Meeker County, Minnesota - Chapter 4, 1877

About ii o'clock a. of Sunday, the 17th of August, 1862, the first deliberate massacre of the brutal Sioux outbreak, took place 13 miles west of Forest City in the town of Acton.

Six Indians came first to the house of Robinson Jones, and thence to that of of Mr. Howard Baker, where they deliberately shot five persons, viz . Robinson Jones, Howard Baker, Mrs. Ann Baker, Viranus Webster and Miss Clara D. Wilson, (the last named, at Jones'house). This was the com¬ mencement of that terrible Indian scourge, which resulted in the massacre of about nine hundred whites, on the frontier of Minnesota in the fall of 1862.

The preliminary tragedy at Acton, was not the result of a drunken riot - but was the commence¬ ment of a premeditated design to exterminate the whites from this region of country, although prob¬ ably this early commencement, by an insignificant band, was not a part of the programme of Little Crow and other leaders. I allude to this, to correct errors which appear to have already been manu¬ factured into departmental history. The Secreta¬ ry of War reported to Congress, and all the pre¬ tended histories yet written, craw fish to the fur traders,and allege a drunken broil as the commence¬ ment of the affair,and also make statements credited to the reports of a child afterwards found in Jones' house on the eve of the 17th, about 8 o'clock. Mr. John Blackwell, a reliable citizen, now de¬ ceased, found a little grand child of Mrs. Ann Ba¬ ker, 18 months old, on the floor in Jones' house (the only one left or found in the house) and took it away - this child was too young to talk and was totally unconscious of its tragic surroundings.

Whether the Indians considered the child too in¬ significant to kill, or did not see it at all, cannot be known, the latter supposition is probably cor¬ rect.

One writer says that the child lay on the bed and witnessed the scalping of his sister, but this is a mistake. The bed had not been tumbled and no other act done indicating that the Indians ever Went into the house, and the girl had not been scalped or mutilated in any way but lay partly up¬ on her back in a pool of blood just where she fell.

After Baker and Webster ceased to breathe, their wjve's started for the house of Mr. John Blackwell, their nearest neighbor, Mrs. Baker carrying in her arms an infant child preserved from the massacre.

When they reached Blackwell's they found no one at home, and proceeded on to the next neighbor, named Olson, a blacksmith, whom the Indians af¬ terwards killed.

Late in the afternoon Blackwell, on horseback, came riding leisurely home, and learned from Ole H. Ness, Esq., whom he met on the prairie, the ter- ! rible news, which he at first could not believe, but Mr, ; Ness advised him to go to the house of Olson where the women then were and learn the particu¬ lars from them which he did, and learned from them that their husbands were dead before they left the house, and that two other persons, Robinson Jones and Mrs. Baker (mother of Howard Baker) were both shot, were both in great agony and evidently dying; that Mrs. Baker was lying in the house and

Jones i n the yard near the house; that the latter came there from his own house but a short time before where he had left the said niece and child.

The fate of those children was then problemat¬ ical, fearing the worst, the Indians having gone in that direction, Blackwell concluded at once, that to find out what had become of them was an im¬ perative duty, and immediately rode back to where he had left Ole H. Ness and found him with Hen¬ ry Hulverson, .V. Nelson Fosenand several others who had assembled and were discussing the mat¬ ter.

It was after dark when they arrived at Jones house and the child was found alive - the remainder of the stor}- has been told, and needs not to be re¬ peated.

The child was brought to Forest City and kept some months by Mr. and Mrs. Jewett and subse¬ quently placed in charge of Mr. Charles H. Ellis of Otsego, Wright county, since which time we have lost track of him.

Jones gave the Indians qo liquor, and while there was liquor in Jones' house, up to the time of the inquest on Monday afternoon, there was no ap-

To show the evident design of these Indians to commit the tragedy at this point, we give the tes¬ timony of the wife of Mr Howard Baker at the coroner's inquest conducted by A. C. Smith, then Judge of Probate and acting County Attorney. Her testimony was as follows:

"About ii o'clock a. m. four Indians came into our house, staid about 15 minutes, got up and looked out, had the men take down their guns and shoot them off at a mark, then bantered for a trade with Jones. About 12 o'clock two more Indians came and got some water; our guns were not reloaded; the Indians loaded their guns in the dooryard; I went back into the house, did not suspect anything at the time; supposed they were going away; next I knew I heard the report of a gun and saw Web¬ ster fall; he stood and fell near the door; another Indian came to the door and aimed at Howard Baker and shot; did not kill him at that time; he shot the other ban-el of his gun at Howard and he fell.

"My mother walked to the door and another In¬ dian shot her; she turned to run and fell into the buttery; they shot at her twice as she fell.

I tried to get out of the window, but fell down cel¬ lar; saw Mrs. Webster pulling her husband into the house, dont know where she was prior to this; Indians immediately left the house; while I was in the cellar I heard firing out of doors.

Jones said they were Sioux Indians and that he was well acquainted with them. Two of the In¬ dians had on white men's coats; one quite tall, one quite small, one thick and chubby and all middl'e aged Indians, one had two feathers in his cap and one had three. Jones said "they asked me for whisky but I would not give them any.'"

This testimony shows a deliberate intention to massacre Jones' family. The facts are, that Rob¬ inson Jones kept a sort of frontier public house and kept various articles of groceries, &c., with which he used to traffic with the Indians, with whom he was well acquainted, and obtained their furs and other proceeds of their hunting expeditions, and they had by some means got into his debt 40 or 50 dollars, which sum Jones had made arrangements to have paid out of their annuities.

Certain Indian traders claimed the monopoly of the fur trade, and had for some years been in the habit of making advances to the Indians with the un¬ derstanding that the Indians were to return to the traders the proceeds of the chase - the balance if

Jones little traffic was interfering quite mater¬ ially with those traders, and was setting a bad pre¬ cedent, and this may, perhaps, furnish a better clue than whisky, to the destruction of Jones' family, and which in its results, produced far more than the traders bargained for. The Indians were dis¬ satisfied with all the traders, and Jones with the rest.

Any one who understands the Indian trading system, as sanctioned by the Indian Department at Washington, can fill up the balance of the picture - those who do not, will never know any more about the origin of the Indian massacre than they do now.

On Monday morning the 18th of August, news of the Acton massacre reached Forest City, and in less than an hour A. C. Smith, J. B. Atkinson, Milton Gorton and a few others accompanied by Mrs. Gorton and Mrs. Jewett, were on their way to the scene of the tragedy - with increasing numbers they arrived at Acton some sixty strong - held an inquest and buried the dead. On their return in the evening, the whole community was in a pan¬ ic and appeared to be in Forest City.

engaged with the inquest a band of eleven mount¬ ed Indians came in sight of the place where the people were assembled, whereupon a detail of our mounted men gave chase and drove them off into Kandiyohi county.

Subsequent developments rendered it certain that those Indians had no hand in the Acton trag¬ edy, and in fact knew nothing about it at that time.

On Tuesday, news arrived of the outbreak on the Minnesota River and Mr. Smith prepared a letter to Gov. Ramsey, demanding guns and ammu¬ nition, and of six or seven hundred people in For¬ est City, Jesse V. Branham sen., then 60 years of age, was the only one to volunteer and obligate himself to take it to the Governor in St. Paul - ioo miles in twenty-four hours.

His Exellency, Alexander Ramsey, Gov¬ ernor, &c. - Sir - In advance of the news from the Minnesota River, the Indians have opened on us in Meeker. It is war! A few propose to

On receiving this letter about 1 o'clock A. m. . of the 21 st, Governor Ramsey with a prompti¬ tude which has ever distinguished him in his offi¬ cial business, found Mr. Geo. C. Whitcomb in St. Paul (County Treasurer of Meeker County) and directed 75 stand of Springfield muskets with a suitable amount of fixed ammunition, to be placed in his charge, with transportation to Forest City, where he arrived about 11, a. m. of the 23d,

On the morning of the arrival of these guns there were but thirteen men and three women on the townsite of Forest City, and nobody west of us. Their names are worth recording, for it was the decision of the little band at this point on the morn¬ ing of August 23d that saved all there was worth saving west of the Mississippi River.

Their names are A. C. Smith, J. B. Atkinson, T. C. Jewett, Milton Gorton, Geo. S. Shoies, sen,, Thos. H. Skinner, James M. Harvey, Win. Towler, Henry L. Smith, Thomas Grayson, Judson A. Stan¬ ton, Hamlet Stevens, Sylvester Stevens, Mrs.

During the week previous one hundred and seventy teams - mostly double,passed through For¬ est City on their way "out to the Mississippi River" - averaging from five to twelve persons to a team, with such goods and chattels as could be hastily packed on the wagon for immediate use. Seventy two of these had left on the morning of the 22d, and before the arrival of the guns - the persons above named had also discussed the propriety of vacating home and country, when Whitcomb hove in sight "over the hill by "Uncle Ikes" a bakers dozen of caps and stove pipe hats went up about as high as single arms could toss them.

Whitcomb passed through Hutchinson and find¬ ing the boys there about as destitue as we, allowed them to subtract 31 of the guns and a part of the ammunition from his ambulance, leaving us but 44 guns and 2000 rounds.

On Sunday the 24th, a military organization was effected and by the next day over thirty had joined and a portion were mounted, all comers were thereafter politely required to do military duty.

"We the undersigned do solemly swear to bear true allegiance to the United States and the State of Minnesota and the officers which may be elec- tied or appointed over us, to the best of our ability, in accordance with Captains commission issued to G. C. Whitcomb, by Col. H. H. Sibley!! bearing date August 20th, 1862, (mustered in, Au¬ gust 24th, 1862.)

G. C. Whitcomb claimed to be Captain by virtue of Col. Sibley's commission and his receipt for the guns and refused to give them up under any other circumstance.

The 44 Springfield Muskets were distributed to the men as far as they went - remainder unarmed, except with a few Belgian guns that had been re- ceived From some quarter, and as it was thought best to have the men armed, all mounted, and as we had but 15 horses and it was ascertained that a a party of skedadlers were yet lingering in King¬ ston, a detail was made to the extent of all the horses on hand, with a man and gun on each, to go to Kingston and seize horses.

They went to Kingston armed and equipped, whereupon the first Liepjienant declared martial law ! ordered T. C. Jewett to occupy the Clear Water bridge and allow nqne, to escape unless they could speak the word plain - very, very plain, whjqh one or two are said to have done - cab¬ baged 23 horses (the best to be had) and returned with their booty to Forest City.