Lyon County, Minnesota - Chapter 1: A Houiginal Days - 1 700-1 866, 1912

THK white man's history of Lyon county dates back to no great antiquity. Nevertheless, during millions of years many interesting things happened in the county - events which were not witnessed by mortal eye, events which the most vivid imagination cannot conceive.

From a part of the seething, molten mass that composed the earth during the millions of years about which even the geologists hardly dare venture a guess Lyon county was formed and became a part of the earth's surface in the process of cooling. Thereafter it was successively covered with the waters of the sea, was raised from the depths to a great altitude, and was crushed back by the weight of the vast ice sheets during the Glacial Period.

During those times Lyon county's topographical features were formed, many changes resulting before Nature had them fashioned to her liking. Soil was spread over the surface; ridges and

'Traces of man's presence during this period have been found in the flood plain of the Mississippi river at Little Falls, Minnesota, and in other parts of the United States. Concerning the original peopling of North America, Warren Upham, A. M., D. Sc, in Minnesota in Three Centuries, says:

"The original peopling of America appears to have taken place far longer ago by migration from Northeastern Asia during the early Quaternary or Ozarkian Epoch of general uplift of northern regions, which immediately preceded the Ice Age, and which continued through the early and probably the greater part of that age. Then land undoubtedly extended across the area of Behring sea.

"During Ozarkian time and the long early part of the Glacial Period, wandering tribes, migrating for better food supplies or to escape from enemies, could hills were formed by the action of the ice; depressions were left in which are now lakes; the waters from the melting ice sought avenues of escape and formed rivers and creeks; plant and animal life came into existence.

When Lyon county was first inhabited by the human species is unknown. Even when the North American continent was first peopled archaeologists can at best only guess. There has been discovered evidence that man lived upon the continent during the decline and closing days of the Ice Age, some 6000 to 10,000 years ago, and probably had done so for a much longer period.1

When civilized man first came to the New World he found it peopled with a savage race which he called Indians. They had no knowledge of their own ancestry nor of any peoples who may have preceded them. Whether or not this race supplanted one of a higher civilization is a question upon which authorities disagree.2 The only source's have crossed on land from Asia to Alaska and could have advanced south to Pategonia and Tierra del Fuego, occupying all the ground (excepting the icecovered area) that is now, or was in pre-Columbian times, the home of the American race. It is not improbable, too, that another line of very ancient migration, in the same early Pleistocene or Quaternary time, passed from Western Europe by the Faroe islands, Iceland and Greenland, to our continent."

-"It was formerly thought by many archaeologists, twenty-five to fifty years ago, thai the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys were built by a prehistoric people, distinct from the Indians and further advanced in agriculture and the arts of civilization. To that ancient people the name of Mound Builders was given , and it was supposed that they were driven southward of information concerning the early inhabitants are the implements of warfare and domestic use they made, found in burial places and elsewhere in the land. The Mississippi valley is prolific in mounds - the burial places of these ancient peoples, - many having been found and excavated in Minnesota.

While we have little knowledge of the very early peoples who inhabited Minnesota, from the middle of the seventeenth century, when white men first penetrated to the Northwest, we can trace the history of the Indian tribes more or less accurately. At the coming of white men nearly the whole state was occupied by the Dakota, or Sioux, Indians.3 The only exception was in the extreme northern part, where the Kilistino (or Crees) and the Monsoni of the Algonquin tribes had their habitat. The Sioux, with whom alone Lyon county has to do, had their favorite hunting grounds on the prairies, and although they were usually domiciled in a portion of the timbered lands bordering the prairies they were strictly Indians of the prairie.

into Mexico by incursions of the Indian tribes that were found in our country at the first coming of white men. This view, however, has been generally given up. The researches of Powell and other specialists, including Winchell and Brower in Minnesota, have well referred the building of the mounds to the ancestors of the present Indians." - Warren Upham in Minnesota in Three Centuries.

sThe Dakoian stock embraced many tribes and according to Indian tradition came from the Atlantic seaboard. Their original homes, according to the best authorities, were in the Carolinas, Virginia, and possibly portions of the Gulf coast. Into that region formerly the buffalo ranged. It is suggested that the quest for food probably led the Dakotas to follow the movements of that animal and thus in time to possess the country west of the Mississippi river.

The migration, which occurred several centuries before the discovery of America, covered a great length of time and was by way of the Ohio valley, which was the home of the Dakotas at one time. Some authorities assert that the Dakotan stock built at least a part of the celebrated mounds of the Ohio valley, as well as those of Eastern Tennessee and West Virginia.

The most important branches of the Dakotan stock that migrated to the West are given as follows (abridged) in The Aborigines of Minnesota, published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1911:

Sioux and Crees, driving the Sioux to the south and the Crees to the north. Thenceforth until the white man supplanted the red these two tribes occupied all the area of Minnesota, the Ojibways holding the northeastern wooded half and the Sioux its prairie half on the southwest .

The Sioux nation was divided into several different tribes, each of which laid claim to certain tracts. The southwestern part of Minnesota, including the present county of Lyon, was claimed by the Sissiton tribe. The location of the several bands inhabiting Southern Minnesota in 1834 has been told by the missionary, S. W. Pond, who came to Minnesota that year. He has written:

"The villages of the .M'dewakantonwan were on the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, extending from Winona to Shakopee. Most of the Indians living on the Minnesota river above Shakopee were Warpetonwan. At Big Stone lake there were both Warpetonwan and Sissitonwan, and at Lake Traverse lhanktonwan [Yankton], Sissitonwan and Warpetonwan. Part of the Warpekute lived on Cannon river and part at Traverse des Sioux. There were

"Sioux, or Dakota. Embraced San tee (Issanti), Sissiton, Wahpeton, Yankton, Yanktonai, Teton (embracing Brule, Sans Arcs, Blackfeet, Minneconjou, Two Kettles, the Ogallala and the Hunkpapa) and the Assiniboin, or Stone Sioux.

"Omaha (Maha) and their kindred, Ponca, Osage, Kwapa and Kansa. Formerly of the Ohio and Wabash rivers. Later in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, sometimes extending their domains temporarily to Minnesota and the Black Hills.

"Iowa (Dusty Heads). Included also the Otoe and the Missouri. Along the Mississippi river north of the Missouri, along the Des Moines river, and temporarily in Minnesota."

The word Dakota, by which the Indians preferred to be designated, signifies allies, or joined together in friendly compact. But from the earliest days the nation has been more commonly referred to as Sioux, a word of Ojibway origin and bestowed by the French voyageurs. For centuries the Ojibways of the Lake Superior country waged war against the Dakotas and whenever they spoke of the latter they called them Nadowaysioux, which signifies enemies. The Frenchmen nicknamed the Dakotas Sioux, a contraction of the Ojibway word.

frequent intermarriages between these divisions of the Dakotas, and they were more or less intermingled at all their villages. Though the manners, language and dress of the different divisions were not all precisely alike, they were essentially one people."

As has been mentioned before, the southwestern part of Minnesota was the country of the Sissiton branch of the Sioux nation from the time white men first visited it, The timber land along the Redwood river in Lyon county was a paradise for these Indians of the prairie and some of the band had their homes there; others frequented it on trapping and hunting expeditions and to gather the syrup from the maple trees.

Parker I. Pierce, who passed through Lyon county in the early sixties and was quite well informed on Indian affairs, has given an interesting account of Indian life in Lyon county before the coming of white settlers. In the Lyon County Reporter of December 2G, 1896, he wrote:

At Lynd there were about 1500 acres of timber (most of it having later been cut by the settlers), consisting of oak, bass and sugar maple. This timber was paradise for the Indians, furnishing shelter and fuel for winter and a feeding ground for their ponies. In the summer they would hunt and kill buffalo and dry the meat for winter. After the cold weather set in they devoted their time to trapping the fur-bearing animals, such as otter, mink and muskrats, which were abundant. In every slough one could count from three to forty houses or dens, which were made of rushes and varied in height. When there was to be high water in the spring they were built high, and when low water they were built low. That sign hardly ever failed. Now the rats have disappeared. The otter were not very plentiful, as the Indians kept them well trapped out. Their skins brought a fair price, probably two quarts of brown sugar. Wolves were very plentiful before the white trapper came among them. The Indian was so superstitious that he would not kill any; he said they were his Great Father's dogs. The same with a snake.

As I said before, there were plenty of sugar maples and the Indian women made hundreds of pounds of sugar. In the spring the surplus would go to the Indian trader and shortly would be traded back to them for furs and robes.

Each band of Indians had their allotment of trees. The troughs that were made to catch the sap remained under the trees until the following spring; then the same ones would go back to their camping ground.

The Indians were happy and rich with ponies. Their burial places were the oaks that stood on the bluffs. The ones that died were wrapped in a blanket and put in the fork of a tree and left there until they crumbled to dust. The older settlers can recollect seeing the burial places in Lyons township, adjoining the town of Lynd.

There is a mound the settlers call the knob, which is no doubt an ancient burial place. This knob looks as though the dirt had been carried and laid as systematically as for some observatory or look-out place; for one can stand there and see for miles in each direction. It once faced a lovely sheet of water which is now dry and is one of the best stock farms in the Northwest, owned and occupied by Mr. Ruliffson and sons. This mound has been nearly ruined by wolf hunters. There have been human bones found when digging for wolves. Years ago there was a hard-beaten trail leading to this mound from the timber, thence toward Wood lake, passing a very high peak where there was a large pile of rocks one could see for miles. No doubt this mound and peak have been used for look-outs, as the enemy, another tribe, was very troublesome.

The history of Lyon county before the white race took possession must be left almost entirely to the imagination; there is little data from which to write it. If inanimate things could speak, what wild tales of Indian adventure could be poured forth! But inanimate things cannot speak and the animate aborigine is a notoriously worthless historian, so a very interesting part of the history of Lyon county must forever remain unrecorded. Only trifling bits of history, intermingled with a plethora of legend, are preserved of the days before the Caucasian race took possession.

Let us, in imagery, take a look at the Lyon county of years gone by, when it was in primeval state, when it was as Nature had formed it. Its topography was practically the same as we find it today. There were the same broad, rolling prairies, stretching as far as the eye might reach, presenting in summer a perfect paradise of verdure, with its variegated hues of flowers and vegetation; in winter a dreary and snowmantled desert. The rivers and creeks flowed in the same courses as now; the lakes occupied the same banks as at the present day. But what a contrast!

"Wild beasts and birds and wilder red men then reigned supreme. Vast herds of bison, elk and deer roamed the open prairies and reared their young in the more sheltered places along the streams. With that wonderful appreciation of the beautiful which Nature has made an instinct in the savage, the untutored ' Sioux selected the country as his huntingground and roamed it at will. Such was the Lyon county before the march of civilization brought the white man to supplant the red.

Before introducing the first white man who set foot on the soil of Lyon county, let us review briefly the explorations that had been made in other parts of Minnesota.

White men first penetrated the Northwest country to the present state of Minnesota in the middle of the seventeenth century (1655-56). In 1683 the first map on which physical features of Minnesota were pictured was published in connection with Father Hennepin's writings. The map is very A'ague and demonstrates that little was known of the Northwest country. Five years later, in 1688, J. B. Franquelin, a Canadian-French geographer, drafted for King Louis XVI. of France a more detailed map of North America, making use of information gathered by .loliet and Marquette, La Salle, Hennepin, DuLuth and others. Some of the principal streams and lakes are marked and more or less accurately located, among others the R. des Moingene (Des Moines), which rises not far from our

A few French explorers, named above, had penetrated the present area of Minnesota, but none of them had explored the southwestern portion. The first white man to visit the interior of Southern Minnesota was Le Sueur, who in 1700 ascended the Minnesota river to near the present site of Mankato.

In 1699 Le Sueur received a commission from DTberville to visit and examine a copper mine which the former claimed to have learned of in the country of the Iowas.4 In April, 1700, with a company of about twentyfive persons he set out from the settlement on the lower Mississippi with a single shallop. On the nineteenth of September he reached the mouth of the Minnesota river and on the last day of that month, having reached the Blue Earth river, he built a fort in which he spent the winter. Fort L'Huillier, named for one of the chief collectors of the king of France, was a league up the Blue Earth river. A short distance from the fort the Frenchmen gathered large quantities of blue or green earth, which they believed to be copper ore. In the spring of 1701 Le Sueur with a part of his force descended the Mississippi with the "ore," 4000 pounds of which were sent to France. The garrison which had been left at Fort L'Huillier, having received ill treatment at the hands of the Indians and having run short of provisions, in 1703 returned to civilization in charge of Derague.

The data secured by Le Sueur were used in the preparation of a map of the Northwest country by William De L'isle. royal geographer of France, in 1703. Several of the larger and more important physical features of Southwestern Minnesota were more or less accurately located. For the first time the Minnesota river appeared upon a map, being labeled R. St. Pierre, or Mini-Sota. The Des Moines river also has a place on the map, being marked Des Moines, or le Moingona R., and its source was definitely located. There is nothing in the writings of Le Sueur, however, to lead to the belief that he extended his exploration to any country except along the Minnesota river and not much farther up that stream than the mouth of the Blue Earth.

During the next sixty-six years after Le Sueur visited the Minnesota river country, no white man was in Southwestern Minnesota, so far as we know. Then, in November, 1766, Jonathan Carver ascended the Minnesota and spent seven months with the Indians at the mouth of the Cottonwood river, in the vicinity of the present city of New Ulm. He remained with the Indians until April, 1767, and learned their language. 5

"On the twenty-fifth [of November, 1766] I returned to my canoe, which I had left at the mouth of the river St. Pierre [Minnesota]; and here I parted with regret from my young friend, the prince of the Winnebagoes. The river being clear of ice by reason of its southern situation, I found nothing to obstruct my passage. On the twenty-eighth, being advanced about forty miles, I arrived at a small branch that fell into it from the north; to which, as it had no name that I could distinguish it by, I gave my own, and the reader will find it in the plan of my travels denominated Carver's river. About forty miles higher up I came to the forks of the Verd [Blue Earth] and Red Marble [Watonwan] rivers, which join at some little distance before they enter the St. Pierre.

"The river St. Pierre at its junction with the Mississippi is about a hundred yards broad and continues that breadth nearly all the way I sailed upon it. It has a great depth of water and in some places runs very swiftly. About fifteen miles from its mouth are some rapids and much higher up are many others.

"I proceeded up this river about 200 miles, to the country of the Nadowessies [Sioux] of the plains, which lies a little above the fork formed by the Verd and Red Marble rivers just mentioned, where a branch from the south [the Cottonwood] nearly joins the Messorie [Missouri] river." [The sources of the Cottonwood river are near those of Rock river, the latter being a tributary of the Missouri.]

6From information received from the Indians Carver made some wonderful deductions as to the physical features of the country. In his narrative of the trip he wrote:

"By the accounts I received from the Indians I have reason to believe that the river St. Pierre [Minnesota] and the Messorie [Missouri], though they enter the Mississippi twelve hundred miles from each other, take their rise in the same neighborhood, and this within the space of a mile. The river St. Pierre's

It is possible that Carver during this time may have visited the country which is now included within the boundaries of Lyon county, for he hunted with the Indians over some of the great plains of Southwestern Minnesota which, "according to their [the Indians'] account, are unbounded and probably terminate on the coast of the Pacific ocean."'1

Undoubtedly white men, engaged in trade with the natives or trapping and hunting for the fur companies or for themselves, visited that part of Southwestern Minnesota which is now designated Lyon county in the early part of the nineteenth century. But such men left no records of their operations, and our information concerning the exploration of the country is obtained almost wholly from expeditions sent out by the government.

An early visitor to Southwestern Minnesota was Major Stephen H. Long, who conducted a party of exploration, under direction of the secretary of war, northern branch [that is, the main river] rises from a number of lakes [Big Stone lake] near the Shining Mountains [the Coteau des Prairies] and it is from some of these also that a capital branch [Red River of the North] of the river Bourbon [Nelson river], which runs into Hudson's Bay, has its sources. ... I have learned that the four most capital rivers of North America, viz., the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the River Bourbon [Nelson] and the Oregon [Columbia], or River of the VVest, have their sources in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty miles of each other; the latter, however, is rather farther west.

"This shows that these parts are the highest lands of North America; and it is an instance not to be paralleled on the other three-quarters of the globe, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise together and each, after running separate courses, discharge their waters into different oceans at the distance of 2000 miles from their source."

"The river St. Pierre, which runs through the territory of the Nadowessies flows through a most delightful country, abounding with all the necessaries of life that grow spontaneously, and with a little cultivation it might be made to produce even the luxuries of life. Wild rice grows here in great abundance; and every part is filled with trees bending under their loads of fruit, such as plums, grapes and apples; the meadows are covered with hops and many sorts of vegetables; whilst the ground is stored with useful roots, with angelica, spikenard and ground nuts as large as hens' eggs At a little distance from the sides of the river are eminences from which you have views that cannot l,c exceeded by even the must beautiful of those I have already described Amidst these are delightful groves and such amazing quantities of maples thai they would produce sugar sufficient for any numbei of inhabitants."

to the source of the Minnesota river and to Lake Winnipeg in 1823. In the party were several scientific gentlemen from Philadelphia, among them Professor William Keating of the University of Pennsylvania, who was the historian of the party.

It was during the month of July, 1823, that Major Long and party made the trip up the Minnesota river, traveling on the south side of the stream. Professor Keating mentions the Redwood river and states that the red pipestone was said to exist on its banks three days' journey from its mouth. Mention is made of Patterson's rapids, the Grand portage, the Pejehata Zeze Watapan (Yellow Medicine) river, Beaver rivulet (Lac qui Parle river) and other physical features. Interesting observations were recorded respecting the fauna and flora of the prairies.

Another exploration of Southwestern Minnesota was made in the summer of 1835 by G. W. Featherstonhaugh, an English gentleman. He bore the title United States geologist and was commissioned by Colonel J. J. Abert, of the Bureau of Topographical Engineers. Featherstonhaugh proceeded up the Minnesota river for a considerable distance and explored parts of the Coteau des Prairies, which he described at some length. His exact route is not known and it is possible he passed through Lyon county.7

'From Featherstonhaugh's expedition resulted two works, one entitled "Report of geological reconnoisance made in 1835 from the seat of government by the way of Green Bay and the Wisconsin Territory to the Coteau des Prairies, an elevated ridge dividing the Missouri from the St. Peter's [Minnesota] river," printed by order of the Senate in 1S36, and the other "A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotar," published in London in 1847.

sMost of the information concerning the operations of Joseph LaFramboise herein contained was obtained by Doane Robinson, now secretary »f the South Dakota Historical Society, in an interview _ with Joseph LaFramboise, Jr., in 1900. The latter remembered well the time of the family's residence in Lyon county and the visit of George Catlin in 1S37.

Joseph LaFramboise, a trader in the employ of the American Fur Company, and his post was in the Lyncl woods on the Redwood river. There for a period of two years he lived with his family, engaged in trade with the Indians.

So early as 1826 Joseph LaFramboise was a trader, licensed by the Indian agent at the agency established at the mouth of the Minnesota river. In the late twenties he established a trading post on the headwaters of the Des Moines river, probably in Murray county, where in 1829 a son, Joseph LaFramboise, Jr., was born.8 In 1834 he moved the post to the "Great Oasis," at about the present location of Lowville, in Murray county, remained there one year, and in 1835 removed the post to the Lyncl woods.

For two years LaFramboise and his family were residents of the future Lyon county, he acting as agent for the American Fur Company in bartering with the Indians. In 1837 he moved to the mouth of the Cottonwood river and the next year to a homestead in Ridgely township, Nicollet county, about eleven miles above the present site of New Ulm. LaFramboise died in 1856.

It was in 1837, while LaFramboise was residing in Lyon county, that George Catlin, the famous traveler and Indian delineator, traversed the county on his way to visit the Pipestone quarries.9 He organized the expedition at the falls of St. Anthony and was accompanied only by Robert Serril

His mother was an Indian woman, the daughter of Walking Day. LaFramboise, Sr., was a much married man. His second and third wives were daughters of Sleepy Eye and his fourth was Jane Dickson, whom In married in 1845 at Traverse des Sioux. That marriage was the first performed in what is now Nicollet county.

9George Catlin made the trip from New York City, traveled 2400 miles, and devoted eight months' time, "traveling at considerable expense and for part of the way with much fatigue and exhaustion." He had planned to make the trip when at Fort Snelling in 1835, but learning of the Featherstonhaugh expedition that year to the Coteau des Prairies, he postponed the trip two years.

This little party traveled horseback and followed the usual route up the Minnesota on the south side. At Traverse des Sioux, near the present site of St. Peter, Mr. Catlin and his companion halted at the cabin of a trader, where they were threatened by a band of savages and warned not to persist in their determination to visit the quarries. They continued on their way, however, crossed to the north side of the river at Traverse des Sioux, proceeded in a westerly direction, and crossed the Minnesota to the south bank near the mouth of the Waraju (Cottonwood), close to the present city of New Ulm.

There Messrs. Catlin and Wood left the river and journeyed "a little north of west" for the Coteau des Prairies. They traveled through the present counties of Brown, Redwood and Lyon and passed several Indian villages, at several of which they were notified that they must go back; but, undaunted, they continued their journey. Catlin states in one place that he traveled one hundred miles or more from the mouth of the Cottonwood, and in another place "for a distance of one hundred and twenty or thirty miles" before reaching the base of the coteau, when he was still "forty or fifty miles from the Pipestone quarries."10 He declared this part of the journey was over one of the most beautiful prairie countries in the world.11

10Most of Catlin's distances were overestimated. The distance from the mouth of the Cottonwood to the base of the coteau where he came upon it is only about seventy-two miles in a direct line; then he was about thirty-six miles from the quarries.

lll'This tract of country, as well as that along' the St. Peter's [Minnesota] river, is mostly covered with the richest soil and furnishes an abundance of good water, which feeds from a thousand living springs. For many miles we had the coteau in view in the distance before us, which looked like a blue cloud settling down in the horizon, and we were scarcely of Joseph La Framboise, whom he referred to as an old friend, at the Lynd woods. From the trading post the intrepid travelers journeyed to the quarries, guided by their Indian. The explorer described the land along the route as a series of swells or terraces, gently rising one above the other. According to his account, there was not a tree or bush to be seen in any direction and the ground was covered with a green turf of grass five or six inches high.

The next white men to penetrate Lyon county were a party of explorers in the government employ, who passed through in the summer of 1S3S. In the party were six men under command of Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, with John C. Fremont, later nominee of the Republican party for president of the United States, second in command.12 Among the others were Charles A. Geyer, the botanist of the expedition; J. Eugene Flandin and James Renville. -i{

Nicollet and Fremont traveled from Washington to St. Louis and thence up the Mississippi river to H. H. Sibley's trading post, near the mouth of the Minnesota river. Thence they journeyed over the general route of travel up the south side of the Minnesota river, crossing at Traverse des Sioux. They proceeded west across the "ox-bow," stopping at Big Swan Jake in Nicollet county, and crossed the Minnesota again at the mouth of the Cottonwood. They proceeded up the valley of the Cottonwood, on the north side of the river, to a point near the present site of Lamberton, and then crossed to the south sensible of the fact when we had arrived at its base from the graceful and almost imperceptible swells with which it commences its elevation above the country around it." - North American Indians, by George Catlin. , . , , , -., j-4j i-From 1S36 to 1S43 Nicollet, most of the time assisted by Fremont, prosecuted :i geographical survey of the upper Mississippi country. He explored nearlj all portions of Minnesota and many other parts of the country theretofore unvisited. His operations in Southwestern Minnesota were (mite extensive.

side of the river and struck across country to the west. They passed through the southeast corner of Lyon county, about where the city of Tracy now stands, and passed around the north end of Lake Shetek. Thence they proceeded southwestward, between Bear lakes, to the Pipestone quarries.13

After spending three clays at the Pipestone quarries, where is now situated the city of Pipestone, the Nicollet party visited and named Lake Benton (for Mr. Fremont's father-in-law. Senator Benton) and then proceeded westward into Dakota, visiting and naming Lakes Preston (for Senator Preston), Poinsett (for J. R. Poinsett, secretary of war). Abert, Thompson, Tetonkoha, Kampeska and Hendricks. Before returhing to civilization Nicollet visited Big Stone lake and other places to the north. He returned to the falls of St. Anthony by way of Joseph Renville's camp on the Lac qui Parle.

As a result of Nicollet's exploration several physical features of Lyon county and the immediate vicinity were given names and appeared on a map for the first time, all quite accurately located. Among them are St. Peter or Minisotah river (on which are shown Crooked rapids, Rock Bar rapids and Patterson's rapids), Tchanshayapi or Redwood R., Waraju [Cottonwood] R., Pejuta Zizi R. or Yellow Medicine R., L. Shetek

13On Nicollet's map, issued in 1843. his route to the quarries is indicated by a fine dotted line. This map at the time it was issued was the most complete and correct one of the upper Mississippi country. It covered all of Minnesota and Iowa, about one-half of Missouri, and much of the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Illinois. The author save names to many streams and lakes and gave the first representation of the striking topographical features of the western and northern parts of Minnesota. He located, by astronomical observations, the numerous streams and lakes and the main geographical features of the state, filling in by eye-sketching and by pacing the intermediate objects.

Other explorers had visited and described the Coteau des Prairies, but Nicollet was the first one to define its boundaries on a map. He described the region west of the Mississippi as containing several plateaus, or elevated prairies, which marked the limits of the various river basins. The most remarkable of these, he declared, was the Plateau du Coteau ties Prairies (plateau of prairie heights), a name bestowed by the earlier French explorers, and Coteau du Grand Bois

(designated as the head of the Moingonan [Des Moines] river), L. Benton and Red Pipestone Quarry. On his map the country along the Minnesota river is labeled Warpeton country and that further south Sissiton country.

The next recorded visit of white men was in 1844, when an expedition in charge of Captain J. Allen came up the Des Moines river, operating chiefly to chart that and other streams. He passed through Jackson, Cottonwood and Murray counties and came to Lake Shetek, which he decided was the source of the Des Moines river. He gave that body of water the name Lake of the Oaks and described it as remarkable for a singular arrangement of the peninsulas running into it from all sides and for a heavy growth of timber that covered the peninsulas and the borders of the lake.

With Lake Shetek as temporary headquarters, Captain Allen extended his explorations in several directions. He proceeded due north from the lake and crossed the Cottonwood and later the Redwood near the present site of Marshall. When thirty-seven miles north of Lake Shetek he turned east and crossed the Redwood again near the site of Redwood Falls. From the mouth of the Redwood he explored the south shore of the Minnesota river several miles up and down and returned to

(wooded heights). Nicollet described the Coteau des Prairies as a vast plain, elevated 1916 feet above the level of the ocean and 890 feet above Big Stone lake, lying between latitudes forty-three and fortv-six degrees, extending from northwest to southeast for a distance of 200 miles, its width varying from fifteen to forty miles. On the map he located it as extending from a point a short distance northwest of Lake Traverse in a southeasterly direction into Iowa, including the western part of Lyon county.

"Whatever people may fix their abode in this region must necessarily become agriculturists and shepherds, drawing all their resources from the soil. They must not only raise the usual agricultural products for feeding, as is now but too generally done in some parts of the West, but they will have to turn their attention to other rural occupations, such as tending sheep for their wool, which would greatly add to their resources, as well as finally bring about a more extended application of the industrial arts among them."

From events so far recorded it can be seen that up to the middle of the nineteenth century the general knowledge of the country comprising Southwestern Minnesota was extremely Hunted. For a decade after Captain Allen passed through Lyon county in 1S44 there are no records of the visits of other white men, although undoubtedly some of the traders who had headquarters on the Minnesota river trod its soil occasionally.

Excepting what these nomadic people of the Indian country knew, we find that when Minnesota Territory was created in 1849 the southwestern portion was a veritable terra incognita.15 In fact, all the land west of the Mississippi river was still in undisputed ownership of the Sioux bands, and white men (excepting the licensed traders) had no rights whatever in the country. But the tide of immigration to the West had set in and settlers were clamoring for admission to the rich lands west of the river. In time the legal barrier was removed.16

In the spring of 1851 President Fillmore, at the solicitation of residents of Minnesota Territory, directed that a treaty with the Sioux be made and

14"From Lizard creek of the Des Moines to the source of the Des Moines, and thence east to the St. Peter's, is a range for elk and common deer, but principally elk. Wre saw a great many of the elk on our route and killed many of them ; they were sometimes seen in droves of hundreds, but were always difficult to approach and very difficult to overtake in chase, except with a fleet horse and over good ground. No dependence could be placed in this country for the subsistence of troops marching through it." - Captain Allen's Report.

15" Westward of the Mississippi river the country was unexplored and virgin. There were wide expanses of wild and trackless prairie, never traversed by a white man, which are now the highly developed counties of Southern and Southwestern Minnesota, with their fine and flourishing cities and towns and the other institutions that make for a state's eminence and greatness. Catlin had passed from Little Rock to the Pipestone quarry; Nicollet and his surveying partyhad gone over the same route and had traveled along the Minnesota. Sibley and Fremont had chased elk over the prairies in what are now Steele, Dodge, Freeborn and Mower counties; the Missouri cattle drovers had led their herds to Fort Snelling and up to named as commissioners to conduct the negotiations Governor Alexander Ramsey, ex-officio commissioner for Minnesota, and Luke Lea, the national commissioner of Indian affairs. These commissioners completed a treaty with the Sissiton and Wahpaton bands - the upper bands, as they were usually called - at Traverse des Sioux (near the present site of St. Peter) during the latter part of July, 1851. Immediately thereafter the commissioners proceeded to Mendota (near St. Paul), where they were successful in making a treat}- with the AVahpakoota and M'daywakanton bands.

The treaties were ratified, with important amendments, by Congress in 1852. The amended articles were signed by the Indians in September, 1852, and in February of the next year President Fillmore proclaimed the treaties in force. By this important proceeding the future Lyon county passed from the ownership of the Sioux to the United States. By the two treaties there were transferred about 30,000,000 acres from 8000 Indians, the greater portion of the land lying in Minnesota.17 The price paid was about twelve and one-half cents per acre.

the Red River regions, but in all, not fifty white men had passed over the tract of territory now comprising Southern and Southwestern Minnesota when the territory was admitted in 1849." - Return I. Holcombe in Minnesota in Three Centuries.

18In 1841 a treaty was negotiated by J. B. Doty, governor of Wisconsin, in councils held at Traverse des Sioux, Mendota and Wabasha, by the terms of which the Sioux were to cede about, 25,000,000 acres of hind, but the treaty was not confirmed by the Senate.

17The territory ceded by the Indians was declared to be: "All their lands in the state of Iowa and also all their lands in the territory of Minnesota lying easl of the following line, to-wit: Beginning at the junction of the Buffalo river with the Red River of the North [about twelve miles north of Moorhead, in Clay county]: thence along the western bank of said Red River of the North to the mouth of the Sioux Wood river; thence along the western bank of said Sioux Wood river to Lake Traverse; thence along the western shore of said lake to the southern extremity 1 hereof; thence in :i direct line to the junction of Kampeska lake with the Tchan-ka-sna-du-ta, or Sioux river; thence along I Inwestern bank of said river to its point of intersection

Mississippi river and settlements were founded at numerous places in the eastern part of the territory. But for 'some years they did not extend so far west as Lyon county, and until after the Sioux War the territory that comprises the county was largely the same virgin country it had always been.

During the year 1855 white people for the first time resided in Lyon county, if we except Joseph LaFramboise, who for a short time had a trading post within its boundaries. In the year mentioned James W. Lynd established a trading post in the Lynd woods on the Redwood, and Aaron Myers and family located on the Cottonwood, in the present township of Amiret.

It was during the month of May, 1855, 18 that James W. Lynd established his trading post on the Redwood. The original site was on land which when surveyed was found to be the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 5, Lyons township, - land which later was taken as a homestead by Charles E. Goodell. The groves along the Redwood had always been a favorite camping ground of the Indians and the site was a model one for barter with the natives. The fur trade was a profitable one and Mr. Lynd is said to have carried on a successful business, trading sugar, blankets, calico, tobacco, ammunition and possibly whisky for pelts of

Excluded from this territory were two reservations. That for the upper Sioux was a tract of land twenty miles wide, straddling the Minnesota river from Lake Traverse to the Yellow Medicine river. The reservation for the lower bands was of the same width and extended from the upper reserve down to the neighborhood of New Ulm. There were disputes regarding these reservations until Congress in 1863 annulled all treaty obligations toward the Sioux and the Indians were removed beyond the limits of the state.

ISC. H. Whitney is the authority for giving this date as the time of the establishment of the post. He obtained the information from the half-breed LeMars and an old Indian, Shoto John by name.

loWhen Mr. Goodell took his claim in the late sixties he found the remains of a burned buildkig on the site of the old post. In 1880, while plowing for a garden a short distance north of this place, he unearthed a tub full of tools, consisting of several handsaws, an augur,

According to the best information available, the post was conducted at the original location on section 5 two years and was destroyed by fire.19 It was then moved down the river a short distance to the northeast quarter of section 33, Lynd township, only a stone's throw from the present village of Lynd. It was on land which later became known. as the Wright place. There he built a log cabin, in which he conducted his business some time longer and which in the late sixties was used by the settlers for various purposes. It is unknown how long Mr. Lynd operated the post in Lyon county. He moved to the Lower Agency on the Minnesota river, about six miles below Redwood Falls, and there established a store.20

The others wrho ventured far from the limits of civilization and founded a home in Lyon county in 1855 were Aaron Myers and family. That year he and his wife and children21 made permanent settlement on what is now the northwest quarter of section 31, Amiret township. Myers located there for the purpose of trapping and trading with the Indians, and his home was there two years and six months. Mr. Myers has told of his residence there:22 chisels, hoes, a handax, flatiron, a teacup and saucer. The tub had entirely rotted away, only the impression being left by which to determine what it had been. Most of the tools were destroyed by rust.

20James W. Lynd was quite a prominent man in the affairs of the frontier country and served as a member of the State Senate in 1861. He was one of the first victims of the Sioux massacre, having met his death at the store of Nathan Myrick at the Lower Agency. Others killed with him were Andrew J. Myrick and (I. \V. Divoll.

21Mrs. Myers' maiden name was Walkup and she was born in Vermont January 31, 1826. She died as a result of exposure during the Sioux massacre. The children of the family were as follows: Louisa, born May 20, 1850; Arthur J., born November 20, 1851; Olive E., born July 24, 1854; Fred B., born May 25, 1857, died in 1864; Addie J., born May 12, 1861.

New York, .June 8, 1825. I moved from Polk county, Wisconsin, to the piece of land now known as the Robinson farm'-'3 on the Cottonwood river, four miles above the present village of Amiret, Lyon county. Minnesota, where with my wife and five children I lived for more than two years. We planted some corn and a garden, but in the main we depended on trapping and trade with the Indians. At first everything went well with us and our relations with the Indians were pleasant.''

Mr. Myers was known among the Indians as Siha Sisrinna (Small Feet). He was also called Doctor because he successfully treated several of the Indians who. had sore eyes and also took care of those who were sick or injured. He became well-known among the natives who frequented the vicinity.24

During 1S56 and 1857 a wagon road was constructed across southern Lyon county, being a part of the road between Fort Ridgely ami the Missouri river, known as the "Fort Ridgely and South Pass Road." It was constructed by the United States government under direction of Albert H. Campbell, who bore the title of "General Superintendent Pacific Wagon Roads," but the field work was in charge of Colonel William H. Nobles.25^

23The home of Mr. Myers was not on the George Robinson farm. W hen the pioneer revisited the scene in later years he recognized his old home on the Grover place, now the property of L. F. O'Brien. The original house is still standing.

24Much of the information concerning the early settlement of Saratoga (as the point later was known) is obtained from Dr. H. M. Workman, of Tracy, who secured it from Mr. Myers and others. I have also made use of data secured from Mr. Myers by Doane Robinson, now secretary of the South Dakota Historical Society.

"Colonel William H. Nobles was born in 1816. He constructed the first wagon road in Minnesota and became noted as the discoverer of the pass in the Rocky mountains which shortened the emigrant route to the Pacific side some 500 miles, and through which the Union Pacific railroad now passes. A Minnesota county is named in his honor. In 1S61 he was president of the Minnesota Old Settlers' Association.

-The course of the road as described by Albert H. Campbell in his report to the secretary of the Interior February 19, 1S59, was as follows: to the line that separates Monroe and Amiret townships and crossed the Cotton wood on section 31, Amiret township, and section 36, Sodus township. Thence it continued westward, crossed the Redwood river near the present site of Russell, and passed close to Lake Benton. From the lake it extended to the Missouri river.26 The road was intended as a highway for emigrant trains to the Pacific coast, but the eastern end of the road, at least, was never so used.

What particularly interests the people of Lyon county is the fact that Colonel Nobles had a permanent camp at the crossing of the Cottonwood, spent one or two winters there with his men, erected a house, stables and corral, and there built the finest bridge on the road. At the camp was a spring of water, which later became known as Nobles' Spring, while across the river was a fenced field, in which it is believed the roadmakers raised a garden. The. bridge had a substantial set of abutments and the stable had a stone foundation laid in mortar. The ruins of the Nobles camp were in existence many years after the county was settled.

in consequence of the insufficiency of the appropriation and of alleged Indian hostilities. The general location of this road is as follows: Beginning at the ferry on the Minnesota river, which is 150 feet wide at this place, opposite Fort Ridgely. The general course of the road is southwesterly, passing through a marshy region a few miles south of Limping Devil's lake to the north fork of the Cottonwood, a distance of about seventeen miles, thence to the Cottonwood river, over a rolling country, with lakes and marshes, about one and one-half miles below the mouth of Plum creek, distance about nineteen miles. From this point the road continues across Plum creek and three good watering places to the crossing of Cottonwood at Big Wood, about eighteen and one-half miles. Thence the road continues to Hole-in-the-Mountain, near Lake Benton, a distance of about thirty-two miles, passing through a region abounding in lakes and an abundance of wood, water and grass. From Lake Benton the road passes for the most part over a high prairie to the Big Sioux river, about twenty-three and one-half miles. . . . This road, as far as built, is remarkably direct and is believed, from the description of the country through which it passes, to be the best location which could have been made, securing a plentiful supply of water, grass and timber."

Colonel William H. Nobles, dated January 18, 1S58. "upon the Fort Ridgely and South Pass Wagon Road, constructed under the direction of the Department of the Interior, 1856-57- 58 ':-7

... I have to report that I have located and built a good wagon road from Fort Ridgely to the Missouri river, in latitude 43 degrees, 47 minutes, between Bijou hill and Fort "Lookout."

The road has been selected and made with a view to accommodate the emigrant, by having it pass through a good country and in the vicinity of wood and water; and also, with these valuable considerations always in sight, I have been able to complete the road in almost a direct line from Fort Ridgely to the terminus on the Missouri river. . . The rivers on the road to be crossed are North Branch of the Cottonwood river, Cottonwood river (twice), Redwood river, Medary creek, Big Sioux river, Perrine creek, Riviere du Jacques or James river, besides a number of small creeks.

On the Cottonwood river I have constructed a rough bridge adapted to the present travel, but it is important that this river should be well bridged at both of the crossings. The rapid flow of emigration to this section of country also demands that the bridges be immediately constructed.

... At this time most alarming accounts had been received from the Yellow Medicine, and messengers were going through the country preparing the frontiers in anticipation of a general Indian war. . . .

In view of these difficulties I returned to my former camp on the Cottonwood river and employed my men bridging that stream and repairing wagons, harness, etc. . . .

I have erected on the Cottonwood river a substantial log house, with store-room, etc., and have placed the stock and property in charge of a small number of men. I have also erected good stables for the protection of the animals, cut and secured hay sufficient, I think, to keep them through an ordinary winter.

During a part of the time of the residence of the Myers family in Lyon county, a trapper, Charles Hammer by name - but commonly called "Swede

2SThe Dakota Land Company also laid out towns at Flandreau, Medary, Sioux Falls and other points on the Big Sioux river, far out in the Indian country, and planned big for the colonization of the frontier. It seems strange, indeed, that any company of sane men would attempt to found a town in such a country as Lyon county was in 1S57, but the act was not more out of the ordinary than many that were proposed.

The fifties were remarkable ones in Minnesota Territory by reason of the immense tide of immigration and the consequent activity in real estate operations. The fever of real estate speculation attacked all classes. Enormous and rapid profits were made by speculators

Charley" - made his home there and operated in the vicinity. Mr. Myers described him as a good-natured fellow. but did not know whence he came or what later became of him.

J. H. Ingalls is another who established a home in the same vicinity during the time Mr. Myers resided there. With four children (his wife was dead) he located on the Cottonwood a little above Mr. Myers' home, also on section 31, Amiret township, and near the Nobles stables. But little is known of Ingalls' life in Lyon county and it is known that he remained only a short time. He married again and with his wife and two daughters, aged twelve and fourteen years, met death in the massacre of 1862. Two other children. bo3^s, were taken prisoners.

While the Myers family was living in this out-of-the-way place, in the spring of 1857, the Dakota Land Company located a townsite, named Saratoga, on section 1, Custer, near the Myers home.28 A house was erected on the townsite and John Renniker, an employe, was left in charge. He has been described as a plain, honest Pennsylvania Dutchman. The sole inhabitant of Saratoga determined to turn a penny to his own account and sold whisky to the Indians, in consequence of which he soon lost his position. Thereafter Saratoga was deserted and Renniker made his home with Mr. Myers, by whom he was employed.

who had the foresight and courage to venture. Elaborate schemes for big ventures were planned; nothing was done in a niggardly manner; frenzied finance reigned supreme.

Railroad rumors filled the air and "paper" roads covered the territory from one end to the other, most of them backed by bonuses granted by the Legislature. Townsite companies were organized and extensively operated. Townsites were indiscriminately planted on the frontier and the Legislature was prevailed upon to establish wagon roads leading to them, to pass acts declaring them incorporated villages, and to declare them the county seats of counties created for the purpose - counties in which lived not a human being.

river country in the spring of 1857 with a party of the Dakota Land Company, I nit soon returned home. Upon his return he sent Renniker with his oxen and wagon to New Ulm for supplies. Contrary to his employer's expressed instructions, Renniker bought a tengallon cask of whisky and started home. John Campbell, a notorious half-breed, had witnessed the purchase and with a party of seven Sioux warriors followed and overtook the unfortunate man near the present village of Walnut Grove. Renniker was murdered and the goods taken by Campbell and the Indians.29

Renniker's death became known and "Swede Charley," accompanied by Hoel Parmelee, one of the settlers at Lake Shetek, set" out to hud the body. They secured the assistance of Andrew Koch, who lived in the vicinity, and found the murdered man near Nobles' crossing of the Cottonwood, on or near section 19, township 109, range 38. The body was brought to Saratoga and buried on the ridge north of Mr. Myers' house.

After the murder Mr. Myers feared to have his family exposed to Indian attack and moved to the Lake Shetek settlement, which had in the meantime been established. There he and his family resided until the massacre of 1862, when they barely escaped with their lives.

In the late fifties when settlers pushed out to the Lake Shetek country they came over the Nobles road to near Walnut Grove and then switched off and proceeded to the lake by way of Lake Sigel. This route was said to have been taken because water was

29John Campbell was lynched in Mankato in 1865 for the alleged murder of the Jewett family. He and Mr. Jewett had served in the same company in the army and after the war Campbell had located near LeSueur, while Jewett, who was known to have about $300 in cash, had returned to his home on a farm near Mankato. Soon after, so it was believed, Campbell and five Indians went to the Jewett home and murdered the whole family with the exception of a baby and Mr. Jewett's father, who had been left for dead.

more easily obtained. In 1861 a road was laid out between New Ulm and Sioux falls by "a lawyer, a cross-eyed man from Dubuque - called 'Old Steve' and Hoel Parmelee,"30 which made a shorter route between the two settlements than over the Nobles trail by way of Saratoga. The trail crossed the lower end of Lake Shetek ami did not touch Lyon county.

Lyon county was left destitute of white inhabitants after the departure of Messrs. Lynd and Myers and remained so until several years after the Sioux War. During these years white men had established homes almost to the border of the county, but none had had the hardihood to venture quite so far from the more populous communities.

Mankato and New Ulm had grown into thriving little villages and the country adjacent to them had become settled. Farther up the Minnesota were Fort Ridgely and the two Indian agencies, at wmich resided many white people. To the south, Jackson county had attained a population of two or three hundred people, a small colony had been established in the Graham Lakes country of Nobles county, and just over the Lyon county line, on Lake Shetek, there was a thriving little settlement. Even farther west, on the Big Sioux river, colonies had been planted and were striving to hold the land. On Lake Benton in after years were found ruins of the homes of people who had lived there before the massacre, but nothing is known of them or their fate.31 growing not far from where the Normal School now stands. It is said that a posse pursued the Indians, overtook them in Lyon county or nearby, and shot down the five accomplices.

31 A writer in the Lake Benton News of January 27, 1881, said: "There is evidence that the country around Lake Benton had early settlers. A gentleman who settled at Lake Benton in March, 1MM.I, has said were living on all sides of the future Lyon county prior to the outbreak of the Sioux War. But from the time of the departure of the traders, Lynd and Myers, until after the Sioux were driven from the country we have no record of the permanent occupation of Lyon county by white men.

But, while the county was not occupied permanently during this period, we know that at least a few trappers operated here. Three such were Luther C. Ives, George Lamb and Charles Fesenden.32 The men spent the winter of 1860-61 on Lake Shetek and the next winter lived in Indian tepees at Saratoga. Mr. Lamb was killed in the massacre of August, 1862, near New Ulm and Mr. Ives took part in the defense of that city.

Another man who claimed to have trapped extensively in Lyon county during this period was T. J. Bowers. According to his story he employed a number of trappers and had his headquarters in the vicinity of Saratoga, where he lived in a dug-out. He made the statement that at the time of the massacre he was a scout in the government employ, and that he spent the night of August 20, 1862 - the date of the Lake Shetek massacre - in the Myers cabin at Saratoga.33

It is possible that temporary settlement may have been made at another point in Lyon county before the Sioux War. On sections 32 and 29, Lake that when he arrived there were only two other settlers in the vicinity - William Taylor and Charles Shindle. He reported that there were several vacant houses scattered around the lake - six of them - partly burned. There were also several large pieces of breaking done. On one place there were a large number of rails and posts split in the timber and logs cut but not split. The writer asked several of the Indians about this, but they knew nothing. His opinion was that they fell victims to the 1862 massacre. The writer found the skeletons of two persons about where the Lake Benton depot now stands."

"Mr. Bowers was in Tracy June 9, 1893, and in company with Dr. H. M. Workman, Earle Miller and Niel Currie he drove out to the scenes of his early

Marshall township, the settlers of 1870 found one or two pieces of land which had been broken many years before. The furrows had grown over to grass and stood as solid as the unbroken prairie. Those who made the discovery estimated that the breaking must have been done before the massacre.

Whoever may have resided in the county previously had departed before the Indian outbreak of August, 1862, and Lyon county was destitute of inhabitants when the outbreak occurred.

Fortunate was it for Lyon county that settlements were not located within its boundaries when the terrible Sioux massacre came upon the exposed frontier in the awful days of August, 1862. For the fair soil of Southwestern Minnesota was crimsoned with the blood of many innocent men, women and children. Fiendish atrocity, blood-curdling cruelty and red-handed murder ran riot. The murder-crazed redskins plied the rifle and tomahawk until not less than eight hundred victims had paid the penalty for trying to extend the limits of civilization. The massacre was the most stupendous one in the annals of Indian warfare, and only for the fact that it contained no settlers did Lyon county escape the awful calamity.

The valley of the Minnesota river was drenched with blood. In the present counties of Brown, Nicollet, Redwood, Renville and Yellow Medicine men, women and children were butchered by

"He [Bowers] said he would like to drive out to Saratoga and look that country over once more. That he had been there in an early day cannot be questioned. We went to the Nobles spring, stable and bridge, and from there he pointed up the river to Jim Morgan's place and said: 'I was there last in 1864 and never returned - left in January.' .... We drove over and a short way up the river, and about seventy-five feet from it, on the banks of a small creek, we found the dug-out as described. It was west of George Robinson's and south of the fenced field. Robinson and Morgan had never seen it. . . . He claimed that he had left in the dug-out several hundred traps and that he employed fourteen men to trap We dug out the place, but found nothing."

the hundreds. At other exposed points in Southwestern Minnesota the redskins fell upon the settlers and enacted lesser tragedies - lesser only because their victims were not so numerous. At Wood lake, only a few miles from the Lyon county line, was fought the deciding battle of the war. At Lake Shetek, just beyond the southern boundary of Lyon county, occurred one of the famous butcheries of the massacre, participated in by Indians who had their homes on the Redwood river in Lyon county.

In the settlement at Lake Shetek at the time of the massacre were about fifty persons, consisting of the following named men and their families: John Eastlick, Charles Hatch. Phineas B. Hurd,34 John Wright, William J. Duley, H. W. Smith, Aaron Myers,35 William Everett,36 Thomas Ireland, Andrew Koch; and the following named single men: William Jones,37 Edgar Bentle}r, *John Voigt, E. G. Koch, John F. Burns and Daniel Burns.38

On the twentieth of August about twenty Sioux came to the lake and ruthlessly murdered a number of the settlers, wounded many more, and took some into captivity. They were headed by White Lodge, chief of one of the upper bands, and accompanying them were Grizzly Bear (also known as Lean Bear) and others from the Lynd woods.39 These Indians were acquainted with the Lake Shetek settlers and in the past had been shown many kindnesses by them. Their attack was the basest treachery.

The first home visited was that of Phineas B. Hurd, who was absent at the time. Ten of the Indians entered the house and while Mrs. Hurd prepared breakfast talked and smoked their pipes. E. G. Voigt, the hired man. picked up

34Was absent at the time of the massacre 35Had formerly lived in Lyon county. 36Later became a resident of Marshall. 87Was absent at the time of the massacre.

the baby when it awoke and cried and walked out in the yard with it. No sooner had he left the house than an Indian deliberately shot him dead near the door. Mrs. Hurd was amazed at the deed, for these Indians had always been kindly treated and had often fed at her table. She ran to the assistance of the fallen man and her baby, but a miscreant intercepted and she was ordered to leave at once and go to the settlements across the prairie. She was even refused the privilege of dressing her naked children and was compelled to commence her wandering over the trackless prairie, without food and practically without raiment for herself and children.

The next place visited was the home of Andrew Koch. Mr. Koch was shot, the house was plundered, and Mrs. Koch taken prisoner by White Lodge. She was with the Indians ten days and was finally rescued at Camp Release.

Some of the settlers fled to the settlements when the attack on the others became known, while others gathered at the house of John Wright and prepared it for defense. For some reason they abandoned the house to seek protection in a slough. The Indians at once commenced firing on the retreating party and the whites returned the fire as they fled. Those wounded in the flight to the slough were Charles Hatch, William Everett, John Eastlick, Mrs. Eastlick. Mrs. Everett and several children.

Upon receiving the Indians' promise that they would not be harmed, the women and children left the protection of the slough and went to the savages. No sooner were they out than Mrs. Everett, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Ireland and several of the children were killed. Mrs. Eastlick was shot and left for dead but she finally made her escape with two of her children. Mrs. Julia A. Wright, Mrs. William J. Duley and four of their children were taken captive and some of them were ransomed at Fort Pierre. All other settlers made their escape, many of them after innumerable hardships. The Burns brothers were not attacked.40

Southwestern Minnesota had received a setback from which it took many years to recover. After the inauguration of the fiendish warfare the frontier line receded eastward and the greater part of Southwestern Minnesota was again in the midst of the hostile Indian country. Steps were taken to defend the exposed settlements, to conquer the redskins and drive them back.

The Civil War was in progress and most of the able-bodied men were in the South, fighting for the Union. It therefore required some time to muster troops and place them in advantageous positions to cope with the wily red foe. But after some delay the Indians were driven back, soldiers were placed all through the western country, and the prairies were patrolled by companies detailed for the service. The expeditions against the hostile Sioux resulted in Lyon county being occasionally visited by military parties.

The savages were in time subdued, but for a number of years settlers on The extreme frontier lived in a state of constant anxiety, not knowing at what time the scenes of 1862 might be repeated. When peace was established on the

40Dr. H. M. Workman has prepared the following list of people who were residents (or had been just prior to the outbreak) of the Lake Shetek settlement at the time of the massacre and the fate of each:

In 1S64 two brothers, Moore by name, came from Eastern Minnesota and braved the dangers of locating in proximity to the Indians. They located on the southwest quarter of section 8, Lake Marshall township, and broke some land. But they soon became alarmed for their safety and ^deserted their claims.

In 1865 or 1866 Denman Greeman located on the Myers place at Saratoga, but within a short time moved to the Lake Shetek settlement and became a permanent resident.

A few half-breeds made pretense of holding claims along the Redwood in Lyon county after the massacre. Alexander and Joseph LaFramboise, Jr., sons of the first white man to settle in the count}', had claims in Lynd township, which they sold to A. W. Muzzy and E. B. Langdon in 1867. Thomas Robinson, a French half-breed, had a claim on section27, Lynd.whichhe sold to Ralph Holland in the spring of 1868. John Mooers, a half-breed son of Hazen Mooers, sold a claim on section 34, Lynd, to Arthur Ransom at the same time.

Lyon county remained destitute of white population until 1867. That year a few pushed out to the Redwood river country, selected claims, and established permanent homes. At last the country which had been the home of the aborigine for countless ages was possessed by the whites.