied
with, but the financial condition of the country
and the breaking out of the civil war, with other
causes retarded the progress of the Institution for
five years.
The legislature of 1863 made the first appro-
priation of fifteen hundred doUars for the opening
of the Institution. Mr. E. A. Mott, of Faribault,
who has to this time been an efficient director, at
the request of the other two directors, visited the
East for teachers, and secured Prof. Kinney and
wife of Columbus, Ohio. A store on Fiont Street
was then rented, and adapted for the temporary
148
OUTLINE EISTOBT OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
use of the Institution, wluch opened on the 9th of
September, 1863, with five pupils, which soon in-
creased to ten.
On February 13th, 1864, the State appropriated
about four thousand dollars for the suppert of the
Institution, and the directors expended about one
- thousand dollars in the erection of small additional
building, eighteen by twenty feet in dimensions,
as a boys' dormitory.
After laboring faithfully for three years and se-
curing the respect of his associates, on July 1st,
1866, Prof. Kinney resigned on account of ill health.
The directors the next month elected as Super-
intendent Jonathan L. Noyes, A. M. On the 7th
of September Professor Noyes arrived at Faribault
with Miss A. L. Steele as an assistant teacher and
Henrietta Watson as matron.
NORTH WING 03? EDIPIOB COMPIiBTED.
Upon the 17th of March, 1868, the Institution
was removed to a wing of the new building upon
a site of fifty-two acres beautifully situated upon
the brow of the hills east of Faribault. The edi-
fice of the French louvre style, and was designed
by Monroe Sheire, a St. Paul architect, and cost
about fifty-three thousand dollars, and water was
introduced from springs in the vicinity,
WOBK SHOPS.
In 1869, the Superintendent was cheered by the
completion of the first work shop, and soon eight
mutes under the direction of a mute foreman be-
gan to make flour barrels, and in less than a year
had sent out more than one thousand, and in 1873
4,054 barrels were made.
S0T3TH WING BEGAN.
The completed wing was not intended to accom-
modate more than sixty pupils and soon there was
a demand for more room. During the year 1869
the foundation of the south wing was completed,
and on the 10th of September 1873 the building
was occupied by boys, the other wing being used
for the girls. By the time the building was ready
fftudents were waiting to occupy.
MAIN BUILDING COMPnBTED.
In 1879 the design was completed by the finish-
ing of the centre building. The whole edifice is
thus described by the architect, Monroe Sheire :
"The plan of the building is rectangular, and con-
sists of a central portion one hundred feet north
and south, and one hundred and eight feet east
and west, exclusive of piazzas, and two wings, one
on the north, and the other on the south side,
each of these being eighty by forty-five. This
makes the extreme length two hundred and sixty
feet, and the width one hundred and eight feet.
The entire building is four stories above the base-
ment."
The exterior walls are built of blue lime stone
from this vicinity, and the style Franco Roman-
esque. Over the center is a graceful cupola, and
the top of the same is one hundred and fifty feet
above the ground.
The entire cost to the State of aU the improve-
ments was about $175,000, and the building wiU
accommodate about two hundred pupils. The
rooms are lighted by gas from the Faribault Gas
Works.
INDTJSTEIAn SOHOOIia.
The first shop opened was for making barrels.
To this cooper shop has been added a shoe shop, a
tailor shop and a printing ofSoe.
MAGAZINE.
The pupils established in March, 1876, a little
paper called the Gopher. It was printed on a
small press, and second-hand type was used.
In June, 1877, it was more than doubled in
size, and changed its name to "The Mutes' Com-
panion." Printed with good type, and filled with
pleasant articles it still exists, and adds to the in-
terest in the institution.
EDUCATION OP THE BLIND.
In 1863 a law was passed by the legislature re-
quiring blind children to be educated under the sir-
pervision of the Deaf and Dumb Institution.
Early in July, 1866, a school for the bhnd was
opened in a separate building, rented for the pur-
pose, under the care of Miss H. N. Tucker. Dur-
ing the first term there were three pupils. In May,
1803, the blind pupils were brought into the deal
and dumb institution, but the experiment of in- .
struoting these two classes together was not satis-
factory, and in 1874 the blind were removed to
the old Faribault House, half a mile south of
the Deaf and Dumb Institution,- which had been
fitted up for their accommodation, and where
a large new brick building, for the use of the
blind, has since been erected. In 1875, Profes-
sor James J. Dow was made principal of the
school.
UISTORT OF ST ATM INSTITUTIONS.
149
SOHOOIi FOB THE FEEBLE MINDED.
From time to time, in Ms report to the Legisla-
ture, SuperiDtendent Noyes alluded to the fact that
some oMldren appeared deaf and dumb because of
their feeble mental development, and in 1879, the
state appropriated $5,000 for a school for imbecile
children.
The institution was started in July of that year
by Dr. Henry M. Knight, now deceased, then
Superintendent and founder of the Connecticut
school of the same description, who was on a visit
to Faribault. He superintended the school until
the arrival, in -September, of his son. Dr. George
H. Knight, who had been trained under his father.
For the use of the school the Fairview House was
rented, and fourteen feeble children were sent
from the Insane Asylum at St. Peter. In eigh-
teen months the number had increased to twenty -
five.
The site of the new building for the school is
about forty rods south of the Blind School. The
dimensions are 44x80 feet, with a tower projection
20x18 feet. It is of limestone, and three stories
above the basement, covered with kn iron hip-roof,
and cost about $25,000.
STIPEEINTBNDENT 3. Ii. NOYES,
The growth of the Minnesota institution for the
education of the deaf and dumb and the blind,
has been so symmetrical, and indicative of one
moulding mind, that a sketch of the institution
would be incomplete without some notice of the
Superintendent, who has guided it for the last
sixteen years.
On the 13th of June, 1827, Jonathan Lovejoy
Noyes was bom in Windham, Eockingham county.
New Hampshire. At the age of fourteen years he
was sent to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachu-
setts, not only one of the oldest, but among
the best schools in the United States. At Andover
he had the advantage of the instruction of the
thorough Greek scholar. Dr. Samuel H. Taylor,
the eminent author, Lyman H. Coleman, D. D.,
afterwards Professor of Latin in Lafayette Col-
lege, Pennsylvania, and William H. Wells, whose
English grammar has been used in many insti-
tutions.
After completing his preparatory studies, in
1848, he entered Yale College, and in four years
received the diploma of Bachelor of Arts. After
graduation he received an appointment in the
Pennsylvania Institution of the Deaf and Dumb, on
Broad Street, Philadelphia, and found instructing
deaf mutes was a pleasant occupation. After six
years of important work in Philadelphia, he was
employed two years in a similar institution at
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and then received an ap-
pointment in the well known American Asylum so
long presided over by Thomas H. Gallandet, at
Hartford, Connectictit. WhUe laboring here he
was invited to take charge of the "Minnesota In-
stitution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb
and the Blind," and in September, 1866, he ar-
rived at Faribault. With wisdom and patience,
gentleness and energy, and an unfaltering trust in
a superintending Providence, he has there contin-
ued his work with the approbation of his fellow
citizens, and the affection of the pupils of the
institution.
At the time that he was relieved of the care of
theblind and imbecile, the directors entered upon
their minutes the following testimonial:
"Mesolved, That upon the retirement of Prof. J.
L. Noyes from the superintendency of the depart-
ments of the blind and imbecile, the board of
Directors, of the Minnesota Institution for the
Deaf and Dumb, and Blind and Idiots, and Imbe-
ciles, desire to testify to his deep interest in these
several departments; his efScient and timely ser-
vices in their establishment; and his wise direction
of their early progress, until they have become
full-fledged and independent departments of our
noble State charitable institutions.
"For his cordial and courteous co-operation with
the directors in their work, and for his timely
counsel and advice, never withheld when needed,
the board by this testimonial, render to him their
hearty recognition and warm acknowledgement."
On the 21st of July, 1862, Professor Noyes mar-
ried Eliza H. Wads worth, of Hartford, Connecti-
cut, a descendent of the Colonel Wadsworth, who
in the old colony time, hid the charter of Connecti-
cut in an oak, which for generations has been
known in history as the "Charter Oak." They
have but one child, a daughter.
INSANE HOSPITAl AT ST. PBTEE.
UntU the year 1866, the insane of Minnesota
were sent to the Iowa Asylum for treatment, but
in January of that year the Legislature passed an
act appointing Wm. E. Marshall, John M. Berry,
Thomas Wilson, Charles Mclhath, and 8. J. R
McMillan to select a proper place for the Minna-
150
OUTLINE HIBT0B7 OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
sota Hospital for the Insane. The vicinity of St.
Peter was chosen, the citizens presenting to the
State two hundred and ten acres ohe mile south o£
the city, and on the Minnesota Eiver, directly op-
posite to Kasota.
In October, 1866, temporary buildings ■were
erected, and the Trustees elected Samuel E.
Shantz, of Utica, N. T., as the Superintendent.
A plan submitted by Samuel Sloan, a Philadelphia
architect, consisting of a central building, with
sections and wings for the accommodation of at
least five hundred patients, in 1867, was adopted,
and in 1876 the great structure was completed.
It is built of Kasota limestone, the walls lined
with brick, and the roof covered with slates. The
central building is four stories in height, sur-
mounted with a fine cupola, and therein are the
chapel and offices. Each wing is three stories
high, with nine separate halls.
The expenses of construction of the Asylum,
with the outbuildings, has been more than half a
million of dollars. ' Dr. Shantz having died, Cyrus
K. Bartlett, M. D., of Northampton, Massachu-
setts, was appointed Superintedent.
In January, 1880, in the old temporary build-
ings and in the Asylum proper there were six hun-
dred and sixty patients. On the 15th of Novem-
ber, 1880, about half past eight in the evening,
the Superintendent and assistants were shocked by
the announcement that the north wing was on
fire. It began in the northwest comer of the
basement, and is supposed to have been kindled by
a patient employed about the kitchen who was not
violent. The flames rapidly ascended to the dif-
ferent stories, through the holes for the hot air
pipes, and the openings for the dumb waiters.
The wing at the time contained two hundred
and seventy patients, and as they were liberated
by their nurses and told to make their escape, ex-
hibited various emotions. Some clapped their
hands with glee, others trembled with fear.
Many, barefooted and with bare heads, rushed for
the neighboring hills and sat on the cold snow.
A few remained inside. One patient was noticed
in a window of the third story, with his knees
drawn up to his chin, and his face in his hands, a
cool and interested looker on, and with an expres-
sion of cynical contempt for the flames as they ap-
proached his seat. When a tongue of fire would
shoot toward him, he would lower his head, and
after it passed would resume his position with more
than the indifference of a stoic. At last the brick '
work beneath him gave way with a loud crash,
and as he was precipitated into the cauldron of fire
soon to be burned to ashes, his maniacal laugh waa
heard above the roar of the flames.
The remains of eighteen patients were found in
the ruins, and seven died in a few days after the
fire, in consequence of injuries and exposure.
Immediate steps were taken by the Governor to
repair the damages by the fire.
INSANE HOSPITAIi AT BOCHBSTEB.
In 1878, the Legislature enacted a law by
which an inebriate asylum commenced at Eoches-
ter could be used for an Insane Asylum. With the
appropriation, alteratigps and additions were
made. Dr. J. E. Bowers elected Superintendent,
and on the 1st of January, 1879, it was opened for
patients.
Twenty thonsatld dollars have since been appro-
priated for a wing for female patients.
STATE EEFOEM SCHOOL.
During the year 1865, I. V. D. Heard, Esq., a
lawyer of Saint Paul, and at that time City At-
torney sent a communication to one of the daily
papers urging the importance of separating child
ren arrested for petty crimes, from the depraved
adults found in the station house or county jail,
and also called the attention of the City OouncU
to the need for a Reform School.
The next Legislature, in 1866, under the influ-
ence created by the discussion passed a law creat-
ing a House of Eefuge, and appropriated $5,000 for
its use on condition that the city of Saint Paul
would give the same amount.
In November, 1867, the managers purchased
thirty acres with a stone farm house and barn
thereon, for $10,000, situated in Eose township, in
Saint Anthony near Snelling Avenue, in the west-
ern suburbs of Saint Paul.
In 1868 the House of Eefuge was ready to re-
ceive wayward youths, and this year the Legis-
lature changed the name to the Minnesota State
Eetorm School, and accepted it as a state institu-
tion. The Eev. J. G. Eiheldaffer D. D., who had
for years been pastor of one of the Saint Paul
Presbyterian churches was elected superintendent
In 1869 the main building of light colored
brick, 40x60 feet was erected, and occupied in
December.
. In February, 1879, the laundry, a separate
building was burned, and an appropriation of the
SKETCHES OF PUBLIC MEN.
151
Legislature was made soon after of $15,000 for
the rebuilding of the laundry and the erection of
a work shop. This shop is 50x100 and three
stories high. The boys besides receiving a good
English education, are taught to be tailors, tinners,
carpenters and gardeners. The sale of bouquets
fiom the green house, of sleds and toys, and of
tin ware has been one of the sources of revenue.
Doctor Eiheldaffer continues as superintendent
and by his judicious management has prepared
many of the inmates to lead useful and honorable
lives, after their discharge from the Institution.
STATE NOBMAli SOHOOIi.
By the influence of Lieut. Gov. Holcomb and
others the first State Legislature in 1858 passed
an Act by which three Normal schools might be
erected, but made no proper provision for their
support.
WINONA NOBMAIi SOHOOIi.
Dr. Ford, a graduate of Dartmouth college,
and a respectable physician in Winona, with sev-
eral residents of the same place secured to the
amount of $5,512 subscriptions for the establish-
ment of a Normal School at that point, and a
small appropriation was secured in 1880 from the
Legislature.
John Ogden, af Ohio, was elected Principal, and
in September, 1860, the school was opened in a
temporary building. Soon after the civil war be-
gan the school was suspended, and Mr. Ogden
entered the army.
In 1864 the Legislature made an appropriation
of $3,000, and and WiUiam T. Phelps, who had
been in charge of the New Jersey Normal School
at Ti-enton, was chosen principal. In 1865 the
State appropriated $5,000 annually for the school
and the citizens of Winona gave over $20,000 to-
ward the securing of a site and the erection of a
permanent edifice.
One of the best and most ornamental education-
al buildings in the Northwest was commenced and
in September, 1869, was so far finished as to ac-
commodate pupils. To complete it nearly $150,-
000 was given by the State.
In 1876 Prof. W. F. Phelps resigned and was
succeeded by Charles A. Morey who in May,
1879 retired. The present principal is Irwin
Shepard.
MANKATO NOBMAIi SCHOOIi.
In 1866, Mankato having offered a site for a
second Normal School, the Legislature give $5,000
for its support. George M. Gage was elected
Principal and on the 1st of September, 1868 the
school was opened. It occupied the basement of
the Methodist church for a few weeks, and then
moved into a room over a store at the corner of
Front and Main streets. In April 1870, the State
building was first occupied.
Prof. Gage resgned in June, 1872, and his suc-
cassor was Miss J. A. Sears who remained one year.
In July 1873, the Kev. D. 0. John was elected
principal, and in the spring of 1880, he retired.
The present Principal is Professor Edward Sear-
ing, formerly State Superintendent of PubUo In-
struction in Wisconsin, a fine Latin scholar, and
editor of an edition of Virgil.
ST. CliOTJD NOEMAIi SCHOOL.
In 1869, the citizens of St. Cloud gave $5,000
for the establishment in that city of the third
Normal School, and a building was fitted up for
its use. The legislature in 1869, appropriated
$3,000 for current expenses. In 1870, a new build-
ing was begun, the legislature having appropriated
$10,000, and in 1873, $30,000; this building in
1875 was first occupied. In 1875, the Bev. D. L.
Kiehle was elected Principal, Prof. Ira Moore, the
first Principal having resigned. In 1881, Prof.
Kiehle was appointed State Superintendent of
Public Instruction, and Jerome Allen, late of New
York, was elected bis successor.
CHAPTER XXVIL
MINNESOTA QOVEKNOBS — UNITED STATES SENATOBS
MEMBERS OF UNITED STATES HOUSE OF BEPBE-
SENTATIVES.
GOVEENOE EAMSEY A. D. 1849 TO A. D. 1853.
Alexander Eamsey, the first Governor of the
Territory of Minnesota, was bom on the 8th of
September, 1815, near Harrisburg, in Dauphin
county, Pennsylvania. His grandfather was a
desoendent of one of the many colonists who came
from the north of Ireland before the war of the
Eevolution, and his father about the time of the
first treaty of peace with Great Britain, was born in
York county, Pennsylvania. His mother Elizabeth
Kelker, was of Grerman descent, a woman of en-
ergy, industry and religious principle.
His father dying, when the subject of this sketch
152
OUTLINE HIBTOUr OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
was ten years of age, he went into the store of his
maternal uncle in Harrisburg, and remained two
years. Then he was employed as a copyist in the
oflBce of Register of Deeds. For several years he
was engaged in such business as would give sup-
port. Thoughtful, persevering and studious, at
the age of eighteen he was able to enter Lafayette
College, at Easton, Pennsylvania. After he left
college he entered a lawyer's oflBce in Harrisburg,
and subsequently attended lectujej at the Law
School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
At the age of twenty-four, in 1839, he was ad-
mitted to the bar of Dauphin county. His execu-
tive ability was immediately noticed, and the next
year he took an active part in the political cam-
paign, advocating the claims of William H. Harri-
son, and he was complimented by being made
Secretary of the Pennsylvania Presidential Elec-
tors. After the electoral vote was delivered in
Washington, in a few weeks, in January 1841, he
was elected chief clerk of the House of Represen-
tatives of Pennsylvania. Here his ability in dis-
patching business, and his great discretion made
a most favorable impression, and in 1843, the
Whigs of Dauphin, Lebanon and Schuylkill
counties nominated him, as their candidate for
Congress. Popular among the young men of
Harrisburg, that city which had hitherto given a
de/mocratio majority, voted for the Whig ticket
which he represented, and the whole district gave
him a majority of votes. At the expiration of his
term, in 1845 he was again elected to Congress.
Strong in his political preferences, without man-
ifesting political rancor, and of large perceptive
power, he was in 1848 chosen by the Whig party
Pensylvania, as the secretary of the Central Com-
mittee, and he directed the movements in his na-
tive State, which led to the electoral votes being
thrown for General Zachary Taylor for President.
On the 4th of March, 1849, President Taylor
took the oath of office, and in less than a month he
signed the commission of Alexander Ramsey as
Governor of the Territory of Minnesota, which
had been created by a law approved the day before
his inauguration.
By the way of Buffalo, and from thence by
lake to Chicago, and from thence to Galena, where
he took a steamboat, he traveled to Minnesota and
arrived at St. Paul early in the morning of the
27th of May, with his wife, children and nurse,
but went with the boat up to Mendota, where he
was cordially met by the Territorial delegate,
Hon. H. H. Sibley, and with his family was his .
guest for several weeks. He then came to St,
Paul, occupied a small hous3 on Third street near
the comer of Robert.
On the 1st of June he issued his first proclama-
mation declaring the organization of the Territorial
government, and on the 11th, he issued another
creating judicial districts and providing for the
election of members of a legislature to assemble
in September. To his^ duties as Governor was
added the superintendenoy of Indian affairs and
during the first summer he held frequent confer-
ences with the Indians, and his first report to the
Commissioner of Indian Afi^airs is still valuable
for its information relative to the Indian tribes at
that time hunting in the valleys of the Minnesota
and the Mississippi.
During the Governor's term of office he visited
the Indians at their villages, and made himself
familiar with their needs, and in the summer of
1851, made treaties with the Sioux by which the
country between the Mississippi Rivers, north of the
State of Iowa, was opened for occupation by the
whites. His term of office as Governor expired in
April, 1853, and in 1855 his fellow townsmen
elected him Mayor of St. Paul. In 1857, after
Minnesota had adopted a State Constitution, tha
Repubhcan party nominated Alexander Ramsey
for Governor, and the Democrats nominated Henry
H. Sibley. The election in October was close
and exciting, and Mr. Sibley was at length de-
clared Governor by a majority of about two hun-
dred votes. The Republicans were dissatisfied
with the result, and contended that more Demo-
cratic votes were thrown in the Otter Tail Lake
region than there were citizens residing in the
northern disti-ict.
In 1859, Mr. Ramsey was again nominated by
the Republicans for Governor, and elected by four
thousand majority. Before the expiration of his
term of office, the Republic was darkened by civil
war. Governor Ramsey happened to be in Wash-
ington when the news of the firing upon Fort
Sumter was received, and was among the fii'st of
the State Governors to call upon the President
and tender a regiment of volunteers in defense of
the Republic. Returning to the State, he dis-
played energy and wisdom in the organization of
regiments.
In the fall of 1861, he was again nominated and
elected as Governor, but before the expiration of
this term, on July 10th, 1863, he was elected by
SKETCHES OF PUBLIC MEN.
153
the Legislature, United States Senator. Upon en-
tering the Senate, he was placed on the Commit-
tees on Naval Affairs, Post-offices, Patents, Pacific
Kailroad, and Chairman of the Committee on Rev-
olutionary Pensions and Eevolutionary Claims.
He was also one of the Conimittee appointed by
Congress to accompany the remains of President
Lincoln to Springfield Cemetery, Illinois.
The Legislature of 1869 re-elected him for the
term ending in March, 1875. In 1880, he was ap-
pointed Secretary of War by President Hayes, and
for a time also acted as Secretary of the Navy.
He was married in 1845 to Anna Earl, daughter
of Michael H. Jenks, a member of Congress from
Bucks county. He has had three children; his
two sons died in early youth; his daughter
Marion, the wife of Charles Eliot Purness, resides
with her family, with her parents in St. Paul.
GOVBENOK GOBMAN A. D. 1853 TO A. T>. 1857.
At the expiration of Governor Eamsey's term
of office. President Pierce appointed Willis Arnold
Gorman as his successor. Gevernor Gorman was
the only son of David L. Gorman and born in
January, 1866 near Flemingsburgh, Kentucky-
After receiving a good academic education he went
to Bloomington, Indiana, and in 1836 graduated
in the law department of the State University.
He imediately. entered upon the practice of law
with few friends and no money, in Bloomington,
and in a year was called upon to defend a man
charged with murder, and obtained his acquittal.
That one so young should have engaged in
such a case excited the attention of the public, and
two years afterwards was elected a member of the
Indiana legislature. His popularity was so great
that he was re-elected a number of times. When
war was declared against Mexico he enlisted as a
private in a company of volunteers, which with
others at New Albany was mustered into the ser-
vice for one year, as the Third Regiment of
Indiana Volunteers, with James H. Lane, aftei;-
^^ards U. S. Senator for Kansas, as Colonel, while
he was commissioned as Major. It is said that
under the orders of General Taylor with a de-
tachment of riflemen he opened the battle of
Buena Vista. In this engagement his horse was
shot and fell into a deep ravine carrying the
Major with, him and severely bruising him.
In August, 1847, he returned to Indiana and by
his enthusiasm helped to raise the Fourth Regi-
ment and was elected its Colonel, and went back
to the seat of war, and was present in several bat-
tles, and when peace was declared returned with
the reputation of being a dashing officer.
Resuming the practice of law, in the fall of 1848
he was elected to Congress and served two terms,
his last expiring on the 4th of March, 1853, the
day when his fellow officer in the Mexican War,
Gen. Franklin Pierce took the oath of office as
President of the United States. With a commis-
sion bearing the signature of President Pierce he
arrived in Saint Paul, in May, 1853, as the second
Territorial Governor of Minnesota.
His term of Governor expired in the spring of
1857, and he was elected a member of the Com-
mittee to frame a State Constitution, which on the
second Monday in July of that year, convened at
the Capitol. After the committee adjourned he
again entered upon the practice of law but when
the news of the firing of Fort Sumter reached
Siiint Paul he realized that the nation's life
was endangered, and that there would be a civil
war. He offered his services to Governor Ram-
sey and when the First Regiment of Minnesota
volunteers was organized he was commissioned as
Colonel. He entered with ardor upon his work of
drilling the raw troops in camp at Fort SneUing,
and the privates soon caught his enthusiasm.
No officer ever had more pride in his regiment
and his soldiers were faithful to his orders. His
regiment was the advance regiment of FrankUn's
Brigade, in Heintzelman's Division at thefirst Bat-
tle of Bull Run, and there made a reputation
which it increased at every battle, especially at
Gettysburg. Upon the recommendation of Gen-
eral Winfield Scott who had known him in Mex-
ico after the battle of Bull Run he was appointed
Brigadier General by President Lincoln,
After three years of service as Brigadier General
he was mustered out and returning to St. Paul
resumed his profession. From that time he held
several positions under the city government. He
died on the afternoon of the 25th of May, 1876.
GOVEENOH SIBLEY, A. D. 1858 to A. D. 1860.
No one is more intimately asssociated with the
development of the Northwest than Henry Hast-
ings Sibley, the first Governor of Minnesota under
the State constitution.
By the treaty of Peace of 1783, Great Britain
reoognizBd the independence of the United States
of America, and the land east of the Mississippi,
154
OUTLINE EISTOBT OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
and northwest of the Ohio river was open to set-
tlement by American citizens.
In 1786, while Congress was in session in New
York City, Dr. Manasseh Cutler, a graduate of
Yale, a Puritan divine of a considerable scientific
attainments, visited that place, and had frequent
conferences with Dane of Massachusetts, and Jef-
ferson, of Virginia, relative to the colonization of
the Ohio valley, and he secured certain provisions
in the celebrated "ordinance of 1787," among
others, the grant of land in each township for the
support of common schools, and also two
townships for the use of a University.
Under the auspices of Dr. Cutler, and a few
others, the first colony, in December, 1787, left
Massachusetts, and after a wearisome journey, on
April 7, 1788, reached Marietta, at the mouth of
the Muskingum Biver.
Among the families of this settlement was the
maternal grandfather of Governor Sibley, Colonel
Ebenezer Sproat, a gallant oflBcer of Ehode Island,
in the war of the Eebellion, and a friend of Kos-
ciusko.
Governor Sibley's mother, Sarah Sproat, was
sent to school to the then celebrated Moravian
Seminary at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and subse-
quently finished her education at Philadelphia.
In 1797 she returned to her wilderness home and
her father purchased for her pleasure a piano, said
to have been the first transported over the Alle-
ghany Mountains. Soon after this Solomon Sibley,
a young lawyer, a native of Sutton, Massachusetts,
visited Marietta, and become acquainted and at-
tached to Sarah Sproat, and in 1802, they were
married. The next year Mrs. Sibley went to De-
troit where her husband had settled, and she com-
menced housekeeping ' opposite where the Biddle
House is situated in that city. In 1799, Gover-
nor Sibley's father was a representative from the
region now known as Michigan, in the first Ter-
ritorial Legislature of Northwest, which met at
Cincinnati. From 1820 to 1823 he was delegate
to Congress from Michigan, and in 1824 he became
judge of the supreme court, and in 1836 resigned.
Respected by all, on the 4th of April he died.
His son, Henry Hastings Sibley, was bom in
February, 1811, in the city of Detroit. At the age
of seventeen, relinquishing the study of law, he
became a clerk at Sault St. Marie and then was
employed by Robert Stuart, of the American Fur
Company at Mackinaw. In 1834 he was placed in
charge of the Indian trade above Lake Pepin with
his new quarters at the mouth of the Minnesota
River.
In 1836, he built the first stone residence in
Minnesota, without the military reservation, at
Mendota, and here he was given to hospitality.
The missionary of the cross, and the man of sci-
ence, the ofBcer of the army, and the tourist from
a foreign land, were received with a friendliness
that caused them to forget while under his roof
that they were strangers in a strange land.
In 1848, he was married to Sarah J. Steele, the
sister of Franklin Steele, at Fort Snelling.
On August 6th, 1846, Congress authorized the
people of Wisconsin to organize a State govern-
ment with the St. Croix River as a part of its west-
em boundary, thus leaving that portion of Wis-
consin territory between the St. Croix and Missis-
sippi Rivers st 11 under the direct supervison of
Congress, and the Hon. M. L. Martin, the dele-
gate of Wisconsin territory in Congress, intro-
duced a bill to organize the territory of Minnesota
including portions of Wisconsin and Iowa.
It was not until the 29th of May, 1848, how-
ever, that Wisconsin territory east of the Saint
Croix, was reorganized as a State. On the 30th
of October, Mr. Sibley, who was a resident of Iowa
territory, was elected delegate to Congress, and
after encountering many difBculties, was at length
admitted to a seat.
On the 3d of March, 1849, a law was approved
by the President for the organization of Minne-
sota teritory, and in the fall of that year he was
elected the first delegate of the new Territory, as
his father had been at an early period elected a
delegate from the then new Michigan territory. In
1851, he was elected for another term of two
years.
In 1857, he was a member of the convention to
frame a State constitution for Minnesota, and was
elected presiding officer by the democrats. By
the same party he was nominated for Governor and
elected by a small majority over the republican '
candidate, Alexander Ran-sey.
Minnesota was admitted as a State on the 11th
of May, 1858, and on the ^Sth Governor Sibley
delivered his inaugural message.
After a residence of twenty -eight years at Men-
dota, in 1862, he became a resident of Saint Paul.
At the beginning of the Sioux outbreak, Governor
Ramsey appointed him Colonel, and placed him
at the head of the forces employed against the In-
dians. On the 23d of September, 1862, he fought
SKETCHES OF PUBLIC MEN.
155
the severe and decisive battle of Wood Lake. In
March, 1863, he was confirmed by the senate as
Brigadier General, and on the 29th of November,
1865, he was appointed Brevet Major General for
efficient and meritorious services.
Since the war he has taken an active interest in
every enterprise formed for the advancement of
Minnesota, and for the benefit of St. I'aul, the city
of his residence. His sympathetic nature leads
him to open Lis ear, and also his purse to those in
distress, and among his chief mourners when he
leaves this world will be the many poor he has be-
friended, and the faint-hearted who took courage
from bis words of kindness. His beloved wife, in
May, 1869, departed this Ufe, leaving four chil-
dren, two daughters and two sons.
GOVBBNOB BAMSBT, JANUABY 1860 TO APEUi 1863.
Alexander Bamsey, the first Territorial Gov-
ernor, was elected the second State Governor, as
has already been mentioned on another page. Be-
fore his last term of office expired he was elected
United States Senator by the Legislature, and
Lieutenant Governor Swift became Governor, for
the unexpired term.
GOVEBNOE SWIFT, APKIIi, 1863 TO JANTTAET, 1864.
Henry A. Swift was the son of a physician, Dr.
John Swift, and on the 23d of March, 1823, was
born at Ravenna, Ohio. In 1842, he graduated at
Western Reserve College, at Hudson, in the same
State, and in 1845 was admitted to the practice of
the law. During the winter of 1846-7, he was an
assistant clerk of the lower house of the Ohio
Legislature, and his quiet manner and methodic
method of business made a favorable impression.
The next year he was elected the Chief Clerk, and
continued in office for two years. For two or
three years he was Secretary of the Portage Farm-
ers' Insurance Company. In April, 1853, he
came to St. Paul, and engaged in merchandise and
other occupations, and in 1856, became one of the
founders of St. Peter. At the election of 1861, he
was elected a State Senator for two years. In
March, 1863, by the resignation of Lieutenant
Governor Donnelly, who, had been elected to the
United States House of Representatives, he was
chosen temporary President of the Senate, and
when Governor Ramsey, in April, 1863, left the
gubernatorial chair, for a seat in the United States
Senate he became the acting Governor. When he
ceased to act as Governor, he was again elected to
the State Senate, and served during the years
1864 and 1865, and was then appointed by the
President, Register of the Land Office at St. Peter.
On the 25th of February, 1869 he died.
GOVEKNOE MILliBB — A. D. 1864 TO A. D. 1866.
Stephen A. MOler was the grandson of a Ger-
man immigrant who about the year 1785 settled
in Pennsylvania. His parents were David and
Rosanna Miller, and on the 7th of January, 1816,
he was born in what is now Perry county in that
State.
He was like many of our best citizens, obliged
to bear the yoke in his youth. At one time he
was a canal boy and when quite a youth was in
charge of a canal boat. Fond of reading he ac-
quired much information, and of pleasing address
he made friends, so that in 1837 he became a for-
warding and commission merchant in Harrisburg.
He always felt an interest in public affairs, and
was an efficient speaker at political meetings. In
1849 he was elected Prothonatary of Dauphin
county. Pa., and from 1853 to 1855 was editor of
the Harrisburg Telegraph; then Governor Pol-
lock, of Pennsylvania, appointed him Flour In-
spector for Philadelphia, which office he held until
1858, when he removed to Minnesota on account of
his health, and opened a store at Saint Cloud.
In 1861, Governor Ramsey who had known him
in Pennsylvania, appointed him Lieutenant Colo ■
nel of the First Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers,
and was present with his regiment on July 2lBt of
that year in the eventful battle of Bull Run.
Gorman in his report of the return of the First
Minnesota Regiment on that occasion wrote: "Be-
fore leaving the field, a portion of the right wing,
owing to the configuration of the ground and in-
tervening woods, became detached, under the com-
mand of Lt. Col. Miller whose gallantry was con-
spicuous throughout the entire battle, and who
contended every inch of the ground with his for-
ces thrown out as skirmishers in the woods, and
succeeded in occupying the original ground on
the right, after the repulse of a body of cavalry.''
After this engagement, his friend Simon Cam-
eron, the Secretary of War, tendered him a posi-
tion in the regular army which he declined.
Although in iU. health he continued with the
'regiment, and was present at Fair Oaks and Mal-
vern HOI.
In September, 1862, he was made Colonel of the
Seventh Regiment, and proceeded against the
156
OUTLINE HIBTOBT OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
Sioux Indians who had massacred so many set-
tlers in the Upiser Minnesota Valley, and in De-
cember he was the Colonel commanding at Man-
kato, and under his supervision, thirty -eight
Siox, condemned for participation in the killing
of white persons, on the 26th of February, 1863,
were executed by hanging from gallows, upon one
scaffold, at the same time. This year he was made
Brigadier General, and also nomiaiated by the re-
pubhoans for Governor, to which office he was
elected for two years, and in January, 1864, en-
entered upon its duties.
In 1873, he was elected to the Legislature for
a district in the southwestern portion of the State,
and in 1876, was a Presidential elector, and bore
the electoral vote to Washington.
During the latter years of his life he was em-
ployed as a land agent by the St. Paul & Sioux
City Railroad Company. In 1881 he died. He
was married in 1839 to Margaret Funk, and they
had three sons, and a daughter who died in early
childhood. His son Wesley, a Lieutenant in the
United States Army, fell in battle at Gettysburg;
his second son was a Commissary of Subsistence,
but is now a private; and his youngest son is in
the service of a Pennsylvania railroad.
GOVBBNOE MAESHAL, A. D. 1866 to A. D. 1870.
William Eainey Marshall is the son of Joseph
Marshall, a farmer and native of Bourbon county,
Kentucky, whose wife was Abigail Shaw, of Penn-
sylvania. He was bom on the 17th of October,
1825, in Boone county, Missouri. His boyhood
was passed in Quincy, Illinois, and before he at-
tained to manhood he went to the lead miae dis-
trict of Wisconsin, and engaged in mining and
surveying.
In September, 1847, when twenty-two years of
age, he came to the Falls of St. Croix, and in a
few months visited the Falls of St. Anthony, staked
out a claim and retiirned. In the spring of 1848,
he was elected to the Wisconsin legislature, but
his seat was contested on the ground that he
lived beyond the boundaries of the state of Wis-
consin. In 1849, he again visited the Falls of St.
Anthony, perfected his claim, opened a store, and
represented that district in the lower house of the
first Territorial legislature. In 1851, he came to
St. Paul and established an iron and heavy hard-
ware business.
In 1852, he held the office of County Suryeyor,
and the next year, with his brother Joseph and
N. P. Langford, he went into the banking busi-
ness. In January, 1861, he became the editor of
the Daily Press, which succeeded the Daily Times.
In August, 1862, he was commissioned Lieut.
Colonel of the Seventh Minnesota Eegiment of In-
fantry and proceeded to meet the Sioux who had
been engaged in the massacre of the settlers of
the Minnesota vallfey. In a few weeks, on the 23d
of September, 1862, he was in the battle of Wood
Lake, and led a charge of five companies of his
own regiment, and two of the Sixth, which routed
the Sioux, sheltered in a ravine.
In November, 1863, he became Colonel of the
Se^>enth Eegiment. After the campaign in the
Indian country the regiment was ordered south,
and he gallantly led his command, on the 14th of
July, 1864, at the battle near Tupelo, Mississippi.
In the conflict before Nashville, in December, he
acted as a Brigade commander, and in AprO, 1865,
he was present at the surrender of Mobile.
In 1865, he was nominated by the Eepublican
party, and elected Governor of Minnesota, and in
1867, he was again nominated and elected. He
entered upon his duties as Governor, in January,
1866, and retired in 1870, after four years of
service.
Tn 1870, he became vice-president of the bank
which was known as the Marine National, which
has ceased to exist, and was engaged in other en-
terprises.
In 1874, he was appointed one of the board of
Eailroad Commissioners, and in 1875, by a change
of the law, he was elected Eailroad Commissioner,
and until January, 1882, discharged its duties.
He has always been ready to help in any move-
ment which would tend to promote the happiness
and intelligence of humanity.
On the 22d of March, 1854, he was married to
Abby Langford, of Utica, and has had one child,
a son.
GOVBBNOB AUSTIN A. D. 1870 TO A. D. 1874.
Horace Austin, about the year 1831, was bom
in Connecticut. His father was a blacksmith, and
for a time he was engaged in the same occupation.
Determined to be something in the world, for sev-
eral years, during the winter, he taught school.
He then entered the office of a well known law
firm at Augusta, Maine, and iu 1854 came west.
For a brief period he had charge of a school at
the Falls of Saint Anthony.
In 1856, he became a resident of St. Peter, on
8KETGHE8 OF PUBLIC MEN.
157
the Minnesota Biver. In 1863, in the expedition
against the Sioux Indians, he served as captain in
the volunteer cavalry. In 1869, he was elected
Governor, and in 1871 he was re-elected. Soon
after the termination of his second gubernatorial
term, he was appointed Auditor of the United
States Treasury at Washington. He has since
been a United States Land Officer in Datota ter-
ritory, but at present is residing at P'ergus Falls,
Minnesota.
GOVEBNOB DAVIS A. D. 1874 TO A. D. 1876.
Oushman KeUog Davis, the son of Horatio M.
and Clarissa P. Davis, on the 16th of June, 1838,
was bom at Henderson, Jefferson county, New
York. "When he was a babe but a few months old,
his father moved to Waukesha, Wisconsin, and
opened a farm. At Waukesha, Carroll College
had been commenced, and in this institution Gov-
ernor Davis was partly educated, but in 1857 grad-
uated at the University of Michigan.
He read law at Waukesha with Alexander Ban-
dall, who was Governor of Wisconsin, and at a
later period Postmaster General of the United
States, and in 1859 was admitted to the bar.
In 1862, he was commissioned as first lieuten-
ant of the 28th Wisconsin Infantry, and in time
became the adjutant general of Brigadier General
Willis A. Gorman, ex-Governor of Minnesota, but
in 1864, owing to ill health he left the army.
Coming to Saint Paul in August, 1864, he en-
tered upon the practice of his profession, and
formed a partnership with ex-Governor Gorman.
Gifted with a vigorous mind, a fine voice, and an
impressive speaker, he soon took high rank in his
profession.
In 1867, he was elected to the lower house of
the legislature, and the next year was commisioned
United States District Attorney, which position
he occupied for five years.
In 1863, he was nominated by the republicans,
and elected Governor. Entering upon the duties
of the office in 1874, he served two years.
Since his retirement he has had a large legal
practice, and is frequently asked to lecture upon
literary subjects, always interesting the audience.
GOVEENOB PILLSBUEY — A. D. 1876 TO 1882.
John Sargent Pillsbury is of Puritan ancestry.
He is the son of John and Susan Pillsbury, and
on the 29th of July, 1828, was bom at Sutton,
New Hampshire, where his father and grandfather
lived.
Like the sons of many New Hampshire farmers,
he was obliged, at an early age, to work for a sup-
port. He commenced to learn house painting, but
at the age of sixteen was a boy in a counti-y store.
When he was twenty-one years of age, he formed
11 partnership with Walter Harriman, subsequently
Governor of New Hampshire. After two years he
removed to Concord, and for four years was a tailor
and dealer in cloths. In 1853, he came to Michigan,
and in 1855, visited Minnesota, and was so pleased
that he settled at St. Anthony, now the East Divi-
sion of the city of Minneapolis, and opened a
hardware store. Soon a fire destroyed his store
and stock upon which there was no insurance, but
by perseverance and hopefulness, he in time re-
covered from the loss, with the increased confidenci
of his fellow men. For six years he was an efficient
member of the St. Anthony council.
In 1863, he was one of three appointed sole Be-
gents of the University of Minnesota, with powei
to liquidate a large indebtedness which had been
unwisely created in Territorial days. By his
carefulness, after two or three years the debt was
canceled, and a large partion of the land granted
to the University saved.
In 1863, he was elected a State Senator, and
served for seven terms. In 1875, he was nomi-
nated by the republicans and elected Governor;
in 1877, he was again elected, and in 1879 for the
third time he was chosen, the only person who has
served three successive terms as the Governor of
Minnesota.
By his courage and persistence he succeeded in
obtaining the settlement of the railroad bonds
which had been issued under the seal of the State,
and had for years been ignored, and thus injured
the credit of the State.
In 1872, with his nephew he engaged in the
manufacture of flour, and the firm owns several
miUs. Lately they have erected a mill in the
East Division, one of the best and largest in the
world.
GOVEBNOB HUBBAED, A. D. 1882.
Lucius Frederick Hubbard was born on the 26th
of January, 1836, at Troy, New York. His father,
Charles Frederick, at the time of his death was
Sheriff of Bensselaer county. At the age of six-
teen, Governor Hubbard left the North GranviUe
Academy, New York, and went to Poultney, Ver-
158
OUTLINE HISTORY OF TEE STATE OF MINNESOTA.
mont, to learn the tinner's trade, and after a short
period he moved to Chicago, -where he worked for
four years.
In 1857, he came to Minnesota, and established
a paper called the "Kepublican," which he con-
ducted until 1861, when in December of that year
he enlisted as a private in the Fifth Minnesota
Eegiment, and by his efficiency so commended
himself that in less than one year he became its
Colonel. At the battle of Nashville, after he had
been knocked off his horse by a ball, he rose, and
on foot led his command over the enemy's works.
"For gallant and meritorious service in the battle
of Nashville, Tennessee, on the 15th and 16th of
December, 1864," he received the brevet rank of
Brigadier General.
After the war he returned to Bed Wing, and has
been engaged in the grain and flour business. He
was State Senator from 1871 to 1875, and in 1881
was elected Governor. He married in May, 1868,
Amelia Thomas, of Bed Wing, and has three
children.
MIBNBSOtVs EEPBBSBNTATrVBS IN CONGKBSS OF THE
"ONITED STATES OB AMEBIOA.
From March, 1849, to May, 1858, Minnesota
was a Territory, and entitled to send to the con-
gress of the United States, one delegate, with the
privilege of representing the interests of his con-
stituents, but not allowed to vote.
TBEEITOKIAL DELEGATES.
Before the recognition of Minnesota as a sepa-
rate Territory, Henry H. Sibley sat in Congress,
from January, 1849, as a delegate of the portion
Wisconsin territory which was beyond the boun-
daries of the state of Wisconsin, in 1848 admit-
ted to the Union. In September, 1850 he was
elected delegate by the citizens of Minnesota ter-
ritory, to Congress.
Henry M. Bice succeeded Mr. Sibley as delegate,
and took his seat in the thirty -third congress, which
convened on December 5th 1853, at Washington. He
was re-elected to the thirty-fourth Congress, which
assembled on the 3d of March, 1857. During his
term of ofloe Congress passed an act extending
the pre-emption laws over the unsurveyed lands of
Minnesota, and Mr. Bice obtained valuable land
grants for the construction of railroads.
William W. Kingsbury was the last Territorial
delegate. He took his seat in the thirty-fifth con-
gress, which convened on the 7 th of ] )eoember.
1857, and the next May his seat was vacated by
Minnesota becoming a State.
tTNITBD STATES SENATORS.
Henry M. Bice, who had been for four years
delegate to the House of Eepresentatives, was on
the 19th of December, 1857, elected one of two
United States Senators. During his term the civil
war began, and he rendered efficient service to the
Union and the State he represented. He is etill
living, an honored citizen in St. Paul.
James Shields, elected at the same time as Mr.
Bice, to the United States Senate, drew the short
term of two years.
Morton S. JVilkinson was chosen by a joint con-
vention of the Legislature, on December 15th,
1859, to sucoed General Shields. During the re-
belUon of the Slave States he was a firm supporter
of the Union.
Alexander Bamsey was elected by the Legisla-
ture, on the 14th of January, 1863, as the suc-
cessor of Henry M. Bice. The Legislature of
1869 re elected Mr. Bamsey for a second term of
six years, ending March 1875. For a full notice
see the 138th page.
Daniel S. Norton was, on January 10th, 1865,
elected to the United States Senate as the suc-
cessor of Mr. Wilkinson. Mr. Norton, who had
been in feeble health for years, died in June, 1870.
O. P. Stearns was elected on January 17th, 1871,
for the few weeks of the unexpired term of Mr.
Norton.
William Windom, so long a member of the
United States House of Eepresentatives, was
elected United States Senator for a term of six
years, ending March 4th, 1877, and was re-elected
for a second term ending March 4th, 1883, but re-
signed, having been appointed Secretary of the
Treasury by President Garfield.
A. J. Edgerton, of Kasson, was appointed by
the Governor to fill the vacancy. President Gar-
field having been assassinated, and Mr. Edgerton
having been appointed Chief Justice of Dakota
territory, Mr. Windom, at a special session of the
Legislature in October, 1881, was re-elected
United States Senator.
S. J. E. McMfflan, of St. Paul, on the 19th of
February, 1875, was elected United States Sen-
ator for the term expiring March 4th, 1881, and
has since been re-elected for a second term, which,
in March. 1887, will expire.
SEETOHEa OP PUBLIC MEN.
159
EBPEESBNTATIVES IN THE TJ. S. HOtTSB Or BBPBB-
SENTATIVBS.
William W. Phelps was one of the first mem-
bers of the United States House of Eepresentatives
from Minnesota. Bom in Michigan in 1826, he
graduated in 1846, at its State University. In
1854, he came to Minnesota as Register of the
Land Office at Eed Wing, and in 1857, was elected
a representative to Congress.
James M. Oavanaugh was of Irish parentage,
and came from Massachusetts. He was elected to
the same Congress as Mr. Phelps, and subsequently
removed to Colorado, where he died.
WUliam Windom was born on May 10th, 1827,ia
Belmont,oounty,Ohio. He was admitted to the bar
in 1850, and was, in 1853, elected Prosecuting At-
torney for Knox county, Ohio. The next year he
came to Minnesota, and has represented the State
in Congress ever since.
Cyrus Aldrich,of Minneapolis, Hennepin county,
was elected a member of the Thirty-sixth Con-
gress, which convened December 5th, 1859, and
was re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress.
Ignatius Donnelly was born in Philadelphia in
1831. Graduated at the High School of that city,
and in 1853 was admitted to the bar. In 1857,
he came to Minnesota, and in 1859 was elected
Lt. Governor, and re-elected in 1861. He be-
came a representative of Minnesota in the United
States Congress which convened on December 7th,
1863, and was re-elected to the Thirty -ninth Con-
gress which convened on December 4th, 1865. He
was also elected to the Fortieth congress, which
convened in December, 1867. Since 1873 he has
been an active State Senator from Dakota county,
in which he has been a resident, and Harper
Brothers have recently published a book from his
pen of wide research called "Atlantis."
Eugene M. Wilson, of Minneapolis, was elected
to the the Forty-first Congress, which assembled
in December, 1869. He was bom December 25th,
1833, at Morgantown, Virginia, and graduated at
Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. From 1857 to
1861, he was United States District Attorney
for Minnesota. During the civQ war he was cap-
tain in the First Minnesota Cavalry. .
Mr. Wilson's father, grandfather, and maternal
grandfather were members of Congress.
M. S. Wilkinson, of whom mention has been
made as U. S. Senator, was elected in 1868 a rep-
resentative to the congress which convened in De-
cember, 1869, and served one term.
Mark H. Dunnell of Owatonna, in the fall of
1870, was elected from the First District to fill
the seat in the House of Bepresentatives so long
occupied by Wm. Windom.
Mr. Dunnell, in July, 1823, was born at Bux-
ton, Maine. He graduated at the college estab-
lished at WaterviUe, in that State, in 1849. From
1855 to 1859 he was State Superintendent of
schools, and in 1860 commenced the practice of
law. For a short period he was Colonel of the
5th Maine regiment but resigned in 1862, and
was appointed U. S. Consul at Vera Cruz, Mexi-
co. In 1865, he came to Minnesota, and was
State Superintendent of Public Instruction from
April, 1867 to August, 1870. Mr. DunneU stiU
represents his district.
John T. Averill was elected in November, 1870,
from the Second District, to succeed Eugene M.
WUson.
Mr. Averill was bom at Alma, Maine, and com-
pleted his studies at the Maine Wesleyan Univer-
sity. He was a member of the Minnesota Senate
in 1858 and 1859, and during the rebellion was
Lieut. Colonel of the 6th Minnesota regiment.
He is a member of the enterprising firm of paper
manufacturers, Averill, EusseU and Carpenter.
In the fall of 1872 he was re-elected as a member
of the Forty-second Congress, which convened in
December. 1878.
Horace B. Strait was elected to Forty -third and
Forty-fourth Congress, and is still a representative.
WilKam S. King, of Minneapolis, was bom De-
cember 16, 1828, at Malone, New York. He has
been one of the most active citizens of Minnesota
in developing its commercial and agriculutral in-
terests. For several years he was Postmaster of
the United States House of Eepresentatives, and
was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress, which
convened in 1875.
Jacob H. Stewart, M. D., was elected to the
Forty-fifth Congress, which convened in Decem-
ber, 1877. He was bom Jcinuary 15th, 1829, in
Columbia county, New York, and in 1851, grad-
uated at the University of New York. For sev-
eral years he practiced medicine at PeekskiU, New
York, and in 1855, removed to St. Paul. In 1859,
he was elected to the State Senate, and was Chair-
man of the Eailroad Committee. In 1864, he was
Mayor of St. Paul. He was Surgeon of the First
160
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA
Minnesota, and taken prisoner at the first battle of
Bull Run. From 1869 to 1873, he was again
Mayor of St. Paul, and is at the present time
United States Surveyor General' of the Minnesota
land office.
Henry Poehler was the successor of Horace B.
Strait for the term ending March 4, 1881, when
Mr. Strait was ag;iin elected.
William Drew Washburn on the 14th of Jan-
uary, 1831, was born at Livermore, Maine, and in
1854, graduated at Bowdoin College. In 1857, he
came to Minnesota, and in 1861, was appointed by
the President, Surveyor General of U. S. Lands,
for this region. He has been one of the most
active among the business men of Minneapolis.
In November, 1878, he was elected to represent
the 3d district in the U. S. House of Eepresenta-
tives, and in 1880, re-elected. He . is a brother of
G. 0., late Governor of Wisconsin, and of E. B.,
the Minister Plenipotentiary of U. S. of America,
to Prance, and resident in Paris during the late
Franco-German war.
BBCAPITtTLATlON TEBKITOBIAIi GOVBKNOKS OF
MINNESOTA.
Alexander Earn spy 1819-1853
WiUis A. Gorman 1053-1857
Samuel Medary 1857
STATE GOVEIlNOnS.
Henry H. Sibley 1858-1860
Alexander Eamsey 1860-1863
H. A. Swift, Acting Gov 1863-1864
Stephen Miller 1864-1866
W.E. Marshall 1866-1870
Horace Austin 1870-1874
0. K. Davis 1874-1876
John S. Pillsbury 1876-1882
L. F. Hubbard 1882
TBEEITOEIAL DELEGATES TO CONGEESS.
Henry H. Sibley 1849-1853
Henry M. Eice 1853-1857
W. W. Kingsbury ■ 1857-1858
UNITED STATES SBNATOES.
Henry M. Eice 1857-1863
James Shields 1857-1859
M. S. Wilkinson 1859-1865
Alexander Eamsey 1863-1875
Daniel S. Norton 1865-1870
O. P. Stearns 1871
William Windom 1871
A. J. Edgerton 1881
S. J. E. BIcMillan 1875
MEMBERS UNITED STATES HOUSE OF EEPEESENTA-
TIVBS.
W. W. Phelps 1857-1859
J. M. Gavanaugh 1857-1859
William Windom 1859-1871
Cyrus Aldrich 1859-1863
Ignatius Donnelly 1863-1869
Eugene M. Wilson 1869-1871
M. S. Wilkinson 1869-1771
M. H. Dunnell 1871
J. T.AveriU 1871-1875
H. B. Strait 1875-1879
1881
Henry Poehler 1879-1881
W. S. King 1875-1877
J. H. Stewart 1877-1879
W. D. Washburn 1879
STATE EDUOATIOY.
IGl
STATE EDUCATION.
BY CHARLES S. BEYANT, A. M.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
EDtrCATION — DEFINITION OF THE WOKD — OHUBCH
AND STATE SEPARATED OOLONIAIj PERIOD —
HOWARD COMEGE — -WII/MAM PENN's GREAT LAW
WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE STATE EDUCA-
TION tWDEK THE CONFEDERATION AID GIVEN TO
STATES IN THE NORTHWEST.
As a word, education is of wide application and
may convey but an indefinite idea. Broadly, it
means to draw out, to lead forth, to traiu up, to
foster, to enable the individual to properly use the
faculties, mental or corporal, with which he is en-
dowed; and to use them in a way that will accom-
plish the desired result in all relations and in any
department of industry, whether in the domain of
intellectual research, or confined to the fields of
physical labor.
State Education points at once to a definite field
of investigation; an organization which is to have
extensive direction and control of the subject matter
embraced in the terms chosen. It at once excludes
the conclusion that any other species of education
than secular education is intended. It excludes all
other kinds of education not included in this term,
without the slightest reflection upon parochial, sec-
tarian, denominational or individual schools; inde-
pendent or corporate educational organizations.
State Education, then, may embrace whatever is
required by the State, in the due execution of its
mission in the protection of individual rights and
the proper advancement of the citizen in material
prosperity; in short whatever may contribute in
any way to the honor, dignity, and fair fame of a
State; whose sovereign wUl directs, and, to a very
great extent, controls the destiny of its subjects.
11
A reason may be given for this special depart-
ment of education, without ignoring any others
arising from the necessity of civil government, and
its necessary separation from ecclesiastical control.
It must be observed by every reasoning mind, that
in the advancement and growth of social elements
from savagery through families and tribes to civil-
ization, and the better forms of government, that
in the increasing growth multiplied industries
continually lead to a resistless demand for devisiou
of labor, both intellectual and physical. This
division inust eventually lead, in every form of
government, to a separation of what may be termed
Church and State; and, of course, in such division
every separate organization must control the ele-
ments necessary to sustain its own perpetuity; for
otherwise its identity would be lost, and it would
cease to have any recognized existence.
In these divisions of labor, severally organized
for different and entirely distinct objects, mutual
benefits must result, not from any invasion of the
separate rights of the one or the other, by hostile
aggression, but by reason of the greatest harmony
of elements, and hence greater perfection in the
labors of each, when limited to the promotion of
each separate and peculiar work. In the division,
one would be directed towards the temporal, the
other toward the spiritual advancement of man, in
any and aU relations which he sustains, not only
to his fellow men, but to the material or immaterial
universe. These departments of labor are sufiic-
iently broad, although intimately related, to requu-e
the best directed energies of each, to properly cul-
tivate their separate fields. And an evidence of
the real harmony existing between these organiza-
162
■ STATE EDUCATION.
tions, the Churoh and State, relative to the present
investigation, is found in the admitted fact that
education, both temporal and spiritual, secular and
sectarian, was a principal of the original organiza-
tion, and not in conflict with its highest duty, or its
most vigorous growth. In the division of the
original organization, that department of educa-
tion, which was only spiritual, was retained with
its necessary adjuncts, while that which was only
temporal was relegated to a new organization, the
temporal organization, the State. The separate
elements are stiU of the same quality, although
wielded by two instead of one organization. In
this respect education may be compared to the
diamond, which when broken and subdivided into
most minute particles, each separate particle re-
tains not only the form and number of facets, but
the brilliancy of the original diamond. So in the
case before us, though education has suffered
division, and has been appropriated by different
organisms, it is nevertheless the same in nature,
and retains the same quality and luster of the
parent original.
The laws of growth in these separate organiza-
tions, the Church composed of every creed, and
the State in every form of government, must de-
termine the extent to which their special educa-
tion shall be carried. If it shall be determined
by the church, that her teachers, leaders, and fol-
lowers in any stage of its growth, shall be limited
in their acquisitions to the simple elements of
knowledge, reading, writing, and arithmetic, it may
be determined that the State should limit educa-
tion to the same simple elements. But as the
Church, conscious of its immature growth, has
never restricted her leaders, teachers, or followers,
to these simple elements of knowledge; neither
has the State seen fit to limit, nor can it ever limit
education to any standard short of the extreme
limits of its growth, the fullest development of
its resources, and the demands of its citizens.
State Education and Church Education are alike
in their infancy, and no one is able to prescribe
limits to the one or the other. The separation of
Church and State, in matters of government only
is yet of very narrow limits, and is of very recent
origin. And the separation of Church and State,
in matters of education, has not yet clearly dawned
upon the minds of the accredited leaders of these
clearly distinct organizations.
It is rational, however, to conclude, that among
reasonable men, it would be quite as easy to de-
termine the final triumph of State Education, as
to determine the final success of the Christian
faith over Buddhism, or the final triumph of man
in the subjugation of the earth to his control.
The decree has gone forth, that man shall subdue
the earth; so that, guided by the higher law, Ed-
ucation, Tinder the direction or protection of the
State, must prove a final success, for only by
organic, scientific, and human instrumentality can
the purpose of the Creator be possibly accom;
plished on earth.
If we have foimd greater perfection in quality,
and better adaptation of methods in the work done
by these organizations sinoe the separation, we
must conclude that the triumphs of each will be
in proportion to the completeness of the separa-
tion; and that the countries the least shackled by
entangling alliances in this regard, must, other
things being equal, lead the van, both in the ad-
vancement of science and in the triuinphs of an
enlightened faith. And we can, by a very slight
comparison of the present with the past, deter-
mine for ourselves, that the scientific curriculum of
State schools has been greatly widened and en-
riched, and its methods better adapted to proposed
ends. We can as easily ascertain the important
fact that those countries are in advance, where the
two great organizations. Church and State, are
least in conflict. We know also, that from the
nature of the human movement westward, that
the best defined conditions of these organizations
should be found in the van of this movement. On
this continent, then, the highest development of
these organizations should be found, at least, when
time shall have matured its natural results in the
growth and polish of our institutions. Even now,
in our infancy, what country on earth can show
equal results in either the growth of general
knowledge, the advance of education, or the tri-
umphs of Christian labor at home and abroad ?
These are the legitimate fruits of the wonderful
energy given to the mind of man in the separate
labors of these organizations, on the principle of
the division of labor, and consequently better di-
rected energies in every department of industry.
This movement is onward, across the continent,
and thence around the globe. Its force is irresist-
able, and all efforts to reunite these happily di-
vided powers, and to return to the culture of past
times, and the governments and laws of past ages.
COLONIAL PERIOD.
163
must be as unavailing as an attempt to reverse
the laws of nature. In their separation and
friendly rivalry, exists the hope of man's temporal
and spiritual elevation.
State Education is natural in its application.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth, and every organism after its own kind.
Now, in pursuance of this well known law of na-
ture, that everything created is made after its own
order and its own hkeness, it follows that the new
comers on this continent brought with them the
germ of national and spiritual life. If we are
right in this interpretation of the laws of life re-
lating to living organisms, we shall expect to find
its proper manifestation in the early institutions
they created for their own special purposes imme-
diately after their arrival here. We look into
their history, and we find that by authority of the
General Court of Massachusetts, in 1636, sixteen
years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers,
Harvard College was established, as an existing
identity; that in 1638, it was endowed by John
Harvard, and named after him. But the Common
School was not overlooked. At a public meeting
in Boston, April 13th 1636, it was "generally
agreed that one Philemon Pormont be entreated
to become schoolmaster for teaching and nourter-
ing children."
After the date above, matters of education ran
through the civil authority, and is forcibly ex-
pressed in the acts of 1642 and 1647, passed by
the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Col-
ony. By the act of 1642, the select men of every
town are required to have vigilant eye over their
brothers and neighbors, to see, first, that none of
them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of
their families, as not to endeavor to teach, by them-
selves or others, their phildren and apprentices so
much learning as shall enable them perfectly to
read the English tongue, and knowledge of the
Capital laws, under penalty of twenty shillings
for each ofience. By the act of 1647, support of
schools was made compulsory, and their blessings
universal. By this law "every town containing
fifty house-holders was required to appoint a
teacher, to teach all children as shall resort to him
to write and read;" and every town containing one
hundred families or house-holders was required to
"set up grammar schools, the master thereof being
able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted
tor the University."
In New Amsterdam, among the Beformed Prot-
estant Dutch, -the conception of a school system
guaranteed aud protected by the State, seems to
have been entertained by the colonists from Hol-
land, although circumstances hindered its practi-
cal development. The same general statement is
true of the mixed settlements along the Delaware;
Menonites, Catholics, Dutch, and Swedes, in con-
nection with their churches, established little
schools in their early settlements. In 1682, the
legislative assembly met at Chester. WiUiam
Penn made provision for the education of youth
of the province, and enacted, that the Governor
and provincial Council should erect and order all
public schools. One section of Penn's "Great
law" is in the woi'ds following :
"Be it enacted by authority aforesaid, that all
persons within the province and territories thereof,
having children, and all the guardians and trus-
tees of orphans, shall cause such to be instructed
in reading and writing, so that they may be able
to read the scriptures and to write by the time that
they attain the age of 12 years, and that they then
be taught some useful trade or skill, that the poor
may work to live, and the rich, if they become
poor, may not want; of which every county shall
take care. And in case such parents, guardians,
or overseers shall be found deficient in this respect,
every such parent, guardian, or overseer, shall pay
for every such 'chUd five pounds, except there
should appear incapacity of body or understanding
to hinder it."
And this "Great law" of William Penn, of 1682,
wiD not suffer in comparison with the English
statute on State Education, passed in 1870, and
amended in 1877, one hundred and ninety-five
years later. In this respect, America is two hun-
dred years in advance of Great Britain in State
education. But our present limits will not allow
us to compare American and English State school
systems.
In 1693, the assembly of Pennsylvania passed a
second school law providing for the education of
youth in every county. These elementary
schools were free for boys and girls. In 1755,
Pennsylvania College was endowed, and became a
University in 1779.
In Virginia, William and Mary College was
famous even in colonial times. It was supported
by direct State aid. In 1726, a tax was levied on
liquors for its benefit by the House of Burgesses;
164
STATE EDUCATION.
in 1759, a tax on peddlew was given this college
by law, and from various revenues it was, in 1776,
the richest college in North America.
These extracts from the early history of State
Education in pre-Colonial and Colonial times give
abundant evidence of the nature of the organisms
planted in American soil by the Pilgrim Fathers
and their successors, as well as other early settlers
on our Atlantic coast. The inner life has kept
pace with the requirements of the external organ-
izations, as the body assumes still greater and
more national proportions. The iuner life grew
with the exterior demands.
On the 9th of July, 1787, it was proclaimed to
the world, that on the 15th of November, 1778, in
{he second year of the independence of America,
the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massa-
chusetts Bay, Bhode Island, Providence Planta-
tions, . Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia had entered
into a Confederate Union.
This Confederate Union, thus organized as a
Government, was able to receive grants of land
and to hold the same for such purposes as it saw
proper. To the new government -cessions were
made by several of the States, from 1781 to 1802,
of which the Virginia grant was tlie most im-
portant.
The Confederate Government, on the 13th of
July, 1787, and within less than four years after
the reception of the Virgiaia Land Grant, known
as the Northwest Territory, passed the ever memo-
rable ordinance of 1787. This was the first real
estate to which the Confederation had acquired
the absolute title in its own right. The legal
government had its origin September 17th, 1787,
while the ordinance for the government of the
Northwest Territory was passed two months and
four days before. Article Third of the renowned
ordinance reads as follows :
"Keligion, morality, and knowledge being nec-
essary to good government and the happiness of
mankind, schools and the means of education shall
forever be encouraged."
What is the territory embraced By this authori-
tative enunciation of the Confederate Government ?
The extent of the land embraced is almost if not
quite equal to the area of the original thirteen colo-
nies. Out of this munificent possession added to the
infant American Union, have since been carved, by
the authority of the United States government, the
princely states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi-
gan, Wisconsin, and in part Minnesota. In this
vast region at least, the Government has said that
education "shall be forever encouraged." En-
couraged how and by whom? Encouraged by
the Government, by the legal State, by the su-
preme power of the land. This announcement of
governmental aid to State schools was no idle
boast, made for the encouragement of a delusive
hope, but the enunciation of a great truth, in-
spired by the spirit of a higher life, now kindled
in this new American temple, in which the Creator
intended man should worship him according to the
dictates of an enlightened conscience, "where none
should molest or make him afraid."
The early Confederation passed away, but the
spirit that animated the organism was immortal,
and immediately manifested itself in the new Gov-
ernment, under our present constitution. On the
17th of September, 1787, two months and four
days from the date of the ordinance erecting the
Northwest Territory was adopted, the new Con-
stitution was inaugurated. The first State gov-
ernment erected in the new territory was the state
of Ohio, in 1802. The enabling act, passed by
Congress on this accession of the first new State,
a part of the new acquisition, contains this sub-
stantial evidence that State aid was faithfully
remembered and readUy ofiered to the cause of
education:
Sec. 3: "That the following proposition be and
the same is hereby offered to the convention of the
eastern States of said territory, when formed, for
their free acceptance or rejection, which if accepted
by the convention shall be obligatory upon the
United States:
" That section number sixteen in every town-
ship, and where such section has been sold, granted
or disposed of, other lands, equivalent thereto, and
most contiguous to the same, shall be granted to
the inhabitants of such township for the use of
schools."
The proposition of course was duly accepted by
the vote of the people in the fvdoption of theii
constitution prior to their admission to the Union,
and on March 3d, 1803, Congress granted to Ohio
in addition to section sixteen, an additional grant
of one complete township for the purpose of estab-
lishing any higher institutions of learning. This
was the beginning of substantial national recogui-
AID TO STATES IN TUB NOIiTIIWSST TETtRITORT.
165
tion of State aid to schools by grants of land out of
the national domain, but the government aid did
not end in this first effort. The next State, Indi-
ana, admitted in 1816, was granted the same sec-
tion, number sixteen in each township; and in
addition thereto, two townships of land were ex-
pressly granted for a seminary of learning. In the
admission of Illinois, in 1818, the section numbered
sixteen in each township, and two entire townships
in addition thereto, for a seminary of learning and
the title thereto vested in the legislature. In the
admission of Michigan in 1836, the same section
sixteen, and seventy-two sections in addition there-
to, were set apart to said State for the purpose of
a State University. In the admission of Wis-
consin, in 1848, the same provision was made as
was made to the other States previously formed
out of the new territory. This was the com-
mencement.
These five States completed the list of States
which could exist in the territory northwest of the
Ohio Eiver. Minnesota, the next State, in part
lying east of the Mississippi, and in part west,
takes its territory from two different sources; that
east' of the Father of Waters, from Virginia, which
was embraced in the Northwest Territory, and that
lying west of the same from the " Louisiana Pur-
chase," bought of France by treaty of April 30,
1803, including also the territory west of the Mis-
sippi, which Napoleon had previously acquired
from Spain. The greater portion of Minnesota,
therefore lies outside the first territorial acquisi-
tion of the Government of the United States; and
yet the living spirit that inspired the early grants
out of the first acquisition, had lost nothing of its
fervor in the grant made to the New Northwest.
When the Territory of Minnesota was organized,
Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, then a Senator in Con-
gress from the state of Illinois, nobly advocated
the claims of Minnesota to an increased amount of
Government aid for the support of schools, extend-
ing from the Common school to the University.
By Mr. Douglas' very able, disinterested and gen-
erous assistance and support in Congress, aided by
Hon. H. M. Rice, then Delegate from Minnesota,
our enabling act was made still more liberal in
relation to State Education, than that of any State
or Territory yet admitted or organized in the,
amount of lands granted to schools generally.
Section eighteen of the enabling act, passed on
the 3d of March, 1849, is as follows:
"And be it further enacted, That when the lands
in said Territory shall be surveyed under the direc-
tion of the Government of the United States, pre-
paratory to bringing the same into market, sec-
tions numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each town-
ship in said Territory, shall be, and the same are
hereby reserved for the purpose of being applied
to schools in said Territory, and in the States and
Territories hereafter to be oi-eated out of the same."
As the additions to the family of States increase
westward, the national domain is still more freely
contributed to the use of schools; and the charac-
ter of the education demanded by the people
made more and more definite. In 1851, while
Oregon and Minnesota were yet territories of the
United States, Congress passed the following act:
" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Eepresentatives of America, in Congress assembled :
That the Governors and legislative assemblies of
the territories of Oregon and Minnesota, be, and
they are hereby authorized to make such laws and
•needful regulations as they shall deem most expe-
dient to protect from injury and waste, sections
numbered sixteen and thirty-six in said Territories
reserved in each township for the support of schools
therein.
(2.) "And be it further enacted. That the Secre-
tary of the Interior be, and he is hereby authorized
and directed to set apart and reserve from sale, out
of any of the public lands within the territory of
Minnesota, to which the Indian title has been or
may be extinguished, and not otherwise appropri-
ated, a quantity of land not exceeding two entire
townships, for the use and support of a University
in said Territory, and for no other purpose what-
ever, to be located by legal subdivisions of not
less than one entire section."
[Approved February 19, 1851. j
166
STATE EDUCATION.
OHAPT^E XXIX.
STATE EDUCATION IN MINNESOTA BOAED OF KE-
GENTS tJNIVEKSITY GliANT — AID OF CONGEBSS IN
1862 -VKLVK OF SOHOOLHOUSES — LOCAL TAXA-
TION IN DIFFERENT STATES STATE SOHOOIi SYS-
TEM KNOWS NO SBOT IGNOEANOB INHEEITED,
THE COMMON FOE OF MAEKIND CONCLUSION.
When Minnesota was prepared by her popula-
tion for application to Congress for admission as
a State, Congress, in an act authorizing her to
form a State government, makes the following
provision for schools :
( 1 ) "That sections numbered sixteen and thirty-
six in every township of public lands in said State,
and where either of said sections, or any part
thereof, has been sold or otherwise disposed of,
other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous
as may be, shall be granted to said State for the
use of schools.
(2) "That seventy-two sections of land shall
be set apart and reserved for the use and support
of a State University to be selected by the Gov-
ernor of said State, subject to the approval of the
commissioner at the general land olfice, and be
appropriated and applied in such manner as the
legislature of said State may prescribe for the
purposes aforesaid, but for no other purpose."
[Passed February 26, 1857."]
But that there might be no misapprehension
that the American Government not only had the
inclination to aid in the proper education of the
citizen, but that in cases requiring direct control,
the government would not hesitate to exercise its
authority, in matters of education as well as in
any and all other questions affecting its sover-
eignty. To this end, on the second of July, 1862,
Congress passed the "act donating public lands to
the several States and Territories which may pro-
vide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the
mechanic arts."
"Beit enacted, &c., that there be granted to the
several States for the purposes hereinafter men-
tioned, an amount of public land to be appor-
tioned to each State (except States in rebellion), a
quantity equal to thirty thousand acres for each
senator and representative in Congress to which
the States are respectively entitled by the appor-
tionment under the census of 1860."
Section four of said act is in substance as fol-
lows:
"That all moneys derived from the sale of these
lands, directly or indirectly, shall be invested in
stocks yielding not less than five per cent, upon
the par value of such stocks. That the money so
invested shall constitute a perpetual fund, the cap-
ital of which shall remain forever undiminished,
and the interest thereof shall be inviolably appro-
priated by each State which may claim the benefit
of the act to the endowment, support, and main-
tenance of at least one college, where the leading
object shall be, without excluding other scientific
and classical studies, and including military tac-
tics, to teach such branches of learning as are re-
lated to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in
sueh manner as the legislatures of the States may
respectively prescribe, in order to promote the
liberal and practical education of the industrial
classes in the several pursuits and professions of
life.
Section five, second clause of said act, provides
"That no portion of said fund, nor the interest
thereon, shall be applied, directly or indirectly,
under any pretence whatever, to the purchase,
erection, preservation, or repair of any building or
buildings."
Section five, third clause, "That any State
which may take and claim the benefit of the pro-
visions of this act shall provide, within five years,
at least not less than one college, as described in
the fourth section of this act, or the grant to such
State shall cease; and the said State shall be
bound to pay the United States the amount re-
ceivjed of any lands previously sold."
Section five, fourth clause, "An annual report
shall be made regarding the progress of each col-
lege, recording any improvements and experi-
ments made, with their costs and results, and such
other matters, including State industrial and eco-
nomical statistics, as may be supposed useful; one
copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free,
by each, to all the other colleges which may be
endowed under the provisions of this act, and also
one copy to the Secretary of the Interior."
Under this act Minnesota is entitled to select
150,000 acres to aid in teaching the branches in
the act named in the State University, making the
endowment fund of the Government to the state
of Minnesota for educational purposes as follows:
1. For common Schools, in acres 3,000,000
2. For State University, four townships 208,360
Total apportionment 3,208,360
AID OF CONGRESS IN 1862.
167
AH these lands have Bot been selected. Under
the agricultural college grant, only 94,439 acres
have been selected, and only 72,708 acres under
the two University grants, leaving only 167,147
acres realized for University purposes, out of the
208,360, a pos&ible loss of 41,203 acres.
The permanent school fund derived from the
national domain by the state of Minnesota, at a
reasonable estimate of the value of the lands se-
cured out of those granted to her, cannot vary
far from the results below, considering the prices
already obtained:
1. Common school lands in acres,
3,000,000, valued at $18,000,000
2. University grants, in all, in acres,
223,000, valued at. 1,115,000
Amount in acres, 3,223,000 $19,115,000
Out of this permanent school fund may be real-
ized an annual fund, when lands are all sold:
1. For common schools .$1,000,000
2. University instruction 60,000
These several grants, ample as they seem to be,
are, however, not a tithe of the means required
from the State itself for the free education of the
children of the State. We shall see further on
what the State has already done in her free school
system.
Minnesota, a State first distinguished by an
extra grant of government land, has something to
unite it to great national interest. Its position ia
the sisterhood of States gives it a prominence that
none other can occupy. A State lying on both
sides of the great Father of waters, in >i, conti-
nental valley midway between two vast oceans,
encircling the Western Hemisphere, with a soil of
superior fertility, a climate unequalled for health,
and bright with skies the most inspiring, such a
State, it may be said, must ever hold a promiaent
position in the Great American Union,
In the acts of the early settlements on the At-
lantic coast, in the Colonial Government, and the
National Congress, we have the evidence of a
determined intention "that schools and the means
of education shall forever be encouraged" by the
people who have the destinies of the Western
Hemisphere in their hands. That the external
organism of the system capable of accomplishing
this heavy task, and of carrying forward this re-
sponsible duty, rests with the people themselves.
and is as extensive as the government they have
established for the protection of their rights and
the growth of their physical industries, and the
free development of their intellectual powers.
The people, organized as a Nation, in assuming
this duty, have in advance proclaimed to the
world that "Religion, Morality, and Knowledge"
are alike essential "to good government." And in
organizing a government free from sectarian con-
trol or alliance, America made an advance hitherto
unknown, both in its temporal and spiritual power ;
for hitherto the work of the one had hindered the
others, and the labors and unities of the two were
inconsistent with the proper functions of either.
The triumph, therefore, of either, for the control
of both, was certain ruin, while separation of each,
the one from the other, was the true lite of both.
Such a victory, therefore, was never before known
on earth, as the entire separation, and yet the
friendly rivalry of Church and State, first inaugu-
rated in the free States of America. This idea was
crystalized and at once stamped on the fore-front
of the Nation's life in the aphorism, "Iteligion,
morality, and knowledge are alike essential to
good government." And the deduction from this
national aphorism necessarily follows: "That
schools and the means of education should forever
be encouraged." We assume, then, without fur-
ther illustration drawn from the acts of the Nation,
that the means of education have not and will not
be withheld. We have seen two great acquisitions,
the Northwest Territory, and the Louisiana Pur-
chase, parceled out in greater and greater pro-
fusion for educational uses, till the climax is
reached in the Mississippi Valley, the future great
center of national power. At the head of this
valley sits as regnant queen the state of Minne-
sota, endowed with the means of education unsur-
passed by any of her compeers in the sisterhood
of States. Let us now inquire, as pertinent to
this discussion,
WHAT HAS MINNIiSOTA DONE FOB STATE EDTJOATION?
The answer is in part made up from her con-
stitution and the laws enacted in pursuance
thereof: First, then, article VIII. of her consti-
tution reads thus:
Section 1. The stability of a republican form of
government depending mainly upon the intelli-
gence of the people, it shaU be the duty of the
Legislature to establish a general and uniform
system of public schools.
168
STATE EDUOATION.
Section 2. The proceeds of such lands as are,
or hereafter may be granted by the United States,
for the use of schools in each township in this
State, shall remain a perpetual school fund to the
State. * ■* * * The principal of all funds
arising from sales or other disposition of lands or
other property, granted or entrusted to this State,
shall forever be preserved inviolate and undimin-
ished; and the income arising from the lease or sale
of said school land shall be distributed to the dif-
ferent townships throughout the State in propor-
tion to the number of scholars in each township,
between the ages of five and twenty-one years;
and shall be faithfully applied to the specific object
of the original grant or appropriation."
Section 3. The legislature shall make such pro-
vision by taxation or otherwise, as, with the in-
come arising from the school fund, will secure a
thorough and efficient system of public schools in
each township in the State.
But in no case shall the moneys derived as afore-
said, or any portion thereof, or any piiblic moneys
or property, be appropriated or used for the sup-
port of schools wherein the destinctive doctrines,
creeds, or tenets of any particular Christian or
other religious sect are promulgated or taught."
THE UNIVERSITY.
" Section 4. The location of the University of
Minnesota, as established by existing laws, [Sept.
1851] is hereby confirmed, and said institution is
hereby declared to be tbe University of Minnesota.
All the rights, immunities, franchises, and endow-
ments herelofore granted or conferred, are hereby
perpetuated unto the said University ; and all lands
which may be granted hereafter by Congress, or
other donations for said University purposes, shall
rest in the institution referred to in this section.
The State constitution is in full harmony with
the National government in the distinctive outlines
laid down in the extracts above made. And the
Territorial and State governments, within these
limits, have consecutively appropriated by legis-
lation, sufficient to carry forward the State school
system. In the Territorial act, establishing the
University, the people of the State announced in
advance of the establishment of a State govern-
ment, " that the proceeds of the land that may
hereafter be granted by the United States to the
Territory for the support of the University, shall
be and remain a perpetual fund, to be called "the
University Fund," the interest of which shall be
appropriated to the support of a University, and
no sectarian instruction shall be allowed in such
University I ■' This organization of the University
was confirmed by the State constitution, and the
congressional land- grants severally passed to that
corporation, and the use of the funds arising there-
from were subjected to the restrictions named. So
that both the common school and University were
dedicated to ' State school purposes, and expressly
excluded from sectarian control or sectarian in-
struction.
In this respect the State organization corres-
ponds with the demands of the general govern-
ment; and has organized the school system reach-
ing from the common school to the university, so
that it may be said, the State student may, if he
choose, in the state of Blinnesota pass from grade
to grade, through common school, high school, and
State University free of charge for- tuition. With-
out referring specially to the progressive legisla-
tive enactments, the united system may be referred
to as made up of units of different orders, and suc-
cessively in its ascending grades, governed by
separate boards, rising in the scale of importance
from the local trustee, directors, and treasurer, in
common school, to the higher board of education,
of six members iij the independent school district,
and more or less than that number in di^ricts and
large cities under special charter, until we reach
the climax in the dignified Board of Eegents; a
board created by law and known as the Begents of
the State University. This honorable body con-
sists of seven men nominated by the Governor and
confirmed by the senate of the State legislature,
each holding his office for three years; and besides
these there are three ex-offloio members, consisting
of the President of the State University, the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Gov-
ernor of the State. This body of ten men are in
reality the legal head of the State University, and
indirectly the efiective head of the State school
system of Minnesota, and are themselves subject
only to the control of the State Legislature.
These various officers, throughout this series, are
severally trustees of legal duties which cannot be
delegated. They fall under the legal maxim
"that a trustee cannot make a trustee." These
are the legal bodies to whom the several series of
employes and servitors owe obedience. These
various trusl^pes determine the course of study
MINNESOTA STATE SYSTEM.
169
and the rules of transfer from grade to grade until
the last grade is reached at the head of the State
system, or the scholar has perhaps completed a
post-graduate course in a polytechnic school, in-
augurated by the State for greater, perfection, it
may be in chemistry, agriculture, the mechanic
arts, or other specialty, required by the State or
national government.
This system, let it be understood, differs from
all private, parocliial, denominational, or sectarian
schools. The State organism and all the sectarian
elements of the church are, in this department of
labor, entirely distinct. The State protects and
encourages, but does not control either the schools
or the faith of the church. The church supports
and approves, but does not yield its tenets or its
creed to the curriculum of the schools of the State.
The State and the Church are in this respect en-
tirely distinct and different organizations. State
education, however, and the education of the ad-
herents of the church are in harmony throughout
a great portion of the State oumculum. Indeed,
there seems to be no reason why the greater por-
tion of denominational teaching, so far as the same
is in harmony with the schools of the State, should
not be relegated to the State, that the church
throughout all its sectarian element might be the
better able to direct its energies and economize
its benevolence in the cultivation of its own fields
of chosen labor. But, however this may be, and
wherever these two organizations choose to divide
their labors, they are still harmonious even in their
rivalry.
The organism as a State system has, in Minne-
sota, so matured that through aU the grades to the
University, the steps are defined and the gradients
passed without any conflict of authority. The
only check to the regular order of ascend-
ing grades was first met in the State Uni-
versity. These schools, in older countries, had at
one time an independent position, and in their
origin had their own scholars of all grades, from
the preparatory department to the Senior Class in
the finished course; but in our State system, when
the common schools became graded, and the High
School had grown up as a part of the organism of
a completed system, the University naturally took
its place at the head of the State system, having
the same relation to the High School as the High
School has to the Common School. There was no
longer any reason why the same rule should not
apply in the transfer from the High School to the
University, that applied in the transfer from the
Common School to the High School, and to this
conclusion the people of the State have already
fully arrived. The rules of the board of Eegents
of the State University now allow students, with
the Principal's certificate of qualification, to enter
the Freshman class, on examination in sub-Fresh-
man studies only. But even this is not satisfac-
tory to the friends of the State school system.
They demand for High School graduates an en-
trance into the University, when the grade below
is passed, on the examination of the school below
for graduation therein. If, on the one hand, the
High schools of the State, under the law for the
encouragement of higher education, are required
to prepare students so that they shall be qualified
to enter some one of the classes of the University,
on the other hand the University should be re-
quired to admit the students thus qualified with-
out further examination. The rule should work
in either direction. The rights of students under
the law are as sacred, and should be as inalienable,
as the rights of teachers or faculties in State in-
stitutions. The day of unlimited, irresponsible
discretion, a relic of absolute autocracy, a des-
potic power, has no place in systems of free
schools under constitutional and statutory limita-
tions, and these presidents and faculties ti ho con-
tinue to exercise this power in the absence of
right, should be reminded by Boards of Eegents
at the head of American State systems that their
resignation would be acceptable. They belong to
an antiquated system, outgrown by the age in
which we live.
The spirit of the people of our State was fully
intimated in the legislature of 1881, in the House
bill introduced as an amendment to the law of
1878-79, for the encouragement of higher educa-
tion, but finally laid aside for the law then in
force, slightly amended, and quite in harmony
with the House bill. Sections two and five
alluded to read as follows:
"Any public, graded or high school in any city
or incorporated village or township organized into
a district under the sf/^called township system,
which shall have regular classes and courses of
study, articulating with some course of study, op-
tional or required, in the State University, and
shall raise annually for the expense of said school
double the amount of State aid allowed by this
370
STATE EDUCATION.
act, and shall admit students of either sex into the
higher classes thereof from any part of the State,
without charge for tuition, shall receive State aid,
as specified in section four of this act. Provided,
that non-resident pupils shall in all cases be qual-
ified to enter the highest department of said
school at the entrance examination for resident
pupUs."
"The High School Board shall have power, and
it is hereby made their duty to provide uniform
questions to test the qualifications of the scholars
of said graded or high schools for entrance and
graduation, and especially conduct the examina-
tions of scholars in said schools, when desired and
notified, and award diplomas to graduates who
shall upon examination be found to have completed
any course of study, either optional or required,
entitling the holder to enter any class in the Uni-
versity of Minnesota named therein, any time
within one year from the date thereof, without
further examination; said diploma to be executed
by the several members of the High School
Board."
THE RELATED SYSTEM.
We have now seen the position of the University
in our system of public schools. In its position
only at the head of the series it differs from the
grades below. The rights of the scholar follow
him throughout the series. When he has com-
pleted and received the certificate or diploma in
the prescribed course in the High School, articu-
lating with any course, optional or required, in the
University, he has the same right, unconditioned,
to pass to the higher class in that course, as he
had to pass on examination, from one class to the
other in any of the grades beiow. So it follows,
that the University faculty or teacher who as-
sumes the right to reject, condition, or re-examine
such student, would exercise an abuse of power,
unwarranted in law, arbitrary in spirit, and not
republican in character. This rule is better and
better understood in all State Universities, as free
State educational organisms are more crystalized
into forms, analogous to our State and national
governments. The arbitrary will of the interme-
diate, or head master, no longer prevails. His will
must yield to more certain legal rights, as the
luarner passes on, under prescribed rules, from in-
iancy to manhood through all the grades of school
life. And no legislation framed on any other
theory , of educational promotion in republican
States can stand against this American conscious-
ness of equality existing between all the members
of the body politic. In this consciousness is em-
braced the inalienable rights of the child or the
youth to an education free in all our public
schools. In Minnesota it is guaranteed in the
constitution that the legislature shall make such
provisions, by taxation or otherwise, as, with the
income arising from the school fund, wiU secure a
thorough and elBoient system of public schools in
each township in the State. Who shall say that
the people have no right to secure such thorough
and efficient system, even should that "thorough
and efficient system" extend to direct taxation for
a course extending to graduation from a Univer-
sity? Should such a course exceed the constitu-
tional limitation of a thorough and efficient sys-
tem of public schools?
INTBRPBETATION OF THE OONSTITUTION'.
The people, through the medium of the law-
making power, have given on three several occa-
sions, in 1878, 1879, and 1881, an intimation of
the scope and measuriag of our State constitution
on educational extension to higher education than
the common school. In the first section of the act
of 1881, the legislature created a High School
Board, consisting of the Governor of the State,
Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the
President of the University of Minnesota, who are
charged with certain duties and granted certain
powers contained in the act. And this High
School Board are required to grant State aid to
the amount of |400 during the school year to any
public graded school, in any city or incorporated
village, or township organized into a district,
which shall give preparatory instruction, extend-
ing to and articulating with the University course
in some one of its classes, and shall admit stu-
dents of either sex, from any part of the State,
without charge for tuition. Provided only that
non-resident pupils shall be qualified to enter
some one of the organized classes of such graded
or high school. To carry out this act, giving
State aid directly out of the State treasury to a
course of education reaching upward from the
common school, through the high school to the
University, the legislature appropriated the entire
sum of $20,000. In this manner we have the in-
terpretation of the people of Minnesota as to the
RESULTS OF TEE RELATED SYSTEM.
171
meaning of "a thoi-ough and eflBoient system of
public schools, operative alike in each townshijj in
the State." And this interpretation of ouf legis-
lature is in harmony with the several acts of Con-
gress, and particularly the act of July the second,
1862, granting lands to the several States of the
Union, known as the Agricultural College Grant.
The States receiving said lands are required, in
their colleges or universities, to "teach such
branches of learning as are related to Agriculture
and the Mechanic arts, without excluding other
scientific and classical studies, and including mil-
itary tactics, in such manner as the legislatures of
the States may respectively prescribe, in. order to
promote the liberal and practical education of the
industrial classes in the several pursuits and pro-
fessions of life."
And the Legislature of Minnesota has already
established in its University, optional or required
courses of study folly meeting the limitations in
the congressional act of 1862. In its elementary
department it has three courses, known as classi-
cal, scientific, and modern. In the College of
Science, Literature, and the Arts, the courses of
study are an extension of those of the elementary
departments, and lead directly to the degrees of
Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Bach,
elor of Literature. In the College of Mechanic
Arts the several courses of studies are principally
limited to CivU Engineering, Mechanical Engi-
neering, and Architecture. In the College of Ag-
riculture are: (1) The regular University course,
leading to the degree of Bachelor of Agriculture.
(2) The elementary course, in part coinciding witli
the Scientific course of the Elementary Depart-
ment. (3) A Farmers' Lecture course. (4) Three,
special courses for the year 1880-81. Law and
Medicine have not yet been opened in the State
University for want of means to carry forward
these departments, now so much needed.
Our State constitution has therefore been prac-
tically interpreted by the people, by a test that
canBot be misconstrued. They have fortified
their opinion by the payment of the necessary tax
to insure the success of a thorough and eiBoieut
system of public schools throughout the State.
This proof of the people's interest in these schools
appears in the amounts paid for expenses and in-
struction. From the school fund the State of
Minnesota received, in 1879, the full sum of
$232,187.43 The State paid out the same year.
the sum of $394,737.71. The difierence is $162,-
550.28, which was paid out by the State more than
was derived from the government endowment fund.
And it is not at all likely that the endowment fund,
generous as it is, will ever produce an amount
equal to the cost of instruction. The ratio of the
increase of scholars it is believed will always be in
advance of the endowment fund. The cost of in-
struction cannot fall much below an average, for
aU grades of scholars, of eight dollars per annum
to each pupil. Our present 180,000 scholars en-
rolled would, at this rate require $1,440,000, and
in ten years and long before the sale of the school
lands of the State shall have been made, this 180,-
000 will have increased a hundred per cent.,
amonnting to 360,000 scholars. These, at $8.00
per scholar for tuition, would equal $2,880,000
per annum, while the interest from the school
fund in the same time cannot exceed $2,000,000,
even should the land average the price of $6.00
per acre, and the interest realized be always equal
to 6 per cent. '
SOME OF THE EESTTITS
In these infant steps taken by our State, we can
discern the tendency of our organism towards a
completed State system, as an element of a still
wider union embracing the nation. To know
what is yet to be done in this direction we must
know what has already been done. We have, in
the twenty years of our State history, built 3,693
sclioolhouses, varying in cost from $400 to $90,-
000; total value of aU, $3,156,210; three Normal
school buildings at a cost of (1872) $215,231.52;
a State University at an expenditure for buildings
alone of $70,000, and an allowance by a late ack
of the legislature of an additional $100,000, in
three yearly appropriations, for additional build-
ings to be erected, in all $170,000, allowed by the
State for the University. Add these to the cost of
common school structures, and we have already
expended in school buOdings over $4,800,000 for
the simple purpose of housing the infant organ-
ism, our conunon school system here planted.
We have seen a movement in cities like St. Paul,
Minneapolis, Stillwater, and Winona, towards the
local organization of a completed system of home
schools, carrying instruction free to the University
course, with a total enrollment of 13,500 scholars
and 265 teachers, daily seated in buildings, all in
the modem style of school architecture and school
172
STATE EDUCATION.
furniture, coating to these cities the sum of $850,-
000 for buildings, and for instruction the sum of
$118,000 annually.
We have, in addition to these schools in the
cities named, other home and fitting schools, to
whom have been paid |400 each, under the law
for the "Encouragement of Higher Education,"
passed in 1878, and amended in 1879, as follows:
Anoka, Austin, Blue Earth City, Ohatfield, Cannon
Falls, Orookston, Duluth, Detroit, Eyota, Fari-
bault, Garden City, Glencoe, Howard Lake, Hast-
ings, Henderson, Kasson, Litchfield, Lane&boro,
Le Sueur, Lake City, Monticello, Moorhead, Man-
kato, Northfleld, Owatonna, Osseo, Plainview, Red
Wing, Eushford, Eochester, St. Cloud, St. Peter,
Sauk Centre, Spring Valley, Wells, Waterville,
Waseca, Wabasha, Wilmar, Winnebago City, Zum-
brota, and Mantorville.
These forty-two State aid schools have paid in
all for buildings and furniture the gross sum of
$642,700; some of these buildings are superior in
all that constitutes superiority in school architect-
ure. The Eochester buildings and grounds cost
the sum of $90,000. Several others, such as the
Austin, Owatonna, Faribault, Hastings, Ked Wing,
Eushford, St. Cloud, and St. Peter schoolhouses,
exceed in value the sum of $25,000; and others of
these buildings are estimated at $6,000, $8,000,
$10,000, and $15,000. In all they have an enroll-
ment of scholars in attendance on classes graded up
to the University course, numbering 13,000, under
301 teachers, at an annual salary amounting in all
to $123,569, and having in their A, B, C, D classes
1704 scholars, of whom 126 were prepared to
enter the sub-freshman class of the State Univer-
sity in 1880, and the number entering these grades
in the year 1879-80 was 934, of whom 400 were
non-residents of the districts. And in all these
forty-two home schools of the people, the fitting
schools of the State University, one uniform course
of study, articulating with some course in the
University, was observed. As many other courses
as the local boards desired were also carried on in
these schools. This, in short, is a part of what
we have done.
The organic elements that regularly combine to
form governments, are similar to those organic ele-
ments that combine to form systems of mental
culture. The primitive type of government is the
family. This is the lowest organic form. If no
improvement is ever made upon this primitive ele-
ment, by other combinations of an artificial na-
ture, human governments would never rise higher
than the family. If society is to advance, this
organism widens into the clan, and in like manner
the clan into the village, and the village into the
more dignified province, and the province into the
State. All these artificial conditions above tho
family are the evidences of growth in pursuance
of the laws of artificial life. In like manner the
growth of intellectual organisms proceeds from
the family instruction to the common school.
Here the artificial organism would cease to ad-
vance, and would remain stationary, as the clan in
the organism of government, unless the common
school should pass on to the wider and still higher
unit of a graded system reaching upward to the
high school. Now this was the condition of the
common school in America during the Colonial
state, and even down to the national organization.
Soon after this period, the intellectual life of the
nation began to be aroused, and within the last
fifty years the State common school has culmi-
nated in the higher organism of the high school,
and it is of very recent date that the high school
has reached up to and articulated in any State
with the State University. On this continent, both
government and State schools started into life,
freed from the domination of institutions grown
effete from age and loss of vital energy. Here,
both entered into wider combinations, reaching
higher results than the ages of the past. And
yet, in educational organization we are far below
the standard of perfection we shall attain in the
rapidly advancing future. Not until our system
of education has attained a national character as
complete in its related articulation as the civil or-
ganization of towns, counties, and States in the
national Union, can our educational institutions do
the work required of this age. And in Minnesota,
one of the leading States in connected school or-
ganic relations, we have, as yet, some 4,000 com-
mon school districts, with an enrollment of some
100,000 scholars of different ages, from five to
twenty-one years; no higher in the scale than the
common school, prior to the first high school on
the American continent. These chaotic elements,
outside of the system of graded schools now aided
by the State, must be reduced to the same organ-
ized graded system as those that now articulate in
their course with the State University.
Our complete organization as a State system for
DIVISION OF LABOR A CAUSE OF GllOWTH.
173
cJuoational purposes, equal to the demands of the
State, and required by the spirit of the age, will
not be consummated until our four thousand
school districts shall reap the full benefits of a
graded system reaching to the high school course^
articulating with some course in the State Uni-
versity and a course in commen with every other
high school in the State. The system thus or-
ganized might be required to report to the Board
of Eegents, as the legal head of the organization
of the State School system, not only the numerical
statistics, but the number and standing of the
classes in each of the high schools in the several
studies of the uniform course, established by the
Board of Regents, under the direction of the State
Legislature. To this system must finally belong
the certificate of standing and graduation, en-
titling the holder to enter the designated class in
any grade of the State schools named therein,
whether High School or University. But this
system is not and can never bo a skeleton merely,
made up of Uteless materials, as an anatomical
specimen in the office of the student of the
practice of the healing art. Withiuthis organism
there must preside the living teacher, bringing
into this organic structure, not the debris of the
effete systems of the past, not the mental exuvia
of dwarfed intellectual powers of this or any for-
mer age, but the teacher inspired by nature to
feel and appreciate her methods, and ever moved
by her diviae afflatus.
Every living organism has its own laws of
growth; and the one we have under consideration
may, in its most important feature, be compared to
the growth of the forest tree. In its earlier years
the forest tree strikes its roots deep into the earth
and matures its growing rootlets, the support of
its future trunk, to stand against the storms and
winds to which it is at all times exposed. When
fully rooted in the ground, with a trunk matured
by the growth of years, it puts forth its infant
branches and leaflets, suited to its immature but
maturing nature; finally it gives evidence of stal-
wart powers, and now its widespreading top tow-
ers aloft among its compeers rearing its head high
among the loftiest denizens of the woods. In like
manner is the growth of the maturing State school
organism. In the common school, the foundation
is laid for the rising structure, but here are no
branches, no fruitage. It seems in its earliest in-
fancy to put forth no branches, but is simply tak-
ing hold of the elements below on which its inner
life and growth depend. As the system rises, the
underlaying laws of life come forth in the princi-
ples of invention, manufacturing, engraving, and
designing, enriching every branch of intellectual
and professional industry, and beautifying every
Qeld of human culture. These varied results are
all in the law of growth in the organism of State
schools carried on above the common schools to
the University course. The higher the course the
more beneficial the results to the industries of the
world, whether those industries are intellectual or
purely physical, cater only to the demands of
wealth, or tend to subserve the modest demands of
the humblest citizen.
The only criticism that can reach the question
now under consideration, is whether the graded
organisation tends to produce the results to which
we have referred. The law relating to the division
of labor has especially operated in the graded sys-
tem of State schools. Under its operation, it is
claimed, by good judges, that eight years of
school life, from five to twenty-one, has been saved
to the pupils of the present generation, over those
of the ungraded schools ante-dating the last fifty
years. By the operation of this law, in one gen-
eration, the saving of time, on the enrollments of
State schools in the graded systems of the north-
ern States of the American Union, would be
enormous. For the State of Mipnesota alone, on
the enrollment of 180,000, the aggregate years of
time saved would exceed a million! The time
saved on the enrollment of the schools of the dif-
ferent States, under the operation of this law
would exceed over twenty million years!
To the division of labor is due the wonderful
facility with which modem business associations
have laid their hands upon every branch of indus-
trial pursuits, and bestowed upon the world the
comforts of life. Introduced into our system of
education it produces results as astonishing as the
advent of the Spinning Jenny in the manufacture of
cloth. As the raw material from the cotton field
of the planter, passing, by gradation, through the
unskilled bands of the ordinary laborer to the
more perfect process of improved machinery, se-
cure additional value in a constantly increasing
ratio ; so the graded system of intellectual culture,
from the Primary to the High school, and thence
to the University, adds increased lustre and value
to the mental development in a ratio commen-
174
STATE EDUOATION.
surate with the increased skill of the mental ope-
rator.
The law o£ growth in State schools was clearly
announced by Horace Mann, when he applied to
this system the law governing hydraulics, that no
stream could rise above its fountain. The com-
mon school could not produce a scholarship above
its own curriculum. The high school was a grade
above, and as important in Ihe State system as
'the elevated fountain head of the living stream.
This law of growth makes the system at once the
moat natural, the most economical, and certainly
the most popular. These several elements might
be illustrated, but the reader can easily imagine
them at his leisure. As to the last, however, suffer
an illustration. In Minnesota, for the school year
ending August 21st, 1880, according to the report
of the Superintendent of Public Instruction', there
were enrolled, one hundred and eighty thousand,
two hundred and fifty-eight scholars in the State
schools, while all others, embracing kindergartens,
private schools, parochial schools, of all sects and
all denominations, had an attendance at the same
time of only two thousand four hundred and
twenty-eight; and to meet all possible omissions,
if we allow doijble this number, there is less than
three per cent, of the enrollment in the State
school. This ratio will be found to hold good, at
least throughout all the Northern States of the
American Union. These State schools, then, are
not unpopular in comparison with the schools of a
private and opposite character. Nor is it owing
altogether to the important fact, that State schools
are free, that they are more popular than schools
of an opposite character; for these State schools
are a tax upon the property of the people, and yet
a tax most cheerfully borne, in consequence of
their superior excellence and importance.
The State school, if not already, can be so
graded that each scholar can have the advantage
of superior special instruction far better adapted
to the studies through which he desires to pass,
than similar instruction can be had in ungraded
schools of any character whatever. In this re-
spect the State system is without a rival. It has
the power to introduce such changes as may meet
aU the demands of the State and all the claims of
the learner.
The State school knows no sect, no party, no
privileged class, and no special favorites; the high,
the low, the rich, and the poor, the home and for-
eign-born, black or white, are aU equal at this
altar. The child of the ruler and the ruled are
here equal. The son of the Governor, the wood-
sawyer, and the hod-carrier, here meet on one
level, and alike contend for ranks, and alike expect
the honors due to superior merit, the reward of
intellectual culture. But, aside from the repubU-
can character of the State school system, the sys-
tem is a State necessity. Without the required
State culture under its control, the ' State must
cease to exist as an organism for the promotion of
human happiness or the protection of human
rights, and its people, though once cultured and
refined, must certainly return to barbarism and
savage life. There can be no compromise in the
warfare against inherited ignorance. Under .all
governments the statute of limitations closes over
the subject at twenty-one years; so that during
the minority of the race must this warfare be
waged by the government without truce. No
peace can ever be proclaimed in this war, until the
child shall inherit the matured wisdom, instead of
the primal ignorance of the ancestor.
The State school system, in our government, is
from the necessity of the case, national. No
State can enforce its system beyond the limits of
its own territory. And unless the nation enforce
its own uniform system, the conflict between juris-
dictions could never be determined. No homo-
geneous system could ever be enforced. As the
graded system of State schools has now reached
the period in its history which corresponds to the
colonial history of the national organization, it
must here fail, as did the colonial system of gov-
ernment, to fully meet the demands of the people.
And what was it, let us consider, that led the peo-
ple in the organization of the national government
"to form a more perfect union?" Had it then be-
come necessary to take this step, that "justice"'
might be established, domestic tranquility insured,
the common defense made more efficient, the gen-
eral welfare promoted, and the blessings of liberty
better secured to themselves and their posterity,
that the fathers of the government should think it
neoessaiy to form a more perfect union?" Why
the necessity of a more perfect union? Were our
fathers in fear of a domestic or foreign foe, that
had manifested his power in their immediate pres-
ence, threatening to jeopardize or destroy their do-
mestic tranquility ? Was this foe an hereditary
enemy, who might at long intervals of time invade
CONCLUSION.
175
their territory, and endanger the liberties of this
people? And for this reason did they demand a
more perfect union? And does not this reason
now exist in BtUl greater force for the formation of
a still more perfect union in our system of State
schools? Our fathers were moved by the most
natural of all reasons, by this law of self-defense.
They were attacked by a power too great to bo
successfully resisted in their colonial or unorgan-
ized state. The fear of a destruction of the sev-
eral colonies without a more perfect union drove
them to this alternative. It was union and the
hope of freedom, against disunion and the fear of
death, that cemented the national government.
And this was an external organism, the temple in
which the spirit of freedom should preside, and in
which her worshippers should enjoy not only do-
mestic but national tranquility. Now, should it be
manifested to the world that the soul and spirit,
the very life of this temple, erected to freedom, is
similarly threatened, should not be the same cause
that operated in the erection of the temple itself,
operate in the protection of its sacred fires, its soul
and spirit? It would seem to require no admoni-
tion to move a nation in the direction of its highest
hopes, the protection of its inner hfe.
And what is this enemy, and where is the power
able to destroy both the temple and the spirit of
freedom?. And why should State Education take
upon itself any advanced position other than its
present independent organic elements?. In the
face of what enemy should it now be claimed we
should attempt to change front, and "foim a more
perfect union to insure domestic tranquility, and
promote the {;eneral welfare," to the end that we
may the better secure the blessings of liberty to
ourselves and our posterity ? That potent foe to
our free institutions, to which we are now brought
face to face, is human ignomuce, the natural hered-
itary foe to every form of enlightened free gov-
ernment. This hereditary enemy is now home-
steaded upon our soil. This enemy, in the lan-
guage of the declaration made by the colonies
against their herediteiry foe, this enemy to our
government, has kept among us a standing army
of illiterates, who can neither read nor write, but
are armed with the ballot, more powerful than the
sword, ready to strike the most deadly blow at
human freedom; he has out off and almost en-
tirely destroyed our trade between States of the
same government; has imposed a tax upon us
without our consent, most grievous to be borne;
he has quite abolished the free system of United
States laws in several of our States; he has estab-
lished, in many sections, arbitrary tribunals, ex-
cluding the subject from the right of trial by jury,
and enlarged the powers of his despotic rule, en-
dangered the lives of peaceable citizens; he has
alienated government of one section, by declaring
the inhabitants aliens and enemies to his supposed
hereditary right; he has excited domestic insur-
rections amongst us; he has endeavored to destroy
the peace and harmony of our people by bringing
his despotic ignorance of our institutions into con-
flict with the freedom and purity of our elections;
he has raised up advocates to his cause who have
openly declared that our system of State Educa-
tion, on which our government rests, is a failure;*
he has spared no age, no sex, no portion of our
country, but has, with his ignominious minions,
afflicted the North and the South, the East and the
West, the rich and the poor, the black and the
white; an enemy alike to the people of every sec-
tion of the government, from Maine to California,
from jilinnesota to Louisiana. Such an inexora-
ble enemy to government and the domestic tran-
quility of all good citizMis deserves the oppro-
brium due only to the Prince of Darkness, against
whom eternal war should be waged; and for the
support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of Divine Providence, we should, as
did our fathers, mutually pledge to each other,
as citizens of the free States of America, our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
We have thus far considered the State school
system in some of its organic elements, and the
nature, tendency, and neceseary union of these
elements; first in States, and finally for the forma-
tion of a more perfect union, that they may be
united in one national organization under the con-
trol of one sovereign will. The mode in which
these unorganized elements shall come into union
and harmony with themselves, and constitute the
true inner life and soul of the American Union, is
left for the consideration of those whose special
duty it is to devote their best energies to the pro-
motion of the welfare of .the Nation, and by
statesman-like forethought provide for the domes-
tic, social, civil, intellectual, and industrial pro-
gress of the rapidly accumulating millions who
*Eichard Grant White in North American Review
176
bTATE EDUCATION.
are soon to swarm upon the American continent.
We see truly that
"The rudiments of empire here
Are plastic yet and "warm;
The chaos of a mighty world
Is rounding into form!
"Each rude and jostling fragment soon
Its fitting place shall find—
The raw material of a State,
Its muscle and its mind."
But we must be allowed, in a word, to state the
results which we hope to see accomplished, before
the jostling fragments which are yet plastic and
warm, shall have attained a temperament not
easily fused and "rounded" into one homogenous
national system, rising in the several States from
the kindergarten to the University, and from the
State Universities through all orders of specialties
demanded by the widening industries and growing
demands of a progressive age. And ia this direc-
tion we cannot fail to see that the national govern-
ment must so mould its intellectual systems that
the State and national curricula shall be uniform
throughout the States and territories, so that a
class standing of every pupil, properly certified,
shall be equally good for a like class standing in
every portion of the government to which he may
desire to remove. America will then be ready to
celebrate her final independence, the inalienable
right of American youth, as having a standing
limited by law in her State and national systems
of education, entitling them to rank everywhere
with associates and compeers on the same plain;
when in no case, shall these rights be denied or
abridged by the United States, or by any State
or authority thereof, on account of race, color,
or previous condition of scholarship, secular or
sectarian, till the same shall forever find the most
ample protection under the broad banner of
NATIONAL and NATUEAii rights, common alike to
all in the ever widening kbpuhhc of leiteks.
HISTORY
OF THE
SIOUX MASSACRE OF 1862-
CHAPTEE XXX.
liOUIS HEN/IPIN'S visit to the upper MISSISSIPPI
IN 1680 — CAPTAIN JONATHAN CAKVEB VISITS THE
C0UNTB7 IN 1766 — THE NAMES OE THE TBIBES —
TREATIES WITH SIOUX INDIANS PROM 1812 TO
1859 — THEIB RESERVATIONS CIVILIZATION EF-
FORTS — SETTLEMENTS OF THE WHITES CONTIGU-
OUS TO THE RESERVATIONS.
The first authentic knowledge of the country
upon the waters of the Upper Mississippi and its
tributaries, was given to the world by Louis Hen-
nepin, a native of France. In 1680 he visited the
Falls of St. Anthony, and gave them the name of
his patron saint, the name they still bear.
Hennepin found the country occupied by wild
tribes of Indians, by whom he and his compan-
ions were detained as prisoners, but kindly treated,
and finally released.
In 1766,,this same country was again visited by
a white man, this time by Jonathan Carver, a
British subject, and an officer in the British army.
Jonathan Carver spent some three years among
different tribes of Indians in the Upper Missis-
sippi country. He knew the Sioux or Dakota
Indians as the Naudowessies, who were then occu-
pying the country along the Mississippi, from
Iowa to the Falls of St. Anthony, and along the
Minnesota river, then called St. Peter's, from its
source to its mouth at Mendota. To the north of
these tribes the country was then occupied by the
Ojibwas, commonly called Chippewas, the heredi-
tary enemies of the Sioux.
Carver found these Indian nations at war, and
by his commanding influence finally succeeded in
making peace between them. As a reward for his
good offices in this regard, it is claimed that two
cliiefs of the Naudowessies, acting for their nation,
»t a council held with Carver, at the great cave,
12
now in the corporate limits of St. Paul, deeded to
Carver a vast tract of land on t^he Mississippi
river, extending from the Falls of St. Anthony to
the foot of Lake Pepin, on the Mississippi; thence
east one hundred English miles; thence north one
hundred and twenty miles; thence west to the
place of beginning. But this pretended grant has
been examined by our government and entirely
ignored as a pure "invention of parties in interest,
after Carver's death, to profit by his Indian ser-
vice in Minnesota.
There can be no doubt that these same Indians,
known to Captain Carver as the Naudowessies, in
1767, were the same who inhabited the country
upon the Upper Mississippi and its tributaries
when the treaty of Traverse des Sioux was made,
in 1851, between the United States and the Sisse-
ton and Wapaton bands of Dakota or Sioux Indi-
ans. The name Sioux is said to have been bestowed
upon these tribes by the French; and that it is a
corruption of the last syllable of their more an-
cient name, which in the peculiar guttural of the
Dakota tongue, has the sound of the last syllable
of the old name Naudowess««s, Sioux.
The tribes inhabiting the Territory of Minne-
sota at the date of the massacre, 1862, were the
following: Medawakontons (or Village of the
Spirit Lake); Wapatons (or Village .of the
Leaves); Sissetons (or Village of the Marsh);
and Wapakutas (or Leaf Shooters). All these
were Sioux Indians, connected intimately with
other wUd bands scattered over a vast region of
country, including Dakota Territory, and the
country west of the Missouri, even to the base of
the Eocky Mountains. Over all this vast region
roamed these, wild bands of Dakotas, a powerful
and warlike nation, holding by their tenure the
country north to the British Possessions.
(177)
178
BISTORT OF THE SIOUX MASSAORE.
The Sissetons had a hereditary chief, Ta-tanka
Mazin, or Standing Buffalo; and at the date of
the massacre his father, "Star Pace," or the "Or-
phan,"' -was yet alive, but superannuated, and all
the duties of the chief were vested in the son.
Standing Buffalo, who remained friendly to the
whites and took no part in the terrible massacre
on our border in 1862.
The four tribes named, the Medawakontons, Wa-
patons, Sissetons and Wapakutas, comprised the
entire "annuity Sioux" of Minnesota; and in 1862
these tribes numbered about six thousand and two
hundred persons. All these Indians had from
time to time, from the 19th day of July, 1815, to
the date of the massacre of 1862, received pres-
ents from the Government, by virtue of various
treaties of amity and friendship between us and
their accredited chiefs and heads of tribes.
Soon after the close of the last war with Great
Britain, on the first day of June, 1816, a treaty
was concluded at St. Louis between the United
States and the chiefs and warriors representing
eight bands of the Sioux, composing the three
tribes then called the "Sioux of the Leaf," the
"Sioux of the Broad Leaf," and the "Sioux who
Shoot in the Pine Tops," by the terms of which
these tribes confirmed to the United States all
cessions or grants of lands previously made by
them to the British, French, or Spanish govern-
ments, within the limits of the United States or
its Territories. For these cessions no annuities
were paid, for the reason that they were mere con-
firmations of grants made by them to powers
from whom we had acquired the territory.
From the treaty of St. Louis, in 1816, to the
treaty ratified by the United States Senate in 1859,
these tribes had remained friendly to the whites,
and had by treaty stipulations parted with all the
lands to which they claimed title in Iowa; all on
the east side of the Mississippi river, and all on
the Minnesota river, in Minnesota Territory, ex-
cept certain reservations. One of these reserva-
tions lay upon both sides of the Minnesota, ten
miles on either side of that stream, from Hawk
river on the north, and Yellow Medicine river on
the south side, thence westerly to the head of Big
Stone Lake and Lake Traverse, a distance of
about one hundred miles. Another of these reser-
vations commenced at Little Bock river on the
east, and a line running due south from opposite
its mouth, and extending up the river westerly to
the easterly line of the first-named reservation, at
the Hawk and Yellow Bledicine rivers. This last
reservation had also a width of ten miles on each
side of the Minnesota river.
The Indians west of the Missouri, in referring
to those of their nation east of the river, called
them Isanties, which seems to have been applied
to them from the fact that, at some remote period,
they had lived at Isantamde, or "Knife Lake,"
one of the Mille Lacs^ in Minnesota.
These Indian treaties inaugurated and contrib-
uted greatly to strengthen a custom of granting,
to the pretended owners of lands occupied for
purposes of hunting the wild game thereon, and
living upon the natural products thereof, a con-
sideration for the cession of their lands to the
Government of the United States. This custom
culminated in a vast annuity fund, in the aggre-
gate to over three million doUars, owing to these
tribes, before named, in Minnesota. This annuity
system was one of the causes of the massacre of
1862.
Indian LiPB.^Before the whites came in con-
tact with the natives, they dressed in the skins o*
animals which they killed for food, such as the
buffalo, wolf, elk, deer, beaver, otter, as well as the
small fur-bearing animals, which they trapped on
lakes and streams. In later years, as the settle-
ments of the white race approached their borders,
they exchanged these peltries and furs for blankets,
cloths, and other articles of necessity or ornament.
The Sioux of the plains, those who iahabited the
Ooteau and beyond, and, indeed, some of the
Sisseton tribes, dress in skins to this day. Even
among those who are now called "civilized," the
style of costume is often unique. It is no picture
of the imagination to portray to the reader a "stal-
WABT Indian" in breech-cloth and leggins, with
a calico shirt, all "fluttering in the wind," and his
head surmounted with a stove-pipe hat of most
surprising altitude, carrying in his hand a pipe of
exquisite workmanship, on a stem not unlike a
cane, sported as an ornament by some city dandy.
His appearance is somewhat varied, as the seascms
come and go. He may be seen in summer or in
winter dressed in a heavy cloth coat of coarse fab-
ric, often turned inside out with all his civilized
and savage toggery, from head to foot, ia the most
bewildering juxtaposition. On beholding him,
the dullest imagination cannot refrain from the
poetic exclamtion of Alexander Pope,
"Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutored mindl"
EFFORTS OF CTVILTZATION.
179
Efeoets to Civilize these Annuity Indians.
— The treaty of 1858, made at WaskLngton, elabo-
rated a scheme for the civilization of these amraity
Indians. A civilization fund was jarovided, to be
taken from their annuities, and expended in im-
provements on the lands of such of them as should
abandon their tribal relations, and I'.dopt the habits
and modes of life of the white race. To aU such,
lands .were to be assigned in severalty, eighty
acres to each head of a family. On these farms
were to be erected the necessary farm-buildings,
and farming implements and cattle were to be
furnished them.
In addition to these favors the government
offered them pay for such labors of value as were
performed, in addition to the crops they raised.
Indian farmers now augmented rapidily, until the
appalling outbreak in 1862, at which time about
one hundred and sixty had taken advantage of the
munificent provisions of the treaty. A number of
farms, some 160, had good, snug brick houses
erected upon them. Among these cimlized savages
was Little Crow, and many of these farmer-Indians
belonged to his own band.
The Indians disliked the idea of taking any por-
tion of the general fund belonging to the tribe for
the purpose of carrying out the civilization scheme-
Those Indians who retained the "blanket," and
hence called "blanket Indians," denounced the
measure as a fraud upon their rights. The chase
was then a God-given right; this scheme forfeited
that ancient natural right, as it pointed unmistaka-
bly to the destruction of the chase.
But to the friends of Indian races, the course
inaugurated seemed to be, step by step, lifting
these rude children of the plains to a higher level.
This scheme, however, was to a great degree
thwarted by the helpless condition of the "blanket
Indians" during a great portion of the year, and
their persistent determination to remain followers
of the chase, and a desire to continue on the war-
path.
When the chase fails, the "blanket Indians" re-
sort to their relatives, the farmers, pitch their
tepees around their houses, and then commence
the process of eating them out of house and home.
When the ruin is complete, the farmer Indians,
driven by the law of self-preservation, with their
wives and children, leave their homes to seek such
subsistence as the uncertain fortunes of the chase
may yield.
In the absence of the family from the house and
fields, thus deserted, the wandering "blanket In-
dians" commit whatever destruction of fences or
tenements their desires or necessities may suggest.
This perennial process goes on; so that in the
spring ^^iien the disheartened farmer Indian re-
turns to his desolate home, to prepare again for
another crop, he looks forward with no different
results for the coming winter.
It will be seen, from tliis one illustration, drawn
from the actual results of the civilizing process,
how hopeless was the prospect of elevating one
class of related savages without at the same time
protecting them from the incursions of their own
relatives, against whom the class attempted to be
favored, had no redress. In this attempt to civil-
ize these Dakota Indians the forty years, less or
more, of missionary and other efforts have been
measurably lost, and the money spent in that di-
rection, if not wasted, sadly misapplied.
The treaty of 1858 hul opened for settlement a
vast frontier country of the most attractive char-
acter, in the Valley of the Minnesota, and the
streams putting into the Minnesota, on either side,
such as Beaver creek, Sacred Heart, Hawk and
Chippewa rivers and some other small streams,
were flourishing settlements of white families.
Within this ceded tract, ten miles wide, were the
scattered settlements of Birch Coolie, Patterson
Eapids, on the Sacred Heart, and others as far up
as the Upper Agency at Yellow Medicine, in Een-
ville county. The county of Brown adjoined the
reservation, and was, at the time of which we are
now writing, settled mostly by Germans. In this
county was the flourishing town of New Ulm, and
a thriving settlement on the Big Cottonwood and
Watonwan, consisting of German and American
pioneers, who had selected this lovely and fertile
valley for their future homes.
Other counties, Blue Earth, Nicollet, Sibley,
Meeker, McLeod, Kandiyohi, Monongalia and
Murray, were all situated in the finest portions of
the state. Some of the valleys along the streams,
such as Butternut valley and others of similar
character, were lovely as Wyoming and as fertile
as the Garden of Eden. These counties, with
others somewhat removed from the direct attack of
the Indians in the massacre, as Wright, Stearns
and Jackson, and even reaching on the north to
Fort Abercrombie, thus extending from Iowa to
the Valley of the Bed Biver of the North, were
severally involved in the consequences of the war-
180
HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSAORE.
fare of 1862. This extended area had at the time
a population of over fifty thousand people, princi-
pally ia the pursuit of agriculture; and although
the settlements were in their infancy, the people
were happy and contented, and as prosperous as
any similar community in any new country on the
American continent, since the landing of the PU-
grim Fathers.
We have in short, traced the Dakota tribes of
Mumesota from an early day, when the white man
first visited and explored these then unknown re-
gions, to the time of the massacre. We have also
given a synopsis of aU the most important treaties
between them and the government, with an allu-
sion to the country adjacent to the reservations,
and the probable number of people residing in the
portions of the state ravaged by the savages.
CHAPTER XXXI.
COMPIiAINTS OP THE INDIANS TBBATIES OF TBA-
VBBSE DBS SIOUX AND MENDOTA OBJECTIONS TO
THE MODE as PAYMENT — ^INKPADUTA MASSACEE
AT SPIBIT LAKE PEOOF OS CONSPIBAOY ^IN-
DIAN COUNCILS.
In a former chapter the reader has h'ad some
account of the location of the several bands of
Sioux Indians in Mimiesota, and their relation
to the white settlements on the western border of
the state. It is now proposed to state in brief
some of the antecedents of the massacre.
PBOMINBNT CAUSES.
1. By the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, dated
July 23, 1851, between the United States and the
Sissetons and Wapatons, $276,000 were to be paid
their chiefs, and a further sum of $30,000 was to
be expended for their benefit in Indian improve-
ments. By the treaty of Mendota, dated August
5, 1851, the Medawakantons and Wapakutas were
to receive the sum of $200,000, to be paid to their
chief, and for an improvement fund the farther
sum of $30,000. These several sums, amounting
in the aggregate to .$565,000, these Indians, to
whom they were payable, claim they were never
paid, except, perhaps, a small portion expended in
improvements on the reservations. Thej became
dissatisfied, and expressed then- views in council
freely with the agent of the government.
In 1857, the Indian department at Washington
sent out Major Kintzing Prichette, a man of great
experience, to inquire into the cause of this disaf-
fection towards the government. In his report of
that year, made to the Indian department, Major
Prichette says :
"The complaint which runs through all their coun-
cils points to the imperfect performance, or non-ful-
fiUment of treaty stipulations. Whether these
were well or ill founded, it is not my promise to
discuss. That such a behef prevails among them,
impairing their confidence and good faith in the
government, cannot be questioned."
In one of these councils Jagmani said: "The
Indians sold their lands at Traverse des Sioux. 1
say what we were told. For fifty years they were
to be paid $50,000 per annum. We were also
promised $300,000, and that we have not seen."
Mapipa Wicasta (Cloud Man), second chief of
Jagmani 's band, said:
"At the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, $275,000
were to be paid them when they came upon their '
reservation; they desired to know what had be-
come of it. Every white man knows that they
have been five years upon their reservation, and
have yet heard nothing of it."
In this abridged form we can only refer in brief
to these complaints; but the history would seem
to lack completeness without the presentation of
\thi3 feature. As the fact of the dissatisfaction ex-
isted, the government thought it worth while to
appoint Judge Young to investigate the charges
made against the governor, of the then Minnesota
territory, then acting, ex-qfflcio, as superintendent
of Indian affairs for that locality. Some short
extracts from Judge Young's report are here pre-
sented :
"The governor is next charged with having paid
over the greater part of the money, appropriated
tmder the fourth article of the treaty of July 23
and August 6, 1851, to one Hugh Tyler, for pay-
ment or distribution to the 'traders' and 'half-
breeds,' contrary to the wishes and remonstrances
of the Indians, and in violation of law and the
stipulations contained in said treaties; and also
in violation of his own solemn pledges, personally
made to them, in regard to said payments.
"Of $275,000 stipulated to be paid under the
first clause of the fourth article of the treaty of
Traverse des Sioux, of July 24, 1851, the sum of
$250,000, was delivered over to Hugh Tyler, by
the governor, for distribution omong the 'traders'
and 'half-breeds,' according to the arrangement
made by the schedule of the Traders' Paper, dated
at Traverse des Sioux, July 23, 1851."
CAUSES OF IRRITATION.
181
" For this large sum of money, Hugh Tyler ex-
ecuted two receipts to the Governor, as the attor-
ney for the 'traders' and 'half breeds;' the one for
$210,000 on account of the 'traders,' and the other
for $40,000 on account of the ' half-breeds;' the
first dated at St. Paul, December 8, 1852, and the
second at Mendota, December 11, 1852."
"And of the sum of $110,000, stipulated to be
paid to the Medawakantons, under the fourth ar-
ticle of the treaty of August 5, 1851, the sum of
$70,000 was in like manner paid over to the said
Tyler, on a power of attorney executed to him by
the traders and claimants, under the said treaty,
on December 11, 1852. The receipts of the said
Tyler to the Governor for this money, $70,000, is
dated at St. Paul, December 13, 1852, making to-
gether the sum of $320,000. This has been shown
to have been contrary to the wishes and remon-
strances of a large majority of the Indians." And
■Judge Young adds: "It is also believed to be in
violation of the treaty stipulations, as well as the
law making the appropriations under them."
These several sums of money were to be paid to
these Indians in open council, and soon after they
were on their reservations provided for them by
the treaties. In these matters the report shows
they were not consulted at all, in open council;
but on the contrary, that arbitrary divisions and
distributions were made of the entire fund, and
their right denied to direct the manner in which
they should be appropriated. See Acts of Gon-
gress, August 30, 1852.
The Indians claimed, also, that the third section
of the act was violated, as by that section the ap-
propriations therein referred to, should, in every
instance, be paid directly to the Indians them-
selves, to whom it should be due, or to the tribe,
or part of the tribe, per capita, " unless otherwise
the imperious interest of the Indians or some
treaty stipulation should require the payment to
be made otherwise, under the direction of the
president." This money was never so paid. The
report further states that a large sum, " $55,000,
was deducted by Hugh Tyler by way of discount
and percentage on gross amount of payments,
and that these exactions were made both from tra-
ders and half-breeds, without any previous agree-
ment, in many instances, and in such a way, in
some, as to make the impression that unless they
were submitted to, no payments would be made to
such claimants at all."
And, finally the report says, that from the testi-
mony it was evident that the money was not paid
to the chiefs, either to the Sisseton, Wapaton, or
Medawakanton bands, as they in open council re-
quested; but that they were compelled to submit
to this mode of payment to the traders, otherwise
no payment would be made, and the money would
be returned to Washington; so that in violation of
law they were compelled to comply with the Gov-
ernor's terms of payment, according to Hugh Ty-
ler's power of attorney.
The examination of this complaint, on the part
of the Indians, by the Senate of the United States,
resulted in exculpating the Governor of Minnesota
(Governor Bamsey) from any censure, yet the In-
dians were not satisfied with the treatment they
had received in this matter by the accredited agents
of the Government.
2. Another cause of irritation among these In-
dians arose out of the massacre of 1857, at Spirit
Lake, known as the Inkpaduta massacre. Inkpa-
duta was an outlaw of the Wapakuta band of
Sioux Indians, and his acts in the murders at
Spirit Lake were entirely disclaimed by the "annu-
ity Sioux." He had slain Tasagi, a Wapakuta
chief, and several of his relatives, some twenty
years previous, and had thereafter led a wandering
and marauding life about the head waters of the
Des Moines river.
Inkpaduta was connected with several of the
bands of annuity Sioux Indiana, and similar rela-
tions with other bands existed among his followers.
These ties extended even to the Yanktons west of
the James river, and even over the Missouri. He
was himself an outlaw for the murder of Tasagi
and others as stated, and followed a predatory and
lawless life in the neighborhood of his related
tribes, for which the Sioux were themselves blamed.
The depredations of these Indians becoming in-
sufferable, and the settlers finding themselves suf-
ficiently strong, deprived them of their guns and
drove them from the neighborhood. Recovering
some of their guns, or, by other accounts, digging
up a few old ones which they had buried, they
proceeded to the settlement of Spirit Lake and
demanded food. This appears to have been given
to a portion of the band which had first arrived,
to the extent of the means of those applied to.
Soon after, Inkpaduta, with the remainder of his
followers, who, in all, numbered twelve men and
two boys, with some women who had lingered be-
hind, came in and demanded food also. The set-
tler gave him to understand that he had no more
182
EI8T0RY OF THE SIOUX MAS SAO BE.
to give; wliereupon Inkpaduta spoke to liis eldest
son to the effect that it was disgraceful to ask
these people for food ■which they ought to .take
themselves, and not to have it thrown to them like
dogs. Thus assured, the son immediately shot the
man, and the murder of the whole famUy fol-
lowed. Prom thence they proceeded from house
to house, until every family in the settlement,
without warning of those previously slain, were
all massacred, except four women, whom they bore
away prisoners, and afterward violated, with cir-
■ cumstances of brutality so abhorrent as to find no
parallel in the annals of savage barbarity, unless
we except the massacre of 1862, which occurred a
few years later.
From Spirit Lake the murderers proceeded to
Springfield, at the outlet of Shetek, or Pelican
lake, near the head waters of the Des Moines
river; where they remained encamped for some
days, trading with Mr. William Wood from Man-
kato, and his brothers. Here they succeeded in
killing seventeen, including the Woods, making",
in all, forty -seven persons, when the men rallied,
and firing upon them, they retreated and deserted
that part of the counti-y. Of the four women
taken captives by Inkpaduta, Mrs. Stevens and
Mrs. Noble were killed by the Indians, and Mrs.
Marble and Miss Gardner were rescued by the
Wapaton Sioux, under a promise of reward from
the Government, and for wliich the three Indians
who brought in these captives received each one
thousand dollars.
The Government had required of the Sioux the
delivery of Inkpaduta and his band as the condi-
tion for the payment of their annuities. This was
.regarded by certain of the bands as a great wrong
visited upon the innocent for the crimes of the
guilty. One of their speakers (Mazaknti Mani),
in a council held with the Sissetons and Wapatons,
A.ugust 10, 1857, at Yellow Medicine, said :
"The soldiers have appointed me to speak for
them. The men who killed the white people did
not belong to us, and we did not expect to be called
upon to account for the deeds of another band.
We have always tried to do as our Great Father
tells us. One of our young men brought in a
captive woman. I went out and brought in the
other. The soldiers came up here and our men
assisted to kill one of Inkpaduta's sons at this
place. The lower Indians did not get up the war-
party for you; it was our Indians, the Wapatons
and Sissetons. The soldiers here say that they
were told by you that a thousand dollars would
be paid for killing each of the murderers. We,
with the men who went out, want to be paid for
what we have done. Three men were killed, as
we know. ***** All of us want our
money very much. A man of another band has
done wrong, and we are to suffer for it. Our old
women and children are hungry for this. I have
seen $10,000 sent here to pay for our going out.
I wish our soldiers were paid for it. I suppose
our Great Father has more money than this."
Major Pritohette, the special government agent,
thought it necessary to answer some points made
by Mazakuti Mani, and spoke, in council, as fol-
lows:
"Your Great Father has sent me to see Super-
intendent Oullen, and to say to him he was well
satisfied with his conduct, because he had acted ac-
cording to his instructions. Your Great Father
had heard that some of his white children had been
cruelly and brutally murdered by some of the
Sioux nation. The news was sent on the wings of
the lightning, from the extreme north to the land
of eternal summer, throughout which his children
dwell. His young men wished to make war on
the whole Sioux nation, and revenge the deaths of
their brethren. But your Great Father is a just
father and wishes to treat all his children aUke
with justice. He wants no innocent man punished
for the guilty. He punishes the guilty alone. He
expects that those missionaries who have been here
teaoLing you the laws of the Great Spirit had
taught you this. Whenever a Sioux is injured by
a white man your Great Father will punish him,
and expects from the chiefs and warriors of the
great Sioux nation that they will punish those In-
dians who injure the whites. He considers the
Sioux as a part of his family; and as friends and
brothers he expects them to do as the whites do to
them. He knows that the Sioux nation is divided
into bands; but he knows also how they can all
band together for common protection. He expects
the nation to punish these murderers, or to deliver
them up. He expects this because they are his
friends. As long as these murderers remain un-
punished or not delivered up, they are not actings
as friends of their Great Father. It is for this
reason that he has witheld the aunuity. Your
Great Father will have his white children pro-
tected; and all who have told you that your Great
Father is not able to punish those who injure them
will find themselves bitterly mistaken. Your
REPOnT OF SPECIAL AGENT.
183
Great Father desires to do good to all his children
and will do all in his power to accomplish it; but
he is firmly resolved to punish all who do wrong."
After this, another similar council, September 1,
1857, was held with the Sisseton and Wapaton
band of Upper Sioux at Yellow Medicine. Agent
Flandrau, in the meantime, had succeeded in or-
ganizing a band of warriors, made up of all the
"annuity" bands, under Little Crow. This expe-
dition numbered altogether one hundred and six,
besides four half-breeds. This party went out af-
ter Inkpaduta on the 22d of July,_ 1857, starting
from Yellow Medicine.
On the 5th of August Major Pritchette reported
to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, "Tftat the
party of Indians, representing the entire Sioux na-
tion, under the nominal head of Little Crow, re-
turned yesterday from the expedition in search of
Inkpaduta and his band," after an absence of thir-
teen days.
As this outlaw, Inkpaduta, has achieved an im-
mortality of infamy, it may be allowable in the
historian to record the names of his followers. In-
kpaduta (Scarlet Point) heads the list, and the
names of the eleven men are given by the wife of
Tateyahe, who was killed by the party of Sioux
under Little Crow, thus: Tateyahe (Shifting
Wind); Makpeahoteman (Roaring Cloud), son of
Inkpaduta, killed at Yellow Medicine; Makpiope-
ta (Pii'e Cloud), twin brother of Makpeohotoman;
Tawachshawakan (His Mysterious Feather), killed
in the late expedition; Bahata (Old Man); Kech-
omon (Putting on as He Walks); Huhsan (One
Leg); Kahadai (Eattling), son-in-law of Inkpa-
duta; Fetoa-tanka (Big Pace); Tatelidashinksha-
mani (One who Makes Crooked Wind as He
Walks); Tachanchegahota (His Great Gun), and
the two boys, children of Inkpaduta, not named.
After the band had been pursued by Little
Crow into Lake Chouptijatanka (Big Dry Wood),
distant twenty miles in a northwestern direction
from Skunk Lake, and three of them killed out-
right, wounding one, taking two women and a
little child prisoners, the Indians argued that they
had done sufficient to merit the payment, of their
annuities; and on the 18th of August, 1854, Maj.
OuUen telegraphed the following to the Hon. J.
W. Denver, commissioner of Indian affairs :
"If the department concurs, I am of the opinion
that the Sioux of the Mississippi, having done all
in their power to punish or surrender Inkpaduta
and his band, their aimuities may with propriety
be paid, as a signal to the military movements
from Forts Eidgely and EandaU. The special
agent from the department waits an answer to
this dispatch at Dunleith, and for instructions in
the premises.''
, In this opinion Major Pritchette, in a letter of
the same date, concurred, for reasons therein
stated, and transmitted to the department. In
this letter, among other things, the writer says:
"No encouragement was given to them that
such a request would be granted. It is the -
opinion, however, of Superintendent CuUen, the
late agent, Judge Flandrau, Governor Medary,
and the general intelligent sentiment, that the an-
nuities may now with propriety, be paid, without
a violation of the spirit of the expressed deter-
mination of the department to withhold them until
the murderers of Spirit Lake should be surren-
dered or punished. It is argued that the present
friendly disposition of the Indians is manifest, and
should not be endangered by subjecting them to
the wants incident to their condition during the
coming winter, and the consequent temptation to
depredation, to which the withholding their
money would leave them exposed."
The major yielded this point for the reasons
stated, yet he continued:
"If not improper for me to express an opinion, I
am satisfied that, without chastising the whole
Sioux nation, it is impossible to enforce the sur-
render of Inkpaduta and the remainder of bis
band." * * * "Nothing less than the entire
extirpation of Inkpaduta's murderous outlaws will
satisfy the justice and dignity of the government,
and vindicate outraged humanity."
We here leave the Inkpaduta massacre, remark-
ing only that the government paid the Indians
their annuities, and made no further effort to bring
to condign punishment the renmant who had
escaped alive from the pursuit of Little Crow and
his soldiers. This was a great error on the part
of our government. The Indians construed it
either as an evidence of weakness, or that tie
whites were afraid to pursue the matter further,
lest it might terminate in still more disastrous re-
sults to the infant settlement of the state border-
ing upon the Indian country. The result was,
the Indians became more insolent than ever be-
fore. Little Crow and his adherents had found
capital out of which to foment future difficulties
in which the two races should become involved.
And it is now believed, and subsequent circum-
184
EISTOBY OF THB SIOUX MASSAC RSI.
stances have greatly strengthened that belief, that
Little Crow, from the time the government ceased
its efforts to punish Inkpaduta, began to agitate
his great scheme of driving the whites from the
state of Minnesota; a scheme which finally cul-
minated in the ever-to-be-remembered massacre of
August, A. D. 1862.
The antecedent exciting causes of this massacre
are numerous. The displaced agents and traders
find the cause in the erroneous action of the Gov-
ernment, resulting ia their removal from office.
The statesman and the philosopher may unite in
tracing the cause to improper theories as to the
mode of acquiring the right to Indian lands.
The former may locate the evil in our system of
treaties, and the latter in our theories of govern-
ment. The philanthropist may find the cause in
the absence of justice which we exhibit in all our
intercourse with the Indian races. The poet and
the lovers of romance in human character find the
true cause, as they believe, in the total absence of
all appreciation of the noble, generous, confiding
traits peculiar to the native Indian. The Chris-
tian teacher finds apologies for acts of Indian
atrocities in the deficient systems of mental and
moral culture. Each of these different classes
are satisfied that the great massacre of August,
1862, had its origin in some way intimately con-
nected with his favorite theory.
Let us, for a moment, look at the facts, in rela-
tion to the two races who had come into close con-
tact with each other, and in the light of these
, facts, judge of the probable cause of this fearful
coUision. The white race, some two hundred
years ago, had entered upon the material conquest
of the American continent, armed with all the ap-
pliances for its complete subjugation. On the
shores of this prolific continent these new ele-
ments came in contact with a race of savages with
many of the traits peculiar to a common human-
ity, yet, with these, exhibiting all, or nearly all,
the vices of the most barbarous of savage races.
The period of occupancy of this broad, fertile
land was lost in the depths of a remote antiquity.
The culture of the boU, if ever understood, had
been long neglected by this race, and the chase
was their principal mode of gaining a scanty sub-
sistence. It had lost all that ennobled man, and
was aUve only to all his degradations. The white
man was at once acknowledged, the Indian being
judge, superior to the savage race with which he
had come in contact.
Here, then, is the first cause, in accordance with
a universal principle, in which the conflict of the
two races had its origin. It was a conflict of
knowledge with ignorance, of right with wrong.
If this conflict were only mental, and the weapons
of death had never been resorted to in a single
instance, the result would have been the same.
The inferior race must either recede before the su-
perior, or sink into the common mass, and, like the
raindrops falling upon the bosom of the ocean,
lose aU traces of distinction. This warfare takes
place the world over, on the principle of mental
and material progress. The presence of the supe-
rior light eclipses the inferior, and causes it to
retire. Mind makes aggression upon mind, and
the superior, sooner or later, overwhelms the infe-
rior. This process may go on, with or without
the conflict of physical organisms. The final
result will be the same.
Again, we come to the great law of right. The
white race stood upon this undeveloped continent
ready and willing to execute the Divine injunc-
tion, to replenish the earth and subdue it. On the
one side stood the white race armed with his law;
on the other the savage, resisting the execution of
that law. The result could not be evaded by any
human device. In the case before us, the Indian
races were in the wrongful possession of a conti-
nent required by the superior right of the white
man. This right, founded in the wisdom of God,
eliminated by the ever-operative laws of progress,
wUl continue to assert its dominion, with varying
success, contingent on the use of means employed,
until all opposition is hushed in the perfect reign
of the superior aggressive principle.
With these seemingly necessary reflections, we
introduce the remarks of the Sioux agent touching
the antecedents of the great massacre, unparalleled
in the history of the conflict of the races. The
agent gives his peculiar views, and they ale worthy
of careful consideration.
Major Thomas Galbfaith, Sioux Agent, says-:
" The radical, moving cause of the outbreak is,
I am satisfied, the ingrained and fixed hostility of
the savage barbarian to reform and civilization.
As in aU barbarous communities, in the history of
the world, the same people have, for the most part,
resisted the encroachments of civilization upon
their ancient customs; so it is in the case before
us. Nor does it matter materially in what shape
civilization makes its attack. Hostile, opposing
forces meet in conflict, and a war of social elements
VIEWS OF M^UOB OALBliAITH.
180
is the result — civilization is aggressive, and bar-
barism stubbornly resistant. Sometimes, indeed,
civilization has achieved a bloodless victory, but
generally it has been otherwise. Christianity, it-
self, the true basis of civilization, has, in most in-
stances, -waded to success through seas of blood.
* * * Having stated thus much, I state as a
- settled fact in my mind, that the encroachments of
Christianity, and its handmaid, civilization, upon
the habits and customs of the Sioux Indians, is
the cause of the late terrible Sioux outbreak. There
were, it is true, many immediate inciting causes,
which will be alluded to and stated hereafter, but
they are subsidiary to, and developments of, or
incident to, the great cause set forth. * * *
But that the recent Sioux outbreak would have
happened at any rate, as a result, a fair conse-
quence of the cause here stated, I have no more
doubt than I doubt that the great rebellion to
overthrow our Government would have occurred
had Mr. Lincoln never been elected President of
the United States.
" Now as to the existing or immediate causes of
the outbreak: By my predecessor a new and
radical system was inaugurated, practically, and,
in its inauguration, he was aided by the Christian
missionaries and by the Government. The treaties
of 1858 were ostensibly made to carry this new
system into effect. The theory, in substance, -asss
to break up the community-system which prevailed
among the Sioux; weaken and destroy their
tribal relations, and individualize them, by giving
them each a separate home. * * * On the
1st day of June, A. D. 1861, when I entered upon
the duties of my office, I found that the system
had just been inaugurated. Some hundred fami-
lies of the Annuity Sioux had become novitiates,
and their relatives and friends seemed to be favor-
ably disposed to the new order of things. But I
also found that, against these, were arrayed over
five thousand "Annuity Sioux," besides at least
three thousand Yanktonais, all inflamed by the
most bitter, relentless, and devilish hostility.
"I saw, to some extent, the difficulty of the
situation, but I determined to continue, if in my
power, the civilization system. To favor it, to aid
and build it up by 'every fair means, I advised,
encouraged, and assisted the farmer novitiates; in
short, I sustained the policy inaugurated by my
predecessor, and sustained and recommended by the
Government. I soon discovered that the system
could not be successful without a sufficient force
to protect the "farmer" from the hostihty of the
"blanket Indians."
"During my term, and up to the time of the out-
break, about one hundred and seventy-five had
their hair cut and had adopted the habits and cus-
toms of white men.
" For a time, indeed, my hopes were strong that
civilization would soon be in the ascendant. But
the increase of the civilization party and their evi-
dent prosperity, only tended to exasperate the In-
dians of the 'ancient customs,' and to widen the
breach. But while these are to be enumerated, it
may be permitted me to hope that the radical
cause will not be forgotten or overlooked; and I
am bold to express this desire, because, ever since
the outbreak, the pubUo journals of the country,
religious and secular, have teemed with editorials
by and communications from 'reliable individuals,'
politicians, philanthropists, philosophers and hired
'penny-a-liners,' mostly mistaken and sometimes
willfully and grossly false, giving the cause of the
Indian raid."
Major Galbraith enumerates a variety of other
exciting causes of the massacre, which pur limit
will not allow us to insert in this volume. Among
other causes, * * that the United States was
itself at war, and that Washington was taken by
the negroes. * * But none of these were, in
his opinion, the cause of the outbreak.
The Major then adds:
"Grievances such as have been related, and
numberless others akin to them, were spoken of,
recited, and chanted at their councils, dances, and
feasts, to such an extent that, in their excitement,
in June, 1862, a secret organization known as the
'Soldier's Lodge,' was founded by the young
men and soldiers of the Lower Sioux, with the
object, as far as I was able to learn through spies
and informers, of preventing the 'traders' from
going to the pay-tables, as had been their custom.
Since the outbreak I have become satisfied that
the real object of this 'Lodge' was to adopt
measures to 'clean out' all the white people at the
end of the payment."
Whatever may have been the cause of the fear-
ful and bloody tragedy, it is certain that the man-
ner of the execution of the infernal deed was a
deep-laid conspiracy^ long cherished by Little
Crow, taking form under the guise of the ".Sol-
diers' Lodge," and matured in secret Indian coun-
cils. In all these secret movements Little Crow
was the moving spirit.
186
IIISTORT OF THE SIOUX MASSACRE.
Now the opportime moment seemed to haVe
come. Only thirty soldiers were stationed at Fort
Eidgely. Some thirty were all that Fort Bipley
could muster, and at Fort Abercrombie one com-
pany, under Captain Van Der Hork, was all the
whites could depend upon to repel any attack in
that quarter. The whole effective force for the
defense of the entire frontier, from Pembina to the
Iowa line, did not exceed two hundred men. The
annuity money was daily expected, and no troops
except about one huudred men at Yellow Medi-
oiae, had been detailed, as usual, to attend the an-
ticipated payment. Here was a glittering prize to
be paraded before the minds of the excited sav-
ages. The whites were weak; they were engaged
in a terrible war among themselves; their atten-
tion was now directed toward the great struggle
in the South. At such a time, offering so many
chances for rapine and plunder, it would be easy
to unite, at least, all the annuity Indians in one
common movement. Little Orow knew full well
that the Indians could easily be made to believe
that now was a favorable time to make a grand
attack upon the border settlements. In view of all
the favorable auspices now concurring, a famous
Indian council was called, which was fully attended
by the. "Soldiers' Lodge." Rev. S. E. Kiggs, in
his late work, 1880, ("Mary and I"), referring to
the outbreak, says:
"On A-ugust 17th, the outbreak was commenced
in the border white settlements at Acton, Minne-
sota. That night the news was carried to the
Lower Sioux Agency, and a council of war was
called." * * * " Something of the kind had
been meditated and talked of, and prepared for
undoubtedly. Some time before this, they had
formed the Tee-yo-tee-pee, or Soldiers' Lodge."
A memorable council, convened at Little Crow's
village, near the Lower Agency, on Sunday night
previous to the attack on Fort Eidgely, and pre-
cisely two weeks before the first massacres at Ac-
ton. Little Crow was at this council, and he was
not wanting in ability to meet the greatness of
the occasion. The proceedings of this council, of
course, were secret. Some of the results arrived
at, however, have since come to the writer of these
pages. The council matured the details of a con-
spiracy, which for atrocity has hitherto never
found a place in recorded history, not excepting
that of Oawnpore.
The evidence of that conspiracy comes to us, in
part, from the relation of one who was present at
the infamous council. Comparing the statement
of the narrative with the known occurrences of
the times, that council preceded the attack on the
Government stores at the Upper Agency, and was
convened on Sunday night; the attack on the
Upper Agency took place the next day, Monday,
the 4th of August; and on the same day, an at-
tempt was made to take Fort Eidgely by strategy.
Not the slightest danger was anticipated. Only
thirty soldiers occupied the post at Fort Eidgely
and this was deemed amply sufficient in times of
peace. But we will not longer detain the reader
from the denouement of this horrible plot.
Our informant states the evidences of the de-
crees of the council of the 3d of August, thus:
"I was looking toward the Agency and saw a
large body of men coming toward the fort, and
supposed them soldiers returning from the pay-
ment at Yellow Medicine. On a second look, I
observed they were mounted, and knowing, at this
time, that they must be Indians, was surprised at
seeing so large a body, as they were not expected.
I resolved to go into the garrison to see what it
meant, having, at the time, not the least suspicion
that the Indians intended any hostile demonstr.i-
tion. When I arrived at the garrison, I found
Sergeant Jones at the entrance with a mounted
howitzer, charged with shell and cauister-shot,
pointed towards the Indians, who were removed
but a short distance from the guardhouse. I
inquired of the sergeant what it meant? whether
any danger was apprehended? He replied indif-
ferently, "No, but that he thought it a good rule
to observe that a soldier should always be ready
for any emergency."
These, Indians had requested the privilege to
dance in the inclosure surrounding the fort. On
this occasion that request was refused them. But
I saw that, about sixty yards west of the guard
house, the ludians were making the necessary
preparations for a dance. I thought nothing of it
as they had frequently done the same thing, but a
little further removed from the fort, under some-
what different circumstances. I considered it a
singular exhibition of Indian foolishness, and, at
the solicitation of a few ladies, went out and was
myself a spectator of the dance.
"When the dance was concluded, the Indians
.sought and obtained permission to encamp on
some rising ground about a quarter of a mUe west
of the garrison. To this ground they soon re-
paired, and encamped for the night. The next
EVIDENCE OF CONSPIBACY.
187
tno-'mng, by 10 o'clock, all had left the vicinity of
the garrison, departing in the direction of the
Lower Agency. This whole matter of the dance
was so <3ondTioted as to lead most, if not all, the
residents of the garrison to believe that the In-
dians had paid them that visit for the purpose of
dancing and obtaining provisions for a feast.
"Some things were observable that were unu-
sual. The visitors were all warriors, ninety -six in
number, all in undress, except a very few who wore
calico shirts; and, in addition to this, they all car-
ried arms, guns and tomahawks, with ammunition
pouches suspended around their shoulders. Pre-
vious to the dance, the war implements were de-
posited some two hundred yards distant, where
they had left their ponies. But even this circum-
stance, so far as it was then known, excited no
suspicion of danger or hostilities in the minds of
the residents of the garrison. These residents
were thirty-five men ; thirty soldiers and five citi-
zens, with a few women and children. The guard
that day consisted of three soldiers; one was walk-
ing leisurely to and fro in front of the guard-
house; the other two were off duty, passing about
an''' taking their rest; and all fentirely •without ap-
prehension of danger from Indians or any other
f le. As the Indians left the garrison without do-
ing any mischief, most of us supposed that no evil
was meditated by them. But there was one man
who acted on the supposition that there was al-
ways danger surrounding a garrison when visited
by savages; that man was Sergeant Jones. From
t je time he took his position at the gun he never
left it, but acted as he said he believed it best to
do, that was to be always ready. He not only re-
mained at the gun himself, but retained two other
men, whom he had previously trained as assistants
to work the piece.
"Shortly before dark, without disclosing his in-
tentions, Sergeant Jones said to his wife: 'I have
a little business to attend to to-night; at bed- time
I wish you to retire, and not to wait for me.' As
he had frequently done this before, to discharge
some official duty at the quartermaster's office, she
thought it not singular, but did as he had re-
quested, and retired at the usual hour. On awak-
ening in the morning, however, she was surprised
at finding that he was not there, and had not been
in bed. In truth, this faithful soldier had stood
by his gun throughout the entire night, ready to
fire, if occasion required, at any moment during
that time; nor could he be ptr uaded to leave that
gun until all this party of Indians had entirely
disappeared from the vicinity of the garrison.
"Some two weeks after this time, those same In-
dians, with others, attacked Fort Kidgely and, af-
ter some ten days' siege, the garrison was reheved
by the arrival of soldiers under Colonel H. H Sib-
ley. The second day after Colonel Sibley arrived,
a Frenchman of pure or mixed blood appeared
befoi-e Sergeant Jones, in a very agitated manner,
and intimated that he had some disclosures to
make to him; but no sooner had he made this in-
timation than he became extremely and violently
agitated, and seemed to be in a perfect agony of
mental perturbation. Sergeant Jones said to him,
'If you have anything to disclose, you ought, at
once, to make it known.' The man repeat-ed that
he had _ disclosures to make, but that he did not
dare to make them; and although Sergeant Jones
urged him by every consideration in his power to
tell what he knew, the man seemed to be so com-
pletely under the dominion of terror, that he was
unable to divulge the great secret. 'Why,' said
he, 'they will kill me; they will kill my wife and
children.' Saying which he turned and walkec^
away.
"Shortly after the first interview, this man rt
turned to Sergeant Jones, when again the Ser-
geant urged him to disclose what he knew; and
promised him that if he would do so, he would
keep his name a profound secret forever; that if
the information which he should disclose should
lead to the detection and punishment of the guilty
the name of the informant should niver be made
known. Being thus assured, the Frenchman soon
became more calm. Hesitating a moment, he in-
quired of Sergeant Jones if he remembered that,
some two weeks ago, a party of Indians came
down to the fort to have a dance? Sergeant
Jones rejolied that he did. 'Why,' said the French-
man, 'do you know that these Indians were all
warriors of Little Crow, or some of the other lower
bands ? Sir, these Indians had all been selecteil
for the purpose, and came down to Fort Eidgel
by the express command of Little Crow and tj,
other chiefs, to get permission to dance ; and when
all suspicion should be completely lulled, in the
midst of the dance, to seize their weapons, kill
every person in the fort, seize the big guns, open
the magazine, and secure the ammunition, when
they should be joined by all the remaining war-
riors of the lower bands. Thus armed, and in-
creased by numbers, they were to proceed together
188
HI STOUT OF TEE SIOUX MASS AGUE.
down the valley of the Minnesota. With this
force and these weapons they were assured they
could drive every white man beyond the Missis-
sippi.'
"All this, the Frenchman informed Sergeant
Jones, he had learned by being present at a coun-
cil, and from conversations had with other Indians,
who had told him that they had gone to the gar-
rison for that very purpose. When he had con-
cluded this revelation, Sergeant Jones inquired,
'Why did they not execute their purpose? Why
did they not take the fort?' The Frenchman re-
phed: 'Because they saw, during all their dance,
and theii stay at the fort, that big gun constantly
pointed at them.' "
Interpreter Quinn, now dead, told the narrator
of the foregoing incidents that Little Orow had
said, repeatedly, in their councils, that the Indians
could kill all the white men in the Minnesota Val-
ley. In this way, he said, we can get all our lands
back; that the whites would again want these lands,
and that they could get double annuities. Some
of the councils at which these suggestions of Lit-
tle Orow were made, dated, he said, as far back as
the summer of 1857, immediately after the Ink-
paduta war.
On the 17th day of August, 1862, Little Crow,
Inkpaduta, and Liltle Priest, the latter one of the
Winnebago chiefs, attended church at the Lower
Agency, and seemed to listen attentively to the
services, conducted by the Eev. J. D. Hinman.
On the afternoon of that day Little Crow invited
these Indians to his house, a short distance above
the Agency. On the same day an Indian oouncO.
was held at Kice Creek, sixteen miles above the
Lower Agency, attended by the Soldiers' Lodge.
Inkpaduta, it is believed, and Little Priest, with
some thirteen Winnebago warriors, attended this
council. Why this council was held, and what
was its object, can easily be imagined. The de-
crees of the one held two weeks before had not been
executed. The reason why the fort was not taken
has been narrated. The other part of the same
scheme, the taking of the agency at the Yellow
Medicine, on^he same day the fort was to have
fallen, wiU be alluded to in another chapter. It
then became necessary for the conspirators to hold
another council, to devise new plans for the exe-
cution of their nefarious designs upon the whites.
The Acton tragedy, forty miles distant, had taken
place but a few hours before this councU was con-
vened. On Monday, the 18th of August, these
Acton milrderers were seen at the mill on Crow
river, six miles from Hutchinson, with the team
taken from Acton; so that these Indians did not
go to the Lower Agency, but remained in th(
country about Hutchinson. One of the number
only returned to the Agency by the next morning
after the council at Bice Creek" had been held.
All that followed in the bloody drama, originated
at this council of Death, over which Little Crow
presided, on Sunday afternoon, the 17th day of
August, 1862, on the evening of the same day of
the Acton murders. The general massacre of all
white men was by order of this council, to com-
mence at the Agency, on the morning of the 18th,
and at as many other points, simultaneously, as
could be reached by the dawn of day, radiating
from that point as a center. The advantage
gained by the suddenness of the attack, and the
known panic that would result, was to be followed
up until every settlement was massacred. Fort
Kidgely taken, both Agencies burned. New Ulm,
Mankato, St. Peter, and all the towns on the river
destroyed, the whole country plundered and devas-
tated, and as many of the inhabitants as were left
alive were to be driven beyond the Mississippi
river. The decree of this savage council, matured
on a Christian Sabbath, by Indians, who were sup-
posed to be civilized, so immediately after atten-
tively listening to the gospel of peace, filled the
measure of the long-cherished conspiracy matured
by Little Orow, until it was iull of the most hope-
ful results to his polluted and brutal nature.
"Once an Indian, always an Indian," seems in this
instance to have been horribly demonstrated.
OHAPTEE XXXn.
OhANGB of INDIAN OrMCIALS PAYMENT OP 1861
EEPOBT OP AGENT GAI;BRAITH ITPPEB AND
nOWBK BANDS — SUPPLIES ATTACK ON THE WAEE-
HOUSE BBNVLLLE EANGEES EETUEN TO POBT
EIDGEIiT.
The change in the administration of the Gov-
ernment in 1861, resulting, as it did, in a general
change in the minor offices throughout the coun-
try, carried into retirement Major William J. Cul-
len. Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the
Northern Superin tendency, and Major Joseph E.
Brown, Agent for the Sioux, whose places were
flUed respectively by Colonel Clark W. Thomp-
son and Major Thomas J. Galbraith. Colonel
MAJOR GAZBRAITH'S REPORT.
189
Thompson entered upon the duties of his office in
May of that year, and Major Galbraith on the
first day of June. In that month the new agent
and many of the new employes, with theii' fami-
lies, took up their residence on the reservations.
These employes, save a few young men who
were employed as laborers, were, with two excep-
tions, men of families, it being the policy of the
agent to employ among the Indians as few un-
married men as possible.
During that year nothing occurred on the res-
ervations of an unusual character more than the
trouble with which the Agents had always to deal
at every semi-annual gathering at the Agencies.
We' say "semi-annual," because they came ia the
summer to draw their annuities, and again in the
autumn for their winter supply of goods.
It has been usual at the payment of annuities
to have a small force of troops to guard against
any untoward event which might otherwise occur.
The payment to the lower bands, in 1861, was
made in the latter part of June, and to the upper
bands about the middle of July. These pay-
ments were made by Superintendent Thompson
in person.
The Sisseton bands came down to the Agency
at a very early day, as had always been their
habit, long before the arrival of the money,
bringing with them a large body of Yanktonais
(not annuity Sioux), who always came to the
payments, claiming a right to a share of the an
nuities issued to the Indians.
These wild hunters of the plains were an un-
failing element of trouble at the payments to the
upper bands. At this last payment they were in
force, and by their troublesome conduct, caused a
delay of some days in the making of the payments.
This was, however, no unusual occurrence, as they
always came with a budget of grievances, upon
which they were wont to dUate in council. This
remark is equally true of the annuity Indians.
Indeed, it would be very strange if a payment
could be made without a demand, on the part of
the "young men," for three or four times the
amount of their annual dues.
These demands were usually accompanied by
overt acts of violence; yet the payment was made;
and this time, after the payment, aU departed to
their village at Big Stone Lak& They came
again in the fall, drew their supply of goods, and
went quietly away.
It so turned out, however, tha"t the new agent,
Galbraith, came into office too late to insure a large
crop that year. He says:
"The autumn of 1861 closed upon us rather un-
favorably. The crops were light; especially was
this the case with the Upper Sioux; they had little
or nothing. As heretofore communicated to the
Department, the cut-worms destroyed all the
Sisetons, and greatly injured the crop of the
"Wapatons, Medawakantons, Wapakutas. For
these latter I purchased on credit, in anticipation
of the Agricultural and' Civilization Funds, large
quantities of pork and 'flour, ut curr.ent rates, to
support them during the winter.
"Early in the autumn, in view of the necessitous
situation of the Sisetons, I made a requisition on
the department for the snm of |5,000, out of the
special fund for the rehef of 'poor and destitute
Indians;' and, in anticipation of receiving this
money, made arrangements to feed the old and in-
firm men, and the women and children of these
people. I directed the Eev. S. B. Kiggs to make
the selection, and furnish me a list.
"He carefully did this, and we fed, in an econ-
omical, yea, even parsimonious way, about 1,500
ot these people from the middle of December until
nearly the first of April. We had hoped to get
them off on their spring hunt earlier, but a tre-
mendous and unprecedented snow-storm during
the last days of February prevented.
"In response to my requisition, I received
$3,000, and expended very nearly $5,000, leaving
a deficiency not properly chargable to the regular
funds, of about $2,000.
"These people, it is believed, must have per-
ished had it not been for this scanty assistance.
In addition to this, the regular issues were made
to the farmer Indians in payment for their labor.
**** * ^ ^ * *
"In the month of August, 1861, the supennten-
dents of farms were directed to have ploughed 'in
the fall,' in the old public and neglected private
fields, a sufficient quantity of land to provide
'plantings' for such Indians as could not be pro-
vided with oxen and implements. In pursuance
of this direction, there were ploughed, at rates
ranging from $1.50 to $2,00 per acre, ac-
cording to the nature of the work, by teams and
men hired for the purpose, for the Lower Sioux
about 500 acres, and for the Upper Sioux, about
475 acres. There were, also, at the same time,
ploughed by the farmer Indians and the depart-
ment teams, about 250 acres for the Lower, and
190
HISTOBY OF THE SIOUX MASSAORE.
about 325 acres for the Upper Sioux. This fall
ploughing was continued until the frost prevented
its further prosecution. It was done to facilitate
the work of the agricultiiral department, and to
kill the worms which had proved so injurious the
previous year. * * *
"The carpenter-shops at both Agencies were
supplied with lumber for the manufacture and re-
pair of sleds, wagons, and other farming utensils.
Sheds were erected for the protection of the cattle
and utensils of the depertment, and the farmer
Indians, assisted by the department carpenters,
erected stables, pens, and out-houses for the pro-
tection of their catt^.e, horses and utensils. * *
Hay, grain, and other supplies were provided,
and, in short, every thing was done which the
means at command of the agent would justify.
"The work of the autumn being thus closed, I
set about making preparations for the work of the
next spring and summer, and in directing the
work of the winter. I made calculations to erect,
during the summer and autumn of 1862, at least
fifty dwelling-houses for Indian families, at an
estimated average cost of $300 each; and also to
aid the farmer Indians in erecting as many ad-
ditional dwellings as possible, not to exceed thirty
or forty; and to have planted for the Lower
Sioux, at least 1,200 acres, and for the Upper
Sioux, at least 1,300 acres of crops, and to have
all the land planted, except that at Big Stone
Lake, inclosed by a fence.
"To carry out these calculations, early in the
the winter the superintendents of farms, the black-
smiths, the carpenters, and the superintendents of
schools were directed to furnish estimates for the
amount of agricultural implementa, horses, oxen,
wagons, carts, building material, iron, steel, tools,
and supplies needed to carry on successfully their
several departments for one year from the open-
ing of navigation in the spring of 1862.
"These estimates were prepared and furnished
me about the 1st of February. In accordance
with these estimates, I proceeded to purchase, in
open marlcet, the articles and supplies recommend-
ed.
"I made the estimates' for one year, and pur-
chases accordingly, in order to secure the benefit
of transportation by water in the spring, and thus
avoid the delays, vexations, and extra expense of
transportation by land in the fall. The bulk of
purchases were made with the distinct underetand-
in^ that payment would be made out of the funds
belonging to the quarter in which the goods, im-
plements, or supplies, were expended."
"Thus it will be seen that, in the spring of 1862,
there was on hand supplies and material sufficient
to carry us through the coming year. * * *
Thus, to all appearance, the spring season opened
propitiously. * * * To carry out my original
design of having as much as possible planted for
the Indians at Big Stone Lake and Lac qui Parle
as early in the month of May, 1862, as the condi-
tion of the swollen streams would permit, I visited
Lao qui Parle and Big Stone Lake, going as far
as North Island, in Lake Traverse, having with
me Antoine Freniere, United States Interpreter,
Dr. J. L. Wakefield, physician of the Upper Sioux,
and Nelson Givens, assistant Agent. At. Lac qui
Parle I found the Indians willing and anxious to
plant. I inquired into their condition and wants,
and made arrangements to have them supplied
with seeds and implements, and directed Amos W.
Huggins, the school teacher there, to aid and in-
struct them in their work, and to make proper
distribution of the seeds and implements furnished,
and placed at his disposal an ox-team and wagon
and two breaking-teams, with instructions to de-
vote his whole time and attention to the superin-
tendence and instruction of the resident Indians
during the planting season, and until the crops
were cultivated and safely harvested.
"I also found the Indians at Big Stone Lake and
Lake Traverse very anxious to plant, but without
any means whatever so to do. I looked over their
fields in order to see what could be done. After
having inquired into the whole matter, I instructed
Mr. Givens to remain at Big Stone Lake and su-
perintend and direct the agricultural operations
of the season, and to remain there until it was too
late to plant any more. I placed at his disposal
ten double plough teams, with men to operate
them, and ordered forward at once one hundred
bushels of seed corn and five- hundred bushels of
seed potatoes, with pumpkin, squash, turnip, and
other seeds, in reasonable proportion, together
with a sufficient supply of ploughs, hoes, and
other implements for the Indians, and a black-
smith -to repair breakages; and directed him to
see that every Indian, and every Indian horse or
pony, did as much work as was possible. , * *
"On my way down to the agency, I visited the
plantings of Tahampih'da, (Battling Moccasin),
i'dazasha, (Bed Iron), Mahpiya Wicasta, (Cloud
Man), and Battling Oloud, and found that the
MAJOR GALBMAITH'S REPORT.
191
Superintendent of Farms for the Upper Sioux had,
in accordance with my instructions, been faithfully
attending to the wants of these bands. He had
supphed them with implements and seeds, and I
left them at work. On my arrival at the Agency,
I foimd that the farmer Indians residing there-
abouts had, in my absence, been industriously at
work, and had not only completed their plowing,
but had planted very extensively. The next day
after my arrival at the Agency, I visited each
farmer Indian at the Yellow Medicine, and con-
gratulated him on his prospect for a good crop,
and spoke to him such words of encouragement
<i8 occurred to me.
"The next day I proceeded to the Lower Agency,
and then taking with me Mr. A. H. Wagner, the
Superintendent of Farms for the Lower Sioux, I
went around each planting, and, for the second
time, visited each farmer Indian, and found that,
in general, my instructions had been carried out.
The plowing was generally completed in good
order, and the planting nearly all done, and many
of the farmer Indians were engaged in repairing
old and making new fences. I was pleased and
gratified, and so told the Indians — the prospect
was so encouraging.
"About the first of July I visited all the plant-
ings of both the Upper and Lower Sioux, except
those at Big Stone Lake, and found, in nearly
every instance, the prospects for good crops very
hopeful indeed. The superintendents of farms,
the male school teachers, and aU the employes
assisting them, had done their duty. About this
time Mr. Givens returned from Big Stone Lake,
and reported to me his success there. From all I
knew and all I thus learned, I was led to believe
that we would have no 'starving Indians' to feed
the next winter, and little did I dream of the un-
fortunate and terrible outbreak which, m a short
time, burst upon us, * * *
"In the tall of 1861, a good and substantial
school-room and dwelling, a store-house and black-
smith-shop, were completed at Lac qui Parle, and,
about the first of November, Mr. Amos W. Hug-
gins and his family occupied the dweUing, and,
assisted by Miss Julia LaFxambois, prepared the
school-room, and devoted their whole time to
teaching such Indian children as they could in-
duce to attend the school.
"The storehouse was supplied with provisions,
which Mr. Huggins was instructed to issue to the
children and their parents at his discretion. Here
it may be pei-mitted me to remark to Mr. Hug-
gins, who was bom and raised among the Sioux,
and Miss LaFrambois, who was a Sioux mixed-
blood, were two persons entirely capable and in
every respect qualified for the discharge of the
duties of their situation, than whom the Indians
had no more devoted friends. They hved amoi ;
the Indians of choice, because they thought tlit;)
could be beneficial to them. Mr. Huggins exer-
cised nothing but kindness toward them. He fed
them when hungry, clothed them when naked,
attended them when sick, and advised and cheered
them in all their diificulties. He was intelligent,
energetic, industrious, and good, and yet he was
one of the first victims of the outbreak, shot down
hke a dog by the very Indians whom he had so
long and so well served. * * * * -^ ^j: ;);
"In the month of June, 1862, being well aware
of the influence exerted by Little Orow over the
blanket Indians, and, by his plausibility, led to
beheve that he intended to act in good faith, I
promised to build him a good brick house pro-
vided that he would agree to aid me in bringing
around the idle young men to habits of industry
and civilization, and that he would abandon the
leadership of the blanket Indians and become a
'white man.'
"This being well understood, as I thought, I
directed Mr. Nairn, the carpenter of the Lower
Sioux, to make out the plan and estimates for
Crow's house, ahd to proceed at once to make the
window and door frames, and to prepare the lum-
ber necessary for the building, and ordered the
teamsters to deliver the necessary amount of brick
as soon !,s possible. Little Orow agreed to dig
the cellar and haul the necessary lumber, both of
which he had commenced. The carpenter had
nearly completed his part of the work, and the
brick was being promptly delivered at the time
of the outbreak.
"On the 15th of August, only three days pre-
vious to the outbreak, I had an interview with
Little Crow, and he seemed to be well pleased and
satisfied. Little indeed did I suspect, at that
time, that he would be the leadet in the terrible
outbreak of the 18th."
There were planted, according to the statement
of Agent Galbraith in his report, on the lower
reservation, one thousand and twenty-five acres of
corn, two hundred and sixty acres of potatoes,
sixty acres of turnips and ruta-bagas, and twelve
acres of wheat, besides a large quantity of field
192
HISTOBT OF THE. BIOUX MASSAOME.
and garden vegetables. These crops, at a low
estimate, would have harvested, in the fall, 74,865
bushels. There were, on the lower reservation,
less than three thousand Indians, all told. This
crop, therefore, would have yielded fuU twenty-
five bushels to each man, woman and child, in-
cluding the blanket as well as the farmer Indians
There were, also, of growing crops, in fine con-
dition, on the upper reservation, one thousand one
hundred and ten acres of corn, three hundred
acres of potatoes, ninety acres of turnips and
ruta-bagas, and twelve acres of wheat, and field
and garden vegetables in due proportion. These,
at a low estimate, would have harvested 85,740
bushels. There were, on the upper reservation, a
little over four thousand annuity Sioux. This
crop, therefore, would have harvested them about
twenty-one bushels for each man, woman and
child, including, also, the blanket Indians.
Thus, under the beneficent workings of the hu-
mane policy of the Government inaugurated in
1858, they were fast becoming an iadependent
people. Let it be borne in mind, however, that
these results, so beneficial to the Indian, were ac-
complished only through the sleepless vigilance
and untiring energy of those who had the welfare
of these rude, savage beings ia their care.
Major Galbraith, after giving these statistics of
the crops on the reservations, and the arrange-
ments made for gathering hay, by the Indians,
for their winter's use, says:
" I need hardly say that our hopes were high at
the prospects before us, nor need I relate my
chagrin and mortification when, in a moment, I
found these high hopes blasted forever."
Such, then, was the condition, present and pros-
pective, of the "Annuity Sioux Indians," in the
summer of 1862. No equal number of pioneer
settlers on the border could, at that time, make a
better showing than was exhibited on these reser-
vations. They had in fair prospect a surplus over
and above the wants of the entire tribes for the
coming year. This had never before occurred in
their history.
The sagacity 'and wise forethought of their
agent, and the unusually favorable season, had
amply provided against the posSibihty of recurring
want. The coming winter would have found their
granaries full to overflowing. Add to this the
fact that they had a large cash annuity coming to
them from the Goveiiiment, as well as large
amounts of goods, consisting of blankets, cloths.
groceries, flour and meats, powder, shot, lead, etc.,
and we confidently submit to the enlightened
reader the whole question of their alleged griev-
ances, confident that there can be but one verdict
at their hands, and that the paternal care of the
Government over them was good and just; nay,
generous, and that those having the immediate su-
pervision of their interests were performing their
whole duty, honestly and nobly.
The hopes of the philanthropist and Christian
beat high. They believed the day was not far
distant when it could be said that the Sioux Indi-
ans, as a race, not only could he civilized, but that
here were whole tribes who were civilized, and had
abandoned the chase and the war-path for the cul-
tivation of the soil and the arts of peace, and that
the juggleries and sorcery of the medicine-men
had been abandoned for the milder teachings of
the missionaries of the Cross.
How these high hopes were dashed to the earth,
extinguished in an ocean of blood, and their own
bright prospects utterly destroyed, by their horri-
ble and monstrous perfidy and unheard of atroci-
ties, it will be our work, in these pages, to show.
We are now rapidly approaching the fatal and
bloody denouement, the terrible 18th of August,
the memory of which wiU linger in the minds of
the survivors of its tragic scenes, and the succeed-
ing days and weeks of horror and blood, till rea-
son kindly ceases to perform its office, and blots
out the fearful record in the oblivion of the grave.
Again we quotefrom the able report of Major
Galbraith:
"About the 25th of June, 1862, a number of the.
chiefs and head men of the Sissetons and Wapa-
tons visited the Agency and inquired about the
payments; whether they were going to get any
( as they had been told, as they alleged, that they
would not be paid,) and if so, how much, and
when? I answered them that they would cer-
tainly be paid; exactly how much I could not
say, but that it would be nearly, d£ not quite, a
fiill payment; that I did not know when the pay-
ment would be made, but that I felt sure it could
not be made before the 20th of July. I advised
them to go home, and admonished them not to come
back again until I sent for them. I issued pro-
visions, powder and shot and tobacco to them, and
they departed.
" In a few days after I went to the Lower Agency,
and spoke to the lower Indians in regard to their
payments. As thev aU lived within a few mUes of
ATTACK ON UPPER AGE NOT.
193
the Agency, little was said, as, when the money
came, they could be called together in a day. I
remained about one week there, visiting the farms
and plantings, and issued to the Indians a good
supply of pork, ilour, powder, shot, and tobacco,
and urged upon them the necessity of cutting and
securing hay for the winter, and of watching and
keeping the birds from their com.
" I left them apparently satisfied, and arrived at
Yellow Medicine on the 14th of July, and found,
to my sui'prise, that nearly all the Upper Indians
had arrived, and were encamped about the Agency.
I inquired of them why they had come, and they
, answered, that they were afraid something was
wrong; they feared they would not get their
money, because white men had been telling them so.
" Being in daily expectation of the arrival of
the money, I determined to make the best of it,
and notified the Superintendent of Indian Afiairs
accordingly.
"How were over 4,000 Annuity, and over 1,000
Yanktonais Sioux, with nothing to eat, and entirely
dependent on me for supplies, to be provided for?
I supplied them as best I could. Our stock was
nearly used up, and still, on the 1st day of Au-
gust, no money had come.
" The Indians complained of starvation. I held
back, in order to save the provisions to the last
moment. On the 4th of August, early in the
morning, the young men and soldiers, to the num-
ber of not less than four hundred mounted, and
one hundred and fifty on foot, surprised and de-
ceived the commander of the troops on guard,
and surrounded the camp, and proceeded to
the warehouse in a boisterous manner, and in
sight of, and within one hundred and fifty
yards of one hundred armed men, with two
twelve-pound mountain howitzers, cut down the
door of the warehouse, shot down the American
flag, and entered the building, and before they
could be stopped had carried over one hundred
sacks of flour from the warehouse, and were evi-
dently bent on a general 'clearing out.'
"The soldiers, now recovered from their panic,
came gallantly to our aid, entered the warehouse
and took possession. The Indians all stood around
with their guns loaded, cooked and leveled. I
spoke to them, and they consented to a talk. The
result was, that they agreed, if I would give them
plenty of pork and flour, and issue to them the
annuity goods the next day, they would go away.
I told them to go away with enough to eat for two
13
days, and to send the chiefs and head men for a
council the next day, unarmed and peaceably and
I would answer them. They assented and went
to their camp. In the meantime I had sent for
Captain Marsh, the commandant of Fort Kidgely,
who promptly arrived eai-ly in the morning of the
next day.
"I laid the whole case before him, and stated
my plan. He agreed with me, and, in the after-
noon, the Indians, unarmed, and apparently
peaceably disposed, came in, and we had a 'talk,'
and, in the presence of Captain Marsh, Bev. Mr.
Eiggs and others, I agreed to issue the annuity
goods and a fixed amount of provisions, provided
the Indians would go home and watch their corn,
and wait for the payment until they were sent for.
They assented. I made, on the 6th, 7th and 8th
of August the issues as agreed upon, assisted by
Captain Marsh, and, on the 9th of August the In-
dians were all gone, and on the 12th I had defi-
nite information that the Sissetons, who had started
on the 7th, had all arrived at Big Stone Lake, and
that the men were preparing to go on a buffalo
hunt, and that the women and children were to
stay and guard the crops. Thus this threatening
and disagreeable event passed off, but, as usual,
without the punishment of a single Indian who
had been engaged in the attack on the warehouse.
They should have been punished, but they were
not, and simply because we had not the power to
punish them. And hence we had to adopt the
same 'sugar-plum' pohcy which had been so often
adopted before with the Indians, and especially at
the time of the Spirit Lake massacre, in 1857."
On the 12th day of August, thirty men enlisted
at Yellow Medicine; and, on the 13th, accompa-
nied by the agent, proceeded to the Lower Agency,
where, on the 14th, they were joined by twenty
more, making about fifty in all. On the afternoon
of the 15th they proceeded to Fort Kidgely, where
they remained until the morning of the 17tli,
when, having been furnished by Captain Marsh
with transportation, accompanied by Lieutenant
N. K. Culver, Sergeant McGrew, and four men of
Company B, Fifth Minnesota Volunteers, they
started for Fort Snelling by the way of New Ulm
and St. Peter, little dreaming of the terrible mes-
sage, the news of which would reach them at the
latter place next day, and turn them back to the
defense of that post and the border.
On Monday morning, the 18th, at about 8
o'clock, they left New Ulm, and reached St. Peter
194
HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSACRE.
at about 4 o'clock P. M. About 6 o'clock, Mr. J.
0. Dickinson arrived from the Lower Agency,
bringing the startling news that the Indians had
broken out, and, before he left, had commenced
murdering the whites.
They at once set about making preparations to
return. There were in St. Peter some fifty old
Harper's Ferry muskets; these they obtained, and,
procuring ammunition, set about preparing cart-
ridges, at which many of them -worked all night,
and, at sunrise on Tuesday morning were on their
■way back, with heavy hearts and dark forebodings,
toward the scene of trouble.
In the night Sergeant Sturgis, of Captain
Marsh's company, had arrived, on his way to St.
Paul, with dispatches to Governor Bamsey, from
Lieutenant Thomas Gere, then in command of
Fort Eidgely, bringing the sad news of the des-
truction of Captain Marsh and the most of his
command at the ferry, at the Lower Agency, on
Monday afternoon. They had but a slender
chance of reaching the fort in safety, and still less
of saving it from destruction, for they knew that
there were not over twenty-five men left in it,
Lieutenant Sheehan, with his company, having
left for Fort Ripley on the 17th, at the same time
that the "Eenville Eangers" (the company from
the Agencies) left for Fort Snelling. Their friends,
too, were in the very heart of the "Indian country.
Some of them had left their wives and little ones
at Yellow Medicine, midway between the Lower
Agency and the wild bands of the Sissetons and
Yanktonais, who made the attack upon the ware-
house at that Agency only two weeks before.
Their hearts almost died within them as they
thought of the dreadful fate awaiting them at the
hands of those savage and blood-thirsty monsters.
But they turned their faces toward the West, de-
termined, if Fort Ridgely was yet untaken, to enter
it, or die in the attempt, and at about sundown
entered the fort, and found all within it as yet
safe.
, A messenger had been sent to Lieutenant Shee-
han, who immediately turned back and had enter-
ed the fort a few hours before chem. There were
in the fort, on their arrival, over two hundred and
fifty refugees, principally women and children,
and they continued to come in, until there were
nearly three hundred.
Here they remained on duty, night and day,
until the morning of the 28th, when reinforce-
ments, under Colonel McPhail and Captain Anson
Northrup and R. H. Chittenden arrived.
The annuity money by Superintendent Thomp-
son had been dispatched to the Agency in charge
of his clerk, accompanied by E. A. C. Hatch, J.
0. Ramsey, M. A. Daily, and two or three others.
On their arrival at the fort, on Tuesday night.
Major Galbraith found these gentlemen there,
they having arrived at the post Monday noon, the
very day of the outbreak. Had they been one day
sooner they would have been at the Lower Agency,
and their names would have been added, in all
probability,, to the longroU of the victims, at that
devoted point of Indian barbarity, and about.
$10,000 in gold would have fallen into the hands
of the savages.
These gentlemen were in the fort during the
siege which followed, and were among the bravest
of its brave defenders. Major Hatch, afterwards
of "Hatch's Battalion" (cavalry), was particu-
lary conspicuous for his cool courage and undaunt-
ed bravery.
Thus it will be seen how utterly false was the
information which the Indians said ' they had re-
ceived that they were to get no money.
And notwithstanding all that has been said as
to the cause of the outbreak, it may be remarked
that the removal of the agent from Yellow Medi-
cine, with the troops raised by him for the South-
em Rebellion, at the critical period when the In-
dians were exasperated and excited, and ready at
any moment to arm for warfare upon the whites,
was one of the causes acting directly upon the In-
dians to precipitate the blow that afterwards fell
upon the border settlements of Minnesota on the
18th of August, 1862. Had he remained with his
family at Yellow Medicine, as did the Winnebago
agent, with his family, at the agency, the strong
probability is that the attack at YeUow Medicine
might have been delayed, if not entirely pre-
vented.
CHAPTER XXXni.
MUBDBR AT ACTON MASSACEB AT THE liOWBB
AGENCY CAPTDBE OE MATTIB WILLIAMS, MABI
ANDERSON AND MAEY SOHWANDT MTJBDBE OE
GEORGE GLEASON — ■CAPTURE OB MRS. WAKEFIELD
AND CHILDREN.
We come now to the massacre itself, the terrible
blow which fell, like a thunderbolt from a clear
sky, with such appalling force- and suddenness.
MURDERS AT ACTON.
195
upon the unarmed and defenceless border, crim-
soning its fair fields with the blood of its murdered
people, and lighting up the midnight sky with
the lurid blaze of burning dwellings, by the Ught
of which the affrighted survivors fled from the
nameless terrors that beset their path, before the
advancing gleam of the uplifted tomahawk, many
of them only to fall victims to the Indian bullet,
while vainly seeking a place of security.
The first blow fell upon the town of Acton,
thirty-five miles north-east of the Lower Sioux
agency, in the county of Meeker. On Sunday,
August 17, 1862, at 1 o'clock P. M., six Sioux In-
dians, said to be. of Shakopee's band of Lower An-
nuity Sioux, came to the house of Jones and de-
manded food. It was refused them, as Mrs. Jones
was away from home, at the house of Mr. Howard
Baker, a son-in-law, three fourths of a mile dis-
tant. They became angry and boisterous, and
fearing violence at their hands, Mr. Jones took
his children, a boy and a girl, and went himself to
Baker's, leaving at the house a girl from fourteen
to sixteen years of age, and a boy of twelve-
brother and sister — -who lived with him. The In-
dians soon followed on to Baker's. At Howard
Baker's were a Mr. "Webster and his wife. Baker
and wife and infant child, and Jones and his wife
and two children.
Soon after reaching the house, the Indians pro-
posed to the three men to join them in target-
shooting. They consented, and all discharged
their guns at the target. Mr. Baker then traded
guns with an Indian, the savage giving him $3
as the difference in the value of the guns. Then
all commenced loading again. The Indians got
the charges into their guns first, and immediately
turned and shot Jones. Mrs. Jones and Mrs.
Baker were standing in the door. When one of
the savages leveled his gun at Mrs. Baker, her
husband saw the movement, and sprang between
them, receiving the bullet intended for his wife
in his own body. At the same time they shot
Webster and Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Baker, who had
her infant in her arms, seeing her husband fall,
fainted, and fell backward into the cellar (a trap-
door being open), and thus escaped. Mrs. Web-
ster was lying in their wagon, from which the
goods were not yet unloaded, and escaped unhurt.
The children of Mr. Jones were in the house, and
were not molested. They then returned to the
house of Mr. Jones, and killed and scalped the girl.
The boy was lying on the bed and was undiscov-
ered, but was a silent witness of the tragic fate of
his sister.
After killing the girl the savages left without
disturbing anything, and going directly to the
house of a settler, took from his stable a span of
horses already in the harness, and while the fam-
ily was at dinner, hitched them to a wagon stand-
ing near, and without molesting any one, drove
off in the direction of Beaver Creek settlement and
the Lower Agency, leaving Acton at about 3
o'clock in the afternoon. This span of horses, har-
ness and wagon were the only property taken from
the neighborhood by them.
The boy at Jones's who escaped massacre at
their hands, and who was at the house during the
entire time that they were there, avers that they
obtained no liquor there that day, but even that
when they came back and murdered his sister, the
bottles upon the shelf were untouched by them.
They had obtained none on their first visit before
going over to Baker's. It would seem, therefore,
that the very general beHef that these first mur-
ders at Acton, on the 17th, were the result of
drunkenness, is a mistake.
Mrs. Baker, who was unhurt by the fall, re-
mained in the cellar until after the Indians were
gone, when, taking the children, she started for a
neighboring settlement, to give the alarm. Before
she left, an Irishman, calling himself Oox, came
to the house, whom she asked to go with her, and
carry her child. Cox laughed, saying, "the men
were not dead, but drunk, and that, falling down,
they had hurt their noses and made them bleed,"
and refusing to go with Mrs. Baker, went off in
the direction taken by the Indians. This man
Oox had frequently been seen at the Lower Agen-
cy, and was generally supposed to be an insane
man, wandering friendless over the country. It
has been supposed by many that he was in league
with the Indians. We have only to say, if he was,
he counterfeited insanity remarkably well.
Mrs. Baker reached the settlement in safety, and
on the next day (Monday) a company of citizens
of Forest City, the county seat of Meeker county,
went out to Acton to bury the dead. Forest City
is twelve miles north of that place. The party
who went out on Monday saw Indians on horse-
back, and chased them, but failed to get near
enough to get a shot, and they escaped.
As related in a preceding chapter, a council was
held at Kice Creek on Sunday, at which it was de-
cided that the fearful tragedy should oonamence
196
EISTOHr OF TRE SIOUX MASSAORE.
on the next morning. It is doubtful whether the
Acton murders were then known to these con-
spirators, as this council assembled in the after-
noon, and the savages who committed those mur-
ders had some forty miles to travel, after 3 o'clock
in the afternoon, to reach the place of this coun-
cil. It would seem, therefore, that those murders
could have had no influence in precipitating this
'council, as they could not, at that time, have been
known to Little Crow and his conspirators.
The final decision of these fiends must liave been
made as early as sundown; for by early dawn al-
most the entire force of warriors, of the Lower
tribes, were ready for the work of slaughter. They
were already armed and painted, and dispersed
through the scattered settlements, over a region at
least forty miles in extent, and were rapidly gath-
ering in the vicinity of the Lower Agency, until
some 250 were collected at that point, and sur-
rouhded the houses and stores of the traders,
while yet the inmates were at their morning meal,
or asleep in their beds in fancied security, aU un-
conscious of the dreadful fate that awaited them.
The action was concerted, and the time fixed.
The blow was unexpected, and unparalleled! In
the language af Adjutent-General Malmros:
"Since the formation of our general Govern-
ment, no State or Territory of the Eepublic has
received so severe a blow at the hands of the sav-
ages, or witnessed within its borders a parallel
scene of murder, butchery, and rapine."
Philander Prescott, the aged Government In-
terpreter at that Agency, who had resided amopg
the Sioux for forty-five years, having a wife and
children allied to them by ties of blood, and who
knew their language and spoke it better than any
man of their own race, and who seemed to under-
stand every Indian impulse, had not the slightest
intimation or conception of such a catastrophe as
was about to fall upon the country. The Eev. S.
R. Eiggs, in a letter to a St. Paul paper, under
date of August 13, writes that "all is quiet and
orderly at the place of the forthcoming payment."
This gentleman had been a missionary among
these people for over a quarter of a century. His
intimate acquaintance with their character and
language were of such a nature as to enable him
to know and detect the first symptoms of any in-
tention of committing any depredations upon the
whites, and had not the greatest secrecy been ob-
served by them, the knowledge of their designs
would undoubtedly have been communicated to
either Mr. Prescott, Mr. Riggs, or Dr. Williamson,
who had also been among them almost thirty
years. Such was the position of these gentlemen
that, had they discovered or suspected any lurking
signs of a conspiracy, such as after developments
satisfy us actually existed, and had failed to com-
municate it to the authorities and the people, they
would have laid themselves open to the horrible
charge of complicity with the murderers. But
whatever may be the public judgement upon the
course afterward pursued by the two last-named
gentlemen; in their efforts to shield the guilty
wretches from that punishment their awful crimes
so justly merited, no one who knows them would
for a moment harbor a belief that they had any
silspioion of the coming storm until it burst upon
them.
A still stronger proof of the feeling of security
of these upon the reservation, and the belief that
the recent demonstrations were only such as wer&i
of yearly occurrence, and that all danger waa
passed, is to be found in the fact that, as late m
the 15th of August, the substance of a dispatch
was published in the daily papers of St. Paul,
from Major Galbraith, agreeing fully with thi;
views of Mr. Riggs, as to the quiet and orderlj>
conduct of the Indians. This opinion is aocom.
panied by the very highest evidence of human
sincerity. Under the belief of their peaoeabl4>
disposition, he had, on the 16th day of August,
sent his wife and children from Port Eidgely to-
Yellow Medicine, where they arrived on Sunday,
the 17th, the very day of the mur(ia.<a at Acton,,
and on the very day, also, that the cATincil at Rico
Creek had decided that the white ittce ia Minnfr-
sota must either perish or be drivbu back east oi'
the Mississippi. But early on tils fatal Monday
morning Mr. Pi-esoott and Re./', J. D. Hiamaw
learned from Little ' Crow that tUe storm of sfavagb
wrath was gathering, and abowt to break upo4
their devoted heads, and that bheir only safety
was in instant flight.
The first crack of the Indiaii guns that fell m,
his ear, a moment afterward, tound Prescott a.u(i
Hinman, and his household fleeing for their hves,
"While on the billowy bosom jf the air
Boiled the dread notes of anguish and despair.*'
Mrs. Hinman was, fort-unately, then at Fari-
bault. All the other members of the family es-
caped with Mr. Hinman do Port Ridgely. The
slaughter at the Agency now commenced. John
Lamb, a teamster, was shot down, near the house
MASS ACRE AT LOWER A.GENCT.
197
of Mr. Hinman, jiist as that gentleman and his
family were starting on their perUoua journey of
escape. At the same time some Indians entered
the stable, and were taking therefrom the horses
belonging to the Government. Mr. A. H. Wag-
ner, Superintendent of Farms at that Agency, en-
tered the stable to prevent them, and was, by order
of Little Crow, instantly shot down. Mr. Hin-
man waited to see and hear no more, but fled
toward the ferry, and soon put the Minnesota river
between himself and the terrible tragedy enact-
ing behind him.
At about the same time, Mr. J. 0. Dickinson,
who kept the Government boarding-house, with
all his family, including several girls who were
working for him, also succeeded in crossing the
river with a span of horses and a wagon; these,
with some others, mostly women and children, who
had reached the ferry, escaped to the fort.
Very soon after, Dr. Philander P. Humphrey,
physician to the Lower Sioux, with his sick
wife, and three children, also succeeded in
crossing the river, but never reached the fort.
All but one, the eldest, a boy of about twelve
years of age, were killed upon the road. They
had gone about four miles, when Mrs. Humphrey
became so much exhausted as to be unable to pro-
ceed further, and they went into the house of a
Mr. Magner, deserted by its inmates. Mrs. Hum-
phrey was placed on the bed; the son was sent to
the spring for water for his mother. * * The
boy heard the wild war-whoop of the savage
break upon the stillness of the air, and, in the
next moment, the ominous crack of their guns,
which told the fate of his family, and left him its
sole survivor. Fleeing hastily toward Fort Eidge-
ly, about eight miles distant, he met the com-
mand of Captain Marsh on their way toward the
Agency. The young hero turned back with them
to the ferry. As they passed Magner's house,
they saw the Doctor lying near the door, dead,
but the house itself was a heap of smouldering
ruins; and this brave boy was thus compelled to
look upon the funeral pyre of his mother, and his
little brother and sister. A burial party afterward
found their charred remains amid the blackened
ruins, and gave them Christian sepulture. In the
charred hands of the little girl was found her china
doU, with which she refused to part even in death.
The boy went on to the ferry, and in that disas-
trous conflict escaped unharmed, and finally made
his way into the fort
In the mean time the work of death went on.
The whites, taken by surprise, were utterly de-
fenseless, and so great had been the feeling of se-
curity, that many of them were actually unarmed,
although living in the very midst of the savages.
At the store of Nathan Myrick, Hon. James W.
Lynd, formerly a member of the State Senate,
Andrew J. Myrick, and G. W.DivoU were among
the first victims. * * * In the store of' Wil-
liam H. Forbes were some five or six persons,
among them Mr. George H. Spencer, jr. Hearing
the yeUing of the savages outside, these men ran
to the door to ascertain its cause, when they were
instantly fired upon, killing four of their number,
and severely wounding Mr. Spencer. Spencer and
his uninjured companion hastily sought a tempo-
rary place of safety in the chamber of the build-
ing.
Mr. Spencer, in giving an account of this open-
ing scene of the awful tragedy, says:
" When I reached the foot of the stairs, I turned
and beheld the store filling with Indians. One
had followed me nearly to the stairs, when he took
deliberate aim at my body, but, providentially,
both barrels of his gun missed fire, and I succeeded
in getting above without further injury. Not ex-
pecting to live a great while, I threw myself upou
a bed, and, while lying there, could hear them
opening cases of goods, and carrying them out,
and threatening to bum the building. I did not
relish the idea of being burned to death very weU,
so I arose very quietly, and taking a bed-oord, I
made fast one end to the bed-post, and carried the
other to a window, which I raised. I intended, in
case they fired the buUding, to let myself down
from the window, and take the chances of being
shot again, rather than to remain where I was and
bum. The man who went up-stairs with me, see-
ing V good opportunity to escape, rushed down
through the crowd and ran for life; he was fired
upon, and two charges of buckshot struck him,
but he succeeded in making his escape. I had
been iip-stairs probably an hour, when I heard the
voice of an Indian inquiring for me. I recognized
his voice, and felt that I was safe. Upon being
told that I was up-stairs, he rushed up, followed by
ten or a dozen others, and approaching my bed,
asked if I was mortally wounded. I told him that
I did not know, but that I was badly hurt. Some
of the others came up and took me by the hand,
and appeared to be sorry that I had been hurt.
; Tteir then asked me where the guns were. I
198
nisTosT OF THE sroxrx massacre.
pointed to them, when my comrade assisted me in
getting down stairs.
" The name of this Indian is Wakinyatawa, or,
in English, 'His Thunder.' He was, up to the time
of the outbreak, the head soldier of Little Crow,
and, some four or five years ago, went to Wash-
ington with that chief to see their Great Father.
He is a fine-looking Indian, and has always been
noted for his bravery in fighting the Ohippewas.
When we reached the foot of the stairs, some of
the Indians cried out, 'Kill him!' 'Spare no
Americans 1' 'Show mercy to none!' My friend,
who was unarmed, seized a hatchet that was lying
near by, and declared that he would cut down the
first one that should attempt to do me any further
harm. Said he, ' If you had killed him before I
saw him, it would have been all right; but we have
been friends and comrades for ten years, and now
that I have seen him, I will protect him or die with
him.' They then made way for us, and we passed
out; he procured a wagon, and gave me over to a
couple of squaws to take me to his lodge. On the
way we were stopped two or three times by armed
Indians on horseback, who inquired of the squaws
'What that meant?' Upon being answered that
' This is Wakinyatawa's friend, and he has saved
hisjife,' they suffered us to pass on. His lodge
was about four miles above the Agency, at Little
Crow's village. My friend soon came home and
washed me, and dressed my wounds with roots.
Some few white men succeeded in making their
escape to the fort. There were no other white
men taken prisoners."
The relation of "comrade," which existed be-
tween Mr. Spencer and this Indian, is a species
of Freemasonry which is in existence among the
Sioux, and is probably also common to other In-
dian tribes.
The store of Louis Robert was, in like manner,
attacked. Patrick McOlellan, one of the clerks in
charge of the store, was killed. There were at the
store several other persons; some of them were
killed and some made their escape. Mr. John
Nairn, the Government carpenter at the Lower
Sioux Agency, seeing the attack upon the stores
and other places, seized his children, four in num-
ber, and, with his wife, started out on the prairie,
making their way toward the fort. They were
accompanied by Mr. Alexander Hunter, an at-
tached personal friend, and his young wife. Mr.
Nairn had been among them ia the employ of the
Government, some eight years, and had, by his
urbane manners and strict attention to their in-
terests, secured the personal friendship of many
of the tribe. Mr. Nairn and his family reached
the fort in safety that afternoon. "Mr. Hunter had,
some years before, frozen his feet so badly as to
lose the toes, and, being lame, walked with great
difficulty. When near an Indian village below the
Agency, they were met by an Indian, who urged
Hunter to go to the village, promising to get them
a horse and wagon with which to make their es-
cape. Mr. Hunter and his wife went to the Indian
village, believing their Indian friend would re-
deem his promises, but from inability, or some
other reason, he did not do so. They went to the
woods, where they remained all night, and in the
morning started for Fort Ridgely on foot. They
had gone but a short distance, however, when they
met an Indian, who, without a word of warning,
shot poor Hunter dead, and led his distracted
young wife away into captivity.
We now return once more to the scene of blood
and conflagration at the Agency. The white-
haired interpreter. Philander Prescott (now verg-
ing upon seventy years of age), hastily left his
house soon after his meeting with Little Crow, and
fled toward Fort Ridgely. The other members of
his family remained behind, knowing that their
relation to the tribe would save them. Mr. Pres-
cott had gone several miles, when he was overtaken.
His murderers came and talked with him. He
reasoned with them, saying: "I am an old man:
I have lived with you now forty-five years, almost
half a century. My wife and children are among
you, of your own blood; I have never done you
any harm, and have been your true friend, in all
your troubles; why should you wish to kill me?"
Their only reply was: "We would save your life
if we could, but the white man must die; we cannot
spare your lite; our orders are to kill aU white
men; we cannot spare you."
Seeing that aU remonstrance was vain and hope-
less, and that his time had come, the aged man
with a firm step and noble bearing, sadly turned
away from the deaf ear and iron heart of the sav-
age, and with dignity and composure received the
fatal messenger.
Thus perished Phflander Prescott, the true, tried,
and faithful friend of the Indian, by the hands of
that perfidious race, whom he had so long and so
faithfully labored to benefit to so little purpose.
The number of persons who reached Fort Ridge-
ly from the agency was forty-one. Some are
AT REDWOOD BIVEB.
199
known to have reached other places of safety. All
suffered incredible hardships; many hiding by day
in the tall prairie grass, in bogs and sloughs, or
under the trunks of prostrate trees, crawling
stealthUy by night to avoid the lurking and wily
foe, who, with the keen scent of the blood-hound
and ferocity of the tiger, followed on their trail,
thirsting for blood.
Among those who escaped into the fort were
Mr. J. C. Whipple, of Faribault; Mr. Charles B.
Hewitt, of New Jersey. The services of Mr.
Whipple were recognized and rewarded by the
Government with a first lieutenant's commis-
sion in the volunteer artillery service.
James Powell, a young man residing at St.
Peter, was at the Agency herding cattle. He had
just turned the cattle out of the yard, saddled and
mounted his mule, as the work of death com-
menced. Seeing Lamb and Wagner shot down
near him he turned to flee, when Lamb called to
him tor help; but, at that moment two shots were
fired at him, and, putting spurs to his mule he
turned toward the ferry, passing close to an In-
dian who leveled his gun to fire at him; but the
caps exploded, when the savage, evidently sur-
prised that he had failed to kill him, waved his
hand toward the river, and exclaimed, "Puckachee!
Puckachee!" Powell did not wait for a second
warning, which might come in a more unwelcome
form, but slipped at once from the back of his an-
imal, dashed down the bluff through the brush,
and reached the ferry just as the boat was leaving
the shore. Looking over his shoulder as he ran,
he saw an Indian in fuU pursuit on the very mule
he had a moment before abandoned.
All that day the work of sack and plunder went
on; and when the stores and dwellings and the
warehouses of the Government had been emptied
of their contents, the torch weis applied to the var-
ious buildings, and the little village was soon a
heap of smouldering ruins.
The bodies of their slain victims were left to fes-
ter in the sun where they fell, or were consumed
ill the buildings from which they had been unable
to effect their escape.
So complete was the surprise, and so sudden
and unexpected the terrible blow, that not a sin-
gle one of all that host of naked savages was slain.
In thirty minutes from the time the first gun was
fired, not a white person was left alive. All were
either weltering in their gore or had fled in fear
and terror from that place of death.
BEDWOOD BIVEB.
At the Redwood river, ten miles above the
Agency, on the road to Yellow Medicine, resided
Mr. Joseph B. Eeynolds, in the employment of
the Government as a teacher. His house was
within one mile of Shakopee's village. His family
consisted of his wife, a niece — Miss Mattie Wil-
liams, of Painesville, Ohio — Mary Anderson and
Mary Schwandt, hired girls. William Landmeier,
a hired man, and Legrand Davis, a young man
from Shakopee, was also stopping with them tem-
porarily.
On the morning of the 18th of August, at about
6 o'clock, John Moore, a half-breed trader, resid-
ing near them, came to the house and .informed
them that there was an outbreak among the In-
dians, and that they had better leave at once. Mr.
Eeynolds immediately got out his buggy, and,
taking his wife, started off across the prairie in
such a direction as to avoid the Agency. At the
same time Davis and the three girls got into the
wagon of a Mr. Patoile, a trader at Yellow Medi-
cine, who had just arrived there on his way to New
Ulm, and they also started out on the prairie.
William, the hired man, would not leave until he
had been twice warned by Moore that his life was
in danger. He then went down to the river bot-
tom, and following the Minnesota river, started for
the fort. When some distance on his way he
came upon some Indians who were gathering up
cattle. They saw him and there was no way of
escape. They came to him and told him that if
he would assist them in driving the cattle they
would not kill him. Making a merit of necessity
he complied, and went on with them tUl they were
near the Lower Agency, when the Indians, hear-
ing the firing at the ferry, suddenly left him and
hastened on to take part in the battle then pro-
gressing between Captain Marsh and their friends.
WiUiam fled in an opposite direction, and that
night entered Fort Ridgely.
We return now to Patoile aiad his party.
After crossing the Bedwood near its mouth, he
drove some distance up that stream, and, turning
to the left, struck across the prairie toward New
Ulm, keeping behind a swell in the prairie which
ran parallel with the Minnesota, some three miles
south of that stream.
They had, unpursued, and apparently unob-
served, reached a point within about ten miles of
New Ulm, and nearly opposite Fort Eidgely, when
they were suddenly assailed by Indians, who
•200
niSTORY OP TEB BIOUX MAS8A0RB.
killed Patoile and Davis, and severely wounded
Mary Anderson. Miss Williams and Mary
Sehwandt were captured unhurt, and were taken
back to Waucouta's village.
The poor, injured young woman survived her
wounds and the ' brutal and fiendish violation of
her person to which she was subjected by these
dmiU -incarnate, but a few days, when death, in
mercy, came to her relief and ended her sufferings
in the quiet of the grave!
Mattie WiJhams and Mary Sohwandt were af-
terwards restored to their friends by General Sib-
ley's expedition, at Camp Eelease. We say, res-
stored to their friends; this was hardly true t)f
Mary Sohwandt, who, when release came, found
aUve, of all her father's family, only one, a little
brother; and he had witnessed the fiendish slaugh-
ter of all the rest, accompanied by circumstances
of infernal barbarity, without a parallel in the his-
tory of savage brutality.
On Sunday, the 17th, George Gleason, Govern-
ment store-keeper at the Lower Agency, accompa-
nied by the family of Agent Galbraith, to YeUow
Medicine, and on Monday afternoon, ignorant of
the terrible tragedy enacted below, started to re-
turn. He had with him the wife and two children
of Dr. J. S. Wakefield, physician to the Upper
Sioux. When about two miles above the mouth
of the Eedwood, they met two armed Indians on
the road. Gleason greeted them with the usual
salutation of "Ho!" accompanied with the inquiry,
in Sioux, as he passed, "Where are you going ?"
They returned the salutation, but Gleason had
gone but a very short distance, when the sharp
crack of a gun behind him bore to his ear the first
intimation of the death in store for him. The
buUet passed through his body and he feU to the
ground. At the same moment Ohaska, the Indian
who had not fired, sprang into the wagon, by the
side of Mrs. Wakefield, and driving a short dis-
tance, returned. Poor Gleason was lying upon
the ground, still alive, writhing in m'ortal agony,
when the savage monster completed his hellish
work, by placing his gun at his breast, and shoot-
ing him again. Such was the sad end of the life
of George Gleason ; gay, jocund, genial and gen-
erous, he was the Ufe of every circle. His pleas-
ant face was seen, and his mellow voice was heard
in song, at almost every social gathering on that
rude frontier. He had a smile and pleasant word
for all; and yet he feU, in his manly strength, by
the hands of these bloody monsters, whom he had
never wronged in word or d.eed. Some weeks af-
terward, his mutilated remains were found by the
troops under Colonel Sibley, and buried where he
fell. They were subsequently removed by his
friends to Shakopee, where they received the rites
of Christian sepulture.
Mrs. Wakefield and children were held as pris-
oners, and were reclaimed with the other captives
at Camp Eelease.
CHAPTEE XXXrV.
MASSACBB ON THE NOBTH SIDE OF THE MINNESOTA
BUENING OF MBS. HENDERSON AND TWO OHlIiDEEN
ESCAPE OE J. W. BABLE AND OTHEES THE SET-
TLEES ENDEAVOE TO ESCAPE MUEDEB OF THE
SOHWANDT FAMILY WHOLESALE MASSAOBE UP-
PEB AGENCY THE PEOPLE WAENED BY JOSEPH
LAFBAMBOIS AND OTHEE DAY ESCAPE OP THE
WHITES FEOM YELLOW MEDICINE SETTLEMENT
ON THE CHIPPEWA MDBDBB OF JAMES W. LIND-
SAY AND HIS COMBADB.
Early on the morning of the 18tb, the settlers
on the north side of the Minnesota river, adjoining
the reservation, were surprised to see a large num-
ber of Indians in their immediate neighborhood.
They were seen soon after the people arose, simul-
taneously, all along the river from Birch Coohe to
Beaver Creek, and beyond, on the west, apparent-
ly intent on gathering up the horses and cattle.
When interrogated, they said they were after
Ohippewas. At about 6 or 7 o'clock they sudden-
ly began to repair to the various houses of the set-
tlers, and then the flight of the inhabitants and
the work of death began.
In the immediate vicinity of Beaver Creek, the
neighbors, to the number of about twenty-eight,
men, women, and children, assembled at the house
of Jonathan W. Earle, and, with several teams,
started for Fort Eidgely, having with them the
sick wife of S. E. Henderson, her children, and
the family of N. D. White, and the wife and two
children of James Carrothers.
There were, also, David Carrothers and family,
Earle and family, Henderson, and a German named
Wedge, besides four sons of White and Earle; the
rest were women and children. They had gone
but a short distance when they were surrounded
by Indians. When asked, by some of the party
who could speak their language, what they wanted,
the Indians answered, "We are going to kill you."
MASSACRE AT GERMAN SETTLEMENT.
201
When asked why they were to be killed, the In-
dians consented to let them go, with one team and
the buggy with Mrs. Henderson, on giving up the
rest. They had gone but a short distance when
they were again stopped by the savages, and the
remaining team taken. Again they moved on,
drawing the buggy and the sick woman by hand
but had gone but a few rods further, when the In-
dians began to fire upon them. The men were
with the buggy ; the women and children had gone
on ahead, as well as the boys and Oarrothers.
Mr. Earle, seeing the savages were determined
to kiU them, and knowing that they could not now
save Mrs. Henderson, hastened on and came up
with the fleeing fugitives ahead. Mr. Henderson
waved a white cloth as a flag of truce, when they
shot off his fingers, and, at the same time, killed
"Wedge. Henderson then ran, seeing that he could
not save his wife and children, and made his es-
cape. They came up with his buggy, and, taking
out the helpless woman and children, threw them
on the prairie, and placing the bed over them, set
it on fire, and hastened on after the fleeing fugi-
tives.
The burned and blackened remains of both the
mother and her two children were afterward found
by a burial party, and interred.
Coming up with the escaping women and chil-
dren, they were all captured but two children of
David Oarrothers. These they had shot in the
chase after Oarrothers, Earle, and the sons of Earle
and White. They killed, also, during this chase
and running fight, Eugene White, a son of N. D.
White, and Badner, son of Jonathan W. Earle.
Oarrothers escaped to Orow Eiver, and thence to
St. Paul. Mr. Earle and two of his sons, and one
son of Mr. White, after incredible hardships, es-
caped to Oedar Oity, and subsequently made their
way back to St. Peter and Fort Eidgely. All the
captives taken at this time were carried to Orow's
village, and, with the exception of Mrs. James
Oarrothers and her children, were recovered at
Oamp Belease.
After they had captured the women and children,
they returned to the houses of the settlers, and
plimdered them of their contents, carrying off
what they could, and breaking up and destroying
the balance. They then gathered up the stock
and drove it to their village, taking their captives
with them.
Some two or three miles above the neighborhood
of Earle and White was a settlement of German
emigrants, numbering some forty persons, quiet,
industrious, and enterprising. Early on the
morning of the 18th these had all assembled at
the house of John Meyer. Very soon after they
had assembled here, some fifty Indians, led by
Shakopee, appeared in sight. The people all fled,
except Meyer and his family, going into the grass
and bushes. Peter Bjorkman ran toward his own
house. Shakopee, whom he knew, saw him, and
exclaimed, "There is Bjorkman; kfll himi" but,
keeping the building between him and the sav-
ages, he plunged into a slough and concealed
himself, even removing his shirt, fearing it might
be the means of revealing his whereabouts to the
lurking savages. Here he lay from early morning
until the darkness of night enabled him to leave
with safety — suffering unutterable torments, mos-
quitoes literally swarming upon his naked person,
and the hot sun scorching him to the bone.
They immediately attacked the house of Meyer,
killing his wife and all his children. Seeing his
family butchered, and having no means of de-
fense, Meyer effected his escape, and reached Fort
Bidgely. In the meantime the affrighted people
had got together again at the house of a Mr.
Sitzton, near Bjorkman's, to the number of about
thirty, men, women, and children. In the after-
noon the savages returned to the house of Sitzton,
killing every person there but one woman, Mrs.
Wilhelmina Eindenfield, and her child. These
ware captured, and afterward found at Oamp Be-
lease, but the husband and father was among the
slain. From his place of concealment Mr. Bjork-
man witnessed this attack and wholesale massacre
of almost an entire neighborhood. After dark he
came out of the slough, and, going to his house,
obtained some food and a bundle of clothing, as
bis house was not yet plundered; fed his dog and
calf, and went over to the house of Meyer; here
he found the windows all broken in, but did not
enter the house. He then went to the house of
Sitaton; his iierves were not equal to the task of
entering that charnel-house of death. As he
passed the yard, he turned out some cattle that the
Indians had not taken away, and hastened toward
Fort Bidgely. On the road he overtook a woman
and two children, one an infant of six months, the
wife and children of John Sateau, who had
been killed. Taking one of the children in his
arms, these companions in misfortune and suffer-
ing hurried on together. Mrs. Sateau was nearly
nalied, and without either shoes or stockings.
202
BISTORT OF THE SIOUX MASS AC BE.
The rough prairie grass lacerated her naked feet
and limbs terribly, and she was about giving out
in despair. Bjorkman took from his bundle a
shirt, and tearing it in parts, she wound it about
her feet, and proceeded on.
At daylight they came in sight of the house of
Magner, eight miles above the fort. Here they
saw some eight or ten Indians, and, turning aside
from the road, dropped down into the grass, where
they remained until noon, when the Indians disap-
peared. They again moved toward the fort, but
slowly and cautiously, as they did not reach it
until about midnight. Upon reaching the fort
Mrs. Sateau found two sons, aged ten and twelve
years respectively, who had effected their escape
and reached there before her.
Mrs. Mary, widow of Patrick Hayden, who re-
sided about one and a half miles from the house
of J. W. Earle, near Beaver Creek, in EenviUe
county, says:
• "On the morning of the 18th of August, Mr.
Hayden started to go over to the house of Mr. J.
B. Reynolds, at the Eedwood river, on the reser-
vation, and met Thomas Eobinson, a half-breed,
who told him to go home, get his family, and
leave as soon as possible, for the Indians were
coming over to kiU all the whites. He came im-
mediately home, and we commenced to make
preparations to leave, but in a few minutes we
saw some three or four Indians coming on horse-
back. We then went over to the house of a
neighbor, Benedict June, and found them all
ready to leave. I started off with June's people,
and my husband went back home, still thinking
the Indians would not kill any one, and intending
to give them some provisions if they wanted them.
I never saw him again.
"We had gone about four miles, when we saw a
man lying dead in the road and his faithful dog
watching by his side.
"We drove on till we came to the house of David
Faribault, at the foot of the hill, about one and a
half miles from the Agency ferry. When we got
here two Indians came out of Faribault's house,
and stopping the teams, shot Mr. Zimmerman,
who was driving, and his two boys. I sprang out
of the wagon, and, with my child, one year old, in
my arms, ran into the bushes, and went up the
hill toward the fort. When I came near the house
of Mr. Magner, I saw Indians throwing furniture
out of the door, and I went down into the bushes
again, on the lower side of the road, and staid
there untU sundown.
"While I lay here "concealed, I saw the Indians
taking the roof off the warehouse, and saw the
buildings burning at the Agency. I also heard
the firing during the battle at the ferry, when
Marsh and his men were killed.
"I then went up near the fort road, and sitting
down under a tree, waited till dark, and then
started for Fort Eidgely, carrying my child aU the
way. I arrived at the fort at about 1 o'clock A.
M. The distance from our place to Eidgley was
seventeen miles.
"On Tuesday morning I saw John Magner, who
told me that, when the soldiers went up to the Agen-
cy the day before, he saw my husband lying in the
road, near David Faribault's house, dead. John
Hayden, his brother, who lived with us, was found
dead near La Croix creek. They had got up the
oxen, and were bringing the family of Mr. Eisen-
rich to the fort, when they were overtaken by In-
dians. Eisenrich was killed and his wife and five
children were taken prisoners.
"Mrs. Zimmerman, who was blind, and her re-
maining children, and Mrs. June and her children,
five in number, were captured and taken to the
house of David Faribault, where they were kept
till night, the savages torturing them by telling
them that they were going to fasten them in the
house and bum them alive, but for some inexpli-
cable reason let them go, and they, too, reached
the fort in safety. Mr. June, who with one of his
boys, eleven years old, remained behind to drive
in his cattle, was met by them on the road and
killed. The boy was captured, and, with the other
prisoners, recovered at Camp Kelease."
The neighborhoods in the vicinity of La Croix
creek, and between that and Fort Eidgely, were
visited on Monday forenoon, and the people either
massacred, driven away or made prisoners.' Ed-
ward Magner, living eight miles above the fort,
was killed. His wife and children had gone to
the fort. He had returned to look after his cat-
tle when he was shot. Patrick Kelley and David
O'Connor, both single men, were killed near Mag-
ner's.
Kearn Horan makes the following statement.
"I lived four miles from the Lower Sioux
Agency, on the fort road. On the ISth of August
Patrick Horan, my brother, came early from the
Agency and told us that the Indians were murder-
ing the whites. He had escaped alone and crossed
STATEMENT OF KEARN EOBAN.
203
the ferry, and with some Frenchmen was on his
way to the fort. My brothers and William and
Thomas Smith went with me. We saw Indians in
the road near Magner's, Thomas Smith went to
them, thiniing they were white men, and I saw
them kill him. We then turned to flee, and saw
men escaping with teams along the road. All fled
towards the fort together, the Indians firiag upon
us as we ran. The teams were oxen, and the In-
dians were gaining upon us, when one of men in
his excitement dropped his gun. The savages
came up to it and picked it up. AU stopped to
examine it, and the men in the wagons whipped
the oxen into a run. This delay enabled us to
elude them.
"As we passed the house of Ole Sampson, Mrs.
Sampson was crying at the door for help. Her
three children were with her. We told her to go
into the bush and hide, for we could not help
her. We ran into a ravine and hid in the grass.
After the Indians had hunted some time for us,
they came along the side of the ravine, and called
lo us ill good EngUsh, saying, 'Come out, boys;
what are you afraid of? We don't want to hurt
you.' After they left us we crawled out and made
our way to the fort, where we arrived at about 4
o'clock P. M. My family had gone there before
me. Mrs. Sampson did not go to the bush, but
hid in the wagon from which they had recently
come from Waseca county. It was what we call a
prairiiB schooner, covered with cloth, a genuine
emigrant wagon. They took her babe from her,
and throwing it down upon the grass, put hay un-
der the wagon, set fire to it and went away. Mrs.
Sampson got out of the wagon, badly burned, and
taking her infant from the ground made he. w y
to the fort. Two of her children were burned to
death in the wagon. Mr. Sampson had been pre-
viously killed about eighty rods from the house.
In the neighborhood o{ La Croix creek, or Birch
Coolie, Peter Pereau, Frederick Closen,
Piguar, Andrew Bahlke, Henry Keartner, old Mr.
Closen and Mrs. William Vitt, and several others
were killed. Mrs. Maria Frorip, an aged Ger-
man woman, was wounded four different times
with small shot, but escaped to the fort. The wife
of Henry Eeartner also escaped and reached the
fort. The wife and child of a Mr. OardeneUe
were taken prisoners, as were also the wife and
child of Frederick Closen.
William Vitt came into Fort Kidgely, but not
until he had, with his own hands, buried his mur-
dered wife and also a Mr. Piguar.
A flourishing German settlement had sprung up
near Patterson's Eapids, on the Sacred Heart, '
twelve miles below Yellow Medicine.
Word came to this neighborhood about sun-
down of the 18th, that the Indians were murder-
ing the whites. This news was brought to them
by two men who had started from the Lower
Agency, and had seen the lifeless and mutilated
remains of the murdered victims lying upon the
road and in their plundered dwellings towards
Beaver Creek. The whole neighborhood, with the
exception of one family, that of Mr. Schwandt,
soon assembled at the house of Paul Kitzman, with
their oxen and wagons, and prepared to start for
Fort Bidgely.
A messenger was sent to the house of Schwandt
but the Indian rifle and the tomahawk had done
their fearful work. Of aU that family but two
survived; one a boy, a witness of the awful scene
of butchery, and he then on his way, covered with
blood, towards Port Eidgely. The other, a young
girl of about seventeen years of age, then residing
at Eedwood, who was captured as previously
stated.
This boy saw his sister, a young married wo-
man, ripped open, while alive, and her unborn
babe taken, yet struggling, from her person and
nailed to a tree before the eyes of the dying
mother.
This party started in the evening to make their
escape, going so as to avoid the settlements and
the traveled roads, striking across the country to-
ward the head of Beaver creek.
They traveled this way aU night, and in the
morning changed their course towards Fort Bidge-
ly. They continued in this direction until the
sun was some two hours higi^hen they were met
by eight Sioux Indians, who told them that the
murders were committed by Chippewas, and that
they had come over to protect them and punish
the murderers; and thus induced them to turn
back toward their homes. One of the savages
spoke English weU. 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 aU 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 back.
201
HISTORT OP THE SIOUX MAS8A0RE.
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 siispicions of the
ftigitives 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 or-
dered them to go on, taking their position on each
side of the train. Soon after tli py went on and
disappeared. The train kept on toward home;
and when within a few rods of a house, where they
thought they could defend themselves, as they had
guns with them, they were suddenly surrounded
by fourteen Indians, who instintly fired upon them,
killing 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 screaming children with the butts of their
guns. Mrs. Kreiger was standing in the wag6n,
and, when her husband fell, attempted to spring
from it to the ground, but was shot from behind,
and feU back in the wagon-box, although not dead,
or entirely unconscious. She was roughly seized
and dr-agged 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 tipber near by ; and a few also, maimed and
mangled by these horrible monsters, and left for
dead, survived, and, after enduring incredible
hardships, got to Fort Eidgely. Mrs. Zable, and
five children, were horribly mangled, and almost
naked, entered the fort eleven days afterward-
Mrs. Kreiger also survived her unheard-of suffer-
ings.
Some forty odd bodies were afterward found and
buried on that fatal field of slaughter. Thus per-
ished, by the hands of these terrible scourges of
the border, almost an entire neighborhood. 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 themselves homes, where-
they bad fondly hoped, in peace and quiet, to
spend yet long years, under the fair, blue sky, and
in the sunny cUme of Minnesota, when suddenly,
and in one short hour, by the hand of the savage,
they were doomed to one common annihilation.
During all the fatal 18th of August, the people
at the Upper Agency pursued their usual avoca-
tions. As riight approached, however, an unusual
gathering of Indians was observed on the hiU just
west of the Agency, and between it and the house
of John Other Day. Judge Givens and Charles
Crawford, then acting as interpreters in the ab-
sence of Freniere, went out to them, and sought
to learn why they were there in cotmcil, but could
get no satisfactory reply. Soon after this. Other
Day came to them with the news of the outbreak
below, as did also Joseph Laframbois, a half-
breed Sioux. The families there were soon all
gathered together in the warehouse,and dwelling
of the agent, who resided in the same building,
and with the guns they had;; prepared themselves
as best they could, and awaited the attack, deter-
mined to seU their lives as dearly as possible.
There were gathered here sixty-two persons, men,
women, and children.
Other Day, and several other Indians, who came
to them, told them they would stand by them to
the last. These men visited the council outside,
several times during the night; but when they
were most needed, one only, the noble and heroic
Other Day, remained faithful. All the others dis-
appeared, one after another, during the night.
About one or two o'clock in the morning, Stewart
B. Garvie, connected with the traders' store, known
as Myrick's, came to the warehouse, and was ad-
mitted, badly wounded, a charge of buckshot hav-
ing entered his bowels. Garvie was standing in
the door or his store when he was fired upon and
wounded. He ran up stairs, and jumping from
the window into the garden, crawled away, and
reached the Agency without further molestation.
At about this time Joseph Laframbois went to the
store of Daily & Pratt, and awakened the two men
in charge there, Duncan E. Kennedy and J. D.
Boardman, and told them to flee for their lives.
They hastily dressed and left the store, but had
not gone ten rods when they saw in the path be-
fore them three Indians. They stepped down
from the path, which ran along the edge of a rise
in the ground of some feet, and crouching in the
grass, the Indians passed within eight feet of
them. Kennedy went on toward Fort Eidgely,
determined to reach that post if possible, and
Boardman went to the warehouse. At the store of
WiUiam H. Forbes, Oonstans, book-keeper, a na-
tive of France, was killed. At the store of Pa-
toile, Peter PatoUe, clerk, and a nephew of the
proprietor, was shot just outside the store, the ball
entering at the back and coming out near the nip-
WE IT E 8 BESGUED BT OTHER DAT.
205
pie, passing through his lungs. An Indian came
to him after he fell, turned him over, and saying,
"He is dead," left him.
They then turned their attention to the stores.
The. clerks in the store of Louis Kobert had effect-
ed their escape, so that there were now no white
men left, and when they had become absorbed in
the work of plunder, Patoile crawled off into the
bushes on the banks of the Yellow Medicine, and
secreted himself. Here he remained all day.
After dark he got up and started for a place of
safety; ascending the bluff, out of the Yellow Med-
icine bottom, he dragged himself a mile and a
half further, to the ' Minnesota, at the mouth of
the Yellow Medicine. Wading the Minnesota, he
entered the house of Louis Labelle, on the oppo-
site side, at the ford. It was deserted. Finding a
bed in the house he lay down upon it and was soon
fast asleep, and did not awake until morning.
Joseph Laframbois and Narces Freniere, and an
Indian, Makacago, entered the house, and finding
him there, awoke him, telling him there were hos-
tile Indians about; that he must hide. They gave
him a blanket to disguise himself, and going with
him to the ravine, concealed him in the grass and
left him, promising to return, as soon as it was
safe to do so, to bring him food, and guide him
away to the prairie. He lay in this ravine until
toward night, when his friends, true to their
promise, returned, bringing some crackers, tripe,
and onions. They went with him some distance
out on the prairie, and enjoined upon him not to
attempt to go to Fort Bidgely, and giving him the
best directions they could as to the course he
should take, shook hands with, him and left him.
Their names should be inscribed upon tablets more
enduring than brass. That night he slept on the
prairie, and the next day resumed his wanderings,
over an unknown region, without an inhabitant.
After wandering for days without food or drink,
his little stock of crackers and tripe being exhaust-
ed, he came to a deserted house, which he did not
know. Here he remained all night, and obtained
two raw potatoes and three ears of green corn.
These he ate' raw. It was aU the food he had for
eight days. Wandering, and unknowing whither
to go, on the twelfth day out from Labelle's house,
he heard the barking of dogs, and creeping nearer
to them, still fearing there might be Indians about,
he was oveijoyed at seeing white men. Soon
making himself and his condition known, he was
tiiken and kindly cared for by these men, who had
some days before deserted their farms, and had
now returned to look after their crops and cattle.
He now learned for the first time where he was.
He had struck a settlement far up the Sauk Val-
ley, some forty miles above St. Cloud. He must
have wandered, in these twelve days of suffering,
not less than two hundred miles, including devia-
tions from a direct course.
He was taken by these men, in a wagon, to St.
Cloud, where his wound was dressed for the first
time. From St. Cloud the stage took him to St.
Anthony, where he took the cars to St. Paul. A
case of equal suffering and equal eudurance is
scarcely to be found on record. With a bullet
wound through the lungs, he walked twelve days,
not over a smooth and easy road, but across a
trackless prairie, covered with rank grass, wading
sloughs and streams on hig way, almost without
food, and for days without water, before he saw the
face of a man; and traveled by wagon, stage,
and oars, over one hundred miles.
His recovery was rapid, and he soon enlisted in
the First Eegiment Minnesota Mounted Eangers
under General Sibley, in the expedition against
the Sioux. Patoile was in the battles on the Mis-
souri in the summer of 1863, where his company,
that of Captain Joseph Anderson, is mentioned as
having fought with great bravery.
We now return to the warehouse at Yellow Med-
icine, which we left to follow the strange fortunes
of young Patoile. Matters began to wear a seri-
ous aspect, when Garvie came to them mortally
wounded. Other Day was constantly on the watch
outside, and reported the progress of affairs to
those within. Toward daylight every friendly
Indian had deserted save Other Day; the yells of
the savages came distinctly to their ears from the
trading-post, half a mile distant. They were ab-
sorbed in the work of plunder. The chances of
escape were sadly against them, yet they decided
to make the attempt. Other Day knew every foot
of the country over which they must pass, and
would be their guide.
The wagons were driven to the door. A bed
was placed in one of them; Garvie was laid upon
it. The women and children provided a few loaves
of bread, and just as day dawned, the cortege
started on its perilous way. This party consisted
of the family of Major Galbraith, wife and three
children; Nelson Givens, wife, and wife's mother,
and three children ; Noah Sinks, wife, and two chil-
dren; Henry Esohelle, wife, and five children; John
206
HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSACRE.
Fadden, wife, and three children; Mr. German and
■wife; Frederick Patoile, wife, and two children;
Mrs. Jane K. Murch, Miss Mary Charles, Miss
Lizzie Sawyer, Miss Mary Daly, Miss Mary Hays,
Mrs. Eleanor Warner, Mrs. John Other Day and
one child, Mrs. Eaurahan, N. A. Miller, Edward
Oramsie, Z. Hawkins, Oscar Oanfil, Mr. Hill, an
artist from St. Paul, J. D. Boardman, Parker
Pierce, Dr. J. L. Wakefield, and several others.
They crossed the Minnesota at Labelle's farm,
and soon turned into the timber on the Hawk
river, crossed that stream at some distance above
its mouth, and ascended from the narrow valley
through which it runs to the open prairie beyond,
and followed down the Minnesota, keeping back
on the prairie as far as the farm of Major J. E.
Brown, eight miles below the Yellow Medicine.
Mr. Fadden and Other Day visited the house and
found it deserted. A consultation then took place,
for the purpose of deciding where they should go.
Some of them wished to go to Fort Bidgely; oth-
ers to some town away from the frontier. Other
Day told them that if they attempted to go to the
fort they would all be killed, as the Indians would
either be lying in ambush on that road for them,
or would follow them, believing they would at-
tempt to go there. His counsel prevailed, and
they turned to the left, across the prairie, in the
direction of Kandiyohi Lakes and Glencoe. At
night one of the party mounted a horse and rode
forward, and found a house about a mile ahead.
They hastened forward and reached it in time to
escape a furious storm. They were kindly re-
ceived by the only person about the premises, a
man, whose family were away. The next morn-
ing, soon after crossing Hawk river, they were
joined by Louis Labelle and Gertong, his son-in-
law, who remained with them all that day.
On Wednesday morning they left the house of
the friendly settler, and that night reached Cedar
City, eleven miles from Hutchinson, in the county
of McLeod. The inhabitants had deserted the
town, and gone to an island, in Cedar Lake, and
had erected a rude shelter. From the main land
the island was reached through shallow water.
Through this water our escaping party drove,
guided by one of the citizens of Cedar City, and
were cordially welcomed by the people assembled
there.
That night it rained, and all were drenched to
the skin. Poor Garvie was laid under a rude
shed, upon his bed, and all was done for him that
man could do; but, in the morning, it was evident
that he could go no further, and he was taken to
the house of a Mr. Peck, and left. He died there,
a day or two afterward. Some of the company,
who were so worn out as to be unable to go on be-
yond Hutchinson, returned to Cedar City and saw
that he was decently interred.
On Thursday they went on, by way of Hutchin-
son and Glencoe, to Carver, and thence to Shako-
pee and St. Paul. Major Galbraith, in a report to
the department, says of this escape:
"Led by the Noble Other Day, they struck out
on the naked prairie, literally placing their lives
in this faithful creature's hands, and guided by
him, and Mm alone. After intense suffering and
privation, they reached Shakopee, on Friday, the
22d of August, Other Day never leaving them for
an instant; and this Other Day is a puj'e, full-
blooded Indian, and was, not long since, one of the
wildest and fiercest of his race. Poor, noble fel-
low ! must he, too, be ostracized for the sins of his
nation ? I commend him to the care of a just God
and a liberal government ; and not only him, but
all others who did likewise."
[Government gave John Other Day a farm in
Minnesota. He died several years since univer-
sally esteemed by the white people.]
After a knowledge of the designs of the Indians
reached the people at the Agency, it was impossi-
ble for them to more than merely communicate
with the two families at the saw-inill, three miles
above, and with the families at the Mission. They
were, therefore, reluctantly left to their fate.
Early in the evening of Monday, two civiHzed In-
dians, Ohaskada and Tankanxaceye, went to the
house of Dr. Williamson, and warned them of their
danger, informing them of what had occurred be-
low; and two half-breeds, Michael and Gabriel
Renville, and two Christian Indians, Panl Maxa-
kuta Mani and Simon Anaga Mani, went to the
house of Mr. Eiggs, the missionary, at Hazel-
wood, and gave them warning of the danger im-
pending over them.
There were at this place, at that time, the family
of the Itev. Stephen E. Eiggs, Mr. H. D. Cun-
ningham and family, Mr. D. W. Moore and his
wife (who reside in New Jersey), and Jonas Petti-
john and family. Mr. Pettijohn and wife were
in charge of the Government school at Eed Iron's
village, and were now at Mr. Eiggs'. They got
up a team, and these friendly Indians went with
them to an Island in the Minnesota, about three
ESCAPE OF REV. S. B. BIGQS AND OTHERS.
207
miles from the Mission. Here they remained till
Tuesday evening. In the afternoon of Tuesday,
Andrew Himter, a son-in-law of Dr. Williamson,
came to him with the information that the family
of himself and the Doctor were secreted below.
The families at the saw-mill had been informed by
the Eenvilles, and were with the party of Dr. Wil-
liamson. At night they formed a junction on the
north side of the Minnesota, and commenced their
perilous journey. A thunder-storm effectually ob-
literated their tracks, so that the savages could not
follow them. They started out on the prairie in a
northeasterly direction, and, on Wednesday morn-
ing, changed their course south-easterly, till they
struck the Lao qui Parle road, and then made di-
rectly for Fort Bidgely. On Wednesday they
were joined by three Germans, who had escaped
from Yellow Medicine. On Wednesday night they
found themselves in the vicinity of the Upper
Agency, and turned to the north again, keeping
out on the prairie. On Friday they were iu the
neighborhood of Beaver Creek, when Dr. Wil-
liamson, who, with his wife and sister, had re-
mained behind, overtook them in an ox-cart, hav-
ing left about twenty -four hours later. They now
determined to go to Fort Bidgely. When within
a few mUes of that post, just at night, they were
discovered by two Indians on horseback, who rode
along parallel with the train for awhile, and then
turned and galloped away, and the fugitives has-
tened on, momentarily expecting an attack. Near
the Three-Mile creek they passed a dead body
lying by the road-side. They drove on, passing
the creek, and, turning to the left, passed out on
to the prairie, and halted a mile and a half from
the fort. It was now late at night; they had
heard firing, and had seen Indians in the vicinity.
They were in doubt what to do. It was at length
decided that Andrew Hunter should endeavor to
enter the fort and ascertain its condition, and
learn, if possible, whether they could get in.
Hunter went, and, although it was well-nigh sur-
rounded by savages (they had been besieging it
all the afternoon), succeeded in crawling by on his
hands and knees. He was told that it would be
impossible for so large a party, forty-odd, to get
through the Indian lines, and that he had better
return and tell them to push on toward the towns
below. He left as he had entered, crawling out
into the prairie, and reached his friends in safety.
It seemed very hard, to be so near a place of fan-
cied security, and obliged to turn away from it,
and, weary and hungry, press on. Perils beset
their path on every hand; dangers, seen and un-
seen, were around them ; but commending them-
selves to the care of Him who "suffereth not a
sparrow to faU to the ground without His notice,"
they resumed their weary march. They knew
that all around them the work of death and deso-
lation was going on, for the midnight sky, on
every side, was red with the lurid flame of burn-
ing habitations. They heard fi'om out the gloom
the tramp of horses' feet, hurrying past them in
the darkness; but they still pressed on. Soon
their wearied animals gave out, and again they
encamped for the night. With the early dawn
they were upon the move, some eight miles from
the fort, in the direction of Henderson. Here,
four men, the three Germans who had joined them
on Wednesday, and a young man named GilHgan,
left them, and went oil in the direction of New
Ulm. The bodies of these unfortunate men were
afterward found, scarcely a mile from the place
where they had left the guidance of Other Day.
They traveled on in the direction of Henderson,
slowly and painfully, for their teams, as well as
themselves, were nearly exhausted. That day the
savages were beleaguering New Ulm, and the
sounds of the conflict were borne faintly to their
ears upon the breeze. They had flour with them,
but no means of cooking it, and were, consequently,
much of the time without proper food. On the
afternoon of this day they came to a deserted
house, on the road from Fort Ridgley to Hender-
son, the house of Bliohael Cummings, where they
found a stove, cooking utensils, and a jar of cream.
Obtaining some ears of corn from the field or gar-
den near by, and " confiscating" the cream, they
prepared themselves the first good meal they had
had since leaving their homes so hastily on Mon-
day night.
After refreshing themselves and their worn ani-
mals at this place for some hours, their journey
was again resumed. That night they slept in a
forsaken house on the prairie, and, on Sabbath
morning early, were again on their way. As they
proceeded, they met some of the settlers returning
to their deserted farms, and calling a halt at a de-
serted house, where they found a large company of
people, they concluded to remain until Monday,
and recuperate themselves and teams, as well as to
observe in a proper manner the holy Sabbath. On
Monday morning they separated, part going to
Henderson and part to St. Peter, all feeling thai
208
EI8T0BT OF TEE BIOUX MM8A0RE.
the All-seeing Eye that never slumbers or sleeps
had watched over them, and that the loving hand
. of God had guided them safely through the dan-
gers, seen and unseen, that had beset their path.
In the region of the State above the Upper
Agency there were but few white inhabitants. Of
all those residing on the Chippewa river, near its
mouth, we can hear of but one who escaped, and
he was wounded, while his comrade, who lived with
him was kiUed. This man joined the party of the
missionaries, and got away with them.
On the Yellow Medicine, above the Agency about
twelve miles, was a settler named James W.
Lindsay. He was unmarried, and another single
man was "baching it" with him. They were both
killed. Their nearest white neighbors were at
the Agency, and they could not be warned of their
danger, and knew nothing of it until the savages
were upon them.
CHAPTER XXXV.
LEOPOLD WOHLBB AND WIFE LBAVBNWOBTH
STATEMENT OE MBS. MAKT J. OOVILL STOBY OP
MBS. LATJEA WHTTON MILTTOED NICOLLET COUN-
TY WEST NEWTON LAFAYETTE — OOUBTLAND
SWAN LAKE PABTIAL LIST OF THE KILLED IN
NICOLLET COUNTY INDIANS SOOUKING THE OOUN-
TBY A SOOtJTING PAETY SEEN AT ST. PETEK.
The news of the murders below reached Leo-
pold AVohler at the "lime-kUn," three miles be-
low Yellow Medicine, on Monday afternoon.
Taking his wife, he crossed the Minnesota river,
and went to the house of Major Joseph E. Brown.
Major Brown's family consisted of his wife and
nine children; Angus Brown and wife, and Charles
Blair, a son-in-law, his wife, and two children.
The Major himself was away from home. Includ-
ing Wohler and his wife, there were then at their
house, on the evening of the 18th of August,
eighteen persons.
They started, early on the morning of the 19th,
to make their escape, with one or two others of
their neighbors, Charles Holmes, a single man, re-
siding on the claim above them, being of the party.
They were overtaken near Beaver Creek by Indi-
ans, and all of the Browns, Mr. Blair and family,
and Mrs. Wohler, were captured, and taken at
once to Little Crow's village. Messrs. Wohler and
Holmes escaped. Major Brown's family 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 escape to
Fort Ridgely, being out some five days and nights
without food. Mr. Blair was in poor health. The
hardships he endured were too much for his al-
ready shattered constitution; and although he es-
caped the tomahavk and scalping-knife, he was
soon numbered among the victims of the massacre.
J. H. 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 rescued at Camp Eelease, and the two little
boys were taken away by Little Crow. Poor little
fellows! their fate is still shrouded in mystery.
A Mr. Frace, residing near Brown's place, was also
killed. His wife and two children were found at
Camp Eelease.
The town of Leavenworth was situated on the
Cottonwood, in the county of Brown. Word was
brought to some of the settlers in that town, on
Monday afternoon, that the Indians had broken
out and were killing the inhabitants on the Min-
nesota. They immediately began to make prepa-
rations to leave. Mr. William Carroll started at
once for New Ulm alone, to learn the facts of the
rumored outbreak. The most of the inhabitants,
alarmed by these rumors, fled that night toward
New Ulm. Some of them reached that town in
safety, and others were waylaid and massacred
upon the road.
The family of a Mr. Blum, a worthy German
citizen, were all, except a small boy, kiUed while
endeavoring to escape. On Tuesday morning,
Mr. Philetus Jackson was killed, while on the wav
to town with his wife and son. Mrs. Jackson and
the young man escaped.
We insert here the statements of two ladies, who
escaped from this neighborhood, as they detail
very fully the events of several days in that local-
ity. Mrs. Mary J. CoviU, wife of George W.
Oovill, says:
"On Monday, the 18th of August, messengers
came to the house of Luther Whiton, from both
above and below, with a report of an outbreak of
the Indians. My husband was at Mr. Wliiton's,
stacking grain. He came home about four o'clock
P. M., and told me about it, and then went back
to Whiton's, about half a mile away, to get a Mr.
Eiant, who had recently come there from the State
STATEMENT OF MRS. GOV ILL.
209
of Maine, to take his team and eaoaps. I packed
a trunk with clothing, and hid it in the grass, and
then went myself to Whiton's, as I was afraid to
remain at home. Mr. Eiant got up his team,
and taking his two trunks — one of them
, containing over two thousand dollars in gold
— took us all with him. There was a family at
Mr. Whiton's from Tennessee, and a young child
of theirs had died that day. The poor woman
took her dead cnild in her arms, and we all started
across the prairie, avoiding the road, for Mankato.
We camped that night about three miles from
home, on the prairie; and seeing no fires, as of
burning buildings, returned to the house of our
neighbor, Van Guilder, and found that the settlers
had nearly all left. Mr. Van Guilder and family,
Edward Allen and wife, Charles Smith and family
and Mrs. Carroll, were all we knew of that re-
mained.
" We started on, thinking that we would over-
take the Leavenworth party, who had been gone
about an hour. We had gone about two and a
half miles, when we saw, ahead of us, a team, with
two men in the wagon, who drove toward us until
they got into a hollow, and then got out and went
behind a knoll. We drove quite near them, when
Mr. Oovill discovered them to be Indians. Eiant
turned his horses round and fled, when they jumped
up out of the grass, whooped, and fired at us.
They then jumped into their wagon and followed.
Mr. Covill had the only gun in tlie party that
could be used, and kept it pointed at the Indians
as we retreated. They fired at us some halt- dozen
times, but, fortunately, without injuring any one.
" We drove hastily back to the house of Van
Guilder, and entered it as quickly as possible, the
savages firing upon us all the time. Mr. Van
Guilder had just started away, with bis family, as
we came back, and returned to the house with us.
A shot from the Indians broke the arm of his mo-
ther, an aged lady, soon after we got into the
house, as she was passing a window. In our haste,
we had not stopped to hitch the horses, and they
soon started off, and the Indians followed. As
they were going over a hill near the house, they
shook a white cloth at us, and, whooping, disap-
peared. There were in this company — after Riant
was gone, who left us, and hid in a slough — fifteen
persons. We immediately started out on the prai-
rie again. We had now only the ox-team of Van
Guilder, and the most of us were compelled to
walk. His mother, some small children, and some
trunks, made a wagon-load. The dead child,
which the mother bad brought back to the house
with her, was left lying upon the table. It was
afterward found, with its head aenerecl from its body
by the fiends. 8. L. Wait and Luther Whiton,
who had concealed themselves in the grass when
they saw the Indians coming, joined us. Mrs. A.
B. Hough and infant child were with the family of
Van Guilder. These made our number up to fif-
teen. We traveled across the prairie aU. day with-
out seeing any Indians, and, at night, camped on
the Little Cottonwood. We waded the stream,
and made our camp on the opposite side, in the
tall grass and reeds. We reached tliis spot on
Tuesday night, and remained there till Friday af-
ternoon, without food, save a little raw flour, which
we did not dare to cook, for fear the smoke would
reveal our whereabouts to the savages, when a
company from New Ulm rescued us.
"On Wednesday night, after dark, Covill and
Wait started for New Ulm, to get a party to come
out to our aid, saying they would be back the
next day. That night, and nearly all the next
day, it rained. At about daylight the next day,
when just across the Big Cottonwood, five miles
from New Uhn, they heard an Indian whooping in
their rear, and turned aside into some hazel-bushes,
where they lay all day. At the place where they
crossed the river they found a fish-rack in the
water, and in it caught a fish. Part of this they
ate raw that day. It was now Thiursday, and
they had eaten nothing, since Monday noon. They
started again at dark for New Ulm. When near
the graveyard, two miles from the town, an Indian,
with grass tied about his head, arose from the
ground and attempted to head them off. They
succeeded in evading him, and got in about ten
o'clock. When about entering the place, they'
were fii-ed upon by the pickets, which alarmed the
town, and when they got in, all was in commo-
tion, to meet an expected attack.
" The nest morning, one hundred and fifty men,
under Captain Tousley, of Le Sueur, and 8. A.
Buell, of St. Peter, started to our relief, reaching
our place of concealment about two o'clock. They
brought us food, o! which our famished party
eagerly partook. They were accompanied by Dr.
A. W. Daniels, of St. Peter, and Dr. Mayo, of
Le Sueur. They went on toward Leavenworth,
intending to remain tljere all night, bury
the dead, should any be found, the next
day, rescue any who might remain ahve.
14
210
HISTORY OP THE SIOUX MASSAC HE.
and then return. They buried the Blum fam-
ily of six persons that afternoon, and then con-
cluded to return that night. We reached New
Ulm before midnight. Mr. Van Guilder's mother
died soon after we got into town from the effects
of her wound and the exposure to which she had
been subjected.
"At about the same time that we returned to the
house of Mr. Van Guilder, on Tuesday, Charles
Smith and family, Edward AUen and wife, and
Mrs. Carroll had left it, and reached New Ulm
without seeing Indians, about half an hour before
the place was attacked. The same day, "William
Carroll, with a party of meij, came to the house
for us, found Mr. Eiant, who was concealed in a
slough, and started back toward New Ulm. But
few of them reached the town alive."
An account of the adventures of this company,
and its fate, will be found elsewhere, in the state-
ment of Ealph Thomas, one of the party.
On Monday, the 18th- of August, two women,
Mrs. Harrington and Mrs. Hill, residing on the
Cottonwood, below Leavenworth, heard of the out-
break, and prevailed upon a Mr. Henshaw, a sin-
gle man, living near them, to harness up his team
and take them away, as their husbands were away
from home. Mrs. Harrington had two children ;
Mrs. Hill none. They had gone but a short dis-
tance when they were overtaken by Indians. Mr.
Henshaw wag killed, and Mrs. Harrington was
badly wounded, the ball passing through her
shoulder. She had just sprung to the ground
with her youngest child in her arms; "one of its
arms was thrown over her shoulder, and the ball
passed through its little hand, lacerating it dread-
fully. The Indians were intent upon securing the
team, and the women were not followed, and es-
caped. Securing the horses, they drove away in
an opposite direction.
Mrs. Harrington soon became faint from the loss
of blood; and Mrs. Hill, conceaHng her near a
slough, took the eldest child and started for New
Ulm. Before reaching that place she met John
Jackson and William Carroll, who resided on the
Cottonwood, above them; and, telling them what
had happened, they put her on one of their horses
and turned back with her to the town.
On the next day, Tuesday, Mr. Jackson was one
of the party with CarrcU, heretofore mentioned,
that went out to Lea^fenworth, and visited the
house of Van Guilder, in search of their families.
When that party turned back to New Uhn, Jack-
son did not go with them, but went to his own
house to look for his wife, who had already left.
He visited the houses of most of his neighbors, and
finding no one, started back alone. When near
the house of Mr. HUl, between Leavenworth and
New Ulm, on the river, he saw what he supposed
were white men at the- house, but when within a
few rods of them, discovered they were Indians.
The moment he made this discovery he turned to
flee to the woods near by. They fired upon him,
and gave chase, but he outran them, and reached
the timber unharmed. Here he remained concealed
until late at night, when he made his way back to
town, where he found his wife, who, with others of
their neighbors, had fled on the first alarm, and
reached the village in safety. Mrs. Laura Whiton,
widow of Elijah Whiton,_of Leavenworth; Brown
county, makes the following statement:
"We had resided on our claim, at Leavenworth,
a little over four years. There were in our family,
on the 18th of August, 1862, four persons — Mr.
Whiton, myself, and two children — a son of sixteen
years, and a daughter nine years of age. On Mon-
day evening, the 18th of August, a neighl^or, Mr.
Jackson, and his son, a young boy, who resided
three miles from our place, ccme to our house in
search of their horses, and told us that the Indians
had murdered a family on the Minnesota river, and
went away. We saw no one, and heard nothing
more until Thursday afternoon following, about 4
o'clock, when about a dozen Indians were seen
coming from the direction of the house of a neigh-
bor named Heydrick, whom they were chasing.
Heydrick jumped off a bridge across a ravine, and,
running down the ravine, concealed himself under
a log, where he remained until 8 o'clock, when
he came out, and made his escape into New Ulm.
'■The savages had already slain all his family,
consisting of his wife and two children. Mr.
Whiton, who was at work near the door at the
time, came into the house, but even then did not
believe there was any thing serious, supposing
Heydrick was unnecessarily frightened. But when
he saw them leveling their guns at him, he came
to the conclusion that we had better leave. He
loaded his double-barreled gun, and we aU started
for the timber. After reaching the woods, Mr.
Whiton left us to go to the house of his brother,
Luther, a single man, to see what had become of
him, telling us to remain where we were until he
came back. We never saw him again. After he
left us, not daring to remain where we were, we
STATEMENT OF MSB. WUITON.
211
forded the river (Cotton,wood), and hid in the tim-
ber, on the opposite side, where we remained
until about 8 o'clock, when we started for New Ulm.
" "While we lay concealed in the woods, we heard
the Indians driving up our oxen, and yoking them
up. They hitched them to our wagon, loaded it
up with our trunks, bedding, etc., and drove away.
we went out on the prairie, and walked all night
and all next day, arriving at New Ulm at about
dark on Friday, the 22d. About midnight, on
Thursday night, as we were fleeing along the road,
we passed the bodies of the family of our neigh-
bor, Blum, lying dead by the road-side. They had
started to make their escape to town, but were
overtaken by the savages upon the road, and all
but a little boy most brutally murdered.
" Mr. Whiton returned home, from his visit to
the house of his brother, which he found deserted,
and found that our house had already been plun-
dered. He then went to the woods to search for
us. He remained in the timber, prosecuting his
search, until Saturday, without food; and, failing
to find us, he came to the conclusion that we were
either dead or in captivity, and then himself start-
ed for New Ulm. On Saturday night, when trav-
eling across the prairie, he came suddenly upon a
camp of Indians, but they did not see him, and he
beat as hasty a retreat as possible from their vi-
cinity.
"When near the Lone Cottonwood Tree, on
Sunday morning, he fell in with William J. Duly,
who had made his escape from Lake Shetek.
They traveled along together tiU they came to the
house of Mr. Henry Thomas, six miles from our
faiTQ, in the town of MUford. This house had evi-
dently been deserted by the family in great haste,
for the table was spread for a meal, and the food
remained untouched upon it. Here they sat down
to eat, neither of them having had any food for a
long time. While seated at the table, two Indians
came to the house; and, as Mr. Whiton arose and
stepped to the stove for some water, they came into
the door, one of them saying, 'Z'a mea tepee.''
[This is my house.] There was no way of escape,
and Mr. Whiton, thinking to propitiate him, said
'Come in' Mr. Duly was sitting partly behind the
door, and was, probably, unobserved. The savage
made no answer, but instantly raised his gun, and
shot him through the heart, they then both went
into the corn. Duly was unarmed; and, when Mr.
Whiton was killed, took his gun and ran out of tlie
house, and concealed h im self in the bushes near by.
"While lying here he could hear the Indians
yeUing and firing their guns in close proximity to
his place of concealment. After awhile he ven-
tured out. Being too much exhausted to carry
it, he threw away the gun, and that night ar-
rived at New Ubn, without again encountering
Indians."
We now return to Mrs. Han-ington, whom, the
reader will remember, we left badly wounded, con-
cealed near a slough. We regret our inability to
obtain a full narrative of her wanderings during
the eight succeeding days and nights she spent
alone upon the prairie, carrying her wounded
child. We can only state in general terms, that
after wandering for eight weary days and nights,
without food or shelter, unknowing whither, early
on the morning of Tuesday,' the 26th, before day-
light, she found herself at Crisp's fai-m, midway
between New Ulm and Mankato. As she ap-
proached the pickets she mistook them for In-
dians, and, when hailed -by them, was so fright-
ened as not to recognize the English language,
and intent only on saving her life, told them she
was a Sioux. Two guns were instantly leveled at
her, but, providentially, both missed fire, when an
exclamation from her led them to think she was
white, and a woman, and they went out to her.
She was taken into camp and all done for her by
Judge Flandrau and his men that could be done.
They took her to Mankato, and soon after she was
joined by her husband, who was below at the time
of the outbreak, and also found the child which
Mrs. Hill took with her to New Ulm.
Six miles from New Uhn there Uved, on the
Cottonwood, in the county of Brown, a German
family of the name of Heyers, consisting of the
father, mother and two sons, both young men.
A burial party that went out from New Ulm on
Friday, the 22d, found them all murdered, and
buried them near where they were kiUed.
The town of Milford, Brown county, adjoining
New Ulm on the west and contiguous to the res-
ervation, was a farming community, composed en-
tirely of Germans. A quiet, sober, industrious,
and enterprising class of emigrants had here
made their homes, and the prairie wilderness
around them began to "bud and blossom like the
rose." Industry and thrift had brought their sure
reward, and peace, contentment and happiness
filled the hearts of this simple-hearted people.
The noble and classic Rhine and the vine-clad hUls
of Fatherland were almost forgotten', or, if not
212
HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MAS8AGBB.
forgotten, were now remembered ■without regret,
in these fair prairie homes, beneath the glowing
and genial sky of Minnesota.
When the sun arose on the morning of the 18th
of August, 1862, it looked down upon this scene
in all its glowing beauty; but its deolinilig rays
fell upon a field of carnage and horror too fearful
to describe. The council at Eice Creek, on Sun-
day night, had decided upon the details of the
work of death, and the warriors of the lower
bands were early on the trail, thirsting for blood.
Early in the forenoon of Monday they appeared
in large numbers in this neighborhood, and the
work of slaughter began. The first house visited
was that of "Wilson Massipost, a prominent and
influential citizen, a widower. Mr. Massipost had
two daughters, intelligent and accomplished.
These the savages murdered most brutally. The
head of one of them was afterward found, severed
from the body, attached to a fish-hook, and hung
upon a nail. His son, a young man of twenty-
four years, was also killed. Mr. Massipost and a
son of eight years escaped to New Ulm. The
house of Anton Hanley was likewise visited. Mr.
Hanley was absent. The children, four in num-
ber, were beaten with tomahawks on the head and
person, inflicting fearful ■ wounds. Two of them
were kUled outright, and one, an infant, recovered;
the other, a young boy, was taken by the parents,
at night, to New TJlm, thence to St. Paul, where
he died of his wounds. After killing these child-
ren, they proceeded to the field near by, where
Mrs. Hanley, her father, Anton Mesmer, his wife,
son Joseph, and daughter, were at work harvesting
wheat. AU these they instantly shot, except Mrs.
Hanley, who escaped to the woods and secreted
herself till night, when, her husband coming home,
they took their two wounded children and
made their escape. At the house of Agrenatz
Hanley all the children were killed. The parents
escaped.
Bastian Mey, wife, and two children were mas-
sacred in their house, and three chUdren were ter-
ribly mutilated, who afterward recovered.
Adolph Shilling and his daughter were killed;
his son badly wounded, escaped with his mother.
Two families, those of a Mr. Zeller and a Mr. Zet-
tle, were completely annihilated; not a soul was
left to tell the tale of their sudden destruction.
Jacob Keck, Max Fink, and a Mr. Belzer were
also victims of savage barbarity at th's place. Af-
ter killing the inhabitants, they plundered and
sacked the houses, destroying all the property
they could not carry away, driving away all the
horses and cattle, and when night closed over the
dreadful scene, desolation and death reigned su-
preme.
There resided, on tbe Big Cottonwood, between
New Ulm and Lake Shetek, a German, named
Charles Zierke, familiarly known throughout all
that region as' "Dutch Charley." On the same
road resided an old gentleman, and his son and
daughter, named Brown. These adventurous pio-
neers lived many miles from any other human
habitation, and kept houses of entertainment on
that lonely road. This last-named house was
known as "Brown's place.'' It is not known to us
when the savages came to those isolated dwell-
ings. "We only know that the mutilated bodies of
all three of the Brown family were found, and
buried, some miles from their house. Zierke and
his family made their escape toward New "Dim,
and, when near the town, were pursued and over-
taken by the Indians on the prairie. By sharp
running, Zierke escaped to the town, but his wife
and children, together with his team, were taken
by them. Beturning afterward with a party of
men, the savages abandoned the captured t«am,
woman, and children, and they were recovered
and all taken into New "Ulm in safety.
The frontier of Nicollet county contiguous to
the reservation was not generally visited by the
savages until Tuesday, the 19th, and the succeed-
ing days of that week. The people had, generally
in the meantime, sought safety in flight, and were
principally in the town of St. Peter. A few, how-
ever, remained at their homes, in isolated locali-
ties, where the news of the awful scenes enacting
around them did not reach them; or, who having
removed their families to places of safety, returned
to look after their property. These generally fell
victims to the rifle and tomahawk of the savages.
The destruction of life in this county, was, how-
ever, trifling, compared with her sister counties of
Brown and Kenville; but the loss of property was
immense. The entire west half of the county was,
of necessity, abandoned and completely desolated.
The ripened grain crop was much of it uncut, and
wasted in the field, while horses and cattle and
sheep and hogs roamed unrestrained at will over
the unharvested fields. And, to render the ruin
complete the savage hordes swept over this por-
tion of the county, gathering up horses and cattle
shooting swine and sheep, and all other stock thtit
DEVAJSTATION IN NICOLLET COUNTY.
213
tliey could uot catch; fimshing the "work of ruin
by applying the torch to the stacks of hay and
grain, and in some instances to the dwellings of
the settlers.
William Mills kept a public house in the town
of West Newton, four miles from Fort Eidgely, on
the St. Peter road. Mr. Mills heard of the out-
break of the Sioux on Monday, and at once took
the necessary steps to secure the safety of his fam-
ily, by sending them across the prairie to a se-
cluded spot, at a slough some three miles from the
house. Leaving a span of horses and a wagon
with them, he instructed them, if it should seem
necessary to their safety, to drive as rapidly as
possible to Henderson. He then went to Fort
Ridgely to possess himself, if possible, of the exact
state of affairs. At night he visited his house, to
obtain some articles of clothing for his family, and
Barried them out to their place of concealment, and
went again to the fort, where he remained until
Tuesday morning, when he started out to his fam-
ily, thinking he would send them to Henderson,
and return and assist in the defense of that post.
Soon after leaving the fort he met Lieutenant T. J.
Sheehan and his company, on their way back to
that post. Sheehan roughly demanded of him
where he was going. He replied he was going to
send his family to a place of safety, and return.
The lieutenant, with an oath, wrested from him his
gun, the only weapon of defense he had, thus leav-
iag him defenseless. Left thus unarmed and
powerless, he took his family and hastened to Hen-
derson, arriving there that day in safety.
A few Indians were seen in the neighborhood of
West Newton on Monday afternoon on horseback,
but at a distance on the prairie. The most of the
inhabitants fled to the fort on that d&y : a few re -
maiaedat their homes and some fled to St. Peter
and Henderson. The town of Lafayette was, in
like manner, deserted on Monday and Monday
night, the inhabitants chiefly making for St. Peter.
Oourtland township, lying near New Ulm, caught
the contagion, and her people too fled — the women
and children going to St. Peter, while many of her
brave sons rushed to the defense of New Ulm, and
in that terrible siege bore a conspicuous and hon-
orable part.
As the cortege of panic stricken fugitives poured
along the various roads leading to the towns be-
low, OP Monday night and Tuesday, indescribable
terror seized the inhabitants; and the rapidly ac-
cumulating human tide, gathering force and num-
bers as it moved across the prairie, rolled an
overwhelming flood into the towns along the
river.
The entire county of Nicollet, outside of St.
Peter, was depopulated, and their crops and herds
left by the inhabitants to destruction.
On the arrival of a force of mounted men, under
Captains Anson Northrup, of Minneapolis, and E.
H. Chittenden, of the First Wisconsin Cavalry, at
Henderson, on the way to Fort Eidgely, they met
Charles Nelson, and, on consultation, decided to go
to St. Peter, where they were to report to Colonel
Sibley, by way of Norwegian Grove. Securing
the services of Nelson, John Fadden, and one or
two others, familiar to the country, they set out
for the Grove.
Captain Chittenden, in a letter to the "New
Haven Palladium," written soon after, says:
" The prairie was magnifioent, but quite desert-
ed. Sometimes a dog stared at us as we passed;
but even the brutes seemed conscious of a tenible
calamity. At 2 o'clock we reached the Grove,
which surrounded a lake. The farms were in a fine
state of cultivation; and, strange to say, although
the houses were in ruins, the grain stacks were un-
touched. Eeapers stood in the field as the men
had left them. Cows wandered over the prairies
in search of their masters. Nelson led the way to
the spot where he had been overtaken in attempt-
ing to escape with his wife and children. We
found his wagon; the ground was strewn with ar-
ticles of apparel, his wife's bonnet, boxes, yarn, in
fact everything they had hastily gathered up. But
the wife and boys were gone. Her he had seen
them murder, but the children had run into the
corn-field. He had also secreted a woman and
child under a hay -stack. We went and turned it
over; they were gone. I then so «rranged the
troops that, by marching abreast, we made a
thorough search of the corn-field. No clue to his
boys could be found. Passing the still burning
embers of his neighbor's dwellings, we came to
Nelson's own, the only one still standing. * * h<
The heart-broken man closed the gate, and turned
away without a tear; then simply asked Sergeant
Thompson when he thought it would be safe to
return. I must confess that, accustomed as I am
to scenes of horror, the tears would come."
The troops, taking Nelson with them, proceeded
to St. Peter, where he found the dead body of bis
wife, which had been carried there by some of Jiis
neighbors, and his children, alive. They had fled
214
HISTORY OF THE 8I0UX MASSACRE.
through the com, and escaped from their savage
pursuers.
Jacob Mauerle had taken his family down to
St. Peter, and returned on Friday to his house,
in West Newton. He Iiad tied some clothing
in a bundle, and started for the fort, when he
was shot and scali^ed, some eighty rods from the
house.
The two Applebaum's were evidently fleeing to
St. Peter, when overtaken by the Indians and
kiUed.
Pelix Smith had escaped to Fort Eidgely, and
on Wednesday forenoon went out to his house,
some three miles away. . The Indians attacked the
fort that afternoon, and he was killed in endeavor-
ing to get back into that post.
Small parties of Indians scoured the country be-
tween Fort Eidgely, St. Peter, and Henderson,
during the first week of the massacre, driving away
cattle and burning buildings, within twelve miles
of the first-named place. The Swan Lake House
was laid in ashes. A scouting party of six savages
was seen by General M. B. Stone, upon the bluff,
in sight of the town of St. Peter, on Friday, the
22d day of August, the very day they were making
their most furious and determined assault upon
' Fort Bidgely.
This scouting party had, doubtless, been de-
tached from the main force besieging that post,
and sent forward, under the delusion that the fort
must fall into their hands, to reconnoiter, and re-
port to Little Crow the condition of the place, and
the ability of the people to defend themselves.
But they failed to take Fort Eidgely, and, on the
22d, their scouts saw a large body of troops, under
Colonel Sibley, enter St. Peter.
CHAPTEE XXXVL
BIG STONE IjAKB WHITBS KIIiIiBD — LAKE SHBTBK —
NAMES or SBTTIjBBS MBS. AlOMINA HDBD ES-
CAPES WITH HER TWO OHILDKEN THE BATTLE OB
SPIEIT IjAKB WABBAEE IN JACKSON COUNTY
DAKOTA TEEBITOEY MUEDEES AT SIOUX EAIiLS
DBSTEUOTION OE PBOPBBTY KILLING OP AMOS
HUGQINS.
At Big Stone Lake, in what is now Big Stone
county, were four trading houses, Wm. H. Forbes,
Daily, Pratt & Co., and Nathan Myrick. The haU-
tues of these Indian trading houses, as usual, were
mostly haU-breeds, natives of the country. The
store of Daily, Pratt & Co. was in charge of Mr.
Eyder of St. Paul. On the 21st of August, four
of these men at work cutting hay, unsuspicious of
dangisr, were suddenly attacked and all murdered,
except Anton Manderfield; while one half-breed,
at the store, Baptiste Gubeau, was taken prisoner,
and was informed that he would be killed that
night. But Gubeau succeeded in escaping from
their grasp, and making his way to the lake. His
escape was a wonderful feat, bound as he was, as
to his hands, pursued by yelling demons determ-
ined on his death. But, ahead of aU his pursuers, he
reached the lake, and dashing into the reeds on the
margin, was hid from the sight of his disappointed
pursuers. Wading noiselessly into the water, u6tU
his head alone was above the water, he remained
perfectly still for' some time. The water soon
loosened the rawhide on his wrists, so that they
were easily removed. The Indians sought for him
in vain; and as the shades of night gathered aroxmd
him, he came out of his hiding place, crossed the
foot of the lake and struck out for the Upper
Mississippi. He finally reached St. Cloud. Here
he was mistaken for an Indian spy, and threatened
with death, but was finally saved by the interposi-
tion of a gentleman who knew him.
The other employes at the lake were all killed
except Manderfield, who secreted himself while his
comrades were being murdered. Manderfield, in
his escape, when near Lac qui Parle, was met by
Joseph Laframboise, who had gone thither to ob-
tain his sister Julia, then a captive there. Man-
derfield received from Laframboise proper direc-
tions, and finally reached Fort Eidgely in safety.
Lake Shbtbk. — This beautiful lake of quiet
water, some six nules long and two broad, is situ-
ated about seventy miles west of New tJlm, in the
county of Murray. Here a little community of
' some fifty persons were residing far out on our
frontier, the nearest settlement being the Big Cot-
tonwood. The families and persons located here
were: John Eastliok and wife, Charles Hatch,
Phineas B. Hurd and wife, John Wright, Wm. J,
Duly and wife, H. W. Smith, Aaron Myers, Mr.
Everett and wife, Thomas Ireland and wife, Koch
and wife; these with their several families, and six
single men, Wm. James, Edgar Bently, John
Voight, E. G. Cook, and John P. and Daniel
Burns, the latter residing alone on a claim at Wal-
nut Grove, some distance from the lake, consti-
tuted the entire population of Lake Shetek settle-
ment, in Murray county.
LAKE 8HETEE.
215
On the 20tii o£ August some twenty Sioux In-
dians rode up to the house of Mr. Hard. Mr.
Hurd himself had left home for the Missouri river
on the 2d day of June previous. Ten of these In-
dians entered the house, talked and smoked their
pipes while Mrs. Hurd was getting breakfast. Mr.
Voight, the work-hand, while waiting for break-
fast, took up the babe, as it awoke and cried, and
walked with it out in the yard in front of the door.
No sooner had he left the house than an Indian
took his gun and deliberately shot him dead near
the door. Mrs. Hurd was amazed at the infernal
deed, as these Indians had always been kindly
treated, and often fed at her table. She ran to
the fallen man to raise him up and look after the
safety of her child. To her utter horror, one of
the miscreants intercepted her, telling her to leave
at once and go to the settlements across the prairie.
She was refused the privilege of dressing her
naked children, and was compelled to turn awaj
from her ruined home, to commence her wandering
over an almost trackless waste, without food, and
almost without raiment, for either herself or little
ones.
These Indians proceeded from the house of Mr.
Hurd to that of Mr. Andi-ew Koch, whom they
shot, and plundered the house of its contents.
Mrs. Koch was compelled to get up the oxen and
hitch them to the wagon, and drive them, at the
direction of her captors, into the Indian country.
In this way she traveled ten days. She was the
captive of White Lodge, an old and ugly chief of
one of the upper bands. As the course was tow-
ards the Missouri river, Mrs. Koch refused to go
farther in that direction. The old chief threatened
to shoot her if she did not drive on. Making a
virtue of necessity she reluctantly obeyed. Soon
after she was required to carry the vagabond's
gun. Watching her opportunity she destroyed
the explosive quality. of the cap, and dampened
the powder in the tube, leaving the gun to appear-
ance all right. Soon afterward she again refused
to go any farther in that direction. Again the
old scoundrel threatened her with death. She in-
stantly bared her bosom and dared him to fire.
He aimed his gun at her breast and essayed to
fire, but the gun refused to take part in the work
of death. The superstitious savage, supposing
she bore a charmed life, lowered his gun, and
asked which way she wishsd to go. She pointed
toward the settlements. -In this direction the
teams were turned. They reached the neighbor-
hood of the Upper Agency in ten days after leav-
ing Lake Shetek, about the time of the arrival of
the troops under Colonel Sibley in the vicinity of
Wood Lake and Yellow Medicine. White Lodge
did not like the looks of things around Wood
Lake, and left, moving off in an opposite direction
for greater safety. Mrs. Koch was finally rescued
at Camp Kelease, after wading or swimming the
Minnesota river ten times in company with a
friendly squaw.
At Lake Shetek, the settlers were soon all gath-
ered at the house of John Wright, prepared for
defense. They were, however, induced by the ap-
parently friendly persuasion of the Indians to
abandon the house, and move towards the slough
for better safety. The Indians commenced firing
upon the retreating party. The whites returned
the fire as they ran. Mi-s. Easthck was wounded
in the heel, Mr. Duly's oldest son and daughter
were shot through the shoulder, and Mrs. Ireland's
youngest child was shot thi-ough the leg, while
running to the slough. Mr. Hatch, Mr. Everett,
Mr. Eastlick, Mrs. Easthok, Mrs. Everett, and sev-
eral children were shot. The Indians now told
the women t(j come out of the slough, and they
would not kill them or the children, if they would
come out. They went out to them with the children,
when they shot Mrs. Everett, Mrs. Smith, and Mrs.
Ireland dead, and killed some of the children.
Mrs. Eastlick was shot and left on the field, sup-
posed to be dead, but she finally escaped, and two
of her children, Merton and Johnny. Her inter-
esting narrative will be found in the large work,
from which this abridgment is made up. Mrs.
Julia A. Wright, and Mrs. Duly, and the two chil-
dren of Mrs. Wright, and two of the children of
Mrs. Duly were taken captive. Some of these
were taken by the followers of Little Crow to the
Missouri river, and were subsequently ransomed
at Fort Pierre, by Major Galpin. All the men ex-
cept Mr. Eastlick, being only wounded, escaped
to the settlements. The brothers Bums remained
on their claim, and were not molested. One
sneaking Indian coming near them paid the for-
feit with his life.
Spibit Lake. — On or about the 25th day of
August, 1862, the "Annuity Sioux Indians" made
their appearance at Spirit Lake, the scene of the
terrible Inkpaduta massacre of 1857. The inhab-
itants fled in dismay from their homes; and the
savages, after plundering the dwellings of the set-
216
HISTORY OF TEE SIOUX MASSACRE.
tiers, completed their fiendish work by setting fire
to the country.
Dakota Tbbbitoet. — Portions of Dakota Ter-
ritory were visited by the Sioux in 1862. At
Sioux Falls City the following murders were com-
mitted by the Sioux Indians on the 25th of Au-
gust: Mr. Joseph B. and Mr. M. Amidon, father
and son, were found dead in a corn-field, near
which they had been making hay. The son was
shot with both balls and arrows, the father with
balls only. Their bodies lay some ten rods apart.
On the morning of the 26th, about fifteen Indians,
supposed to be Sioux, attacked the camp of sol-
diers at that place. They - were followed, but
eluded the vigilant pursuit of our soldiers and es-
caped. The families, some ten in number, were
removed to Yankton, the capital, sixty-five miles
distant. This removal took place before the mur-
ders at Lake Shetek were known at Sioux Falls
City. The mail carrier who carried the news from
New Ulm had not yet arrived at Sioux Falls, on
his return trip. He had, on his outward trip,
found Mrs. Eastlick on the prairie, near Shetek,
and carried her to the house' of Mr. Brown, on the
Cottonwood. '
In one week after the murders at the Falls, one-
half of the inhabitants of the Missouri slope had
fled to Sioux City, Iowa, six miles below the mouth
of the Big Sioux.
The Mubdbb of Amos Htjggins. — Amos Hug-
gins (in the language of Eev. S. B. Eiggs, in his
late work, 1880, entitled "Mary and I,") "was the
eldest child of Alexander G. Huggins, who had
accompanied Dr. Williamson to the Sioux coun-
try in 1835. Amos was born in Ohio, and was at
this time (1862) over thirty years old. He was
married, and two children blessed their home,
which for some time before the outbreak had been
at Lac qui Parle, near where the town of that
name now stands. It was then an Indian village
■and planting place, the principal man being Wa-
kanmane — Spirit Walker, or Walking Spirit. If
the people of the village had been at home Mr.
Huggins and his family, which included Miss
Julia Laframboise, who was also a teacher in the
employ of the Government, would have been safe.
But in the absence of Spirit Walker's people three
Indian men came — two of them from the Lower
Sioux Agency — and killed Mr. Huggins, and took
from the house such things as they wanted." pp.
169-170.
This apology for the conduct of Christian In-
dians towards the missionaries and their assistants,
who had labored among them since 1835 up to
1862, a period of twenty-seven years, shows a
truly Christian spirit on the part of the Eev. S. K.
Eiggs; but it is scarcely satisfactory to the general
reader that the Christian Indians were entirely in-
nocent of all blame in the great massacre of 1862.
OHAPTEE XXXVIL
OCCUBBBNCES PEBVIOTJS TO THE ATTACK ON THE
TOWN OE NEW trijM THE ATTACK BY INDIANS
JUDGE FLANDBAU ABBIVBS WITH EEINFOECEMENTS
EVAOUATION 01" NEW ULM.
On the 18th of August, the day of the outbreak,
a volunteer recruiting party for the Union army
went out from New Ulm. Some eight miles west
of that place several dead bodies were found on
the road. The party turned back toward the town,
and, to the surprise of all, were fired upon by In-
dians in ambush, killing several of their party.
Another party leaving New Ulm for the Lower
Agency, when seven miles above the town some
fifty Indians near the road fired upon them, killing
three of these men. This party returned to town.
One of these parties had seen, near the Cotton-
wood, Indians kUl a man on a stack of grain, and
some others in the field. The people of the sur-
rounding country fled for their lives into the town,
leaving, some of them, portions of their families
killed at their homes or on the way to some place
of safety.
Daring the 18th and 19th of August the In-
dians overran the country, burning buildings and
driving off the stock from the farms.
The people had no arms fit for use, and were
perfectly panic-stricken and helpless. But the
news of the outbreak had reached St. Peter, and at
about one o'clock of August 19th, T. B. Thompson,
James Hughes, Charles Wetherell, Samuel Coffin,
Merrick Dickinson, H. Caywood, A. BI. Bean, James
Parker, Andrew Friend, Henry and Frederick Otto,
C. A. Stein, E. G. Covey, Frank Kennedy, Thomas
and Grifdn Williams, and the Hon. Henry A. Swift,
afterwards made Governor of Minnesota, by opera-
tion of the organic law, and William-G. Hayden,
organized themselves into a company, by the elec- -
tion of A. M. BeaU; Captain, and Samuel CoflSn,
Lieutenant, and took up position at New Ulm, in
the defense of that beleaguered place. They at once
advanced upon the Indians, who were posted behind
BATTLE OF NEW ULM.
Ill
the houses in the outer portions of the place. By
this opportune arrival the savage foe were, held in
check. These were soon Joined by another arrival
from St. Peter: L. M. Bordman, J. B. Trogdon, J.
K. Moore, Horace Austin (since Governor), P. M.
Bean, James Homer, Jacob and Philip Stetzer,
William Wilkinson, Lewis Patch, S. A. Buell, and
Henry Snyder, all mounted, as well as a few from
the surrounding country.
By the time these several parties had arrived,
the savages had retired, after burning five build-
ings on the outskirts of the town. In the first
battle several were killed, one Miss Paule of the
place, standing on the sidewalk opposite the Da-
kota House. The enemy's loss is not known.
On the same evening Hon. Charles E. Flandrau,
at the head of about one hundred and 'twenty-five
men, volunteers from St. Peter and vicinity, en-
tered the town; and reinforcements continued to
arrive from Mankato, Le Sueur, and other points,
until Thursday, the 21st, when about three hun-
dred and twenty-five armed men were in New Ulm,
under the command of Judge Flandrau. Cap-
tain Bierbauer, at the head of one hundred men,
from Mankato, arrived and participated in the de-
fense of the place.
Some rude barricades around a few of the
houses in the center of the village, fitted up by
means of wagons, boxes and waste lumber, par-
tially protected the volunteer soldiery operating
now under a chosen leader.
On Saturday, the 22d, the commandant sent
across the river seventy-five of his men to dislodge
some Indians intent on burning buildings and
grain and hay stacks. First Lieutenant William
Huey, of Traverse, des Sioux, commanded this
force. This officer, on reaching the opposite
shore, discovered a large body of Indians in ad-
vance of him; and in attempting to return was
completely intercepted by large bodies of Indians
on each side of the river. There was but one way
of escape, and that was to retreat to the company
of E. St. Julien Cox, known to be approaching
from the direction of St. Peter. This force, thus
cut off, returned with the command of Captain E.
St. Julien Cox; and with this increased force of
one hundred and seventy-five, Captain Cox soon
after entered the town to the relief of both citizens
and soldiers.
The Indians at the siege of New Ulm, at the
time of the principal attack before the arrival of
Captain Cox, were estimated at about five hundred.
coming from the direction of the Lower Agency-
The movement is thus described by Judge Elan-
drau:
"Their advance upon the sloping prairie in the
bright sunlight was a very fine spectacle, and to
such inexperienced soldiers as we all were, intense-
ly exciting: When within about one mile of us
the mass began to expand like a fan, and increas-
ing in the velocity of its approach, continued
'this movement uutU within about double rifle-shot,
when it covered our entire front. Then the sav-
ages uttered a terrific yell and came down upon
us like the wind. I had stationed myself at a
point in the rear where communication could be
had with me easily, and awaited the fii-st discharge
with great anxiety, as it seemed to me that to
yield was certain destruction, as the enemies would
rush into the town and drive all before them. The
yell unsettled the men a little, and just before the
rifles began to crack they fell back along the whole
line, and committed the error of passing the outer
houses without taking possession of them, a mis-
take which the Indians immediately took advan-
tage of by themselves occupying them in squads
of two, three and up to ten. They poured into
us a sharp and rapid fi;-e as we fell back, and
opened from the hoTises in e^ery direction. Sev-
eral of us rode up to the hill, endeavoring to rally
the men, and with good effect, as they gave three
cheers and sallied out of the various houses they
had retreated to, and checked the advance effect-
ually. The firing from both sides then became
general, sharp and rapid, and it got to be a regu-
lar Indian skirmish, in which every man did his
own work after his own fashion. The Indians had
now got into the rear of our men, and nearly on
all sides of them, and the fire of the enemy was
becoming very gaUing, as they had possession of
a large number of buildings."
Eight at the Wind-Mii,i. — Bev. B. G. Coflfin,
of Mankato, George B. Stewart, of Le Sueur, and
J. B. Trogdon, of Nicollet, and thirteen others,
fought their way to the wind-mill. This they
held during the battle, their unerring shots tell-
ing fearfully upon the savages, and finally forcing
them to retire. At night these brave men set fire
to the building, and then retreated within the bar-
ricades, in the vicinity of the Dakota House.
During the firing from this miU a most determined
and obstinate fight was kept up from the brick
post-office, where Governor Swift was stationed,
which told most fataUy upon the foe, and from
218
HISTORT OF TEE SIOUX MASSAOME.
this point many an Indian fell before the deadly
aim of the true men stationed there.
Captain William B. Dodd. — ^When the attack
was made upon the place the Indians had suc-
ceeded in reaching the Lower Town. The wind
was favoring them, as the smoke of burning build-
ings was carried into the main portion of the town,
behind which they were advancing. "Captain
William B. Dodd, of St. Peter, seeing the move-
ment from that quarter, supposed the expected re-
inforcements were in from that direction. He
made at once a superhuman effort, almost, to en-
courage the coming troops to force the Indian
line and gain admittance into the town. He had
gone about seventy-five yards outside the lines,
when the Indians from, buildings on either side of
the street poured a full volley into the horse and
rider. The Captain received three balls near his
heart, wheeled his horse, and riding within twenty-
five yards of our lines fell from his horse, and was
assisted to walk into a house, where in a few mo-
ments he died, 'the noblest Roman of them all.'
He dictated a short message to his wife, and re-
marked that he had discharged his duty and was
ready to die. No man fought more courageously,
or died more nobly. Let his virtues be forever re-
membered. He was a hero of the truest type!"
— St. Peter Statesman.
At the stage of the battle in which Captain
Dodd was killed, several others also were either
killed or wounded. Captain Saunders, a Baptist
minister of Le Sueur, was wounded, with many
others. Howell Houghton, an old settler, was
killed. The contest was continued until dark,
when the enemy began to carry off their dead and
wounded. In the morning of the next day (Sun-
day) a feeble firing was kept up for several hours
by the sullen and retiring foe. The battle of New
Ulm had been fought, and the whites were masters
of the field; but at what a fearful price! The
dead and dying and, wounded filled the buildings
left standing, and this beautiful and enterprising
German town, which on Monday morning con-
tained over two hundred buildings, had been laid
in ashes, only some twenty-five houses remaining
to mark the spot where New Ulm once stood.
On Sunday afternoon. Captain Cox's command,
one hundred and fifty volunteers from Nicollet,
Sibley and Le Sueur, armed with Austrian rifles,
shot-guns and hunting rifles arrived. The Indians
retreated, and returned no more to make battle
with the forces at New Ubn.
But strange battle field. The Indians deserted
it on Sunday, and on Monday the successful de-
fenders also retire from a place they dare not at-
tempt to hold! The town was evacuated. All
the women and children, and wounded men,
making one hundred and fifty-three wagon loads,
while a considerable number composed the com-
pany on foot. All these moved with the command
of Judge Flandrau towards Mankato.
The loss to our forces in this engagement was
ten killed, and about fifty wounded. The loss of the
enemy is unknown, but must have been heavy, as
ten of their dead were found on the field of battle,
which they had been unable to remove.
We might fill volumes with incidents, and mi-
raculous escapes from death, but our limits abso-
lutely forbid their introduction in this abridge-
ment. The reader must consult the larger work
for these details. The escape of Governor Swift,
Flandrau and Bird, and J. B. Trogdon and D. G.
Shellack and others from perilous positions, are
among the many exciting incidents of the siege of
New Ulm.
Omitting the story of Jolin W. Young, of won-
derful interest, we refer briefly to the weightier
matters of this sad chapter, and conclude the same
by the relation of one short chapter.
THE EXPBmTION TO LEAVENWORTH.
During the siege of New Ulm, two expeditions
were sent out from that place toward the settle-
ments on the Big Cottonwood, and although not
really forming a part of the operations of a de-
fensive character at that place, are yet so connect-
ed with them that we give them here.
On Thursday morning, the 21st of August, a
party went out on the road to Leavenworth for the
purpose of burying the dead, aiding the wounded
and bringing them in, should they find any, and
to act as a scouting party. They went out some
eight miles, found and buried several bofiies, and
returned to New Ulm, at night, without seeing
any Indians.
On Friday, the 22d, another party of one hun-
dred and forty men, under command of Captain
George M. Tousley, started for the purpose of res-
cuing a party of eleven persons, women and child-
ren, who, a refugee informed the commandant,
were hiding in a ravine out toward Leavenworth.
Accompanying this party were Drs. A. W. Daniels,
of St. Peter, and Ayer, of Le Sueur.
On the way out, the cannonading at Fort
Eidgely was distinctly heard by them, and then
STATEMENT OP RAXPH THOMAS.
219
Dr. Daniels, who had resided among the Sioux
several years as a physician to the lower bands,
had, for the first time, some conception of the ex-
tent and magnitude of the outbreak.
As the main object of the expedition had alrea-
dy been accomplished — i. e., the rescue of the wo-
men and children — Dr. Daniels urged a return to
New Ulm. The question was submitted to the
company, and they decided to go on, and proceed-
ed to within four miles of Leavenworth, the de-
sign being to go to that place, remain there all
night, bury the dead next day, and return.
It was now nearly night; the cannonading at
the fort could still be heard; Indian spies were,
undoubtedly, watching them; only about one
hundred armed men were left in the town, and
from his intimate knowledge of the Indian char-
acter. Dr. Daniels was convinced that the safety of
their force, as well as New Ulm itself, required
their immediate return.
A halt was called, and this view of the case was
presented to the men by Drs. Daniels, Ayer, and
Mayo. A vote was again taken, and it was deci-
ded to return. The return march commenced at
about sundown, and at one o'clock a. m.. they re-
entered the village.
Ealph Thomas, who resided on the Big Cotton-
wood, in the county of Brown, had gone with
many of his neighbors, on Monday, the 18th of
August, into New Ulm for safety, while William
Carroll and some others residing further up the
river, in Leavenworth, had gone to the same place
to ascertain, whether the rumors they had heard
of an uprising among the Sioux were true. Mr.
Thomas makes the following statement of the do-
ings of this little party, and its subsequent fate:
" There were eight of us on horseback, and the
balance of the party were in three wagons. We
had gone about a mile when we met a German
going into New Ulm, who said he saw Indians at
my place skinning a heifer, and that they drove
him off, chasing him with spears. He had come
from near Leavenworth. We kept on to my place,
near which we met John Thomas and Almon Par-
ker, who had remained the night before in a grove
of timber, one and a half miles from my place.
About eight o'clock the evening before, they had
seen a party of ten or twelve Indians, mounted on
ponies, coming toward them, who chased them into
the grove, the savages passing on to the right,
leaving them alone. They stated to us that they
had seen Indians that morning traveling over the
prairie southward. We stopped at my place and
fed our horses. While the horses were eating, I
called for three or four men to go with me to the
nearest houses, to see what had become of the peo-
ple. We went first to the house of Mr. Mey, where
we found him and his family lying around the
house, to aU appearance dead. We also found
here Joseph Emery and a Mr. Heuyer, also appa-
rently dead. We had been here some five minutes
viewing the scene, when one of the children, a girl
of seven years, rose up from the ground and com-
menced crying piteously. I took her in my arms,
and told the other men to examine the other bodies
and see if there were not more of them alive.
They found two others, a twin boy and girl about
two years old; all the rest were dead.
" We next proceeded to the house of Mr. Greorge
Kaeser, and found the bodies of himself and wife
lying near the house by a stack of grain. We
went into the house and found their child, eighteen
months old, alive, trying to get water out of the
paU. We then went back to my place, and sent
John Thomas and Mr. Parker with an ox-team to
New Ulm with these children. Mr. Mey's three
children were wounded with blows of a tomahawk
on the head; the other child was uninjured. We
then went on toward Leavenworth, seeing neither
Indians nor whites, untU we arrived at the house
of Mr. Seaman, near which we found an old gen-
tleman named Eiant concealed in a slough among
the tall grass. He stated to us that a party of
whites with him had been chased and fired upon
by a party of Indians. It consisted of himself,
Luther Whiton, George W. Covill and wife, Mrs.
Covin's son, Mrs. Hough and child, Mr. Van Guil-
der and wife and two children, and ' Mr. Van Guil-
der's mother. AU these Mr. Riant said had scat-
tered over the prairie. We remained about two
hours, hunting for the party, and not finding
them, turned back toward New Ulm, taking Mr.
Riant with us. We proceeded down opposite my
place, where we separated, eleven going down on
one side of the Big Cottonwood,, to Mr. Tuttle'a
place, and seven of us proceeded down on the
other, or north side of the stream. The design
was to meet again at Mr. Tattle's house, and all
go back to New Ulm together; but when we ar-
rived at Tuttle's, they had gone on to town with-
out waiting for us, and we followed. When near
Mr. flibbard's place we met Mr. Jakes going west.
He said that he had been within a mile of New
Ulm, and saw the other men of our party. He
220
HISTOar OF TEE SIOUX MASS ACME.
further informed us that he saw grain-stacks and
sh^ds on fire at that distance from tlie place.
" When we came to the burning stacks we halted
to look for Indians. Our comrades were half an
hour ahead of us. When they got in sight of the
town, one of them, Mr. Hinton, rode up on an ele-
vation, where he could overlook the place, and saw
Indians, and the town on fire in several places. He
went back and told them that the Indians had at-
tacked the town, and that he did not consider it
safe for them to try to get in, and proposed cross-
ing the Cottonwood, and going toward the Man-
kato road, and entering town on that side. His
proposition was opposed by several of the party,
who thought him frightened at the sight of half a
dozen Indians. They asked him how many he had
seen. He said some forty. They came up and
looked, but could see but three or four Indians.
Mr. Carroll told them they had better go on, and,
if opposed, out their way through. He told Hin-
ton to lead, and they would follow. They passed
down the hill, and met with no opposition until
they came to a slough, half a mile from the town.
Here two Indians, standing on a large stone by the
side of the road, leveled their double-barreled
guns at Mr. Hinton. He drew his revolver, placed
it between his horse's ears, and made for them.
The balance of the company followed. The Indi-
ans retired to cover without firing a shot, and the
company kept on until they had crossed the slough,
when the savages, who were lying in ambush,
arose from the grass, and firing upon them, killed
five of their nitmber, viz. : William Carroll, Alrtiond
Loomis, Mr. Lamb, Mr. Riant, and a Norwegian,
and chased the balance into the town.
"We came on about half an hour afterward, and
passing down the hill, crossed the same slough,
and unconscious of danger, approached the fatal
spot, when about one hundred and fifty savages
sprang up out of the grass and fired upon us,
killing five horses and six men. My own horse
was shot th]-ough the body, close to my leg, killing
him instantly. My feet were out of the stirrups in
a moment, and I sprang to the ground, striking
on my hands and feet. I dropped my gun, jump-
ed up, and ran. An Indian, close behind, dis-
charged the contents of both barrels of a shot-gun
at me. The charge tore up the ground at my feet,
throwing dirt all around me ES I ran. I made my
way into town on foot as fast as I could go. No
other of our party escaped; all the rest were
killed. Reinforcements from St. Peter came to
the relief of the place in about half an hour after
I got in, and the Indians soon after retired."
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
BATTIiB AT liOWEE AGENCY FEREY SIEGE OP FOET
EipGBIiY BATTLE OF WEDNESDAY JACK FEAZBE
BATTLE OF FKIDAY EEINFOKCBMENTS ABEIVE.
On Monday morning, the 18th of August, 1862,
at about 9 o'clock, a messenger arrived at Fort
Eidgely, from the Lower Sioux Agency, bringing
the startling news that the Indians were massacre-
ing the whites at that place. Captain John S.
Marsh, of Company B, Fifth Regiment Minnesota
Volunteer Infantry, then in command, immediately
dispatched messengers after Lieutenant Sheehan,
of Company C, of the same regiment, who had left
that post on the morning before, with a detach-
ment of his company, for Fort Ripley, on the
Upper Miesissipi, and Major T. J. Galbraith, Sioux
Agent, who had also left the fort at the same time
with fifty men, afterwards known as the Ren-
ville Rangers, for Fort Snelling, urging them to
return to Fort Eidgely with aU possible dispatch,
as there were then in the fort only Company B,
numbering about seventy-five or eighty men. The
gallant captain then took a detachment of forty-
six men, and accompanied by Interpreter Quinn,
immediately started for the scene of blood, distant
twelve miles. They made a very rapid march.
When within about four miles of the ferry, op-
posite the Agency, they met the ferryman, Mr.
Martelle, who informed Captain Marsh that the In-
dians were in considerable force, and were mur-
dering aU the people, and advised him to return.
He replied that he was there to protect and defend
the frontier, and he should do so if it was in his
power, and gave the order "Forward!" Between
this point and the river they passed nine dead
bodies on or near the road. Arriving near the
ferry the company was halted, and Corporal
Ezekiel Rose was sent forward to examine the ferry,
and see if all was right. The captain and inter-
preter were mounted on mules, the men were on
foot, and formed in two ranks in the road, near
the ferry-house, a few rods from the banks of the
river. The corporal had taken a pail with him to
the river, iind returned, reporting the ferry all
right, bringing with him water for the exhausted
and thirsty men.
CAPTAIN MARSH KILLED.
221
In the meantime an Indian had made his ap-
pearance on the opposite bank, and calling to
Quinn, urged them to come across, telling him all
was right on that side. The suspicions of the cap-
tain were at once aroused, and he ordered the men
to remain in their places, and not to move on to
the boat until he could ascertain whether the In-
dians were in ambush in the ravines on the oppo-
site shore. The men were in the act of drinking,
when the savage on the opposite side, seeing thev
were not going to cross at once, fired his gun, as a
signal, when instantly there arose out of the grass
and brush, all around them, some four or five hun-
dred warriors, who poured a terrific volley upon
the devoted band. The aged interpreter fell from
his mule, pierced by over twenty balls. The cap-
tain's mule fell dead, but he himself sprang to the
ground unharmed. Several of the men fell at this
first fire. The testimony of the survivors of this
sanguinary engagement is, that their brave com-
mander was as cool and collected as if on dress pa-
rade. They retreated down the stream about a
mile and a hall, fighting their way inch by inch,
when it was discovered that a body of Indians,
taking advantage of the fact that there was a bend
in the river, had gone across and gained the bank
below them.
The heroic little band was already rediiced to
about one-half its original number. To cut their
way through this large number of Indians was
impossible. Their only hope now was to cross the
river to the reservation, as there appeared to be no
Indians on that shore, retreat down that side and
reoross at the fort. The river was supposed to be
fordable where they were, and, accordingly, Capt.
Marsh gave the order to cross. Taking his sword
in one hand and his revolver in the other, accom-
panied by his men, he waded out into the stream.
It was very soon ascertained that they must swim,
when these who could not do so returned to the
shore and hid in the grass as best they could,
while those who could, dropped their arms and
struck out for the opposite side. Among these
latter was Oapt. Marsh. When near the opposite
shore he was struck by a ball, and immediately
sank, but arose again to the surface, and grasped
the shoulder of a man at his side, but the garment
gave way in his grasp, and he again sank, this
time to Zlse no more.
Thirteen of the men reached the bank in safety,
aid returned to the fort that night. Those of
them who were unable to cross remained in the
grass and bushes until night, when they made
their way, also, to the fcrt or settlements. Some
of them were badly wounded, and were out two or
three days before they got in. Two weeks after-
ward, Josiah F. Marsh, brother of the cap-
tain, with a mounted escort of thirty men — his
old neighbors from Fillmore county — made search
for his body, but without success. On the day
before and the day after this search, as was sub-
sequently ascertained, two hundred Indians were
scouting along the river, upon the the very ground
over which these thirty men passed, in their fruit-
less search for the remains of their dead brother
and friend. Two weeks later another search was
made with boats along the river, and this time the
search was successful. His body was discovered
a mile and a half beloiv where he was killed, under
the roots of a tree ttauding at the water's edge.
His remains were borne by his sorrowing com-
panions to Fort Eidgely, and deposited in the
military burial-ground at that place.
This gallant officer demands more than a pass-
ing notice. When the Southern rebelhon broke
out, in 1861, John S. Marsh was residing in Fill-
more county, Minnesota. A company was re-
cruited in his neighborhood, designed for the gal-
lant 1st Minnesota, of which he was made first
lieutenant. Before, however, this company reach-
ed Fort Snelling, the place of rendezvous, the reg-
iment was lull, and it was disbanded. The patri-
otic fire still burned in the soul of young Marsh.
Going to La Orosse, he volunteered as a %irimle in
the 2d Wisconsin regiment, and served some ten
months in the ranks. In the following winter his
brother, J. F. Marsh, assisted in raising a com-
pany in Fillmore county, of which John S. was
elected first lieutenant, and he was therefore trans-
ferred, by order of the Secretary of War, to his
company, and arrived at St. Paul about the 12th
of March, 1862. In the meantime, Captain Gere
was promoted to major, and on the 2'lth Lieuten-
ant Blarsh was promoted to the captaincy of his
company, and ordered to report at Fort Eidgely
and take command of that important ti'ontier post.
Captain Marsh at once repaired to his post of
duty, where he remained in command imtil the
fatal encounter of the 18th terminated both his
usefulness and life. He was a brave and accom-
plished soldier, and a noble man,
''None knew him but to love him,
None named him but to praise."
222
EISTOBT OF THE SIOUX MASSAOMB.
SIEGE OF FOET EIDGEIiY.
Foiled in their attack on New Ulm by the
timely arrival of reiaforcemeifts under Flandrau,
the Indiana turned their attention toward Fort
Eidgely, eighteen miles north-west. On Wednes-
day, at three o'clock P. M., the 20th of August,
they suddenly appeared in great force at that
post, and at once commenced a furious assault
upon it. The fort is situated on the edge of the
prairie, about half a mile from the Minnesota river,
a timbered bottom intervening, and a wooded ra-
vine running up out of the bottom around two
sides of the fort, and within about twenty rods of
the buildings, affording shelter for an enemy on
three sides, within easy rifle or musket range.
The first knowledge the garrison had of the
presence of the foe was given by a volley from the
ravine, which drove in the pickets. The men were
instantly formed, by order of Lieutenant Sheehan,
in line of battle, on the parade-ground inside the
works. Two men, Mark M. Grear, of Company
0, and William Goode, of Company B, felj at the
first fire of the concealed foe, after the line was
formed; the former was instantly killed, the latter
badly wounded, both being shot in the head.
Bobert Baker, a citizen, who had escaped from the
massacre at the Lower Agency, was shot through
the head and instantly killed, while standing at a
window in the barracks, at about the same time.
The men soon broke for shelter, and from behind
boxes, from windows, from the shelter of the
buildings, and from every spot where concealment
was possible, watched their opportunities, wasted
no ammunition, but poured their shots with deadly
effect upon the wily and savage foe whenever he
suffered himself to be seen.
The forces in the fort at this time were the rem-
nant of Company B, 5th Eegiment M. V., Lieu-
tenant Culver, thirty men; about fifty men of
Company C, same regiment, Lieutenant T. J.
Sheehan; the Eenville Eangers, Lieutenant James
Gorman, numbering fifty men, all under command
of Lieutenant T. J. Sheehan.
Sergeant John Jones, of the regular army, a
brave and skillful man, was stationed at this fort
as post-sergeant, in charge of the ordnance, and
took immediate command of the artillery, of which
there were in the fort six pieces. Three only, how-
ever, were used — two six-pounder howitzers and
one twenty-four-pounder field-piece. A sufficient
number of men had been detailed to work these
guns, and at the instant of the first alarm were
promptly at their posts. One of the guns was
placed in charge of a citizen named J. C. Whipple,
an old artillerist, who had seen service in the Mex-
ican war, and in the United States navy, and had
made his escape from the massacre at the Lower
Agency, and one in charge of Sergeant MoGrew,
of Company C; the other in charge of Sergeant
Jones in person. In this assault there were, prob-
ably, not less than five hundred warriors, led by
their renowned chief, Little Crow.
So sudden had been the outbreak, and so weak
was the garrison that there had been no time to
construct any defensive works whatever, or to re-
move or destroy the wooden structures and hay-
stacks, behind which the enemy could take position
and shelter. The magazine was situated some
twenty rods outside the main works on the open
prairie. Men were at once detailed to take the
ammunition into the fort. Theirs was the post of
danger; but they passed through the leaden storm
unscathed.
In the rear of the barracks was a ravine up which
the St. Peter road passed. The enemy had poses-
sion of this ravine and road, while others were
posted in the buildings, at the windows, and in
sheltered portions in the sheds in the rear of the
officer's quarters. Here they fought from 3 o'clock
until dark, the artillery all the while shelling the
ravine at short range, and the rifles and muskets
of the men dropping the yelling demons Kke au-
tumn leaves. In the meantime the Indians had
got into some of the old. out-buildings, and had
crawled up behind the hay-stacks, from which they
poured heavy volleys into the fort. A few well-di-
rected shells from the howitzers set them on fire,
and when night closed over the scene the lurid
light of the burning buildings shot up with a fit-
ful glare, and served the purpose of revealing to
the wary sentinel the lurking foe should he again
appear.
The Indians retired with the closing day, and
were seen in large numbers on their ponies, mak-
ing their way rapidly toward the Agency. The
great danger feared by all was, that, under cover
of the darkness, the savages might creep up to the
buildings and with fire-arrows ignite the dry roots
of the wooden structures. But about midnight
the heavens opened and the earth was deluged
with rain, effectually preventing tho consumma-
tion of such a design, if it was intended. As the
first great drops teU on the faces upturned to the
FORT BIDOELT ATTACKED.
223
gathering heavens the glad shout of "Eain! rain!
thank God! thank God!" went round the beleag-
uered garrison. Stout-hearted, strong-armed men
breathed free again; and weary, frightened women
and children slept onoe more in comparative safety.
In this engagement there were two men killed,
and nine wounded, and all the government mules
were stampeded by the Indians. Jack Frazer, an
old resident in the Indian country, volunteered as
a bearer of dispatches to Governor Kamsey, and
availing himself of the darkness and the furious
storm, made his way safely out of the fort, and
reached St. Peter, where he met Colonel Sibley and
his command on their way to the relief of the fort.
Bain continued to fall until nearly night of
Thursday, when it ceased, and that night the stars
looked down upon the weary, but still wakeful and
vigilant watchers in Fort Bidgely. On that night
ft large quantity of oats, in sacks, stored in the
granary near the stable, and a quantity of cord-
wood piled near the fort, were disposed about the
works in such a manner as to afford protection to
the men, in case of another attack. The roof of
the commissary building was covered with earth, as
a protection against flre-arrows. The water in the
fort had given out, and as there was neither well
nor cistern in the works, the garrison were depend-
ent upon a spring some sixty rods distant in the
ravine, for a supply of that indispensable element.
Their only resource now was to dig for water,
which they did at another and less exposed point,
and by noon had a supply suiEcient for two or
three days secured iaside the fort.
In the meantime the small arm's ammunition
hairing become nearly exhausted in the battle of
Wednesday, the balls were removed from some of
the- spherical case-shot, and a party of men and
ivomen made them up into cartridges, which were
jr^atly needed. Small parties of Indians had
twen seen about the fort, out of range, during
Thursday and Friday forenoon, watching the fort,
to report if reinforcements had reached it. At
about 1 o'clock in the afternoon of Friday, the 22d,
they appeared again in force, their numbers greatly
augmented, and commenced a furious and most de-
termined assault. They came apparently from the
Lower Agency, passing down the Minnesota bot-
tom, and round into the ravine surrounding the
fort. As they passed near the beautiful residence
of E. H. Eandall, post sutler, they applied the
torch and it was soon wrapped in flames. On came
the painted savages yelling hke so many demons
let loose from the bottomless pit; but the brave
men in that sore pressed garrison, knowing full
well that to be taken alive was certain death to
themselves and all within the doomed fort, each
man was promptly at his post.
The main attack was directed against that side
of the works next to the river, the buildings here
being frame structures, and the most vulnerable
part of the fort. This side was covered by the
stable, granary, and one or two old buildings,
besides the sutler's store on the west side, yet
standing, as well as the buildings named above.
Made bold by their augmented numbers, and the
non-arrival of reinforcements to the garrison, the
Indians pressed on, seemingly determined to rush
at once into the works, but were met as they
reached the end of the timber, and swept round
up the ravine with such a deadly fire of musketry
poured upon them from behind the barracks and
the windows of the quarters, and of grape, canister
and shell from the guns of the brave and heroic
Jones, Whipple, and MoGrew, that they beat a
hasty retreat to the friendly shelter of the bottom,
out of musket range. But the shells continued to
scream wildly through the air, and burst around
and among them. They soon rallied and took
possession of the stable and other out-buildings
on the south side of the fort, from which they
poured terrific volleys upon the frail wooden
buildings on that aide, the bullets actually passing
through their sides, and through the partitions
inside of them. Here Joseph Vanosse, a citizen,
was shot through the body by a ball which came
through the side of the building. They were
soon driven from these buildings by the artillery,
which shelled them out, setting the buildings on
fire. The sutler's store was in like manner
shelled and set on fire. The scene now became
grand and terrific. The flames and smoke of the
burning buildings, the wild and demoniac yells of
the savage besiegers, the roaring of cannon, the
screaming of shells as they hurtled through the
air, the sharp crack of the rifle, and the unceasing
rattle of musketry presented an exhibition never
to be forgotten by those who witnessed it.
The Indians retired hastily from the burning
buildings, the men in the fort sending a shower of
bullets among them as they disappeared over the
bluflfs toward the bottom. "With wild yeUs they
now circled round into the ravine, and from the
tall grass, lying on their faces, and from tho
shelter of the timber, continued the battle till
'2,24:
HISTORY OF THE SIOUX MASSAORE.
night, their leader, Little Crow, vainly ordering
them to charge on the guns. They formed once
for that purpose, about sundown, but a shell and
round of canister sent into their midst closed the
contest, -whenj-with an unearthly yell of rage and dis-
appointment, they left. These shots, as was after-
wards ascertained, killed and wounded seventeen
of their number. Jones continued to shell the
ravine and timber around the fort until after dark,
when the firing ceased, and then, as had been
done on each night before, since the investment of
the fort, the men all went to their several posts to
wait and watch for the coming of the wily foe.
The night waned slowly ; but they must not sleep;
their foe is sleepless, and that wide area of dry
shingled roof must be closely scanned, and the
approaches be vigilantly guarded, by which he
may, under cover of the darkness, creep upon
them unawares.
Morning broke at last, the sun rode up a clear
and cloudless sky, but the foe came not. The day
passed away, and no attack; the night again, and
then another day; and yet other days and nights
of weary, sleepless watching, but neither friend nor
foe approached the fort, until about daylight on
Wednesday morning, the 27th, when the cry was
heard from the look-out on the roof, "There are
horsemen coming on the St. Peter road, across the
ravine!" Are they friends or foes? was the ques-
tion on the tongues of all. By their cautious
movements they were evidently reoonnoitering,
and it was yet too dark for those in the fort to be
able to tell, at that distance, friends from foes.
But as daylight advanced, one hundred and fifty
mounted men were seen dashing through the ra-
vine; and amidst the wild hurras of the assembled
garrison, Colonel Samuel McPhail, at the head of
two companies of citizen-cavalry, rode into the
fort. In command of a company of these men
were Anson Northrup, from Minneapolis, a a old
frontiers-man, and R. H. Chittenden, of the First
Wisconsin Cavalry. This for::e had ridden all
night, having left St. Peter, forty-five miles dis-
tant, at 6 o'clock the night before. From them
the garrison learned that heavy reinforcements
were on their way to their relief, under Colonel
(now Brigadier-General) H. H. Sibley. The worn-
out and exhausted garrison could now sleep with
a feeUng of comparative security. The number
of killed and wounded of the enemy is not known,
but must have been considerable, as, at the close
(.: each battle, they were seen carrying away their
dead and .wounded. Our own fallen heroes were
buried on the edge of the prairie near the fort;
and the injuries of the wounded men were care-
fully attended to by the skillful and excellent post'
surgeon, Dr. Alfred MuUer.
We close our account of this protracted siege
by a slight tribute o:~ behalf of the sick and
wounded in that garrisui», to One whose name will
ever be mentioned by them with love and respect.
The hospitals of Sebastopol had their Florence
Nightingale, and over every blood-stained field of
the South, in our own struggle for national life,
hovered angels of mercy, cheering and soothuig
the sick and wounded, smoothing the pillows
and closing the eyes of our fallen braves.
And when, in after years, the brave men who fell,
sorely wounded, in the battles of Fort Eidgely,
Birch Coolie, and Wood Lake, fighting against
the savage hordes, who overran the borders of our
beautiful State, in August and September', 1862,
carrying the flaming torch, the gleaming toma-
hawk, and bloody scalping-knife to hundreds of
peaceful homes, shall tell to their children and
children's children the story of the "dark and
bloody ground" of Minnesota, and shall exhibit to
them the scars those wounds have left; they will
tell, with moistened cheek and swelling hearts of
the noble, womanly deeds of Mrs. Eliza MuUer,
the "Florence Nightingale" of Fort Eidgely.
[Mrs. MuUer several years since died at the asylum
at St. Peter.]
SBKGBANT JOHN JONES.
We feel that the truth of history will not be fully
vindicated should we fail to bestow upon a brave
and gallant officer that meed of praise so justly
due. The only officer of experience left in the fort
by the death of its brave commandant was Ser-
geant John Jones, of the regular artillery ; and it
is but just to that gallant ofiicer that we should
say that but for the cool courage and discretion of
Sergeant Jones, Fort Eidgely would, in the first
day's battle have become a funeral pyre for all
within its doomed walls. And it gives us more
than ordinary pleasure to reooi-d the fact, that the
services he then rendered the Government, in the
defense of the frontier were fully recognized and
rewarded with the commission of Captain of the
Second MinneGota Battery.
CAPTAIN wnrrcojiB at forest gitt.
225
CHAPTEB XXXIX.
CAPTAIN WHITOOMB'S AEEIVAIj AT ST. PATH; PASSES
THBOnGH MEEKER COTJNTT— A EOBT CONSTETJOTED
—ENGAGEMENT WITH INDIANS ATTACK ON FOEEST
CITY CONDITION OF THE OOTJNTEX CAPTAIN
STBOUT AT GLENCOB — ATTACKED NEAB ACTON BY
ONE HUNDBED AND EIFTY INDIANS — ATTACK ON
HTJTOHINSON.
This chapter will be devoted to the upper por-
tion of the state, and the movements of troops for
the relief of the frontier, not immediately con-
nected with the main expedition under Colonel
Sibley; and to avoid repetition, the prominent in-
cidents of the massacre ia this portion of the state
wUl be given in connection with the movements of
the troops. We quote from the Adjutant-Gen-
eral's Eeport:
The 19th day of August the first news of the
outbreak at Eedwood was received at St. Paul.
On the same day a messenger arrived from Meeker
county, with news of murders committed in that
coimty by the Indians, and an earnest demand for
assistance. The murders were committed at Ac-
ton, about twelve miles from Forest City, on Sun-
day, the 17th day of the month. The circum-
stances under which these murders were committed
are fully detailed in a previous chapter.
George 0. Whitcomb, cormnander of the state
forces raised in the county of Meeker, was sta-
tioned at Forest City. On the 19th of August,
Mr. Whitcomb arrived at St. Paul, and received
from the state seventy-five stand of arms and a
small quantity of ammunition, for the purpose of
enabling the settlers of Meeker county to stand on
the defensive, until other assistance could be sent
to their aid. With these in his possession, he
started on his return, and, on the following day he
met Ool. Sibley at Shakopee, by whom he was or-
dered to raise a company of troops and report with
command to the Colonel, at Fort Eidgely. On ar-
riving at Hutchinson, in MoLeod county, he found
the whole country on a general stampede, and
smaU bands of Indians lurking ia the border of
Meeker county.
Captain Bichard Strout was ordered, under date
of August 24, to proceed with a company of men
to Forest City, in the county of Meeker, for the
protection of that locaHty.
In the meantime Captain Whitcomb arrived at
Forest City with the arms furnished hiTn by the
16
state, with the exception of those left by him at
Hutchinson. Upon ids arrival he speedily en-
listed, for temporary service, a company of fifty-
three men, twenty-five of whom were mounted,
and the remainder were to act as infantry.
Captain Whitcomb, with the mounted portion of
his company, made a rapid march into the county
of Monongalia, to a point about thirty miles from
Forest City, where he found the bodies of two men
who had been shot by the Indians, who had muti
lated the corpses by cutting their throats and
scalping them. In the same vioiriity he found the
ruins of three houses that had been burned, and
the carcasses of a large number of cattle that had
been wantonly killed and devoted to destruction.
Owing to rumors received at this point, he pro-
ceeded in a north-westerly direction, to the distance
of ten miles further, and found on the route the
remains of five more of the settlers, all of whom
had been shot and scalped, and some of them were
otherwise mutilated by having their hands cut off
and gashes cut in their faces, done apparently with
hatchets.
On the return to camp at Forest City, when
within about four miles of Acton, he came to a
point on the road where a train of wagons had been
attacked on the 23d. He here found two more
dead bodies of white men, mutilated in a shocking
manner by having their hands cut off, being dis-
emboweled and otherwise disfigured, having knives
still remaining in their abdomens, where they had
been left by the savages. The road at this place
was, for three miles, lined with the carcasses of
dead cattle, a great portion of which belonged to
the train upon which the attack had been made.
On this excursion the company were abont foui'
days, during which time they traveled over one
hundred miles, and buried the bodies of nine per-
sons who had been murdered.
On the next day after having returned to the
camp, being the 28th of the month, the same
party made a circuit through the western portion
of Meeker county, and buried the bodies of three
more men that were found mutilated and disfigured
in a similar manner to those previously mentioned.
In addition to the other services rendered by the
company thus far, they had discovered and re-
moved to the camp several persons found wounded
and disabled in the vicinity, and two, who had
been very severely wounded, had been sent by
them to St. Cloud for the purpose of receiving
surgical attention.
226
BISTORT OF TUB SIOUX MASS AG ME.
The company, in addition to their other labors,
were employed in the construction of a stockade
fort, to be used if necessary for defensive purposes,
and for the protection of those who were not capa-
ble of bearing arms. It was formed by inserting
the ends of pieces of rough timber into the earth
to the depth of three feet, and leaving them from
ten to twelve feet above the surface of the ground.
In this way an area was inclosed of one hundred
and forty feet in length and one hundred and
thirty in width. Within the fortification was in-
cluded one frame dwelling-house and a well of
water. At diagonal comers of the inclosure were
erected two wings or bastions provided with port-
holes, from each of which two sides of the main
work could be guarded and raked by the lilies of
the company.
Information was received by Captain Whitoomb
that a family at Green Lake, in Monongalia county,
near the scenes visited by him in his expedition to
t)i, t county, had made their escape from the In-
dians, and taken refuge upon an island in the lake.
In attempting to rescue this family Captain Whit-
comb had a severe encounter with Indians found
in ambush near the line of Meeker county, and
lifter much skirmishing and a brisk engagement,
which proved very much to the disadvantage of
the Indians, they succeeded in effecting their es-
cape to the thickly-timbered region in the rear of
their first position. The members of the company
were nearly all experienced marksmen, and the
Springfield rifles in their hands proved very gall-
ing to the enemy. So anxious was the latter to
effect his retreat, that he left three of his dead
upon the ground. No loss was sustained on the
part of our troops, except a flesh-wound in the leg
received by one of the company. As it was
deemed unadvisable to pursue the Indians into the
heavy timber with the small force at command, the
detachment fell back to their camp, arriving the
same evening.
On the following day, Captain Whitcomb,
taking with him twenty men from his company,
and twenty citizens who volunteered for the occa-
sion, proceeded on the same route taken the day
previous. With the increase in his forces he
expected to be able, without much difficulty, to
overcome the Indians previously encountered.
After proceeding about ten miles from the camp,
their further progress was again disputed by the
Indians, who had likewise been reinforced since
their last encounter. Owing to the great superi-
ority of the enemy's forces, the Captain withdrew
his men. They feU gradually back, fighting
steadily on the retreat, and were pursued to within
four miles of the encampment. In this contest,
one Indian is known to have been killed. On the
part of the whites one horse and wagon got mired
in a slough, and had to be abandoned. No other
injury was suffered from the enemy; but two men
were wounded by the accidental discharge of a
gun in their o^^^l ranks.
A fortification was prepared, and the citizens,
with their families, were removed within the
inclosure. Captain Whitcomb quartered his com-
pany in the principal hotel of the place, and
guards were stationed for the night, while all the
men were directed to be prepared for any contin-
gency that might arise, and be in readiness fur
using their arms at any moment.
Between 2 and 3 o'clock the following morning,
the guards discovered the approach of Indians,
and gave the alarm. As soon as the savages per-
ceived that they were discovered, they uttered the
war-whoop, and poured a volley into the hotel
where the troops were quartered. The latter
immediately retired to the stockade, taking with
them all the ammunition and equipments in their
possession. They had scarcely effected an en-
trance when fire was opened upon it from forty or
fifty Indian rifles. Owing to the darkness of the
morning, no distinct view could be obtained of the
enemy, and, in consequence, no very effective fiie
could be opened upon him.
While one party of the Indians remained to keep
up a fire upon the fort and harass the garrison,
another portion was engaged in setting fire to
buildings and haystacks, while others, at the same
time, were engaged in collecting horses and cattle
found in the place, and driving them off. Occa-
sional glimpses could be obtained of those near
the fires, but as soon as a shot was fired at them
they woiild disappear in the darkness. Most of
the buildings burned, however, were such a dis-
tance from the fort as to be out of range of the
guns of the garrison. The fire kept up from that
point prevented the near approach of the incen-
diary party, and by that means the principal part
of the town was saved from destruction. On one
occasion an effort was made to carry the flames
into a more central part of the town, and the
torches in the hands of the party were seen
approaching the office of A. 0. Smith, Esq.
Directed by the light of the torches, a voUey was
CAPTAIN 8TR0UT8 PAHTY ATTACKED.
227
poured into their midst from the fort, whereupon
the braves hastily abandoned their incendiary
implements and retreated from that quarter of the
village. From signs of blood afterward found
upon the ground, some of the Indians were sup-
posed to have met the fate intended for them, but
no dead were left behiud.
The fight continued, without other decided re-
sults, until about daylight, at which time the prin-
cipal part of the forces retired. As the light in-
creased, so that objects became discernible, a small
party of savages were observed engaged in dri-
ving off a number of cattle. A portion of the
garrison, volunteering for the purpose, sallied
out to recover the stock, which they accomplish-
ed, with the loss of two men wounded, one of them
severely.
This company had no further encounters with
the Indians, but afterward engaged in securing
the graiu and other property belonging to the set-
tlers who had abandoned, or been driven from, their
farms and homes. Nearly every settlement be-
tween Forest City and the western frontier had, by
this time, been deserted, and the whole cpuntry
was in the hands of the savages. In speaking of
his endeavors to save a portion of the property
thus abandoned. Captain Whitcomb, on the 7th of
September, wrote as follows:
"It is only in their property that the inhabitants
can now be injured; the people have all fled.
The country is totally abandoned. Not an inhab-
itant remaius in Meeker county, west of this place.
No white person (unless a captive) is now living
in Kandiyohi or Monongalia county."
On the 1st of September, Captain Strout, who
had previously arrived at Glencoe, made prepara-
tions for a further advance. Owing to the vigor-
ous measures adopted by General John H. Stevens,
of the State militia, it was thought unnecessary
that any additional forces should be retained at
this point. Under his directions no able-bodied
man having deserted the country further to the
westward, had been permitted to leave the neigh-
borhood, or pass through. All such were re-
quired to desist from further flight, and assist
in making a stand, in order to check the further
advance of the destroyers of their homes. The
town of Glencoe had been fortified to a certain
extent, and a military company of seventy-three
members had been organized, and armed with such
guns as were in possession of the settlers. With
Glencoe thus provided for, General Stevens did
not hesitate to advise, nor Captain Strout to at-
tempt a further advance into the overrun and
threatened territory.
The company of the latter, by this time, had
been increased by persons, principally from Wright
county, who volunteered their services for the ex-
pedition, untjl it numbered about seventy-five men.
With this force he marched, as already stated, on
the 1st day of September.
Passing through Hutchinson on his way, no op-
position was encountered until the morning of the
3d of September. On the night previous, he had
arrived at and encamped near Acton, on the west-
em border of Meeker county.
At about half -past five o'clock the next morning
his camp was attacked by a force comprising about
one hundred and fifty Indians. The onset was
made from the direction of Hutchinson, with the
design, most probably, of cutting off the retreat
of the company, and of precluding the possibility
of sending a messenger after reinforcements. They
fought with a spirit and zeal that seemed determ-
ined to annihilate our little force, at whatever cost
it might require.
For the first half hour Captain Strout formed
his company into four sections, in open order^ and
pressed against them as skirmishers. Finding their
forces so much superior to his own, he concentra-
ted the force of his company, and hurled them
against the main body of the enemy. In this
manner the fight was kept up for another hour
and a half, the Indians falling slowly back as they
were pressed, in the direction of Hutchinson, but
maintaining all the while their order and line of
battle. At length the force in front of the compa-
ny gave way, and falling upon the rear, continued
to harrass it in its retreat.
About one-half of the savages were mounted,
partly on large, fine horses, of which they had
plundered the settlements, and partly on regular
Indian ponies. These -latter were so well trained
for the business in which they were now engaged,
that their riders would drive them at a rapid rate
to within any desirable distance of our men, when
pony and rider would both instantly lie down in
the tall grass, and thus become concealed from the
aim of the sharp-shooters of the company.
With the intention, most likely, of creating a
panic in our ranks, and causing the force to scat-
ter, and become separately an easy prey to the
pursuers, the Indians would at times, uttering the
most terrific and unearthly yells of which their
228
HISTORY OP THE SIOUX MASSACRE.
luBgs and skill were capable, charge in a mass
upon the little band. On none of these occasions,
however, did a single man falter or attempt a
flight; and, after approaching within one hundred
yards of the retreating force, and perceiving that
they still remained firm, the Indians would halt
the charge, and seek concealment in the grass or
elsewhere, from which places they would continue
their fire.
After having thus hung upon and harrassed the
rear of the retreating force for about half an hour,
at the end of which time the column had arrived
within a short distance of Cedar City, in the
extreme north-west corner of McLeod county, the
pursuit was given up, and the company continued
the retreat without further opposition to Hatohin-
son, at which place it arrived at an early hour in
the same afternoon.
The loss of the company in the encounter was
three men killed and fifteen wounded, some of
them severely. All were, however, brought from
the field.
In addition to this they lost most of their ra-
tions, cooking utensils, tents, and a portion of
their ammunition and arms. Some of their horses
became unmanageable and ran away. Some were
mired and abandoned, making, with those killed
by the enemy, an aggregate loss of nine. The
loss inflicted upon the enemy could not be de-
termined with any degree of certainty, but Oaj]-
tain Strout was of the opinion that their killed and
wounded were two or three times as great as ours.
At Hutchinson a military company, consisting of
about sixty members, had been organized for the
purpose of defending the place against any attacks
from the Indians. Of this company Lewis Har-
rington was elected captain. On the first appre-
hension of danger a house was barricaded as a
last retreat in case of necessity. The members of
the company, aided by the citizens, afterward con-
structed a small stockade fort of one hundred feet
square. It was built after the same style as that
at Forest City, with bastions in the same position,
and a wall composed of double timbers rising to
the height of eight feet above the ground. The
work was provided with loop-holes, from which a ,
musketry fire could be kept up, and was of sufQ-
cient strength to resist any projectiles that the sav-
ages had the means of throwing. At this place
Captain Strout halted his company, to await fur-
ther developments.
At about nine o'clock on the next morning, the
4th of September, the Indians approached the
town thus garrisoned and commenced the attack.
They were replied to from the fortification; but.
as they were careful not to come within close
range, and used every means to conceal their per-
sons, but little punishment was inflicted upon
them. They bent their energies more in attempts
to burn the town than to inflict any serious injury
upon the military. In these endeavors they were
so far successful as to bum all the buildings sit-
uated on the bluff in the rear of the town, includ-
ing the college building, which was here located.
They at one time succeeded in reaching almost the
heart of the village, and applying the incendiary
torch to two of the dwelling-houses there situated,
which were consumed.
Our forces marched out of the fort and engaged
them in the open field; but, owing to the superior
numbers of the enemy, and their scattered and
hidden positions, it was thought that no advantage
could be gained in this way, and, after driving
them out of the town, the soldiers were recalled to
the fort. The day was spent in this manner, the
Indians making a succession of skirmishes, but at
the same time endeavoring to maintain a suflcient
distance between them and the soldiers to insure
an almost certain impunity from the fire of their
muskets. At about five o'clock in the evening
their forces were withdrawn, and our troops rested
on their arms, in expectation of a renewal of the
fight in a more desperate form.
As soon as General Stevens was informed of the
attack made upon Captain Strout, near Acton, and
bis being compelled to fall back to Hutchinson,
he directed Captain Davis to proceed to the com-
mand of Lieutenant Weinmann, then stationed
near Lake Addie, in the same county, t(3 form a
junction of the two commands, and proceed to
Hutchinson and reinforce the command of Captain
Strout.
On the . morning of the 4th of September the
pickets belonging to Lieutenant Weinmann's com-
mand re