# History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/1/24

PILLSBURY POINT, WEST OKOBOJI LAKE Near Where the Massacre Began in 1857
​THE pioneers who first erected a cabin in the beautiful groves that lie along the shores of Okoboji and Spirit Lakes, were Rowland Gardner and Harvey Luce, his son-in-law. They had recently emigrated from the State of New York. Crossing the prairies in their canvas-covered wagons drawn by oxen, they found no settlement west of Algona, but continued on over the prairie going northwest until the evening of July 16,1856, when they camped on the wooded shore of West Okoboji. They were so enchanted with the beauty of the lakes, forest and prairie that they decided to here make their homes. They explored the country about them and found the clear blue waters of Okoboji fringed by alternate stretches of sandy beach, pebble shores, walls of bowlders and forests reaching down to the water’s edge. Away in the distance were prairies, while eastward were other lakes and groves. Not a sign of human habitation or smoke of camp fire was to be seen in any direction from the highest point on the lake shore. They were the only inhabitants of the little paradise they had discovered, far away from the nearest settlement. Elk and deer were grazing on the prairies, water fowl were coming and going from lake to lake, great flocks of prairie chickens were seen, squirrels and song birds were heard on every side.
The emigrants selected a site for their cabin on the southeast shore of West Okoboji, near the rocky projection since known as Pillsbury Point. The families consisted of Rowland Gardner, his wife Frances, little Rowland, six years old, Abbie, fourteen, Eliza, sixteen, and Mary, the oldest daughter, wife of Harvey Luce, and their two little children, Albert, four years old, and Amanda, a ​year old. A short time after their arrival a party of four young men from Bed Wing, Minnesota, camped on the straits separating the two Okoboji lakes. They were Dr. I. H. Herriott, Bertell Snyder, William and Carl Granger. They were the first white men to paddle a canoe on these lakes. Fascinated by the loveliness of the country each took a claim, and together they built a cabin on a peninsula, now known as Smith’s Point. The next settlers were from Delaware County, Iowa; James H. Mattocks, his wife Mary, and four children, Alice, Agnes, Jacob and Jackson. They built a cabin opposite Granger’s on the slope extending down toward the straits from the south side. Robert Mathieson and a son lived with them. Both of these cabins overlooked East and West Okoboji Lakes. Some weeks later Joel Howe, his wife Millie, with six children (Lydia, Jonathan, Sardis, Alfred, Jacob and Philetus), settled on the east shore of East Okoboji. A daughter, Lydia, had married Alvin Noble, and they had a son two years old, named John. This family, with Joseph M. Thatcher and his young wife, Elizabeth, with their infant daughter, Dora, occupied a cabin a mile north of Howe’s, at the upper end of the grove. A trapper, Morris Markham, boarded with Noble and Thatcher. These people were all from Hampton, in Franklin County.
Six miles northeast, on the west shore of Spirit Lake, William Marble and his young wife, Margaret, recently married in Linn County, had taken a claim and built a cabin. These made a settlement among the lakes, separated by distances of from one-half to six miles, of six families, in which were living sixteen men, eight women and fourteen children. This little colony, coming to the lakes in the summer of 1856, had not been able to raise crops sufficient to furnish food for the winter. Early in February their supply of provisions was nearly exhausted. It was a long perilous journey to the nearest settlements where provisions could be procured. But with
EAST OKOBOJI LAKE At the Time of the Massacre
​starvation staring them in the face, Harvey Luce and Joseph M. Thatcher started for Waterloo with an ox team and sled for supplies. After a journey over trackless prairies, working their way through immense drifts, they reached Waterloo, loaded their sled, started on their return and reached a cabin ten miles below Emmetsburg, where their team gave out. Thatcher remained here several days to rest the oxen, but Luce, feeling anxious about his family, determined to go on. Here he found Jonathan Howe, Enoch Ryan and Robert Clark who joined him on his homeward journey. Jonathan was a son of Joel Howe; Clark and Ryan were young men, the former from Waterloo, and the latter from Hampton.
After a desperate struggle amid huge snow drifts and blinding storms, Luce and his three companions reached the Gardner cabin on the evening of March 6. On the second day after their arrival the weather had greatly moderated, and Mr. Gardner determined to go to Fort Dodge for provisions. As the family sat down to an early breakfast, the cabin door was opened and fourteen fierce-looking Sioux Indians walked in, led by Ink-pa-du-tah. The Indians at first professed friendship until they had eaten all of the food in the house, when they undertook to seize the guns and ammunition. But Luce resisted them and a most unequal struggle began. At this moment Dr. Herriott and Carl Snyder entered. Seeing four determined men the savages withdrew. Mr. Gardner, believing that the entire settlement was in danger, urged the young men to notify all of the neighbors to assemble at the Gardner house, which was the largest and strongest, and there defend themselves, if the Indians should become hostile. The young men thought there was no danger and soon after went to their cabin.
The Indians prowled around until near noon when they approached the Mattocks cabin, driving Gardner’s cattle ​and shooting them on the way. Gardner, Luce and Clark now realized the great peril and made a heroic effort to warn their neighbors. Mr. Gardner remained to protect his family, while Luce and Clark started about two o’clock to give the alarm. Soon after, the rapid firing of guns at the Mattocks house and the screaming of the terrified women warned the Gardner family that the terrible work had begun. Mr. Gardner now barricaded the door and prepared to defend his family to the last, but his wife, who still had hope that the Indians would spare them for the many acts of kindness in times past, begged of her husband not to fire upon them. The Indians now forced their way into the house and shot Mr. Gardner, killing him instantly. They then turned upon the women and children and beat their brains out with clubs; the only one spared was Abbie, the daughter, fourteen years of age. The terrified child begged of the savages to kill her, too, as she could not endure the thought of the terrible tortures and outrages inflicted on helpless prisoners. But heedless of her entreaties, they dragged her away, while the moans of her dying mother, sister and brother, crazed her with anguish and horror. At the Mattocks house a brave resistance was made. When the attack began Dr. Herriott and Carl Snyder seized their guns and hastened to the assistance of their neighbors. But outnumbered five to one as they were by the Sioux warriors, there was no hope of successful resistance. The five men fought here with a bravery unsurpassed to save the women and children, and as they fell one by one, with rifles grasped in their hands, the terror of those remaining, for whom their lives had been given, was appalling.
When Abbie was dragged to this scene of slaughter the mangled bodies of the five men, two women and children were lying about the burning cabin, while the shrieks of other children roasting in the flames, made a succession of horrors too hideous to be described. No witness survived to tell the fearful story of the heroic fight and
MASSACRE OF THE GARDNER HOUSE (From an Old Painting)
DR. ISAAC H. HERRIOTT Killed in Defending the Mattocks Family.
WILLIAM BURKHOLDER Perished on the Relief Expedition
​bloody massacre here, but eleven mutilated bodies were left to mark the spot. A careful examination of the vicinity later, by the party who buried the dead, throws some light upon the struggle.
Dr. Herriott and Carl Snyder doubtless heard from their cabin the shrieks of the women and children, when the attack began at the Mattocks house. Then came the reports of firearms as Mr. Mattocks, Mathieson and the young man seized their rifles and fought desperately with the savages. Dr. Herriott and young Snyder might have escaped now by flight but, heroic men as they were, no such attempt was made. With rifle in hand they hurried to the rescue, regardless of overwhelming numbers. At the first fire Dr. Herriott brought down one of the Sioux warriors; then rushing into the thickest of the fight, the two brave men shattered their empty guns over the heads of the savages in a vain effort to save the terror-stricken women and children. How many Indians were killed or wounded in the unequal conflict can never be known. Abbie Gardner believes that none were killed and but one was wounded. But Major Wm. Williams, the veteran commander of the relief expedition that buried the dead, is of a different opinion. In his report to Governor Grimes, made on the 12th of April, immediately after the return of the burial party to Fort Dodge, he writes:
“The number of Indians killed or wounded must be from fifteen to twenty. From the number seen to fall, and judging from the bloody clothes and clots of blood left in their encampments, the struggle at the lakes must have been severe, particularly at the house of Esquire Mattocks. Eleven bodies were found at this house, together with several broken guns. They appear to have fought hand to hand.”
​Luce and Clark, who started from the Gardner house to warn the settlers, went toward Mr. Howe’s. They were overtaken near the outlet on the south shore of East Okoboji, by the stealthy savages, shot down and scalped. This closed the first day’s horrid work, the 8th day of March, 1857. That night the Sioux warriors celebrated the butchery of twenty men, women and children in the true Indian fashion, with blackened faces, keeping time in their war dance to the beating of drums, circling over the bloodstained snow with unearthly yells among the mutilated bodies of their victims, until exhausted by their horrid orgies. Crouched in an Indian tepee, Abbie Gardner, the only survivor of the first day’s massacre, prostrated by grief and terror and the awful deeds she had been compelled to witness, endured such anguish as seldom falls to the lot of a human being.
While this awful butchery was going on, the neighbors on the east side of the lakes had no warning of their impending danger. Luce and Clark were lying dead on the south shore. Mr. Howe had started early in the morning of the 9th, wading through the deep snow drifts toward the Gardner cabin to borrow flour. He was met by the Indians who were going to his house to continue their work. They shot him, then severed his head from the body and hurried on to his cabin. Mrs. Howe, her son Jonathan, his sister Sardis and three young brothers, all unsuspicious of danger, were in the house. Suddenly the door was burst open, a wild rush of yelling Indians with gleaming tomahawks and scalping knives filled the house, and a few moments later, amid screams of terror and groans of anguish, the dead and dying bodies of the entire family were lying in the blood-stained snow. Going on to the Thatcher cabin, the Indians found Mr. Noble, his wife and child, Mrs. Thatcher and her child and Mr. Ryan. Seeing two stalwart young men at home, the cowardly savages professed friendship as they entered the house. When Noble and Ryan were thus deceived, the Indians
SIOUX INDIAN SCALP DANCE After the First Day’s Massacre at the Okoboji Lakes
​suddenly turned their guns upon them and fired, killing both men before they could seize their rifles. They then caught the two children from their mother’s arms and swinging them by their feet against a tree near the door, crushed their brains out. They plundered the house, killed the cattle and hogs, then dragging Mrs. Noble and Mrs. Thatcher with them, started for their camp. With a refinement of cruelty peculiar to their race, they took Mrs. Noble back to the Howe cabin, where with unspeakable horror she saw the mangled bodies of her mother, sister and four brothers. Jacob, her thirteen year old brother, was still alive, and while the Indians were killing the cattle, she tried to get him into a bed in the house, hoping he might be saved, but the savages discovered him and beat his brains out, while his sister stood by powerless to protect him.
The Indians remained about the lakes until the 13th, while William Marble and his young wife in their cabin on the shores of Spirit Lake knew nothing of the terrible fate that had overtaken every family of their neighbors. They were several miles from any other house and, as the snow was very deep, Mr. Marble had not ventured away from home and had heard nothing to alarm him. On that morning, soon after breakfast, as Mrs. Marble relates, looking out of the cabin window, a band of painted and armed Indians was seen approaching. They came into the house and professed friendship. One of them wanted to exchange his rifle for a very fine one belonging to Mr. Marble, who, fearing to offend them, agreed to the trade. They then proposed shooting at a mark. Mr. Marble fired first and stepped forward to examine the target, when the treacherous savages shot him in his back. Mrs. Marble, who had been anxiously watching them from the window, in fear for her husband’s safety, sprang out with piercing screams as he fell, and threw her arms around her murdered husband, in the agony of despair. He was dead, and she was alone, in the hands of his brutal ​murderers. They flung her aside and searched the body of their victim, taking from it a belt containing $1,000 in gold. This was the little fortune the young couple had brought with them to improve and stock the beautiful farm they had selected on the banks of the lake. The Indians then plundered the house, took Mrs. Marble’s gold watch and placed her upon a pony. In one brief hour the young wife had lost husband and home, and was a captive, reserved for a fate worse than death.
The Indians returned with their plunder to the main body, and here Mrs. Marble found the other three captive women and from them learned the terrible fate that had overtaken the entire settlement. They realized now that none were left to attempt their rescue, and torturing visions of the slaughter of fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, husbands and children were stamped on their memory in a hideous intensity that paralyzed them. They prayed for death to end it all and save them from a fate too awful to be contemplated. The captive women were soon separated, each being taken to a different lodge, where their hair was braided and their faces painted, after the manner of the Sioux squaws. They were held as slaves and suffered treatment as brutal as has ever befallen helpless women in the hands of savages. Before leaving Marble’s Grove, the Indians pealed the bark from a large tree, and on the white surface pictured in signs the record of their horrid deeds. This ghastly record was visible for several years, and was seen by many of the early settlers.
Thus did Ink-pa-du-tah bide his time, and after the lapse of more than three years, wreak a terrible vengeance upon innocent white families, for the massacre of his nearest relatives by Henry Lott and his son. Not a person was left in the entire colony at the lakes to carry the news of the great tragedy to the nearest settlement. But it so happened that the discovery was made on the day on which the Howe, Noble and Thatcher families were slaughtered.
Morris Markham, who lived at Noble’s, had started for ​the Des Moines River on the 7th, in search of some cattle that had strayed away. Returning on the evening of the 9th, cold, hungry and exhausted, he reached the Gardner cabin near midnight. It was very dark and cold, and Markham was surprised to find the doors open and the house deserted. Upon examination he came upon the bodies of the family, some lying on the floor and others about the yard. Horror stricken by these evidences of a terrible tragedy, he cautiously went on through the dark forest toward the Mattocks house. When near it, he discovered the Indian camps, and at once realized that the fierce Sioux had appeared in his absence, at the isolated settlement and murdered his friends and neighbors. He saw the smouldering ruins of the Mattocks cabin and the mutilated bodies of other settlers lying about. Almost overcome with the horrors confronting him he turned back toward the Howe settlement, hoping it had escaped the massacre. But upon reaching Howe’s cabin he again came upon the ghastly bodies of women and children. Almost paralyzed by the horrid sights, he turned toward his own home, hoping against hope that it might have escaped. But there before him lay the mangled forms of Noble, Ryan and the children. Markham had walked more than thirty miles since morning, through deep snow without rest or food. He was now completely exhausted and his feet were frozen. He managed to start a fire in a ravine, not far away, and here, without shelter or food, he spent the remainder of the night, not daring to lie down, lest he too might be murdered by the Indians. Before daylight he started for the nearest settlement, Springfield, Minnesota, eighteen miles distant . He reached that place completely exhausted and spread the news of the fate of the Okoboji colony.
Fortunate it was that Markham’s strength had held out to warn them of the danger, or they too would have shared the fate of their neighbors. After a hurried consultation the people decided to gather all the families at the houses ​of Messrs. Thomas and Wheeler for mutual protection. Two messengers were sent to Fort Ridgely for aid. For seventeen days the settlers at Springfield were kept in suspense, hourly expecting an attack from the Indians. There were sixteen men, women and children at the Thomas house when the attack began. Most unexpectedly to the Indians, they found the people prepared to give them a warm reception.
The cowardly savages dressed one of their number in citizen’s clothes, and he approached the Thomas house in a friendly manner, calling the people out upon a cunning pretext. The remainder of the band was concealed behind trees in the forest surrounding the cabin. They opened fire upon the settlers who had been decoyed outside. The volley mortally wounded William Thomas, a little boy eight years old, and severely wounded Mr. Thomas, David Carver and Miss Drusella Swanger. There were but three men now left in the house unhurt—Morris Markham, Jareb Palmer and John Bradshaw. Hastily barricading the doors, the three men, assisted by Mrs. Thomas and Louisa Church, Eliza Gardner and Miss Swanger, prepared for a vigorous defense.
All of the wounded had now succeeded in reaching the house, except little Willie Thomas, who had fallen outside, and was overlooked in the excitement until after the doors were barricaded. It was then too late to rescue him without endangering the lives of all. His father was severely wounded and his mother begged piteously to be permitted to open the door and bring him in; but the others felt it would be certain death to all and he was left to his fate. The Indians gradually crept nearer the house while keeping up a constant fire on the besieged settlers. They, however, kept in shelter of the log stable and large trees. Eliza Gardner and Miss Swanger cast ​bullets and loaded guns, while Mrs. Church took the place of one of the wounded men at a port-hole and fought as bravely as the men. Watching a tree behind which an Indian was firing upon the cabin, Mrs. Church gave him a load of buckshot as he was aiming his rifle at the house. He fell back howling into the snow. So the fight went on until sunset, the well directed shots from the cabin preventing an assault by the Indians. At dark they joined others of the band who were butchering isolated settlers.
William and George Wood, who kept a store and were on friendly terms with the Indians, were confident that they would not be molested and refused to unite with their neighbors in preparing for defense, as they discredited Markham’s report of the massacre at the lakes. A party of Sioux, upon their arrival, went to Wood’s store and purchased a keg of powder and a quantity of lead, which was used in the siege of the Thomas house and in the slaughter of the Stewart family. The Wood brothers suffered a terrible penalty for their folly, as some days later the treacherous Sioux returned to the store, shot the proprietors with some of the ammunition recklessly sold to them, plundered the store and, piling brush over the mutilated bodies of the victims, set it on fire. Johnny Stewart, a little eight-year-old son of Joshua Stewart, had escaped into the woods when the family was massacred by the Indians. After dark he made his way to the Thomas house and was taken in. Soon after a Mr. Sheigley also arrived. There were now seventeen persons in the house, three of whom were badly wounded and in need of medical aid.
A consultation was held, and it was determined to attempt to escape in the night, before the Indians could assemble to renew the attack and probably set fire to the house. Whether they should stay or go, there was but little hope of escape from the doom that had overtaken their neighbors. They believed themselves to be the only survivors of the colony. No assistance could be expected, ​and they determined to try to reach the nearest settlement. There was great fear that the Indians were concealed near by in the woods. Some one must venture to make a careful examination of the surroundings. It was a perilous undertaking and all hesitated. A young man stepped forward and volunteered to risk his life in behalf of the others.
It was the brave Morris Markham who had discovered the massacre at the lakes and had already saved the lives of all present by warning them of the impending danger. Carefully examining his rifle by the dim fire-light, he told his companions that if he discovered Indians, he would warn them by firing, if possible, even if he was stricken down in the dark by the lurking savages, and they should immediately barricade the door and defend themselves without waiting for him. He stepped out into the darkness with his rifle cocked and noiselessly disappeared. His comrades waited with intense anxiety. Markham crept silently through the snow from tree to tree, listening for the first movement of a stealthy foe. He cautiously made a wide circuit around the house and stable, expecting any moment to hear the crack of a rifle or the sudden rush of armed savages. Half an hour passed and the suspense of his companions in the house, intently listening, seemed unendurable. Not a sound reached them, and a terrible fear came to them that he had been tomahawked by the stealthy Sioux before he could give the alarm.
At last they heard approaching footsteps and hastily barricaded the door. Another moment of intense waiting and peering through the port-holes with loaded guns, then they heard the well-known voice of Markham. He informed them that the Indians had disappeared and he had found a yoke of oxen which had escaped the general slaughter. He had hitched them to a sled and all hands hastened to bring out the small children, the wounded, blankets and provisions, and they started on their ​dangerous journey, sorrowfully leaving the dead body of little Willie Thomas where he fell. The brave women tramped through the deep snow, following the well-armed men and the heavily loaded sled. The only coward among the settlers at Springfield was a Dr. Strong. In October he went from Fort Dodge to Mr. Gardner’s at the lakes. When he afterward settled at Springfield, his wife persuaded Eliza Gardner to go with them and spend the winter and thus she escaped the fate of the other members of her father’s family. When the news of the massacre reached Springfield, Dr. Strong took his wife and child and Eliza to the Thomas house for safety. On the morning before the attack Dr. Strong had been called to Mr. Wheeler’s to attend two men who had lost their legs by freezing. While there, he heard the guns all through the day at the Thomas house, where the fight was going on and where his wife and child were. He was so terrified that he did not venture out of the Wheeler cabin until dark. When the firing had ceased and he had seen the Indians retreating, he made no effort to learn the fate of his family. The next morning he persuaded Mrs. Smith to go over and learn the fate of the settlers at the Thomas cabin. When she returned with the report that it was deserted, and that a boy was lying dead in the yard, Dr. Strong left the three women, their two children and his two crippled patients and fled without an effort to learn the fate of his wife and child.
There was now but one able-bodied man left at the Wheeler house, J. B. Skinner. The others were Mrs. Skinner, Mrs. Wm. Nelson and her child, Mrs. Smith and her crippled husband, whose leg had recently been amputated, Mr. Sheigley’s little boy and Mr. Henderson, who had lost both legs. To remain now until the Indians returned seemed to be certain death for all, with but one man able to defend them. They had no team and no way to carry the wounded men. Hard as it was they had to abandon Henderson and Smith and start through the deep ​snow, expecting to be pursued by the Indians upon discovery that they had left the house. In their haste and terror, Mr. Sheigley’s little boy was also left behind. On the second day they fortunately fell in with Markham’s party, and Mr. Sheigley learning that his little boy had been abandoned in the flight, started back alone to rescue him. Late in the afternoon the fugitives came in sight of a grove on the Des Moines River, where George Granger lived. In the distance they saw a man running toward the grove, and in his terrified flight he pulled off his boots and threw them away, to increase his speed. He was recognized as Dr. Strong, making his way alone down the river after having abandoned his wife and child two days before.
This fleeing coward kept on his flight alone down the river to the Irish colony in Palo Alto County where he was found by Major William's Relief Expedition on its way to the lakes. Dr. Strong was not man enough to join them and return to learn the fate of his family whom he had abandoned. His wife and child survived the sufferings of that dreadful winter march, and were with the party rescued, but she refused to return to the husband who had so heartlessly deserted her in that time of deadly peril.
The party remained two nights at the Granger cabin, waiting the return of Mr. Sheigley, who was unable to find his boy. The next day the entire party went on toward Fort Dodge, with a scanty supply of food and clothing and the wounded suffering greatly for medical assistance. At night all slept in the snow without shelter, their shoes and clothing wet with melting snows and the water of icy streams. Miss Swanger, with a painful bullet wound in her shoulder, gave up her place on the sled to the children and marched on foot through the snow. The sufferings of the entire party were enough to exhaust the strongest men, as they dragged themselves ​through the deep drifts and plunged into icy waters that filled the ravine and sloughs.
Monday, the 30th of March, they had been out three days, and it was doubtful whether the wounded, or women and children, could survive another night, so deplorable was their condition. Toward noon they sighted in the distance a party approaching, which they had no doubt were the pursuing Indians. It was felt by all that escape was impossible. But Morris Markham, John Bradshaw and Jareb Palmer were not men to abandon the helpless or tamely surrender. A hurried consultation was held and it was determined to divide the guns among the men who were not disabled. John Bradshaw volunteered to advance upon the Indians with six loaded guns and pick them off one by one at long range as they approached. Markham, Palmer and the other men remained with the women, children and wounded to defend them to the last. Brave John Bradshaw advanced alone, placed his loaded guns in easy reach, cocked his rifle and sternly watched the approach of the enemy. Every eye of the fugitives was fixed upon him as they awaited the hopeless conflict. Suddenly a loud shout and signals from the advancing party proclaimed them friends. It was the advance guard of Major William’s Relief Expedition coming to their aid. In order to protect themselves from the fierce north wind, they had drawn shawls and blankets about their heads, thus resembling Indians in their wrappings. Language cannot describe the emotions of the suffering fugitives, as the sudden transition from hopeless terror to the joy of rescue came over them. As they came nearer, S. J. Church, who was one of the party, recognized among the fugitives his wife and children, whom he had feared were victims of the massacre. Another of the party, J. M. Thatcher, now learned from Markham of the butchery of his child and the probable worse fate of his young wife taken into captivity. Everything in their power was now done by the relief party for the comfort of the sufferers. ​Dr. Bissell dressed the wounds of the injured and all rested in safety for the first time since their flight began. An escort was sent the next day, which conveyed them safely to the Irish colony. Mrs. Smith turned back with the soldiers who were going to the lakes to find and rescue her crippled husband, who had been abandoned when the party fled from the Wheeler house. She found her husband and Henderson, who had also been left, and both were rescued.
* ↑ Eliza was a daughter of Rowland Gardner, who with his family had been among the first victims of the massacre of the lakes. She was visiting Mrs. Church and thus escaped the slaughter of the family. Mr. Markham had brought the terrible news to her a few days before the attack at at Springfield. She did not know that her sister Abbie was alive.
* ↑ The boy was afterwards found safe with a neighbor who had escaped the massacre.