Bio of STURGES, James (b.1833), Wright Co., MN

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Bio of James Sturges 



1083     HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY



James Sturges, one of the most distinguished of the early pioneers, was 

born in Hope, Hamilton county, N. Y., November 25, 1833. He came west to 

Iowa in January, 1856, and to Wright county in November, 1856, as a 

hunter and trapper. He located in Buffalo in the spring of 1857 and has 

since made that place his home. The winters 1857, '58 and '59 were spent 

in hunting and trapping as far west as the center of Polk county. On July 

4, 1860, he married Ellen A. Dudley, a native of Vermont and member of 

the family of Asa W. Dudley, who had moved here in 1858. To this union 

two sons were born: A. E. Sturges, February 24, 1862, and James D. 

Sturges, February 19, 1868, who with their families are still residents 

of Buffalo. In 1862, James Sturges with others constructed a log fort on 

the shore of Buffalo lake for protection against the Indians. He was a 

constant worker and an expert man with the ax, and during his active 

years of labor he alone cleared ready for the plough over eighty acres of 

heavy timber land. Only July 18, 1863, he was commissioned as Captain in 

the Twenty-seventh Regiment of State Militia by Governor Henry A. Swift 

but resigned this commission on August 27, 1863. On July 25, 1863, he was 

commissioned as captain of the First Company of Scouts by Gov. Henry A. 

Swift. He had under his charge seventeen small squads of men, whose duty 

it was to patrol their disstrict, look out for Indians and protect and 

persuade the settlers to remain on their claims. He served in this 

capacity until the Indian scare was over and the scouts discharged. He 

volunteered and enlisted in Battery E, Third N. Y. Light Artillery in 

August, 1864, where he served until the close of the war when he was 

discharged and returned home. His wife, Ellen A. Sturges, died August 10, 

1910. Mr. Sturges has always taken his part among the silent workers for 

the good of community, and has never sought notoriety or public favor, 

but when duty has called has faithfully performed the duties that have 

fallen to his lot and then retired to private citizenship. He has seen 

the hardships of the early settler and has 



1084     HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY



gone through and had his share in bringing about all the stages of the 

changes that have been enacted in bringing this part of Minnesota from a 

wilderness to the splendid land that it now is.