Just Imagine ...

It is 1862 . Minnesota has only been a state for six years and with statehood came an influx of "land hungry white men". Back just 12 years ago there were less than 5,000 white men in the whole state and then Treaties happened. With each treaty, there was more land available for settlement so people came from the east and farms grew up. Why by 1856 when Minnesota became a state there were 100,000 people living in the state.

And by 1862, the Dakota people (some call them Sioux) had only a ten mile wide strip of land on either side of the Minnesota River left on which to live. (On the map above, it is the dark orange strip) With each treaty they lost roaming and hunting land and received promises. With each treaty, some of the Dakota men became angry and wanted Little Crow to lead them into war. They had heard about the war and battles taking place in the south (Civil War) and they knew that many of the young strong men from the newly formed state were away fighting in those battles.

On the morning of August 15, 1862, Little Crow attended church services and met with the government leaders who were going to build a home for him. By nightfall, four Indian Braves had murdered 5 white men at once and wounded many more. Little Crow could no longer negotiate so he decided that now was as good a time as any to "kill the traders and divide their goods". That was the beginning of the "Minnesota Massacre" or "Sioux Uprising", known today as the Dakota War of 1862.

Living in this house in 1862 were the great grandparents of Elmer Gleason, Mike's Uncle. Prior to August of that year, they had helped the Indians when they could. It seemed they were respectful of each other's rights. When the fighting was imminent in the Nicollet area, the Indians came to David and Electa and told them to go north so as not to be harmed. The Indians told them that their crops and livestock would be used for food but that the house would not be touched. They returned to find that it had not. This latch on the cellar door is the original one that was put there when the house was built by David and Electa Currier.

The wainscoating on the cabinet built over 150 years ago, remains today.

In the New Ulm area and up and down the Minnesota River Valley, the battles went on between farmers and those who had lived off the land before them.

On September 12, 1862, Electra wrote to her brother Henry, who remained in Canada, and she said, "I tell you it is awful to think of the terrible distress that is going on here, and the crops and property that is fast going to destruction." "We are 65 miles from our farm, my husband takes the state of affairs very cool, but I cannot. We are all destitute of clothing for, as I have told you, we had to leave everything... We had just got so that we thought we were quite well off a-plenty of everything around us and a good crop, quite a little stock, and then we had to leave it all, and never expect to go back there again." But they did go back. And the house was still there. And the house is still there today.

Fifteen miles from their farm, in the young town of New Ulm, German immigrants had begun Schell's Brewery in 1860. They set about keeping the people in town supplied with beer and they got along with the Indians. They were also told by the Indians to leave and nothing would be harmed while they were gone. When they returned just a few months later, everything was as they left it and production became again with little interruption.

Other buildings in town were burned by white men so that the Indians wouldn't do it... This doesn't seem to make sense, but it happened. In 1862, This home was filled with hay and ready to be burned, but it survived and still sits amid all the modern buildings in downtown New Ulm on Minnesota Avenue across from the Kaiserhoff.


On September 22, 1862, Little Crow and his forces met defeat in a battle in Wood Lake, Minnesota. Over 500 Indians were taken prisoner but the Chief and several of his braves fled to shelter with the Yankton Sioux in the Dakotas. The United States Army court-martialed 303 Indians and sentenced them to hang. It was at that time that Bishop Whipple, from the Episcopal Church in Faribault, Minnesota petitioned President Lincoln to review the records of these braves. President Lincoln himself reviewed the records and sentenced 38 Indians to hang for murder and/or rape.

The hanging that took place in Mankato on December 26, 1862 was the largest mass hanging to ever occur in United States history. Today, there is only a statue of a lone Indian outside the local library that commemorates this sad day

In recent years, a buffalo statue has been placed across the street; it is known as "Reconcilliation" and this poem accompanies the statue.


In the years that followed, there was a strong anti-Indian sentiment in Minnesota. The number of whites to be killed varies but most sources say around 800. The majority of Sioux relocated to an area along the Missouri River in the Dakotas. National laws were enacted and reservations established. From 1863 - 1890, skirmishes continued until they finally ended at the Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

Meanwhile, Minnesota was growing, farms were being re-established and new villages built. One of those towns was Northfield. And on a warm fall day in September of 1876, the James Gang robbed the bank putting the town on maps for years to come. The bank building is still there and is a museum today.

Mr. Joseph Heywood was the back teller who told the robbers that the safe was time locked and could not be opened... it was open all the time and held $15,000 ($250,000 today). They got away with only $26. Unfortunately Mr. Heywood was shot and died.
On the tour, you walk on the actual floor trod on by the outlaws.

There was only one other person to die that day, and it was a Swedish immigrant who did not understand when people were yelling for him to take cover. We found both their graves in the Northfield cemetery.

The town of Northfield was chosen as a target because of a past grudge; one of the gang members didn't like a fellow who ran the mill. And they thought that with the mill there, the bank would have lots of money.

Around this same time, my great grandparents were homesteading just a few miles south in Nerstrand and Faribault. But that is another story.

So that is your history lesson for the month. Southern Minnesota has a rich history and it is alive in small town museums. Always your family's history blends with that of the area but not always as dramatically as with Uncle Elmer.