SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY OF HUTCHINSON By Hon. William W. Pendergast, McLeod Co., MN

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This is from a book that was written by Prof. William H. Pendergast in 1901. 

He opened the first school in Hutchinson. It has about 42 pages.  

It is about Hutchinson's earlier history. 

 

SKETCHES OF THE HISTORY OF HUTCHINSON

By Hon. William W. Pendergast



Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council

February 11, 1901



FOUNDING OF THE TOWN BY THE

HUTCHINSON SINGERS.



The gradual decadence of the gold excitement which drew so many thousands 

to California during the half dozen years succeeding the discovery of 

gold there in 1848, turned the tide of migration toward the west borders 

of the Mississippi.  Long trains of westbound travelers headed for 

Chicago every morning and evening from New York, Philadelphia, and 

Boston.  Chicago was the great distributing point.  There all stopped to 

catch their breath and take their bearings, and the thirty-year-old city 

at the head of lake Michigan seized the business which Chagres had 

snatched during the California boom.  She took advantage of her 

opportunity, and also, I fear, of her innocent tenderfoot victims.  The 

immense tidal wave was there divided.  One branch flowed southwest into 

"bleeding Kansas," following up Massachusetts' "thirty thousand moral 

rifles," the war cry being "Freedom for Kansas."  The other stream swept 

northwest to the region of the "sky-tinted waters."



In the spring of 1855, I was caught up in Massachusetts and swirled along 

in this mighty movement of restless humanity, but not to the land of 

gold.  Chicago, "the Garden City," was to be my Ultima Thule, my firm 

abiding place, but

	

	"The best laid schemes o'mice and men 

	Gang aft a-gley."



Two months later I was plodding my weary pilgrim way through southern 

Minnesota, "spying out the land" and weighing its future.  It seemed to 

be a beautiful land, just as it came from the hand of nature, and any 

farmer should have been satisfied with a hundred and sixty acres of it.  

But I was told that a hundred miles or more to the northwest, on the 

borders of the "Big Woods," the soil was still better and the outlook 

even more alluring.  That promising, if not "promised," land I then and 

there resolved to see before many moons had waxed and waned.  The trip I 

was then taking could not be prolonged, on account of work awaiting me in 

Milwaukee and Chicago.



In October I started out on my second Minnesota trip, upon which two 

weeks were spent in explorations to the north, east and south of the 

Falls of St. Anthony.  By that time it was getting too late for the 

survey of the Big Woods country, if the job was to be a thorough one.



Fired with zeal for the new land, I went back as far as Milwaukee, and in 

a few days had the pleasure of hearing my old friends, the Hutchinson 

family, from Milford, N.H., --Judson, John, and Asa-- sing to a full 

house, "We've come from the mountains of the old Granite State," and 

other inspiring songs, rendered as only they knew how.  After the 

concert, at my invitation they all promised to call on me the next day, 

which they accordingly did.  In our pleasant talk they unfolded their 

plans for the future.  They had started out to sing their way through to 

Kansas, there to found a village, call it Hutchinson, make homes for 

themselves, build up the town, join the "Jayhawkers" and squelch the 

"Border Ruffians."  Said I, "Why not skip all that blood and poetry, go 

to Minnesota, the most favored country on the earth, and found a city 

that you will always be proud of?"  "Have you been there?" they asked. 

"Yes."  Then question followed question, like shots from a Gatling gun.  

The answers were satisfactory, and led to the settlement of the town of 

Hutchinson in McLeod county, Minnesota.



Hither many later immigrants have been attracted, and they are now 

faithfully working shoulder to shoulder with the old timers, who have 

borne the burden and the heat of the day, to make this what it certainly 

bids fair to become, the most charming and delightful, the most cozy and 

truly homelike place in the Northwest.



The result of the conference was an immediate change of plans on the part 

of the Hutchinsons, who had in so short a time become convinced that 

their horoscope had not been rightly interpreted.  It was agreed that my 

cousin, Roswell H. Pendergast, should go along with them, and that I 

should stay through the winter, dispose of my photographing business, and 

follow on the first boat that should go through from Galena to St. Paul 

in the spring of 1856.  The objective point was some place in the 

charming region west of the Big Woods, to which allusion has already been 

made.  The exact spot was to be fixed upon by the Hutchinsons, their 

advance agent, E.E. Johnson, and R.H. Pendergast, who went with them.



Having arrived at the little village on the west side of the Mississippi 

adjoining the Falls of St. Anthony, they were lucky enough to fall in 

with an educated and enterprising young civil engineer, by the name of 

Lewis Harrington, who readily entered into the spirit of their plans, and 

who without hesitation accepted an earnest invitation to become a member 

of the company.  Before they left this little settlement, Col. John H. 

Stevens, its father, B.E. Messer, an accomplished musician and former 

singing master, John H. Chubb, a young bachelor from Whitehall, N.Y., 

Henry Chambers, and unnaturalized Canadian, Lucius N. Parker, and John 

Calef, were duly initiated into the fraternity.



November 16, 1855, the company, with two two-horse teams and a week's 

supplies, sallied forth like Don Quixote, "in quest of adventures."  The 

general plan formulated at Milwaukee had been talked over and deliberated 

upon till it was made more specific by fixing upon a favorable location 

on the Hassan river (now called the South branch of the Crow river) 

northwest of Glencoe as the most desirable place for the new settlement.  

There was a good road as far as to Shakopee, which was at that time 

larger than Minneapolis.  There the first night was spent.



November 17.  Without waiting for breakfast, so anxious were they all to 

get a glimpse of the town of which they were to be the fathers, they 

started out betimes in the morning, and, crossing the ferry five miles 

farther up the Minnesota, reached Carver in season for breakfast.  From 

Carver the road, if the straggling path made through the woods by the 

Glencoe settlers earlier in the season could be dignified by such a name, 

suddenly became much worse.  Numerous stumps, deep ruts, and deeper 

chuck-holes, mud and fallen trees, opposed their passage.



Nightfall found them weary and way-worn, with the aspect of "the knight 

of the sorrowful countenance," their horses jaded, and with a bag of game 

consisting of a brace of ducks, three partridges, a solitary rabbit, and 

a squirrel, on the banks of a small stream two or three miles east of the 

present site of Young America, and eleven miles from Carver.  By this 

stream they prepared to camp for the night.  The game was soon skinned, 

dressed, roasted, and disposed of in the most hearty if not the most 

approved style; and no dinner at the West Hotel, nor even at Delmonico's, 

was ever better enjoyed.



November 18.  At daylight the camp was astir.  After a "picked up" 

breakfast, the tent was struck and the pilgrims were moving toward their 

Mecca.  A couple of partridges roasted before an improvised fire, with a 

pound or two of hardtack, served for dinner.  Buffalo creek was crossed 

before sunset, Chambers going ahead and breaking the ice with his feet.  

As the water was three feet deep and Glencoe five miles away he 

unwillingly admitted that he got but little fun out of this operation.



Over a smoother way better time was now made, and twilight found our 

explorers on the outmost verge of civilization.  They would have had to 

push their way 2,000 miles farther unless they changed their course, 

before reaching another town or meeting a white man.



Doty's Hotel, a one story log building "with all the modern 

improvements," offered them a welcome, a shelter and first-class 

accommodations at first-class rates, and there they ensconced themselves 

for the night.



November 19.  With A.J. Bell, a Glencoe surveyor, for a guide, the line 

of march was resumed.  As the road they had been following ended at 

Glencoe, the scattered groves were the only landmarks.  They struck the 

Hassan river at the bend near the spot where Philip Busson, the 

Frenchman, now lives.  Here was a delightful grove, resplendent with the 

gorgeous hues of a Minnesota Indian summer.  The air was crisp and 

invigorating.  The scene was charming, and the party would willingly have 

tabernacled there.  The sky, the earth, the air, the overarching trees, 

the shimmering stream, the fertile soil, were so many Circes wooing them 

to stay.



Thanks, however, to Mr. Bell, who assured them that there was a better 

place six miles father up the river, the company, after a few deep-drawn 

sighs, reluctantly moved on, some on foot, and some riding in the wagons, 

these being the first to reach the "promised land."  While they were 

pitching their tents, at the edge of the grove west of the place now 

occupied by the Catholic parsonage, Parker went back with one of the 

teams to meet the rest of the party.  When the last straggler was picked 

up and brought in and all were seated in Turkish fashion round the 

crackling campfire, they with one voice declared that spot the most 

beautiful and attractive they had ever seen.  The charming woods, the 

winding sweep of the crystal river, the range of circling bluffs beyond, 

the smooth lawnlike slope from forest to stream, the autumnal robings of 

shrubs and trees and creeping vines, the bewildering beauty of the whole 

view, all combined to awaken their enthusiasm, stir their blood, and set 

every nerve to tingling with delight, while Hope was busy with her brush 

and easel painting bright visions of the future.



Messer, the poet, the artist, the optimist, the dreamer par excellence of 

the company, which was divided about equally between poets, artists, 

optimists, and dreamers, on the one side and plain practical men on the 

other, seized his fiddle, which was never far from his person, and struck 

up the "The Star Spangled Banner."  The Hutchinsons, and all who could 

sing, "joined in."  For the first time since "the morning stars sang 

together," grand strains of heavenly harmony echoed through the listening 

groves, and finally died away on the range of circling bluffs beyond the 

distant river.





ADOPTION OF A CONSTITUTION.



November 20, a business meeting was held in the tent.  Col. J. H. Stevens 

was chosen president; B.E. Messer, secretary; and A.J. Bell, Lewis 

Harrington, Asa B. Hutchinson, B.E. Messer, and J. H. Stevens, a 

committee to draft a constitution and bylaws.  They then adjourned to 

meet at Glencoe the next morning.  November 21, the company met according 

to adjournment, and adopted articles of agreement, which were 

substantially as follows:



1. There shall be two town sites, each containing 320 acres:  Harmony, 

to be located on the south half of section 31, township 117, range 29; 

and Hutchinson, on the north half of section 6, township 116, range 29.

2. The two sites shall be divided into 100 shares.

3. The Hutchinsons shall each have ten shares.  Each of the eleven men 

with them shall have five shares.  The remaining fifteen shares shall 

be disposed of by the Hutchinsons as they think best.

4. The river shall continue to be called by its Indian name Hassan 

(Leaf).

5. L. Harrington, R.H. Pendergast, and Henry Chambers, were 

appointed to do the business of the company, and dispose of lots

to actual settlers.

6. Special meetings shall be held at any time on the written request of 

three shareholders.

7. Any shareholder neglecting to pay authorized assessments shall forfeit 

his stock.

8. It was voted to employ L. Harrington to survey the two sites, his 

compensation being $380.

9. Five acres were set apart for "Humanity's Church."

10.  Fifteen acres were set aside for a park (afterward increased to 

twenty-two acres).

11. Eight lots were reserved for educational purposes.

12. It was solemnly decreed that "in the future of Hutchinson, woman 

shall enjoy equal rights with man."

13. "No lot shall ever be occupied by any building used as a saloon, 

bowling alley, or billiard room,

on penalty of forfeiture of the lot."



The next morning the company set out on their return to Minneapolis.



During the winter Messrs. Harrington and Bell surveyed the town site, 

Harrington really doing all of the business connected with the survey, 

though he and Bell took the contract together.



PIONEER REMINISCENCES.



Agreeably to my promise made the fall before, I left Milwaukee on the 

11th of April, 1856, for Hutchinson.  My father and brother (T.H.), a 

cousin (Solomon Pendergast) now at Sauk Center, T.B. Chesley, and six 

others, had come out from New Hampshire to go with me.  We reached Read's 

Landing, at the foot of lake Pepin, on the 14th.  There we waited two 

days for the ice to break up, when tired of "hope deferred," we walked 

round the lake thirty miles over a muddy road to Wacouta, where we found 

the Time and Tide, one of Louis Robert's boats, with steam up ready to 

take us to St. Paul.  This steaming up we found was only a trick to make 

us buy tickets at once.  It played several times before the boat finally 

started.



We landed at St. Paul on the 17th, and took passage on the Reveille for 

Carver.  On the morning of the 18th we all left on foot for Young 

America, where we staid that night, sleeping four in a bed wedged in like 

smelts.  The next day hard walking began to tell on the older members of 

the party; and the three young Pendergasts, Chesley, Atherton and Class, 

soon left the others out of sight.  At Glencoe they got a lunch and 

pushed on, following directions received from some men who thought they 

knew the way.  At nightfall we camped by a lake six miles out and a mile 

or so east of the present Hutchinson and Glencoe road.  We had no 

blankets, no tent and no food, except a few pieces of hardtack bought at 

Carver the day before.



Solomon, however, shot a goose near the shore of the lake, but, as bad 

luck would have it, she flew out to the middle of the lake before 

failing.  Here was a "pretty kettle of fish."  I prepared half a dozen 

little sticks and tried to get the others to draw, in order to decide 

which one of us should swim out and get her. It was forty rods to where 

she lay.  The ground was beginning to freeze around the edge of the lake 

and little needles of ice were shooting out from the shore over the still 

water.  There was nothing alluring to be seen, except the goose floating 

on the bosom of the lake at what seemed a long distance away.  It was not 

a tempting bait under the circumstances.  No one would draw a stick.  

Disgusted with what seemed to me their cowardice, I went around to the 

opposite side of the lake, as the goose looked nearer that shore, and 

plunged into the ice-cold water.  On reaching the goose and looking 

around to take my bearing, the camp looked as near as the shore I had 

left; so, taking the goose's neck in my mouth, I paddled towards the 

fire, which had been kindled under a big oak and looked very comfortable, 

but which at the time did me very little good.  The water was lighted up 

more than it was warmed by the blaze.  Nearly benumbed, I landed with the 

trophy, only to find that my thick woolen stockings had been burned in my 

absence by one of the boys who through kindness had undertaken to dry 

them before the fire.  In three hours the goose was dressed and roasted.  

A half hour later every bone was picked as clean as a mounted skeleton.  

This done, we lay down on the bare ground, with some sticks and brush 

above and the stars twinkling through the impromptu lattice work.  There 

and thus we slept the sleep of "Innocents Abroad."



At noon of the 20th, we surprised Roswell and four companions named Gray, 

Whitney, Failing, and Hook (from whom lake Hook got its name), who were 

holding possession of the J.E. Chesley hut, which stood a few rods from 

the southeast of the town site.  Mr. Chesley, finding provisions running 

low, had gone to St. Paul to replenish his stock.  That evening the rest 

of our company arrived, and, taking us all together, it must be admitted 

that as "famine breeders" we were a decided success.  The visible supply 

of food, which consisted of about twenty pounds of flour, totally 

disappeared in two days, a bushel of potatoes, which had been procured 

for seed, lasted but little longer.  A two-bushel sack of horse feed that 

stood in one corner of the room was not quite so quickly disposed of.  It 

was ground coarse, the hulls were rough and plowed furrows broad and deep 

from one end of the oesophagus to the other.  We make mush of this, and 

sweetened it with Hassan river water.  After each meal we devotedly 

thanked the Lord for ground feed, and felt grateful that it "was as well 

with us as it was."



After a few days Mr. Chesley came back with scant supplies for so many, 

and then he and I started back to St. Paul immediately on foot, bought 

four yoke of oxen, a wagon, and a load of goods, including a big breaking 

plow.  After two weeks of hard struggling over stumps, through mire-holes 

and mud lakes, we crossed the Hassan once more, plowed the first field, 

and harvested the first crop ever raised in the entire Hassan valley.  

The grasshoppers, however, which came in countless swarms about the first 

of July, left little harvesting for us to do.





THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1856



On July 4th, no other celebration having been planned, a bear hunt was 

improvised for the occasion, which resulted in killing a huge old bruin, 

weighing 400 pounds.  From the departure of the hunters to the return 

with the laurels of victory, the watches measured little more than an 

hour, for the game was in a grove only half a mile away.  This was the 

first Independence Day celebration west of the Big Woods.





COST OF LIVING IN THE WINTER OF 1857-58



Here is the record for the three months of my second winter in 

Hutchinson, taken from the expense book of seven who kept "old bachelors' 

hall" together in the village.  It was the most high-toned place there 

during that winter.



		Flour, 5 1/2 barrels	         $	66.00

		Beef, 257 pounds		25.70

		Potatoes, 7 bushels		  7.00

		Corn meal, 240 lbs.		  9.60

		Syrup, 8 gallons	 	  8.00

		Candies, 20 lbs.		  5.00

		Beans, 2 bushels		  4.00

		Rice, 12 lbs.			  1.56

		Pepper, 6 papers		    .60

		Suet, 6 lbs.			  1.00

		Butter, 3 lbs.			  1.05

		Buckwheat, 15 lbs.		    .90

 		Salt, 14 lbs.			    .90

		Soap, 3 lbs.		               .45

		Cream of tarter, 1/2 lb.       	    .35        

		Saleratus, 9 lbs.		  1.35

		Total			       $133.46

		Cost per man a week		$1.46





FIRST TOWN MEETING.



At the first town meeting, May 11, 1858, forty-eight votes were cast.  

Four townships voted at Hutchinson, the north two casting 26 votes, and 

the south two 22 votes.



STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION.



In the spring and early summer of 1858, a steamboat, twenty by sixty feet 

in size, was built to run on the Hassan, Crow, and Mississippi rivers to 

Minneapolis.  It made the down trip without much trouble, but never 

returned.  The owners got a chance to sell it to ply on the Mississippi 

between Minneapolis and St. Cloud.  The water of the Hassan river was so 

high that a steamer could have run from Hutchinson to Minneapolis the 

first five years without much difficulty.



SCARCITY OF FOOD.



Provisions were very scarce in the spring of 1858.  Some families had 

lived through the winter on potatoes and slippery elm bark.  But the 

middle of May found the Hassan alive with buffalo fishes, and the marshes 

were yellow with flowers of cowslips; so for a while there was plenty and 

variety.  Those who were too lazy to pick greens went fishing.  The fish 

could be boiled, baked, stewed, or fried; but, whichever way was chosen 

the flavoring was always the same, pure Hassan river water.  It took a 

connoisseur to decide which style of cooking had been adopted.  Most of 

the people got their living in a way that may well be pronounced "scaly."



MAIL CARRIERS.



The contract for carrying the mail between Minneapolis and Hutchinson 

once a week was let this spring to Messr. Sumner and Parshall.  Previous 

to this, the young men had taken turns in carrying it on their shoulders.  

T.H. Pendergast's turn came round almost every week, as he was the most 

willing and the best walker.



THE SIOUX OUTBREAK.



On Saturday, the 16th day of August, 1862, nine men, including myself, 

set out for Fort Snelling to enlist.  Their names were G.T. Belden, 

William Gosnell, W.H. Harrington, John Hartwig, J.T. Higgins, Andrew A. 

Hopper, Charles M. Horton, Charles Stahl, and W.W. Pendergast.  The next 

Monday Capt. George C. Whitcomb arrived in town from Forest City, with 

the startling news that the Indians were "on the rampage," that Robinson 

Jones and Howard Baker and their families had been killed at Acton the 

day before, and that all the settlers west of us were likely to be 

massacred.  Tuesday morning the captain was in St. Paul, laying the facts 

before Governor Ramsey and Adjutant General Malmros, both of whom went at 

once to Fort Snelling.  The governor inquired of me about the danger of 

an Indian outbreak, but I could not confirm the report from Acton, and in 

fact did not believe it.  Soon, however, a courier from the upper 

Minnesota river came in with the news that Capt. John S. March and more 

than half his company had been killed while crossing the river.  There 

was no longer room for doubt.



Our Hutchinson boys had not enlisted, so we all determined to go back and 

defend our own hearthstones.  Captain Whitcomb came with us, having 

succeeded in getting seventy-five Springfield muskets and three boxes of 

cartridges, amounting to 3,000 rounds of ammunition.  We reached Glencoe 

the second night, having impressed three teams and two men at Shakopee to 

haul us and the ammunition.  It was seventeen miles from Glencoe to 

Hutchinson.  I determined to walk home that night and Mr. Gosnell offered 

to come with me.  The offer was gladly accepted.



Arriving at home at two o'clock in the morning, we found at our house 

twenty-six refugees who had escaped from the Upper Sioux Agency under the 

guidance of John Other Day; and we learned that other refugees were at 

Harrington's, Belden's, Putman's and one or two other places, the whole 

number being about fifty.  All of them left that morning, on Friday, 

August 22nd, for the more eastern settlements.



Captain Whitcomb, with the teams and military supplies, arrived the same 

day.  A company of Home guards was soon organized, Lewis Harrington being 

the captain, Oliver Pierce and Andrew Hopper, Lieutenants, and W.W. 

Pendergast, orderly sergeant.  A stockade 100 square feet was constructed 

in twelve days.  Theft came the battle on the road from Acton to 

Hutchinson, where Capt. Richard Strout's company was beset by 300 Sioux 

who had been lying in ambush for them.  Captain Strout managed to get 

away and come to Hutchinson, with twenty-three men wounded, and leaving 

three dead on the field.



That night these Indians attempted to surprise us; but they were halted 

at the bridge by our sentinels.  Instantly all was bustle and activity at 

the garrison.  Officers and men were on the alert.  In every direction 

shadowy forms might be seem moving about in the darkness, peering to 

catch, if possible, a glimpse of the approaching foe.  After half an 

hour's bootless search, no further cause of alarm being discovered, the 

camp once more relapsed to silence, which was not again disturbed.



THE ATTACK AT HUTCHINSON.



The fourth of September opened bright and beautiful.  No sign of Indians 

was anywhere visible, yet most of the men determined not to leave the 

fort.  A few Germans, however, thinking the enemy had gone off in some 

other direction, concluded to go out to their farms and try to save some 

of their wheat, which during these troublesome times had been sadly 

neglected.  Six or seven of them started about seven o'clock for their 

homes in Acoma, and had just reached the point where the road turns to 

the right to ascend the bluff near Peter Geoghegan's field.  Old Mr. 

Heller was walking a few rods in advance of the team, when a volley was 

fired from the brow of the hill and Heller was severely wounded in the 

hip.  The horses were quickly wheeled about, the wounded man was helped 

into the wagon and the half mile that lay between them and the fort was 

made in less time than ever before or since.



When the Germans were leaving for their farms, Howard McEwen volunteered 

to go to the house of W.W. Pendergast, on the bluff at the edge of the 

woods, east of Albert Langbecker's residence, to get some delicacies for 

the wounded soldiers of Strout's company.  He had formal the articles and 

started back, but in passing through one of the rooms he noticed a book 

on the mantelpiece, and stopped to look it through.  While thus engaged, 

he was startled by the firing at Mr. Heller, and, in looking out of the 

window, saw the hill to the west covered with Indians.  Though he knew 

that his safety depended on reaching the bridge in advance of the 

Indians, who were following the Germans up as fast as they could, still 

he did not forget his errand.  Gathering up his jellies and preserves, he 

hastened down the hill and got into the town safely.



Soon the Indians were seen circling around the town in all directions, 

except to the south.  From the point where they were first seen to 

Chelsey's at the southeast corner of the town, there was a continuous 

line of them, while through the woods at the west their dark forms were 

occasionally seen gliding from one tree or thicket to another.



At the commencement of the attack, about eight o'clock, William H. Ensign 

mounted "old Selim," and, with hat in hand and hair streaming in the 

wind, dashed away toward Glencoe for reinforcements.



Levi Chesley and a boy by the name of William Wright (son of E.G. Wright, 

who married Eliza Chesley) were at the farm taking care of the stock, 

having left us an hour before for that purpose.  Warned of approaching 

danger by the sound of the guns, they looked out of the barn and saw 

retreat to the town was already cut off, and that the Indians were close 

upon them.  To bridle the best two horses and jump upon their backs was 

the work of a moment.  In another moment they were scouring across the 

prairie at breakneck speed with half a dozen Indians at their heels.  

Soon all but two who had the swiftest ponies were distanced.  These two 

followed nearly half way to Glencoe, when finding themselves gradually 

losing ground, they suddenly faced about and returned to Hutchinson to 

join their companions.



Seeing the preparations that had been made for their reception in the 

center of the town, the Indians amused themselves for a while by setting 

fire to the buildings on the outskirts.  The torch was first applied to 

the house of Dr. Benjamin, as that stood farthest out of town to the 

northwest.  The next one fired was that of W.W. Pendergast.  Next was the 

academy, and while the flames were slowly creeping up the southwest 

corner of this building its bell was vigorously rung as an alarm.  Then 

followed other houses on the bluff, Kittredge's, Welton's, Pierce's and 

Chesley's.  On the south side Solomon Pendergast's, J.H. Chubb's, and 

several smaller ones, shared the same fate.



During this time the twenty-three wounded men of Captain Strout's company 

were carried from the hotel to a place of greater safety, but less 

comfort, inside the fort.



It was interesting to note the altered behavior of the Indians when they 

came in sight of the stockade.  As soon as the first volley was fired 

upon the German farmers, they set up a fearful war cry, and came up over 

the bluff whooping and yelling as only wild Indians can; but when their 

eyes caught sight of the fort, the trench around it, and armed men 

prepared to defend it, they stood for a moment dumbfounded.  But relying 

upon their superior numbers, and remembering how the whites had so far 

everywhere fled before them, they commenced to put their preconcerted 

plan into execution.



This was to make a vigorous attack from the north, at which all of the 

inhabitants were expected to retreat toward St. Paul, just as they did at 

Yellow Medicine.  To make their victory more complete, about a third of 

their number were placed in ambush along the border of the grove that 

skirts the road to Glencoe all the way from the town to the Hutchinson 

hill.  It was thought that while the victorious Indians were pressing the 

fugitives from behind and driving them like a flock of frightened sheep, 

those in ambuscade would pour in a deadly fire upon them, soon make clean 

work of it, and carry off, with little trouble or danger to themselves, 

an abundant harvest of scalps.



But the people here, as the Indians soon found, had no notion of 

retreating, and were determined to give them ball for ball.  The 

Hutchinson guards, without consulting Captain Strout, took the places 

previously assigned to them, Captain Harrington and his fifteen men on 

the west of the fort, Lieutenant Hopper and his men on the east, Pierce 

at the south, and Pendergast at the north.  We were thus advancing upon 

the Indians in four different directions for the purpose of protecting 

the buildings and saving the cattle and horses, which were being stolen 

by dozens before our eyes, when Captain Strout, seeing what was going on 

and fearing for the safely of the fort, assumed command of the Hutchinson 

company and the entire fort, and issued a peremptory order that all 

should return within the stockade, which most of the men obeyed.



A few refused to recognize Strout's authority notably Captain Harrington, 

Lieutenants Pierce and Hopper, Orderly Pendergast, Andrew Hopper, H. 

McEwen, W. Putnam, G.T. Belden, D. Sivright, William Cook, S. Dearborn, 

D. Cross, Amos James, H. Harrington, and perhaps one or two others; and 

these fought through the day each on his own hook, as indeed all did 

after a short time.



Lieutenant Hopper got near enough to an Indian near the sawmill to make 

him "bite the dust;" and Cross was equally fortunate east of the fort.  

He and one lone Indian had a regular duel, firing three shots apiece, 

until the last shot of Cross killed his antagonist.  In each case the 

other Indians near at hand caught up the body and carried it off the 

field.



Andrew A. Hopper, H. Harrington, G.T. Belden, and H. McEwen, firing from 

the camber of Sumner's Hotel (the Hartman House), repelled the enemy from 

that direction.  Earlier in the day, S. Dearborn, Andrew Hopper, and W.W. 

Pendergast, went down nearly to the river, because many of the redskins 

were on the other bank, dividing their time between stealing horses and 

firing at the men on the south side.  Taking their stations behind some 

logs that were scattered along the riverside, and behind ginseng frames 

that Sumner had piled up there, they popped away for half an hour.  The 

effect was not known, as the grass was tall there, and as it was the 

custom of the Indians to fall whenever a shot was fired in their 

direction, whether hit or not.  At any rate, they retired to a respectful 

distance, and the three sought other fields of usefulness.



Howard McEwen distinguished himself by going from the fort over to 

Sumner's barn, when the balls were flying thickest, and bringing back 

Sivright's double harness.  When asked what he did that for, he said that 

the barn was likely to be burned, that they wanted Sivright's mules to 

take the women out with after the fight, and that this was the only 

harness he knew of that could be saved.



About noon when the fort was surrounded by a circle of fire from the 

smoldering buildings, the Sioux made a desperate effort to advance from 

the grove on the west to set fire to the buildings that remained between 

them and the stockade.  Sumner then offered a pair of boots to every man 

who would go to his stores on the west side of Main street, and bring 

over a back-load of goods.  Several of the younger men volunteered, and a 

dozen loads were safely stored in the fort within as many minutes.  No 

one was hurt, but a bullet hit the pack which C.M. Horton was carrying, 

and was picked out of one of the boots that composed his load.



There were several "close calls" during the day's fight, but no one in or 

about the fort actually received any injury.  The shooting was mostly at 

long range.  Amos James was wounded by a spent ball, splintering the 

stock of the gun which he held in his hand.  Bullets perforated the 

buildings inside the stockade, as well as those that were occupied and 

defended; but on the part of the garrison it was a bloodless fight. 



Some of the Indians who fought here were afterwards taken prisoners by 

General Sibley, and they acknowledged a loss of four killed and fifteen 

wounded at Hutchinson on that 4th of September.



RETREAT AND COUNCIL OF THE SIOUX.



About four o'clock in the afternoon the firing began to grow weaker, and 

it was soon noticed that the enemy were disappearing from the north, 

east, and south, and were retreating toward the west.  Soon afterward a 

company of about forty soldiers were seen approaching from the direction 

of Glencoe.  These were reinforcements that Ensign had succeeded in 

obtaining.  He went first to Glencoe, but found so few men left there 

that none could be spared.  He heard, however, that a small company of 

infantry and cavalry was stationed at lake Addie, twelve miles distant to 

the west.  Proceeding at once to that place, he found the soldiers and 

prevailed on them to march to the relief of Hutchinson, and they were the 

men who arrived just after the close of the battle.



It is very probable that the Indians observed them long before they were 

seen at the garrison, and that they withdrew for that reason.  They had 

already sent back a dozen reams, more or less, loaded with household 

goods and other valuables plundered from the houses which they burned in 

the morning.



Many persons who had come into the fort left their wagons and harnesses 

at home, and their horse and cattle on the prairie.  The Indians gathered 

all the oxen and horses they could lay their hands to, and hitched them 

to the wagons which they found, so that there was no lack of teams to 

transport their plunder.  They shot other horses and cattle that came 

within range, to the number of about a hundred.



On reaching Otter lake, they stopped and held a council of war.  Some 

were in favor of resting there a few hours, and then, under cover of the 

night, to come back and take the people by surprise.  They argued that 

our men, thinking they had fled and that our victory was complete, would 

set no pickets, that the fort might be fired in a dozen places before the 

alarm would be sounded, and that amid the darkness and confusion they 

could make short work of massacring the entire garrison.



But wiser councils prevailed.  The older men said that, as they failed to 

surprise us on the night before, so they would fail again; that the 

preparations we had made to receive them, the painstaking and skill 

manifested in the fortifications, and the good judgment shown in their 

location, where they could not come up from any direction without 

exposing themselves to almost certain death, all went to prove that the 

Hutchinson men were wary and cautious, and not to be easily caught 

napping.  They thought the best way for them was to leave with the 

plunder they had obtained, and to try their luck somewhere else at 

surprises.  So the proposed night attack was given up.



This matter of the consultation at Otter lake was learned from the Indian 

prisoners at Beaver Falls.  In point of fact, there would have been no 

chance for a successful night attack.  A double guard was kept up around 

the fort all night long; and, with the additional forty men and the extra 

ammunition they brought with them, the fort could have been held, and 

would have been held, against a thousand such assailants.



MURDER OF GERMAN SETTLERS WEST OF HUTCHINSON.



Two Germans, by the name of Bilke and Spaude, were at this time living on 

the farm where old Mr. Sitz now resides, a few miles up the river, in the 

town of Lynn.  They refused to come into the fort, because, they said, 

they had always treated the Indians well, and the Indians were never 

forgetful of kindness shown them.  They did not anticipate any injuries, 

and could not be made to see their danger.  But when, on the morning of 

the fight at Hutchinson, a few Indians came to their house while the 

families were at breakfast, and in a threatening manner demanded a meal, 

they began to think they would be safer in the fort.  While their guests 

were causing their bread and meat and potatoes to disappear with 

marvelous rapidity, they hastened to yoke the oxen and hitch them to the 

wagon.  This done, both families got aboard and started across the river 

on the way to the town.  They had gone but a few rods, however, when the 

Indians came out of the house and fired, wounding Spaude in the leg.  He 

whipped up his team and set them to running at the top of their speed, 

the Indians yelling and pursuing.  In this way they dashed down the bank 

into the river, and there Spaude was shot again, and fell into the middle 

of the stream, where the body was found the next day.



Bilke and the women and children now leaped from the wagon, and took 

refuge in the tall grass on the north side of the river, at this place 

six or seven feet high.  While the Indians who were following them 

stopped to scalp Spaude, the others managed to conceal themselves from 

view and were not discovered.  It has always been a matter of wonder that 

they succeeded in escaping as they did; but doubtless the Indians thought 

that they had guns with them, and that if any one should happen to 

stumble upon their hiding place it would be at the expense of his life.  

They could see the grass quiver where the Indians went along, but so far 

they were safe.  Mrs. Spaude prevented her two-year old baby from 

betraying with its cries their place of concealment by pressing her hand 

upon its mouth.



As soon as they found the coast in a measure clear, the two families 

separated.  Mrs. Spaude recrossed the river with the baby and a five-

year-old child, and, crouching and picking their way along in the tallest 

grass, they made their toilsome way around the south end of Otter lake, 

and along the edge of the woods, till they reached the corner of Mr. 

Hutchinson's field, in sight of the fort, a little after noon, when they 

were seen and killed by the attacking Indians.  When picked up at 

evening, their faces were entirely shot away, the muzzles of the guns 

having been held but a few inches away then they were fired.



Mrs. Bilke, with three children, remained longer concealed in the grass, 

and at last made her way to a vacant log-house near the river on the 

north side, where they staid over night, and where they were found the 

next day and brought to the town.  Mr. Bilke, clad only in a checked 

hickory shirt, after meeting innumerable troubles and dangers, finally 

reached the town just after the Indians left.  He had divested himself of 

one piece of clothing after another, so as to fun faster; had been all 

day surround by his enemies; had dodged this way and that, to avoid them; 

and unscathed had now got where he could take a long breath and feel 

safe.



SERVICE OF THE HUTCHINSON GUARDS.



On the 22nd of September the Hutchinson Guards, having been already 

recognized by the State as a regular military organization, were sworn 

into the service, their time commencing August 23, 1862.  They were on 

duty seventy days, to the first of November.



Lieut. Oliver Pierce, Frank G. Jewett, and David Cross, left Hutchinson 

on September 23d, to look up a man named Sanborn who had not been seen 

for several days.  They first visited Mr. Webb's house, eight miles 

distant to the northwest, which they found to have been ransacked.  The 

next stop was at Dr. Kennedy's where all was topsy-turvy.  Surgical 

instruments, bottles of medicine, pills, plasters, and potions, lay 

scattered in inextricable confusion.  Tincture bottles were found empty.  

Jars of specimens preserved in alcohol had been drained to the last drop, 

and all of the doctor's collections of rare and interesting 

entomological, vermiculous, and batrachoid curiosities were in the last 

stages of decay.  The Indians have a deep and abiding faith in fire-

water, and look upon the wasting of the smallest quantity as a calamity.  

They doubtless got some doses this time that were long remembered.  From 

Kennedy's the men were walking along, slowly and carefully examining the 

ground, when suddenly three guns were fired, almost at the same instant, 

and Cross fell to the ground, pierced by a bullet through the heart.  He 

died immediately.  The others thought to bring the body back with them, 

but the Indians were upon them and they had to fight their way to the 

team, which they made good use of.  It did not take their foes more than 

a minute or two to mount and give chase, and never had that region 

witnessed such a race.  The driver, Pierce, urged the horses to the top 

of their speed; the thirteen Sioux, on their ponies, were crowding them 

closely, with Cross's scalp hoisted on a pole for a battle flag.  Jewett 

sat in the rear of the wagon, with his legs dangling down, loading and 

firing as fast as the swaying and jolting permitted; and the leaders of 

the chase gave back shot for shot.  Three or four at last gave up and 

turned back.  One got to the front, and a well-directed shot unhorsed 

him.  This ended the pursuit.  The next day another party went out and 

brought in the bodies of both Cross and Sanborn, the latter having been 

brained with a grub-hoe and left where he fell.



No other stirring event occurred till the following July, when Little 

Crow was killed about six miles north of Hutchinson.



THE KILLING OF LITTLE CROW.



On the morning of July 3, 1863, Nathan Lamson and his son Chauncey left 

Hutchinson for their home in the north part of the town, about five miles 

away, to look after their stock.  All being found as they left it a few 

weeks before, they started out near evening to hunt for a deer.  While 

they were stealing carefully along a dim path or trail, leading 

northwestward, the old man's quick eye caught sight of something moving 

in the bushes a few rods beyond them.  Peering through the thicket, he 

saw two Indians, a middle-aged man (afterward ascertained to be Little 

Crow) and a boy (his son Wowinapa) of about sixteen years, picking 

raspberries which were abundant and ripe.  Mr. Lamson thought this too 

good a chance to lose.  Creeping to a poplar tree which stood near, he 

rested his gun against the trunk and fired wounding Little Crow in the 

side.  He did not fall, but, looking around, saw his assailant, and in an 

instant sent a bullet through the fleshy part of Mr. Lamson's left 

shoulder.  Chauncey then advanced toward Little Crow, following the 

rather blind trail around the raspberry patch toward the northwest, while 

his father dropped to the ground to reload.  Little Crow, evidently 

thinking him killed, seized his son's rifle and moved along the bush-

skirted path toward Chauncey.  They saw each other and fired at the same 

moment.  Only one report was heard by either Chauncey or his father, 

Little Crow fell mortally wounded by a bullet through his breast, and 

Chauncey felt the wind upon his cheek as the other ball passed harmlessly 

by.



Supposing his father to have been killed, and fearing lest other Indians 

might be near, Chauncey hurried to give the alarm in Hutchinson, and 

reached there about ten o'clock that evening.  His mother, nearly 

distracted, begged the men at the fort to go in search of her husband.  

William Gosnell was the first to volunteer.  Birney Lamson, the old man's 

youngest son, a Frenchman by the name of Le Maitre, and two or three 

other citizens followed.  They, with six mounted men of the Goodhue 

County Tigers, who were stationed at Hutchinson, set out immediately, and 

reached Lamson's house a little past midnight, where they rested about 

three hours.  At the beginning of dawn, they resumed their march.  They 

went north one mile to the woods path before mentioned, and turning to 

the west followed it about half a mile when they came to the body of 

Little Crow stretched out at length on the ground about six rods from the 

spot where young Lamson delivered the fatal shot.



Nathan Lamson's white shirt and his gun were found in a plum grove near 

by, but the owner was not to be seen.  On the return of the party to 

Hutchinson, however, he was among the first to welcome them.  He had 

thrown away his shirt, thinking that its color might attract the notice 

of the foe, and his gun was left because he was not able, in reloading, 

to get the ball down more than nine inches from the muzzle, so that he 

feared it would burst if he attempted to fire it.  In his trepidation he 

had filled the barrel nearly full in loading it direct from the powder 

flask.  He had lain concealed in the thicket until nightfall, and then, 

leaving his shirt and gun, had made his way to Hutchinson, arriving about 

two o'clock in the morning.



Wowinapa, escaping and returning to rejoin the Sioux in Dakota, was 

captured twenty-six days later by a party of our soldiers near Devil's 

lake.  His statement; as published by Heard and by Bryant and Murch in 

their books on the Sioux outbreak and war, proved that the Indian thus 

shot near Hutchinson was Little Crow, who had been the chief orator and 

plotter for the massacre of the frontier settlers less than a year 

before.





Notes:  by Nancy A. Shattuck

In 1861, John H. Mackenzie and his family moved from Hutchinson to the 

Red River Valley in Georgetown, MN where John set up a trading post.  

John was well acquainted with the Sioux, speaking their language 

fluently.  At the time of the uprising, the little settlement of 

Georgetown had learned of the massacre at Breckenridge.   involved with 

scouting for Fort Abercrombie.  At one point, the family had to flee for 

their lives northward to Fort Garry for safety.  There are many 

fascinating stories surrounding their flights.  He was later to capture 

Shakopee and Medicine Bottle by request of the government.  Pitt 

Shattuck, his brother-in-law, purportedly also left Hutchinson in 1861, 

to settle in Minneapolis.   It is believed that Pitt, his wife Jennette 

and their son (my grandfather) were in Hutchinson during the uprising, in 

the Acoma Township, northwest of the town where he had land.  My 

grandfather remembered that one of the horses for the family's team was 

shot, most likely from a distance.  My grandfather was put under the 

wagon behind a wheel for safety.  I assume that after hitching the wagon, 

they went straight away for the garrison.  Jennie Hamilton Mackenzie, 

John and Jennette's mother, helped with caring for the wounded soldiers 

of Strout's company.  It was said that when she wasn't helping the 

soldiers, she helped with the making of cartridges in the garrison.  At 

one point, her house, also in Acoma, was used as an outpost of defense.  

One of her sons, William L. Mackenzie, age 23, was a Hutchinson Guard. 



Pendergast remembers certain individuals who left the garrison to tend 

their farms, or who simply did not feel there was a threat to themselves.  

Most stayed close to the garrison.  The winter finally brought a respise 

for both sides and there were settlers who thought that the worst was 

over.  Pitt Shattuck, a fur trapper, and under financial constraints may 

have taken a chance to make an early winter expedition into Douglas 

county near Lake Osakis.  While checking his trap lines one day, he 

surprised two hungry solitary Indians raiding his cache.  He was murdered 

and scalped.  His body was pushed under the ice in order to conceal the 

crime.  It wasn't until the spring thaw that his body was recovered.  

John Mackenzie recognized Pitt's knife while he was living in Canada, in 

the possession of one Sioux Indian.  Two Indians were convicted of the 

crime and hung at Ft. Snelling.  John returned to the Hutchinson and 

Dassell area after 1865 because, as one can imagine, his trading post in 

Canada lost business due to his involvement with Shakopee and Medicine 

Bottle.     



NAMES MENTIONED in "Sketches of the History of Hutchinson" by W.W. 

Pendergast:



B

Howard Baker

Belden's

G.T. Belden

A.J. Bell

Dr. Benjamin

Mr. and Mrs. Bilke

Philip Busson



C

John Calef

Henry Chambers

Chesley's

Eliza Chesley

J.E. Chesley

Levi Chesley

T.B. Chesley

John H. Chubb

William Cook

David Cross



D

S. Dearborn



E

William H. Ensign



F

Failing



G

Peter Geoghegan

William Gosnell

Gray



H

Harrington's

H. Harrington

Lewis Harrington

W.H. Harrington

John Hartwig

Mr. Heller

J.T. Higgins

Hook

Andrew A. Hopper

Charles M. Horton

Asa B. Hutchinson

John Hutchinson

Judson Hutchinson



J

Amos James

Frank G. Jewett

E. E. Johnson

Robinson Jones



K

Dr. Kennedy

Kittredge's



L

Birney Lamson

Chauncey Lamson

Nathan Lamson

Albert Langbecker

Le Maitre

Little Crow



M

Adjutant General Malmros

Capt. John S. March

Howard McEwen

B.E. Messer



O

John Other Day



P

Lucius N. Parker

Mr. Parshall

Atherton Pendergast

Chesley Pendergast

Class Pendergast

Orderly Pendergast

Roswell H. Pendergast

Solomon Pendergast

T.H. Pendergast

William W. Pendergast

Pierce's

Oliver Pierce

Putman's

W. Putnam



R

Governor Ramsey

Louis Robert

Roswell



S

Sanborn

General Sibley

Mr. Sitz

D. Sivright

Mr. and Mrs. Spaude

Charles Stahl

Col. John H. Stevens

Capt. Richard Strout

Mr. Sumner



W

Mr. Webb

Welton's

Capt. George C. Whitcomb

Whitney

Wowinapa

William Wright

E.G. Wright