Stearns County and the Dakota War of 1862

By Vincent P. Botz

During the year 1862, the United States was in turmoil as the Civil War continued. Minnesota would start its own war in August with the Dakota Indians. From the Dakota's loss of lands, encroachments by whites, embezzlement and questionable annuity dealings, the clash of cultures, starvation, drought, and previous conflicts, the tensions reached a climax. All these factors brought on war. This uprising would take over 600 white lives and an unknown number of Dakota. Stearns County was spared the bulk of the massacres, which mostly centered around the Minnesota River Valley. However, its people were still affected by the events taking place a short distance away. This book tells of the people and places in Stearns County affected by the Dakota Uprising of 1862, information found in museums and historical societies and other sources.

• Language: English
• Publisher: North Star Press of St. Cloud
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9780878399963

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www.northstarpress.com

Acknowledgements

and Special Thanks To:

I am asked many times how or why I got interested in the Dakota Uprising. It started with a trip to the Jeffers Petroglyphs near Comfrey, Minnesota, around 2006. I bought a book from Kenneth Carley called The Dakota War of 1862 . I had not heard of the war previously. I believe it is a very good starter book. My next books were more in depth, and I developed a friendship with author Curtis Dahlin. Curtis Dahlin has written some of my favorite books on the subject including Dakota Uprising Victims: Gravestones & Stories , The Dakota Uprising: A Pictorial History , and Victims of the Dakota Uprising: Killed, Wounded, and Captured . Curtis has many more books concerning the war, and I found each informative. Another of my favorite books is from Gregory F. Michno called Dakota Dawn: The Decisive First Week of the Sioux Uprising, August 17-24, 1862 . The book lists many causes of the uprising, all coming to a head that fateful August 17th day in Acton, Minnesota, which began the Uprising.

I wish to thank the Stearns County Historical Society in Saint Cloud, the Sauk Centre Historical Society, and the Paynesville Historical Society. Each of these sources provided me with much information useful in the creation of this book. The staff at the Stearns County Historical Museum did a wonderful job in answering questions and pointing me in the right direction. The St. Cloud Public Library was also a great source of information.

I also wish to thank my parents, Vernon and Kathleen Botz, who listened and showed interest to my endless stories.

I need to express abundant thanks to my wife, Bernette, who I dragged north to Fort Ripley and south to Preston, Minnesota, and from searching for graves in the Twin Cities to traveling west to the Sisseton Reservation, South Dakota, and Fort Abercrombie in North Dakota. We have put a lot of miles searching for graves, sites, and places and I’m glad and appreciative for her company.

Table of Contents

Stearns County and the Dakota War of 1862

Acknowledgements

Part I

Stearns County and the Dakota War of 1862

Cultures Clash

Stearns County Sites Related to the Uprising

Fair Haven

Maine Prairie

Melrose

Paynesville

Richmond Fortification

Rockville

Saint Cloud

Saint Joseph Blockhouse

Saint Wendel

Sauk Centre Stockade

Sauk Centre Stockade, 1863 New Year

Part II

Victims of the Dakota Uprising in Stearns County

Nicholas Brisse, Frederick Duhn, M. Lustig, And Michael Miller (Survivor)

Ambrose Freeman

John C. Hoffman

Reverend Thomas Van Eaton

John Weissing (Or Winsinger)

Joe Whitford

Other Notable People of Stearns County During the Dakota War

Esadore Freeman Chase

John Halden Dennis

Solomon And Adeline Foot

Samuel Holes

Captain Asa Libby

Stephen Miller

Robert Noble Smith

Jane Grey Swisshelm

William Vessey

Notes and Resources

Index

Part I

Stearns County and the Dakota War of 1862

During the year of 1862, the landscape of Minnesota changed dramatically. During a six week period from August 18 through September 23, an estimated 650 white men, women, and children were killed in a conflict between the Native Americans living in Minnesota and the white settlers coming into the area. The number of Dakota killed during the uprising is unknown. The decisive in the conflict, the Battle of Wood Lake, took place on September 23rd, but events were still being played out long after. Such as the release of captives in and out of Minnesota, the hanging of the thirty-eight Dakota in Mankato (the largest public execution in United States history) in December of that year, and the internment camp at Fort Snelling. In 1863 through 1865, the face of Minnesota was still changing with the expulsion of the Dakota from Minnesota, and the Sibley Expeditions into Dakota Territory formed to punish the Dakota for the uprising though few Indian raids were still occuring resulting in white deaths in Minnesota following September 23, 1862.

No single reason sparked the war, but many reasons let to the hostilities on August 18th. Some of these related to laws and treaties, the steady loss of land available to Native Americans, the Spirit Lake Massacre of 1857 and Inkpaduta, German immigration, traders and other immigrants, the tensions between traditional (blanket) Indians and the farming Indians (cut hairs converting to the white man’s way of life), the U.S. Government and the Civil War, weather, delays in promised payments and food stores, and starvation. A wonderful resource concerning causes of the