Blue Earth County, Minnesota - Chapter 13: The Geeat Sioijx Massacee Op 1862, 1901

Companies At New Tjlm

On August 15th 1862 most of the recruits from Blue Earth County left their place of rendezvous, Mankato, for Ft. Snelling. So engrossed were the people everywhere in the great war that they never thought of any peril at their own doors. They did not realize, when the soldiers, and the able bodied men of every community and all the implements of war, were being sent to the southland to save the Union, that they were leaving their own homes defenseless in the presence of a terrible danger. The Sioux Indians had been restless for some time. The encroachments of civilization on barbarism is ever attended with friction. To see their lands being appropriated by the whites and themselves being driven out naturally stirred up their envy and hatred. Then the advantages which a stronger race is sure to take of the weaker one fell to their lot in the greed and dishonesty of the trader, the whisky vendor, and the gambler. Then the government did not live up to its promises, so that the Indian was not receiving the annuities due him, partly through the dishonesty of have been taken away, to wreck their vengeance, regain their ancestral home, and reap a wonderful booty, (for to the Indian the abodes of the whites were full of good things). Under the circumstances it needed but a spark to cause explosion, and on August 17th, 1862, that was furnished. Half a dozen hot headed young bucks, while at Acton, Meeker county got into a quarrel with a whisky trader and shot him and two or three of his family and returned that night to their relatives and friends on the agency. A hurried council of the lower Sioux bands was called at midnight, and early next morning the awful massacre began. Before noon the small village of government officials and traders designated the "Lower Agency," had been sacked and burned and its inhabitants butchered, and Captain Marsh with half the little Et. Eidgely garrison had been annihilated in an ambush, and before the sun had set on that awful day the carnage had spread over the country for many miles.

agents, and partly through careless delays. The same pertains to Blue Earth County, payment due the Sioux in June 1862 had not The first news of the outbreak reached New

.Tudson and South Bend to Mankato with the first report. The news was so startling that many at iirst would not believe it. Then there had been so many false rumors of Indian outbreaks that people were the more skeptical. Soon after Mr. Paddock had brought the report to Mankato the fire bell was rung and a public meeting was held to discuss the situation. When the ISTew Ulm people realized from the fleeing settlers the reality and extent of the massacre, they dispatched three of their citizens in a light wagon to Mankato for help, where they arrived late in the evening, and made their report to the meeting. As many still doubted for want of definite information, it was decided to send five or six men to New Ulm to learn more of the particulars. Samuel Tate and- three or four others started soon after midnight. At day break James Shoemaker and Dr. McMahan followed in a buggy. When the latter had gone just beyond Crisp's store in Judson, they saw some persons on horseback coming toward them at full gallop and waving their arms. Fearing they might, be Indians Mr. Shoemaker and the doctor turned back and drove at full speed , to Crisp's store. The party proved to be Sam Tate and his companions. Near the Big Cottonwood they had met some refugees who had told them harrowing tales of what they had just seen and that the Indians were coming close at, hand killing and burning , all before them. Mr. Tate and his companions, were panic stricken, and were returning to Mankato as fast as their horses could take them. .

A company had been partially recruited Monday .night at Mankato, Tuesday as one report after another reached our county seat, bringing more and more details of the dreadful tragedy, the people became thoroughly scared and began to realize how desperate the situation was. All labor ceased and. the anxiety was intense. Men and women gathered in groups to discuss the awful situation and to hear the latest loports. This was so all over the county. The farmers deserted their harvest fields and gathered, with their families into some one cabin in the neighborhood for protection, others hurried, to tlie nearest village to learn the latest news.

At Mankato the day was spent in recruiting men for the company to send to the aid of New Ulm, and in gathering guns and ammunition. In the' evening another mass meeting was held at Higgins Hall and the organization of the volunteer company perfected. The momentous question was whether this company should go to New Ulm or stay to protect Mankato. Many advocated the latter course, claiming that their first duty was to protect their own families. The Winnebagoes were close to their doors and Tv^ere holding war dances and on the point of joining the Sioux in the outbreak. Every hour bringing fresh rumors of the strange bell a\'ior of this tribe. Then there was nothing to prevent the . Sioux from passing by New Ulm after getting the armed men shut in there, and fall upon the defenseless women aijd children of Mankato and South Bend. On the other hand B. P. Freeman, John F. Meagher, William Bierbauer and others argued, that if all the towns simply attempted to withstand ihe Indians singly, they would be attacked one by one, and all would perish. That singly no town could stand such a force, and that thb only way the whites could hope to check the onslaught of the savages was to mass their strength against them, and that New Ulm, as the first frontier town, was logically the strategic point,, which the whites must hold . at any cost. Fortunately for our county and the state the latter argument prevailed, and the majority voted to proceed next morning to New Ubn.

It was determined to start at four o'clock in the morning, but about midnight the mill of Seward & Co. took fire. The clang of the fire bell frightened the people greatly for everybody thought that the Indians had come. The men rushed for their guns, the women- and children cried in their terror and, even when it was discovered that the alarm was due to the mill being on fire, the people were afraid to go to it, suspecting that the fire had been set by the Indians as a ruse to draw them away from their homes into an ambush. So the mill burned to the ground with out much effort having been made to save it. There was not much sleep that night and by morning many of the people were too exhausted to take the early start for New Ulm, and some, because of the pleadings of their terrified families, gave up going. Capt. Bierbauer and most of the company started soon after daybreak. Two or three hours later John F. Meaghsr, 0. 0. Pitcher and others followed, riding as far as South Bend with the three New Ulm delegates, who had come for help the day before, and thence to New Ulm in a wagon with Morris Lewis of Cambria. The roster of the Mankato company was as follows:

Wm. Bierbauer, captain. John F. Meagher, first lieutenant. Henry Ruegg, second lieutenant. James Shoemaker, commissary sergeant. J. C. Haup, orderly sergeant. Henry Vahle, second orderly sergeant. Samuel D. ShaWj third sergeant. Leonard Johnson, fourth sergeant. Chas. Heilborn, first corporal. E. P. Freeman, second corporal. Petei Krost, third corporal. Benjamin Stannard, fourth corporal. James R. McMahan, surgeon.

Many of above did not join the company until they reached New Ulm. Nearly all such were from elsewhere in the county than Mankato, and some were members of the South Bend company, who had stayed at New Ulm, v,hen their company left, and then joined the Mankato company. A few members of the Mankato company returned with the South Bend company before the battle and their names dropped from the roll. Of this number were Henry Shaubut and 0. 0. Pitcher; others, like Father Sommereizen never joined. The good priest remained during the whole seige ministering the consolations of religion to the sick, the wounded, the dying, and the bereaved.

Another company \\as formed at South Bend, which on this same Wednesday (Aug. 20) followed the Mankato company to New Ulm. The roster of this company has been lost and we can only give a partial list of its members, from the memory of two or three survivors.

Seventy-three men in all. Many of above wore not residents of South Bend but joined the company in Cambria and at New Ulm, having gone there independently.

the other from Le Sueur, besides a large number of others, who came singly and in small groups from Blue Earth, Brown and Nicollet Counties gave New Ulm an army of three hundred and fifty to four hundred armed men, who under the generalship of Judge Plandrau, were systematically disposed so as to make an efEective defense of the town.

A few Indians had attacked the town Tuesday afternoon, but luckily Sheriff Boardman of Nicollet County with sixteen well armed followers arrived just in time to help the New Ulm people repulse this first attack. The main attack was now expected every liour, but did not come, and the delay puzzled the whites. The South Bend company became uneasy for fear that the Indians had passed by New Ulm and, having formed a junction with the Winnebagoes, were now perhaps butchering their women and children, whom they had left at home almost defenseless. They accordingly on .Thursday afternoon returned home. The Mankato, St. Peter and Le Sueur companies remained and at last on Saturday (Aug. 23rd) the critical point in the Sioux war was reached. Heretofore most of Little Crow's army had been scattered over the country, killing and plundering the settlers. But at last all west of New Ulm had been completely devastated and Little Crow was able to concentrate his warriors into an army four or five hundred strong, and march them against the fii-st important village of the pale face. Could he take it, was the crucial question of that day, upon the answer to which depended ^he fate of most of the valley below. The battle began soon after 9 o'clock in the forenoon and raged all day until nightfall. The whites had concentrated their entire force within the four center blocks of town, building barricades accross the streets and alleys with lumber, wood and boxes, while all the buildings outside ihis fortification, 192 in all, had been burned by the Indians or the whites. From first to last the Mankato company rendered efficient service. Time and again they repulsed the charges inade by the savage foe. In one of these onsets Newell Houghton of Winnebago Agency was killed. Wm. Nickolson of Cambria was, also, killed and Benton T. Foster of Judson was mortally woujided, and died two days later. Among the iyounded were: Geo. Andrews, F. M. Andrews, Patrick Burns, Adam Freundle, Theodore Fittt-rer, and John Fassatt.

Discouraged by their many repulses and finding the whites better fortified than ever, and fearning from their scouts that there was a great army under General Sibley coming against them, the Indians raised the seige Sunday moming and retreated up the valley. The whites at first were puzzled by this move on the part of the savages and thought it might be a merf ruse to draw them away from their fortifications.

Let us now return to Blue Earth county. On Tuesday and Wednesday (Aug. 19th and 20th) the farmers all over the county abandoned their partly harvested fields, their stock and their homes and fled with their families to South Bend, Mankato, Garden City, Vernon or Shelbyville, "Puring the week a few of the armed men with guns, would steal back home to look after the stock or to get some food or clothing for the family. Otherwise the whole country was deserted and the villages were crowded with refugees. In some cases a neighborhood of a dozen families would crowd themselves into one little log cabin. At South Bend rude barricades v/ere constructed about the center of town and the stone grist mill, the hotel, and every other building packed with the families of the fleeing settlers. The men were all pressed into service as guards and armed with such weapons as could be found. Those without guns were provided with axes or s.cythes. At Garden City, Vernon and Shelbyville companies of home guards were formed and means taken for defense. At Garden City a meeting was called the Tuesday morning after the outbreak and it was determined to send a squad of ten mounted volunteers to New Ulm to ascertain the truth about the matter. The party consisted of Bd. Potter, who was made captain, L. S. Terry, Sherman Finch, C. C. Wasburn, Bliphalet Smith, and five others. They reached New Ulm late that afternoon just after the first attack on the town. The sight of the many mutilated dead, seventeen in one room, brought in from the country, convinced them of the seriousness of the situ- ation. The village was in the wildest excitement all night. In the morning the guards would not permit our party to leave town. After consulting with those in authority two of their number were finally permitted to carry back the report to Garden City, but they were not oven permitted an escort across the Big Cottonwood. Messrs. Terry and Smith were the two chosen for the dangerous mission. They reached Garden City by noon and the report they brought of what they had seen and heard induced many of the people of Garden City, Vernon and Shelby ville to leave the country.

On Saturday, Aug. 23rd, the smoke of the burning buildings at Xew Ulm could be plainly seen miles away, and everybody thought the town had been taken and was being burned by the Indians. This created a panic at Garden City, and elsewhere and the main retreat began. The place of rendezvous was on the site of Old Mapleton where a great camp was formed of all the people in the south half of the county. They did not all get to the rendezvous at once, but the people of one neighborhood would first flee in the morning to that next to them on the east or south, while those to the west and north would occupy their deserted homes by night.

On Tuesday, Aug. 19th, a company had been recruited from Garden City, Vernon, Shelbyville and Winnebago City, of which H. W. Holly of the latter place was made Captain and Dr. Welcome of Garden City Ist Lieutenant. M. B. Eaynes and Noble G. Boot of Vernon were members, but we have not been able to learn the names of the others. Each provided himself with a gun of some sort and a horse and all met on Wednesday at Winnebago City. Thence they started early the next morning upon a scouting expedition to the west camping the first night in the vicinity of the present village of Sherburne, turning thence nortlicast they reached Madelia Friday night, where the people had built a good stockade. Next day they saw the smoke of the burning of New Ulm. By the time they reached Garden City they found it entirely deserted.

Garden City refugees had taken their place and were occupying their homes. Many of the people did not stop at the big gathering place at Old Mapleton but passed on, some to Albert Lea, some to Owatonna, and others to Iowa and Wisconsin. The great bulk of the inhabitants however, did not go further than this rendezvous. A stirring and picturesque scene was this great camp, especially towards evening. The wagons had been arranged in a great circle and inside big camp fires were built for cooking and warmth around Avhich were congregated the men, women and children. The great herds of cattle belonging to many households, agitated by the strange surroundings, kept up a constant bellowing. The news of the evacuation of New Ulm came nearly creating a panic among our refu-. gees. A meeting of the men was held at which the question of fieeing the country was warmly discussed. Finally MaJ. E. P. Evans volunteered to drive to Mankato, learn the exact situaition and bring back report at once. This was done, and the ^Major's report was so favorable, (the Indians had retreated from New Ulm ; Sibley with a big army was at St. Peter starting west against the foe; Dane's company was stationed at Lake Crystal;) that most of the settlers returned to their homes.

At Mankato every man was mustered into service and pickets kept stationed around the town in every direction. The three story stone' liuildings of Leech and White and' Marks were well fortified by nailing four inch oak planks over the windows and cutting loop holes for shooting, barricades were built across the streets and along the levee with cordwood, salt barrels, dvygoods boxes, logs and planks. On Friday afternoon (Aug. 23) company E of the 9th Minnesota, 108 men, who had left Mankato just one week before to enlist at Ft. Snelling, returned. They had sealed order, which when opened directed them to seize at once all the horses they needed from the people. This they did and there was a lively time between them and all owners of horseflesh that afternoon.

Hon. T. M. Pugh nf South Bend was driving down Front street in a buggy behind a fine horse and his best girl was sitting beside him. Jim Hoosier and two or three other soldier boys he knew stepped out into the street to greet him, and before Mr. Pugh realized what was up, the horse was slipped out of its harness and gone before his astonished gaze, while he still sat in the buggy holding the lines. Some managed to hide their horses in the woods and brush, but the soldiers soon found enough to supply their need. Their -orders, also, directed them to take all the food, feed, and other things necessary and give the owners receipts therefore. This was a military necessity as the company had been rushed back without any supplies.

As it was rumored that the Indians were burning houses west of Lake Crystal, Lieut. Eoberts and forty-eight mounted men were dispatched thither that afternoon. They camped in a va- - cant house on the south shore of the lake for three or four days.

On this same Saturday occurred as we have seen the battle of Kew Ulm. In the afternoon the smoke of the burning town could be seen from the northwest portion of the County, and by night the glare of the fire against the sky was plainly visible from South Bend, Mankato and even St. Clair and Mapleton. It created consternation everywhere for it was supposed that the Indians had captured the town and were burning it. It was a night that our old settlers will never forget. The excitement, the terror and the grief beggars description, for almost every family had some relative or friend among the defenders of iSTew Ulm, and everybody expected the savage horde would attack them before morning.

At the Winnebago Agency the excitement among the Indians and the whites had been intense since the outbreak occurred. A number of the Winnebagoes with Little Priest, one of their chiefs, were visiting the Sioux, when the massacre started, and there was strong suspicion that they took some hand in it. They returned Wednesday morning and were chased through Cambria and Butternut Valley by Wm. E. Lewis, Lewis D. Lewis, James Morgan and one or two others, but finally reached the Agency that day, and greatly added to the agitation by their reports. Secret councils were held almost continually to which no white men were admitted. Some of the older chiefs, who had friends among the whites, advised them to send their families away, as the young men were strongly inclined TO Join the Sioux. Everything boded mischief. They had organized a Soldier Lodge, which met in a large wigwam ma4e of mats weaved from rushes. Meetings were held here almost constantly, and none of the whites or half breeds were permitted to enter. The traders, Messrs. Hubbell and Hawley, on Thursday moming, upon the advise, of chief Baptiste, sent their families to Owatonna. On Friday, Aug. 32nd, Mr. Hubbell was dispatched by Mr. Balcombe, llie agent, to Wilton to get a company of citizens to come to the agency to help keep the peace. Col. Ide and a few others drove back at once with Mr. Hubbell. Others followed next morning until a company of forty or fifty were gathered there which had some quieting effect on the Indians. Soon after the evacuation of New Ulm Capt. Edgerton arrived at the Agency with a large company of volunteers and the Wilton men returned home. Most of the Winnebago chiefs and headmen, such as Baptiste, Big Bear, Co-No-Hutta-Kaw, Little Decoria, Tall Decoria, Young Frenchman and others remained faithful to the whites, but some of the chiefs, like Little Priest, Winneshiek, and Short Wing and a large number of young bucks were strongly inclined to join the Sioux, and undoubtedly would have done so, had the latter been successful at Few Ulm.

On Sunday, Aug. 24th, Mankato and South Bend were put under marshall law, with Deputy U. S. Marshall G. K. Cleveland in command, assisted by A. N. Dukes and J. J. Porter as deputies. To stop the men from running away and leaving the country defenseless, no one was permitted to pass the guard line without a pass. F^our, meat, cattle, potatoes and all food commodities were seized where ever found without pay to feed the people. The right of private property had to give way before the right of public necessity.

The same Sunday morning (Aug. 24) Lieut. Eoberts dispatched James Hoosier, at his own request, to learn the condition of things at New Ulm. He arrived there safely just after the departure of the Indians. A company of seventy-four men from St. Peter, under Capt. E. St.

Julian Cox, and another company of forty-eight men from Henderson, under Lieut. Adam Buck arrived there, also, about noon. As there were only four blocks of the town left in which to shelter about 2,000 people, and the food supply was almost exhausted, it was determined to evacuate the place next morning and take the people to South Bend and Mankato, where they could be fed and have more room. Hon. H. A. Swift and Mr. Ackerman of St. Peter arrived at Mankato at noon with the first message of the evacuation. They were soon followed by l)r. McMahan, who had been dispatched ahead to prepare a place for the fifty-two wounded persons from New Ulm. With the aid of A. N. Dukes and C. K. Cleveland the American House was secured for a hospital and hastily put in order for the purpose. All the people at New Ulm were notified Sunday afternoon to be ready by next morning to start for Mankato. Every team in town was put in requisition. Contrary to instructions the people piled all manner of household goods into the wagons, until there was no room for half the women and children, consequently the officers in charge were obliged next morning to dump from the wagons trunks, feather beds, furniture and all manner of goods into the street to make room for the sick, the wounded and those who could not walk. The road for two or three miles out of town was strewn with household effects thrown from the overloaded wagons. Before the expedition started all the stores were thrown open and everybody invited to take whatever they wished, as it was supposed the Indians would return and plunder all as soon as the whites were gone. A number of the volunteers loaded themselves with these goods and afterwards becoming tired had to throw them away on the march. There were 153 wagons and about 2,000 people in line. All the ablebodied men marched under arms in their respective companies, some in front, some along the sides and some in the rear to guard the long train of non-combatants. Since both South Bend and Mankato were already crowded With refugees from the surrounding country, it was no small matter to find food and shelter for 2,000 more. Cattle were killed at South Bend and ilankato and the meat cooked in large kettles over camp fires. Barrels of flour were converted into bread by the women. It was late in the afternoon before the tired, hungry multitude arrived.

The rear Guard, consisting of the companies of Lieutenants Cox and Buck and acting Lieutenant J. B. Swan, halted for the night at C'risp's store (where now stands the residence of Joseph Roberts) in Judson to guard the rear in case the Indians should follow the retreat. It was a very dark, rainy, cold night. About two o'clock in the morning one of the sentries noticed some object move in front of him in the tall grass. He challenged it, but instead of answering, it came straight toward him. He raised his gun and pulled the trigger but the rain had dampened the cap so it did not fire. A weak, trembling feminine voice fell on his ear begging him not to shoot. It proved to be a poor \\oman, Mrs. Harrington by name, who eight days before had fled from her home on the Big Cottonwood, west of N^ew Ulm, with a number of neighbors. The little company had been overtaken in the road by a band of Indians and nearly all murdered. Mrs. Harrington had jumped from the wagon, with her little babe, a year old boy, in her arms. An Indian bullet passed through her little child's hand, which v/as resting on her shoulder, and lodged in her own body. She ran into the brush and hid. Even the little babe was conscious of danger and kept as still as a mouse, though its little hand had been terribly lacerated by the cruel bullet. The Indians failed to find her. Since then she had spent the days hiding in bushes and swamps and the nights in wandering over the prairies trying to find some white settlement. She had subsisted on roots, berries and raw vegetables. Tliis Monday night weak from hunger, loss oi blood and pain, wet and shivering with the rain and the cold, and her clothes almost in shreds, her feet cut by the grass, and her baby sick and nearly dead from hunger and exposure, she had seen the camp fires and determined to approach them rather than perish in the slough, though she imagined they belonged to the Indians. Her joy, when she discovered they were white men was most touching. The men kindly cared for her and her babe, and next morning took them to the hospital at Mankato, and there the glad husband who happened to have been east when the massacre occurred, found them.

The governor now commissioned Judge Plandrau to the command of all the militia organizations in Blue Earth County and points south and west with headquarters at South Bend. His principal office was in the hotel there. Commissaries were maintained at South Bend, Mankato and St. Peter to feed the hundreds of fugitives there gathered. A. N. Dukes was quarter master for the first two or three weeks and after ])is promotion to the rank of Captain, D. H. Tyner was appointed with B. D. Pay as assistant in Mankato, and Geo. Owens in South Bend. Threshing crews were formed, who went out and threshed the stacks of grain, without asking the farmers leave, for all was under martial law. The grain thus secured was ground into flour to feed the people. There were some, even in such trying circumstances, who took advantage of the indulgence and generosity of the people as an occasion to gratify their thieving propensities. Silverware and other articles were stolen from hotels, and private homes by some dishonest miscreants, while others ventured back to jSTew Ulm at the peril of their lives and carried away wagon loads of the goods scattered by the roadside, but which did not belong to them. These instances of looting of property, however, were rare, though the confusion which then prevailed afforded everj' opportunity.

On Tuesday (Aug. 36th) while Capt. Dane's company were still encamped at the Eobinson house near the outlet of Lake Crystal they discovered a wagon drawn by oxen coming from the west near Buffalo Grove. A detachment of soldiers mounted their horses and went out to meet it. The occupants proved to be refugees from Lake Shetec, Messrs. Everett, Hatch and Bently and a Mrs. Meyer and her four children. Mrs. Meyer had been carried from her home, on her sick bed, and when opposite Few Ulm the previous Saturday her husband ventured into town to procure help, and, being hemmed in by the Indians, had failed to get out. After waiting a whole day for him the party concluded he must have been ' killed, and proceeded on their journey towards South Bend. They had reached Buffalo Grove, when they saw the soldiers coming toward them on horseback, and took them at once to be Indians. Hatch and Bentley left the wagon and ran to the lake, where they hid in the grass. Mr. Everett had been severely wounded by the Indians and could not walk and Mrs. Meyers was too sick to rise from her bed, so the two with the children were left in the wagon. The fright threw the womaa into convulsions and it was some time before she and the two men in the slough could be made to realize that the soldiers were not Indians, but white men. Mr. Hatch was also badly wounded, though he was able to walk. AU were taken at once to the hospital at Mankato, where Mrs. Meyers died the next day. The terrible hardships she had undergone proved too much for her enfeebled health.

On Friday, Aug. 29th, Dane's company was ordered from Lake Crystal to New Uhn, which had been deserted since Monday. The town presented a most dreary and desolate appearance. The houses were all burnt, except a few in the center. The streets were littered from end to end with household goods and furniture, and here and there were the bloated carcasses of some fifty or sixty "horses and cattle, which had been killed in the fight, emiting a horrible stench. The barricades were, still standing across the streets, except at one place, where they had been thrown down to permit the besieged people to escape. Within these fortifications little mounds of earth dotted the streets thick, under which in shallow graves lay the dead. The few buildings left had been all loopholed for musketrj', and both barricades and buildings 'were splintered and riddled with bullets. Everywhere were evidences of the desperate conflict of Saturday and it was several days before the soldiers could restore the town to order.

In the mean time Gen. Sibley had occupied Ft. Eidgley with an army of 1500 to 1600 men. But they were all raw recruits, who had received no military training, and armed for the most part with rejected muskets, which the government had sent north to be used in drilling new volunteers. On September 2nd,

1862j occurred the battle of Birch Cooley, when a burial detachment, which Gen. Sibley had sent out, was attacked by an overwhelming force of Indians about twelve miles west of Ft. Eidgely, but managed to hold their own in a terrible struggle, until relieved by re-enforcements from the fort. On the very day of this battle a skulking band of eight Indians killed some settlers near the present village of Courtland in Nicollet county and crossing the Minnesota passed stealthily through the northwestern corner of Cambria township. Eben P. Davies, the son of David P. Davis, then residing on the Little Cottonwood in section nineteen of Cambria, had just put a span of colts into a pasture and was returning along the side of the fence, when he came upon an Indian lying in the grass. The Indian jumped up and made a grab for Eben's shoulder, but the latter dodged and ran for home. The Indian followed him a short distance, and then fired, the ball passing through Eben's left arm between the wrist and the elbow. A stampede of the settlers, who had just returned to their homes a few days before, was prevented by the timely arrival in the neighborhood of a company of the twentyfifth Wisconsin, which was on its way to New Ulm. It tarried over night in Cambria to protect the settlers and aid them in searching for the Indians. No trace of the latter could be discovered, nor of Mr. Davis' two colts, which Eben had put into the pasture. The next day Col. Flandrau sent Capt. Rogers' company to New Ulm to relieve Capt. Dane's company, and the latter was stationed at Crisp's store in Judson. Why they were not stationed in the ^ore westerly settlement of Cambria, or Butternut Valley as it was then called, is not apparent.

The people of that neighborhood were accustomed to gather for mutual protection each night at the home of James Morgan, which stood across the highway from the school house of District No. eleven. Tuesday night, September 9th, just one week after Eben P. Davis was shot, most of the families concluded to stay at home, as the soldiers that very day had made a thorough search of the town and had found no trace of Indians. A few came together as usual. These were the families of David P. Davis, James Edwards, Lewis D. Lewis and Richard Morgan; twenty-two persons, between men, women and children. David Price and family had come with their neighbor, James Edwards, but at the invitation of Thos. Y. Davis, they went to spend the night with him. His house (the present residence of Rev. Thos. E. Hughes) stood only about fifty rods to the north, on the other side of a little knoll. A number of the men gathered at James Morgan's house early in the " evening to talk over the news. Among others were John S. Jones, David J. Davis, and Henry 'Hughes. The latter spoke of an adventure he had just been through in looking for his cow on Cambria Creek near his cabin, a suspicious noise in the brush, as of persons moving away from him as he entered them in the dusk to look for the cow. Wm. Edwards told of seeing some men that afternoon down by the Minnesota, whom he was certain were Indians. Not much attention was paid to these reports, as such stories were much in vogue in those days, for nearly every object a person then saw assumed the appearance of an Indian warrior. Except the twenty-two before mentioned all the rest of the neighbors soon dispersed to their homes.

Next morning, September 10th, at break of day the people at James ^Morgans' house were awakened by the furious barking of dogs. Mr. Morgans opened the front, door and saw some person in the road in front of the house with a dog barking viciously at his heels. The party seemed to be dressed like a white man and had a straw hat on his head, but as he turned to look at the dog, Mr. Morgans recognized him to be an Indian, and called the attention of Lewis D. Lewis, who had stepped to his side, to him. Mr. Lewis raised his right hand to shield his eyes as he peered in the direction pointed by Morgans. Suddenly a bullet struck his hand, passing through its entire breadth a little above the knuckles and striking against his forehead, fell to the floor. His hand had saved his brain. Another bullet came \»._izzing through a window, but though the room was full of people, it passed between them doing no harm. James Edwards had just risen from the floor, where he had been sleeping, to reach for his gun, when a third ball came through another window, hitting him in the neck, severing the jugular vein. Without a word he fell dead across his bed on the floor, his blood spirting over all near him. The other men had now secured their guns and opened a brisk fire on the Indians and they quickly retreated into a cornfield across the road. D. P, Davis, Jr., thinks he hit one of them as he leaped the fence, but no marks of blood or otherwise could be found. As soon as the Indians were driven ofE, John P. and Henry P. Davis started for camp Crisp, six miles away, lor help. Wm. Edwards and D. P. Davis, Jr. followed in a short time on the same errand. Miss Mary Morgans, taking one of her brother's youngest children in her arms, started, also, for the camp. The others stayed in the house for a time, and kept watch from the second story windows. David P. Davis had been stacking grain the day before and had left his horses in the pasture, three quarters of a mile west of Morgan's house, over night. Not long after the attack a number of Indians were observed chasing the horses. They soon corraled them in a corner of the field, where they had made a pen with the wagons used in stacking. The Indians now congregated on a high knoll on the Daniel P. Davis farm to reconnoiter. There were about fifteen of them. After a short consultation the four mounted on the horses they had just caught and two on foot started down the hill eastward, in the direction of the Morgans house. Three or four went south, where they stole Eev. Jenkin Jenkin's horses, and the rest passed beyond the hill to the west.

The occupants of the Morgans house, seeing a portion of the Indians coming straight toward them, concluded -they were bent on another attack, and, as there were now only three men left with the women and children, all fled from the house. D. P. Davis Sr. hid in the cornfield, James Morgan in some stacks of grain, the rest ran down a small gully towards Cambria Creek. When about twenty rods west of the house the two Indians on foot turned to the left, into Thos. Y. Davis' field; the four mounted evidently to avoid the Morgans house, turned to the right into Henry Hughes' field, and passed down a branch of the same gully just mentioned and barely missed the women and children, who had just reached a clump of bushes at the junction, when the Indians passed within a few feet of them. Lewis D. Lewis, being unable to staunch the fiow of blood from his hand, had left the house about fifteen minutes before to try and reach Dane's camp at the Crisp store to secure medical aid. When nearing Bennett's Creek, about a mile away, he saw the Indians coming after him on the road at full gallop. He ran and threw himself into a clump of bushes near by. He found himself lying on the ground within a foot or two of a monster prairie snake. Lewis concluded to trust the snake, however, rather than the Indians and so lay motionless until the Sioux were gone; nor did his snakeship object to his den being made a city of refuge.

The two Indians, who had turned into Thos. Y. Davis' field, went straight for his horses, which had been staked out to grass by the house. Mr. Davis thought they were soldiers, as they were dressed as whitemen, and ran out to stop them from taking his horses, but when he got close to them he perceived they wepe Indians. They had laid down their guns to catch the horses and therefore could not' shoot him. He turned quickly and ran to James Morgans house for help. To his surprise the place seemed deserted and no one answered his rap. The front door was locked so he went to the back door. Here the steps were covered with blood and a glance through the half open door revealed the bedding on the floor in the wildest confusion and soaked with blood, pools of blood, also, on the floor, and spirts of blood dripping from the walls. Mr. Davis did not tarry long near this chamber of blood, but made the swiftest run he ever made before or since, to the log cabin of one John Shield's, three quarters of a mile down the road. Mr. Shields was sick in bed, but sickness in those days was no excuse, and he and his family promptly joined Mr. Davis in an expedition into the woods of Cambria Creek. Emerging from the brush into the Mankato road about a mile below, they saw not more than ten rods ahead of them the four Indians, mounted on the D. P. Davis horses. The Indians glanced bacK over their shoulders at them but did not stop. Half a mile further on \Vm. P. Jones, Hugh li. William, Stephen and David Walters and Thos. D. Lloyd were approaching the Mankato road from Lloyd's house, in a wagon half filled with household goods drawn by oxen. The Indians caught sight of them and charged them full gallop, whooping and brandishing their weapons. The men scattered into the adjoining cornfield except Stephen Walters, who mounted on a fleet mare belonging to Hugh Wiinams, attempted to out run the foe, which he might have easily done, but the savages disconserted him by their yelling and he jumped from his mare and ran into the brush. The Indians caught the mare and substituted her for the poorest of the four horses they had and after plundering the wagon of such things as they wanted, they passed on down the road towards Mankato.

Leaving them for the present let us return again to the upper end of the settlement. David J. Davis' log cabin then stood in section seventeen of Cambria, at the foot of the steep blufi, which skirts the Minnesota river bottom. A path led up this bluff, back of the house to the table land above, where was a cornfield. At day break, this morning, Mr. Davis' eighteen year old son, Thomas, went up the path to see if there were cattle in the corn. Just at the top he met two Indians face to face and turned to flee, but they shot him in the back, through the heart. The father yet in bed heard the shot and the piercing shriek* of his son. He rushed to the door half clad just in time to see his son fall and the two Indians standing at the top of the bluff. Mr. Davis seized his ax while his oldest son, David, who was an excellent shot, took his trusty rifle and gathering his other eight motherless children, most of whom were "quite small, he fled with them on the bluff watching, but not daring to- follow from respect to David's rifle. Thus they hastened on through the tail grass, dripping with the cold morning dew, thinly clad and chilled to the bone, a distance of six miles to Camp Crisp, warning all the people they met. The weather was now getting quite chilly night and morning, but none of the settlers that morning had time to think of wraps, but all fled just as they were, many only half clad.

John P. Davis, whom we mentioned leaving James Morgans' house, had caught on Bermett's Creek on old horse belonging to Eiehard Morgans, and thus had been enabled to reach the soldier's camp ten or flfteen minutes ahead of David J. Davis and children, whom he had passed on the road. That morning Eiehard Wigley, Wm. J. Eoberts, and John C. Jones had left camp Crisp with a threshing machine. On the knoll on the west side of Jonas Mohr's farm, in section 36, (now owned by Mrs. Eiehard Jones), they met David J. Davis and John P. Davis and other fugitives with news of the attack. John C. Jones had gone on an errand to the house of Morris Lewis about half a mile away from the road, leaving his partners, Eoberts and Wigley with the machine, waiting on the knoll for his return, and talking with the fugitives as they came. Mr. Mohr came up the road looking for his horses. After talking a few minutes about the awful happenings of the morning he started up the road to the west. In the slough west of the knoll J. W. Trask and John Page were making hay. Suddenly seven men on horse back were seen coming down the road full speed. As they wore straw hats and citizens clothes, the people were in doubt whether they were white fugitives or Indians. One of them turned aside to pursue Mr. Trask and they were then known to be Indians. Mr. Trask ran and jumped over a fence. The Indian fired at him hitting him in the wrist and then hurried back to join his companions. The other six Indians made straight for the machine. Wigley and Eoberts were unarmed and ran to hide in some sugar cane near by. Mohr had a Sharps rifle, and was a flne shot, but he ran back and passed the machine without firing, evidently trying to get home to protect his family. One Indian followed him past the machine, and Slohr, seeing that he would soon overtake him, wheeled about to shoot, but the Indian's gun went off first, the ball penetrating Mohr's forehead. He fell over backward and soon expired. In the meantime the other Indians cut the hajness ofE of one of Eoberts' best horses and took it in place of one of the poorest they had. Seeing a company of soldiers coming up the road at full speed, the Indians fled in hot haste for the woods near by. Four of them, in passing down the ravine near Morris Lewis' house, barely missed meeting Mr. Lewis and family, David A. Davis and family and David .J. Thomas who were coming with teams toward the road. The other three passed down the ravine by Geo. Owens' house, and Mr. Owens and his children scarcely had time to get out of their way into the brush and corn beside the path.

Let us again return to the western end of the settlement. Early this same morning John S. Jones (Prairie), living on the northwest quarter of section 33 bid his wife and six children good-bye to go and help John Jones (Indiana) stack grain. In passing the westerly foot of tJie big knoll on the Daniel P. Davis farm, near Avhere the road from the south then met the east and west road from Horeb church, on the John Eees farm, he was killed and scalped. He was a brave and powerful man, and the grass around him bore evidence of a desperate struggle. His pitch fork was bent and bloody. Whether he slew or wounded any of his murderers will never be loiown. About an hour laterj as John Jones (India"'"-a) was busy stacking on his farm, about eight rods west of the Blue Earth County line, and John B. Shaw was pitching to him from the load, a number of Indians came out of the brush near by, jumped over the fence and rushed towards the two men, firing their guns. Mr. Jones leaped from the butt of a stack, and then broke for a point of timber near by, the Indians chasing after him and shooting. This was the last seen of poor Jones alive. The following spring, (April 6th, 1863) when D. P. Davis was burning his meadow three-fourths of a mile west of Horeb church his bones were found in the edge of a slough. His shoe was found caught in the fence, where he evidently had crossed into the meadow in haste. Whether he was mortally wounded when running for the brusli and had fled to this spot, a distance of two miles, before he fell exhausted ur whether he met other Indians near where he crossed the D. P. Davis fence, which wan within a few feet of where John S. Jones had met Ids death an hour or two before, will never be known. While the Indians were chasing Mr. Jones, Mr. Shaw laid down on top of the load to iivoid the bullets and the horses becoming scared ran with him across a part of the field and until stopped by a fence in the edge of the timber. Mr. Shaw, seeing the coast was clear, slipped down from the load and getting into Die brush escaped. Evan Jones was out in the field loading when he saw the Indians after his father, and fleeing out upon the prairie, hid in the sloughs and could not be found for some two weeks. His relatives and neighbors searched everywhere for him, and he often saw them fj-om his hiding places, but always imagined them to be Indians. His excitable temperament and the hardships he endured almost unsettled his reason. He was finally run down by a volunteer company and restored to his friends.

David Price and family went home early from 1'hos. T. Davis' home on that eventful morning and finding that their neighbor, James Edwards and family did not return by nine o'clock A. M., Mr. Price went up to Morgans' house to see what was the matter. To his amazement he found the teams and wagons about the house just as they had been left the night before, but not a person in sight, and no response to his knocking at the door. On looking in through a window he saw that the beds and floor were covered with blood. In a corner of the room a quilt seemed to have been spread over something. Entering by the back door he lifted a corner of this quilt, when to his horror he discovered the body of his murdered neighbor, Edwards. Lie imagined an Indian hid in every corner of the room and expected every nioment to feel the sting of the bullets. Beating a hasty retreat, he started on the run for the residence of Thos. Y. Davis, where he h.id parsed the night, but before he had gone more than a few rods he saw four men and two women hurrj'ing down the road on foot. They proved to be Eev. Jenkin Jenkins and wife, David Morris and wife, and Geo. and Neal Porter. He joined them and induced them to go with him to get his family. All the men had their guns. At Price's house the women and children were put into Price's wagon, which stood with the oxen already Mtelied to it at the door, and they started for Camp Crisp. They had barely gotten out of the portion of the valley of the Minnesota, known as the "Little Prairie," when the seven Indians, who had shot Mohr and Trask, came across it. On reachuig the Mankato and New I'lm road about a mile away on the upland, they met the first detachment of Dane's company. When they first saw them coming on the road, urging their horses to their utmost speed, they took them for Indians, and prepared to make as good a fight for their lives as they could. Their Joy when they proved to be soldiers may well be imagined.

Fifty rods southwest of the James Morgans house stood the log cabin of Henry Hughes. Mr. Hughes and his family were at home attending to their usual duties on this fateful 10th of September, unconscious of the danger all about them. Prom their hiding place in the woods of Cambria Creek the fugitives from Mr. Morgans' house could see the Indians passing back and forth not far from the cabin. Finally Eichard Morgans ventured over to warn them. The old man was bareheaded, barefooted and without a coat, and a pitchfork was his only weapon. Soon after the Hughes family had been gathered into the brush of Cambria Creek, with the refugees from the James Morgans house, the first detachment of soldiers arrived. When the cowering fugitives heard the noise of the horses hoofs coming towards them over the prairie, shaking the ground with their furious speed, they thought they were Indians and scattered further into the timber, but the assuring calls of the soldiers, many of whom had relatives among the fugitives, soon brought all back rejoicing. Just across the creek three mounted Indians were discovered coming down the road a little over half a mile away. The soldiers at once gave chase firing after them, but the Indians made good their escape into the timber of the Little Cottonwood, three quarters of a mUe beyond, though one of them dropped his blanket in the haste of his flight. Three detachments of Dane's company were sent after the Indians, between twenty-five and thirty in number, and drove them far into the west, along the prairies between the Little and Big Cottonwood rivers.

bodies of the murdered men except that of John Jones, (Indiana) which could not then be found, were gathered and buried in Jerusalem Cemetery that afternoon. The surviving settlers now deserted their homes again for many weeks, staying in the vicinity of Camp Crisp and South Bend.

On September 20tli, 186-2 tweuty-two inhabitants of tlie town enlisted for tliirty days as a militia company, under the name of "Butternut Valley Guards." Their muster roll was as follows :

The company were stationed at what was known in those days as the "Big Barn" on the farm now owned by David E. Bowen in the center of section twenty-eight of Cambria. Here they built a fort of logs and earth. The state furnished the company with arms, ammunition and rations and they rendered good service in protecting the frontier, caring for the stock and property left on the deserted farms, and cutting hay for winter. In spite of the hardships, perils and death about them this company did not lack of much enjoyment and fun. There were warm discussions of national and local questions, there were many quarrels, practical jokes and Indian scares all mingled together. Such is the buoyancy of human nature that even in the hour of calamity it will find crumbs of humor. So the settlers of Blue Earth county amid all troubles and trials of the Indian massacre found opportunities for mirth and merry making, and even to this day they enjoy narrating the many comical incidents of the good old time when they fought the Indians.