Louis F. Michael Biography


	This biography appears on pages 224-228 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				LOUIS F. MICHAEL. 

	Louis F. Michael, a retired farmer living in Lesterville, Yankton 
county, has been a resident of Dakota since 1867 and is therefore 
entitled to recognition as one of the real pioneers of the state. He 
was born near Coblenz, in the Rhine province of Prussia, on the 19th of 
August, 1839, a son of Henry and Charlotte (Otto) Michael. In 1845 they 
emigrated to America from Germany, landing in New Orleans on St. 
Patrick's day after a voyage of thirteen weeks on the sailing vessel 
First Monarch, which put out from Liverpool. Mr. Michael had friends at 
Lawrenceburg, Indiana, but did not stop there when the boat on which 
the family was journeying up the Ohio passed that town but continued to 
Cincinnati. Not long afterward, however, the family went to 
Lawrenceburg, where they lived for eighteen months, after which a 
removal was made to Rushville, Indiana, where the father ran a dray and 
also a stage line to Connersville. It took eighteen horses for the 
business, as Mr. Michael ran two stages each way per day. He died in 
Indiana in 1864, at the age of fifty years, and his wife passed away in 
Denver, Colorado, in 1890, at the advanced age of eighty-five. In their 
family were the following children: Louis F., of this review; Henry W., 
who has been engaged in business in Denver since 1862; Mrs. Elizabeth 
Mack, a widow; Anthony, who died in Denver; and Charlotte, the wife of 
Charles Burgess, of Denver. 

	Louis F. Michael was but a child of six years when he accompanied 
his parents on their journey to the new world and acquired his 
education in the United States. He early began to assist his father and 
when fourteen years of age drove a four-horse stage daily. He learned 
the butcher's trade and worked at that until two years before the 
outbreak of the Civil war. He and a friend had begun dealing in horses 
and had bought a number which they were taking to Cincinnati to sell 
when Fort Sumter was fired upon. Mr. Michael immediately left for home 
and directed his partner to complete the business transaction. He was 
the seventh man to enroll in Company F, Sixteenth Volunteer Regiment 
and was appointed corporal. His command passed through Baltimore the 
night after the Baltimore massacre and the men were given strict orders 
not to create a disturbance nor reply to jeers. Mr. Michael went into a 
bakery owned by an Irishman to buy lunch for himself and his comrades, 
but the proprietor refused to sell to him, whereupon his men wrecked 
the place and took the entire stock. The first skirmish in which his 
command participated was at Darnestown, Maryland. They then crossed the 
mountains and passed down through Leesburg and Manassas Junction but 
were afterward sent to Washington. The winter was spent in camp at 
Frederick, where Mr. Michael was made commissary sergeant. 

	As the time of enlistment had expired, the men were sent home, 
but Mr. Michael veteranized, becoming a member of Company C, Sixteenth 
Indiana Regiment. He was sent to Cumberland Gap with his command and 
participated in the battle at Richmond, Kentucky, where the entire 
regiment was captured with the exception of Mr. Michael and nineteen 
other men. He was next sent to Memphis, thence up White river, where he 
aided in taking Arkansas Post. The regiment of which he was a member 
planted the first flag on the fort with a loss of but four killed and 
four wounded. Mr. Michael, who by this time held the rank of second 
sergeant, was put in command of his company, as all of the higher 
officers were killed or disabled, and after the capture of the fort was 
commissioned second lieutenant. Not long afterward Lieutenant Michael 
and fifty men were sent to capture some rebels in a house near Point 
Gibson, whose presence had been reported by a negro. The Union soldiers 
surrounded the house and captured all of the rebels and the captain 
found fifteen hundred dollars in gold in the attic. When negotiations 
were undertaken concerning the surrender of Vicksburg, General 
Pemberton first sent Bowen, a subaltern, as his representative, but 
General Grant sent back word directing General Pemberton to come in 
person. This he did and Lieutenant Michael had the honor of escorting 
him to Grant's presence, taking care that he was blindfolded until he 
was well within the Union lines. Lieutenant Michael heard General Grant 
make his terms, which were those of unconditional surrender and which 
gave him his nickname of Unconditional Surrender Grant. At the close of 
the siege the regiment of which Mr. Michael was a member had but two 
hundred and twenty-five men left, so terrible had been the casualties. 
The command was next sent to Jackson, Mississippi, where it assisted in 
driving Johnson from that section, and while in that campaign 
Lieutenant Michael's company saved a piano from a burning house for a 
northern lady who was teaching in the south and had been unable to 
return north. Not long after this incident he was sent out with a squad 
of men to superintend the unloading of the steamer City of Memphis and 
he and his men were on the shore when the ship was blown up by the 
explosion resulting from a shell being dropped on the boat by a negro. 
Many of the deck hands were killed, but Mr. Michael and his squad were 
far enough away to escape injury. He was on the expedition up Red river 
under the command of General Banks, and the regiment captured thirty-
five hundred steers and fifteen thousand dollars in Confederate money 
on Vermilion Bayou. The cattle were worth much more than the money and 
were taken to Franklin, Louisiana, from which point they were sent to 
New Orleans to supply beef to the army there. At Alexandria Lieutenant 
Michaels and his squad of men captured seventy eight men and officers 
and the next engagement in which he participated was the battle of 
Sabine Crossroads. When the war closed he was stationed at Tipteaux, 
Louisiana, and was mustered out at New Orleans, although he was not 
discharged until he reached Indianapolis. 

	Not long after the close of the war an uncle of Mr. Michael's, 
who was living at New Orleans, died and his widow sent for our subject 
to help her settle the estate. He therefore returned to the Crescent 
city and while there contracted yellow fever and for fifteen days was 
very ill. In the fall of 1866 he went up the river to St. Louis, where 
he remained until the spring of the following year, when he was 
employed as a butcher to go to Fort Benton, Montana, in the government 
service. Passage was taken on the steamer Ida Stockdale, but he was 
taken off at Leavenworth, Kansas, and sent with an expedition that was 
to try to get through to California. They encountered many Indians and 
after a great deal of fighting had to return and give up the trip. 
Seven hundred teams accompanied by two companies of soldiers then 
started overland for Fort Benton, Montana, which they finally reached 
in safety. 

	In the fall of 1867 Mr. Michael made his way down the Missouri 
river as far as Sioux City, but, finding no work there, continued to 
St. Joseph, Missouri, where he was employed in a packing house 
throughout the winter. In the spring of 1868 he came to Dakota 
territory and was associated with Harney, establishing reservations and 
placing the Indians thereon. He was in the employ of the government at 
the opening of the Grand river, the Cheyenne and the Lower Brule 
agencies, furnished beef to the Indians, being located about fifteen 
miles from Fort Sully and ten miles above the site of Pierre. After 
being in the government employ for nine months he went to Sioux City 
but soon heard that J. R. Sanburn of Yankton needed a man in his meat 
market and immediately applied for the position, which he secured. At 
the end of six months he, ill connection with a partner, bought the 
business. In the meantime he had filed on a homestead near Lakeport, 
Yankton county, and by using his land rights as a soldier secured a 
patent thereto in 1872. Following his marriage he removed to his farm, 
to which he added from time to time until he was the owner of six 
hundred and forty acres of land. He resided upon his homestead and 
concentrated his energies upon its improvement and cultivation until 
the death of his wife, when he retired from active life, disposing of 
part of his land, for which he received one hundred and twenty dollars 
per acre. For a number of years he has lived in Lesterville, enjoying 
at his ease the comforts of life, as his labor in former years enabled 
him to acquire more than a competence. 

	Mr. Michael was married on the 16th of May, 1870, in Yankton, to 
Miss Annie Cap, a daughter of Daniel and Mary Cap, natives of Bohemia. 
To Mr. and Mrs. Michael were born one son and ten daughters, of whom 
five daughters have passed away. The surviving children are: Lizzie, 
the wife of Albert Tank, who is farming in Yankton county; Anna, now 
Mrs. George Bellamy. of Mitchell; Henry W., who is engaged in the 
insurance and real estate business in Lesterville; Charlotte, the wife 
of George Kremer, of Lesterville; Mary, a graduate nurse of Norfolk, 
Nebraska; and Margaret, still at home. 

	Mr. Michael is a democrat and cast his first vote for Stephen A. 
Douglas. As a member of Phil Kearney Post, G. A. R., of Yankton, he is 
associated with others who defended the Union in the Civil war and 
finds much pleasure in reviewing the occurrences of those stormy days. 
He has a fine voice and is a valued member of the German Singing 
Society of Lesterville. While living in Indianapolis he was a member of 
a fire company and on one occasion rescued a lady by jumping a story 
and a half with her from a ladder, both escaping uninjured, as they 
were caught in a canvas. He experienced a number of the severe storms 
of the early days and during the blizzard in October, 1871, lost his 
way while endeavoring to find his father-in-law's house, to which he 
and his wife were going, as theirs was unfinished. After wandering 
about for two hours they succeeded in finding a neighbor's house, where 
they were sheltered. Mr. Michael's faith in South Dakota has been 
justified and the hardships of the early days are forgotten in the 
prosperity of the present.