The Spirit Lake Massacre Part 14

Almost two years after Congress had officially recognized the need of the State for a.s.sistance in handling the Indian frontier problem, the Iowa legislature took action. On March 12, 1860, a bill was enacted into law whereby "the sum of three thousand dollars, or so much thereof as shall be necessary" was appropriated for the aid of those members of the relief expedition who had drawn largely upon their private means to finance the undertaking, but who had not been afforded the expected relief by the Federal government.

Under the provisions of this act the Governor was made the auditor of all claims presented in accordance with its provisions. He was directed to secure copies of all claims filed with the Federal government and, when satisfied by the evidence submitted that such as were yet unpaid were just, he might issue an order upon the Treasurer of State to pay the claims.[347] This law was supplemented on March twenty-second by a second act looking toward the relief of persons specifically named in the law,[348] although no additional funds for such purpose were provided. Under the provisions of these acts there was disbursed under order of the Governor a total of $1126.02, which was distributed among eighty-two claimants.[349]

Before the matter had been finally closed the strife between North and South eliminated from the public mind an interest in all things save the momentous struggle then in progress. Thus it happened that the Spirit Lake Ma.s.sacre and the relief expeditions were lost from view for more than a generation. But there was one individual with an abiding interest who for thirty years cherished the hope of commemorating in some way the heroic struggles of that little group of men who went from Webster City in March, 1857, to relieve the settlers at the lakes. In the summer of 1887 Charles Aldrich, long a resident of Webster City, proposed placing a bra.s.s tablet in some suitable place in that city in memory of Company C of the relief expedition.

The decision was quickly reached to place the memorial in the Hamilton County court house and to ask the board of supervisors to appropriate three hundred dollars to meet the expense. A pet.i.tion was circulated in the city and throughout the county requesting such action. Owing to the good will and work of Charles T. Fenton, president of the board, the pet.i.tion was granted and a committee was appointed to secure and place the memorial.[350]

August twelfth was the date set for the unveiling and dedication of the tablet. Mr. Aldrich planned an elaborate program which was to be given in the court room of the newly erected building; but more than two thousand people attended the ceremony, and so the exercises were held on the lawn in front of the court house. Brief addresses were made by Governor William Larrabee, ex-Governor C. C. Carpenter, Mayor McMurray, Captains Richards and Duncombe, Lieutenant John N. Maxwell, Privates William Laughlin and Michael Sweeney, and Mr. Charles Aldrich. The speeches were so planned as to offer a complete review of the attempt to carry relief to the settlers at Spirit Lake and Lake Okoboji. The tablet consisted of "a slab of Champlain marble, upon which is artistically mounted a plate of polished bra.s.s containing the names of the Hamilton county members of the expedition and a number of other suitable inscriptions."[351] Thus did Hamilton County place "in a position of honor in the Hamilton County court house a lasting attestation to the patriotic spirit of appreciation which animates her citizens."[352]

Encouraged by the response in his home county, Mr. Aldrich set about the stimulation of sentiment in the State at large favoring the erection by the State of some fitting memorial to those pioneers whose lives were sacrificed in March, 1857. This proved a long drawn out and arduous task. The public had all but forgotten the incident; memories had to be refreshed, and a desire for commemoration aroused. This proved too great an undertaking for one person, and so Mr. Aldrich turned to the legislative body of the State. Here he obtained only an indifferent response. But with the awakening in Hamilton County the interest in the project spread; and when the Twenty-fifth General a.s.sembly convened in January, 1894, it became evident that favorable action might be hoped for.

By far the most active and efficient work was done by Mrs. Abbie Gardner Sharp, who came to Des Moines at the very beginning of the session and remained until near its close. In her efforts to secure action she was most ably seconded by Senator A. B. Funk of Spirit Lake. On January twenty-ninth a bill was simultaneously introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives, providing for the proper interment of the remains of the victims of the ma.s.sacre and the erection of a suitable commemorative monument.[353] The bill carried an appropriation of five thousand dollars which was to be expended under the supervision of a commission of five persons appointed by the Governor. Suitable grounds were to be selected near the scene of the ma.s.sacre. These grounds were to "be purchased, reinterments made and monument erected before the 4th day of July, 1895."[354] So well had the matter been canva.s.sed among the members of the legislature that there were but few negative votes on the measure. The bill was approved by the Governor on March 30th, and went into effect on April 4, 1894.

On April tenth Governor Frank D. Jackson appointed as members of the commission Hon. J. F. Duncombe and ex-Governor C. C. Carpenter of Fort Dodge, Mrs. Abbie Gardner Sharp of Okoboji, Hon. R. A. Smith of Spirit Lake, and Charles Aldrich of Des Moines. Within a short time the commission met at Fort Dodge and later at the Gardner cabin on Lake Okoboji. The commission effected an organization by selecting ex-Governor Carpenter as chairman and Mrs. Sharp as secretary. They quickly decided on the selection of the lot adjacent to and south of the Gardner cabin. This site was immediately presented to the State by its owners, the Okoboji South Beach Company. On June 20, 1894, the P.

N. Peterson Granite Company of St. Paul, Minnesota, was awarded the contract for the erection of the memorial. The specifications provided that the monument should be "a shaft 55 feet high above the foundation, in alternate blocks of rough and polished Minnesota granite, with a die 6 6 feet, upon which should be placed four bronze tablets--for the sum of $4,500. The inscriptions placed upon the tablets may be described as follows: On the east, the list of murdered settlers; on the west, a complete roster of the relief expedition commanded by Major William Williams; on the south, historical memoranda relating to the loss of Capt. J. C. Johnson and Private W. E. Burkholder, the list of settlers who escaped from Springfield (now Jackson), Minn., etc.; and on the north, the coat of arms of Iowa, with these words: 'Erected by order of the 25th General a.s.sembly of the State of Iowa.'"[355]

So diligently did the contracting company apply itself in the erection of the memorial that early in March, 1895, four months before the expiration of its contract, the monument was ready for inspection. On March 14, 1895, the commission met at Okoboji and inspected and accepted the work. Upon July twenty-eighth over five thousand people came by wagon and excursion train, from a radius of over fifty miles, to witness the formal dedication of the memorial and its presentation to the State. The gathering was significant in that it marked the opening of a new era in the appropriate marking of historic sites not only in Iowa but in the Middle West. In the words of the Hon. R. A.

Smith, it was "meet and fitting that to the pioneer the same as the soldier should be accorded the meed of praise and recognition ... a just, though long delayed, tribute to the memory of the brave and hardy, though unpretentious and unpretending, band of settlers who sacrificed their lives in their attempts to build them homes on this then far away northwestern frontier."[356]

Upon the platform were seated ex-Governor C. C. Carpenter and Hon. R.

A. Smith, members of the relief expedition; Mrs. I. A. Thomas, Rev.

Valentine C. Thomas, and Jareb Palmer, who fortunately escaped the ma.s.sacre at Springfield; Judge Charles E. Flandrau, the Indian agent who made possible the project to rescue Abbie Gardner, and Chetanmaza, the Siouan Indian whose intrepidity secured her release; Mrs. Abbie Gardner Sharp a survivor of the ma.s.sacre at Okoboji; and various State officials. The memorial was presented to the State by ex-Governor C.

C. Carpenter upon behalf of the commission under whose direction it had been erected, and was accepted for the State by Lieutenant Governor Warren S. Dungan and Hon. W. S. Richards.

Thus the people of Iowa, through their law-making body, paid a fitting though somewhat tardy tribute to the memory of the pioneers who, imbued with the true American spirit of progress, were willing to brave the hardships of the frontier that those who came later might share the blessings of a richer civilization. In the words of one of the speakers of the occasion, "Let us hope that this awakening is not ephemeral or temporary.... The story told by this memorial shaft is but a faint expression of the toils endured, the dangers braved and the sacrifices made by the unfortunate victims whose remains lie buried here".[357] The memorial "not only commemorates the great tragedy which crimsoned the waters of these lakes, but it will keep alive the memory of a species of American character which will soon become extinct. As we look away to the west, we are impressed that there is no longer an American frontier; and when the frontier shall have faded away, the pioneer will live only in history, and in the monuments which will preserve his memory."[358]

x.x.xI

CHANGES OF SIXTY YEARS

When one looks back over the sixty years that have elapsed since Ma-za-ku-ta-ma-ni delivered his bitter invective against white infidelity at the Upper Agency on the Yellow Medicine, one can only wonder at the transformation which has been wrought in what was popularly known east of the Alleghenies as the Great American Desert.

In sixty years the frontier has moved steadily westward until to-day it is gone not alone from the Mississippi Valley but from the American continent. What was a vast expanse of prairie in 1857 has become a country of prosperous homes.

Where then not a town was to be found to-day may be seen numerous large cities throbbing with industrial life, while towns and villages dot the landscape everywhere. Loneliness and desolation have given way to that condition where man's habitation is found at every turn. In sixty years this area has changed from the frontier of civilization to the very center of its arts and industries. In a country where Indians were met with by the thousands in 1857, one may now travel for days across the plains without catching a glimpse of a red man. The Indian has all but gone from a land where he once roamed free and uncontrolled.

Similarly time has dealt with the people of a different race who played major or minor parts in the tragedy at Spirit Lake and Springfield in 1857. Indeed, time has not always dealt kindly with them, and in more than one instance they have suffered much from its ravages. No one who survived the terrible experience of March, 1857, on the borders of the northwestern lakes was able to regain t.i.tle to the claims of murdered relatives. The Gardner, Thatcher, and Marble claims were all preempted by the settlers of 1858 without regard to their former holders. Those preempting were perhaps acting within their legal rights; but the first comers, under the customs of the frontier, were ent.i.tled to the claims which they had staked out.

So widely have the survivors of the events of 1857 scattered that to-day but one individual, Mrs. Abbie Gardner Sharp, remains at or near the scene of the ma.s.sacre. While living with her sister Eliza at Hampton, Iowa, Miss Abbie Gardner became acquainted with Casville Sharp, a young relative of the n.o.ble and Thatcher families. On August 16, 1857, they were married. About a year after the marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Sharp visited the scene of the tragedy at Okoboji in the hope of securing some settlement for the Gardner claim. Although a small amount was paid Mrs. Sharp by J. S. Prescott who had preempted the claim, the sum was only nominal and in no sense an adequate compensation for the property lost.

Mrs. Sharp continued to live in Iowa; but not until 1891 did she regain the site of her childhood home at Okoboji. At that time a company interested in the promotion of the Okobojis as a pleasure resort acquired t.i.tle to some thirteen acres of land at Pillsbury's Point, West Okoboji. This area included the Gardner cabin. The syndicate at once plotted the land for sale as sites for summer cottages. Out of the proceeds derived from the sale of her history of the ma.s.sacre, Mrs. Sharp acquired the lot upon which stands the original log cabin home--the scene of the ma.s.sacre.[359] The summer tourist at Okoboji may yet (in 1918) enter the original log cabin and learn from Mrs. Sharp the story of her captivity and rescue.

Mrs. Marble, the only other survivor of the ma.s.sacre at Lake Okoboji and Spirit Lake, likewise found her husband's claim preempted upon her return. Less fortunate than Mrs. Sharp, she was unable to secure any compensation. For some years she was lost to the knowledge of her Iowa and Minnesota friends. At length, in the early eighties, she was located at Sidell, Napa County, California. Meanwhile, she had married a Mr. Silbaugh. Since then little information has been obtained concerning her, other than that of her death a number of years ago.[360] Thus Mrs. Sharp is now the sole survivor of the ma.s.sacre at the lakes.

With the survivors of the Springfield ma.s.sacre it has been different.

All who survived were able to regain their claims, since they returned within a brief time to the scene of the ma.s.sacre and before their holdings had been preempted by settlers in the rush of 1857-1858. In 1913 occurred the death of Mrs. Irene A. Thomas whose cabin was made the rendezvous of the settlers at Springfield, and whose son Willie was the first known victim of the Indian attack. Her husband, it will be recalled, had one arm so badly shattered as to necessitate amputation upon reaching Fort Dodge. A remaining son, Valentine C.

Thomas, who was a young boy at the time of the ma.s.sacre, later served as a minister in Marshalltown, Iowa, where he died in August, 1915.

Mrs. Eliza Gardner McGowan was at that time still living in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It will be recalled that following the return of the relief expedition to Fort Dodge she married William R. Wilson, a member of the expedition. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Wilson lived at Hampton and Mason City, Iowa. Some time after Mr. Wilson's death, Mrs.

Wilson married a Mr. McGowan and removed to Fort Wayne.

It may be remembered that Johnnie Stewart escaped by hiding in the dooryard of his home while the members of his family were being ruthlessly slaughtered by the Indians. After the Indians left he crawled to the Thomas cabin, which he reached at dusk, was recognized and taken in. In 1915 he was living at Byron, Minnesota; and, from the latest information obtained he is still living at that place. There also survives a Mrs. Gillespie of Blaine, Washington, who at the time of the Springfield attack was Miss Drusilla Sw.a.n.ger, sister of Mrs.

William L. Church.

As we of another generation seek recreation at Okoboji, let us pause in retrospection. Let us, "when we contemplate the dangers braved, the hardships and privations endured, and the final suffering and sacrifice which fell to the lot of the victims whose dust and ashes have been gathered together and interred in this historic spot", be conscious that we are paying "a deserved tribute to courage and self-denial, endurance and self-sacrifice".[361]

NOTES AND REFERENCES

CHAPTER I

[1] See Richman's _John Brown Among the Quakers, and Other Sketches_, p. 203.

[2] _Senate Doc.u.ments_, 1st Session, 32nd Congress, Vol. III, Doc. No.

1, p. 411.

[3] Flandrau's _State-Building in the West_ in the _Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society_, Vol. VIII, pp. 483, 484.

[4] Judge Charles E. Flandrau's _State-Building in the West_ in the _Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society_, Vol. VIII, p. 483.

[5] Rev. Moses N. Adams's _The Sioux Outbreak in the Year 1862_ in the _Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society_, Vol. IX, p. 432.

[6] "The inferior power knows perfectly well that, if it does not accept the terms, it will ultimately be forced out of its domains, and it accepts. This comprises the elements of all Indian treaties."--Flandrau's _State-Building in the West_ in the _Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society_, Vol. VIII, p. 483.

[7] Flandrau's _State-Building in the West_ in the _Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society_, Vol. VIII, pp. 483, 484.

[8] The ma.s.sacre at Ash Hollow, often mentioned as a cause of the ma.s.sacre at Okoboji, was the culmination of a campaign of terror planned by Gen. Harney against the Oglala and Brule Sioux. The line of march was Fort Leavenworth, Fort Kearney, Fort Laramie, and Fort Pierre. At Ash Hollow near the Blue River and about four miles from the left bank of the North Platte he found Little Thunder's band of the Brule Sioux. When his cavalry had surrounded the Indians, he planned an advance with his infantry. Little Thunder desired a council. Gen. Harney refused, saying that he had come to fight. As Harney advanced, he motioned the Indians to run. They did so and ran directly into Harney's cavalry. Finding themselves trapped, they fought savagely to the end. "The battle of Ash Hollow was little more than a ma.s.sacre of the Brules.... Though hailed as a great victory ...

the battle of Ash Hollow was a ... disgrace to the officer who planned and executed it. The Indians were trapped and knew it ... and the ma.s.sacre which ensued was as needless and as barbarous as any which the Dakotas have at any time visited upon the white people."--Robinson's _History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians_ in the _South Dakota Historical Collections_, Vol. II, pp. 224, 225. See also _General Harney_ in the _South Dakota Historical Collections_, Vol. I, pp. 107, 108; Beam's _Reminiscences of Early Days in Nebraska_ in the _Transactions and Reports of the Nebraska State Historical Society_, Vol. III, pp. 301, 302; _House Executive Doc.u.ments_, 1st Session, 34th Congress, Vol. I, Pt. II, Doc. No. 1, pp. 49-51.

[9] Royce's _Indian Land Cessions in the United States_ in the _Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, Part II, pp. 710-712, 726; Kappler's _Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties_, Vol. II, pp. 250-255, 305-310.

[10] See references in note 9 above.

[11] Royce's _Indian Land Cessions_, p. 736; Kappler's _Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties_, Vol. II, p. 346.

[12] Royce's _Indian Land Cessions_, p. 737.

[13] Royce's _Indian Land Cessions_, pp. 736, 737, 762, 763, 766-768, 778, 779; Kappler's _Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties_, Vol. II, pp.

349, 474-477, 495, 546-549.

[14] Royce's _Indian Land Cessions_, pp. 768, 772; Kappler's _Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties_, Vol. II, pp. 500, 518.

[15] Royce's _Indian Land Cessions_, p. 778; Kappler's _Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties_, Vol. II, pp. 557-560.

[16] In exchange for all lands claimed by the Sioux in northwestern Iowa and southwestern Minnesota they were granted a reservation as follows: "all that tract of country on either side of the Minnesota River, from the western boundary of the lands herein ceded, east, to the Tchay-tam-bay River on the north, and to Yellow Medicine River on the south side, to extend, on each side, a distance of not less than 10 miles from the general course of said river; the boundaries of said tract to be marked out by as straight lines as practicable".--Kappler's _Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties_, Vol.