Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-07-03
A SCHOOLHOUSE ATTACKED

j
July. ~*3~~z
A SCHOOLHOUSE ATTACKED
A young man from the West, Mr.. G.
F. Gleddale, has given the writer the fol-
lowing graphic and thrilling incident of
the last Indian war in Western Iowa and
Minnesota, which I append in nearly his
own words:
had the fire to build at the school
house that morning, and started early.
It could not have been more than half
oast seven when left home.
The older boys took turns building the
ire and sweeping out. The boy whose
turn it Twas took the key home at night,
and was expected to have the house warm
before the girls came at the regular
school hour.
It was about mile from our house to
the school. The road ran along the edge
Of the "timber,'' and the schoolhouse
stood amongst the "heavy growth" 80 as
to be sheltered from the bleak prairie
winds.
1t was the first ever built there. The
settlers had built it only the year before
1t was but twenty three feet square, and
made Of logs, "sided down." 50 as to fit
together and keep out the wind and
snow-for we used sometimes to have
fearful driving SNOW storms up there.
Ours was,a little frontier district, of
only seven families and twenty three
scholars in ALL. All were Americans OK
ccpt one family, the Jonsens, Who were
Norwcgians-honest, kind hearted people
rs ever were.
Charley Bean, Clint Gargill and were
the three Oldest boys. AS it happened,
we were sixteen years old; and the two
oldest girls, MERGED Bean and Lettie
Eastman, were but fifteen. The rest of
the scholars we're younger.
We lad no regular teacher That fall
Mr.. Fifeld, the Methodist minister, had
offered to take the school. His salary
was small; and the agent gave him the
school to help In his support.
1 we'll remember the poor man, he was
quite young, not more than twcnty-threc
or four years Of age-yery much freckled,
and with red hair. But far from having a
fiery temper, he was so mild that we said
and did just as we pleased. Even the
A B G fellows were saying "aon't', and
"will'Sto him before the first week of the
school had passed. Yet the scholars liked
him so we'll that we did not do anything
that would greatly hurt his feelings.
Some days, however, he was, very 1retful
and peevish. T. 7 w
I took my gun on my arm as went to
school that morning; for the. cartridges
used to come to the sunny side of the
timber for the buds on the birches; and
sometimes there would be deer there
browsing. l had pretty little single
barreled shotgun. r.
There had been rumOrs that fall OF
attacks on settlers by the Sioux. In fact,
such reports were always going the rounds
in the frontier districts, and this was a
sort Of excuse for the large boys to take
their guns with them to school.
The Eastmans lived only "a little ways
from us; and on my way to school gen
crully rufied for Lettie. The schoolhouse
stood at or near the forks Of two roads.
She and E were the only scholars who
came by that road. and we sat next each
other in the "back seat" As school
books were scarce with us, we used to
look together over the same geography
and the same reader.
Indeed, 4 recollect that when Lettie
happened to stay at.home day had q
dull time of it. For she was uncommon
ly bright and quick at her lessons. Her
finger would fly over the maps in the ge-
ography when we looked out answers to
the questions, and it was much easier to
follow her than to puzzle them out
alone.
When went by Lettie's fathers home
that morning to build the fire in the
schoolhouse Lettie came to the door and
said that she would start for school in
about half all hour. H. -.
About half way between Mr.. East
mans and the schoolhouse there was a
'slew,' or water hole, surrounded by
thickets of gray alder, and the timber
here came down to the road. 1t was No.
vember, and the night had been 80 cold
that the "slew'' was frozen over. - !, I l.
1t was hardly sunrise yet. The thin
blue fog lay low on the. bright frosty
ground, and the smoke from the settlers
houses in the distance rose straight up to
great height, for the air was very still.
AS l went past the %$s.sslew'' I had a
glimpse of something, Icould hardly tell
what, amongst the thick alders, four or
five rods from the road, and in a moment
more l heard the ice crack. Nv first
though was that some hunter was in
there. f>ss'T <@" ~, Pc a
"Halloo!" called. "Shot anything?,
There was no answer.
Then thought for an instant that it
might have been deer But a deer,
when started, goes bounding off at tuli
spring, making plenty Of noise in the
bushes; whereas I had only heard one
cautious snap of the ice Then it occur.
red to me that 1t might have been a bear,
for bears were quite common in that To-
cality.. ,
sefdown my dinner-box and books,
Went quietly in amongst the alders, and
stood looking about for some moments.
but did not see any object nor hear a
sound. s@@ls5F s.asasg EzS II "a r. e. i
1t SEEMED odd, for r VAS positive I
had had glimpse of some moving OBJ
1ect., However, I had the fire. tosbuild,
and so Went back tosthe rad and hurried
to the schoolhouse. Yet / kent thinking
that there was something odd about the
noise and what had seen. "a sss&4 80 /
By the time I had the schoolhonse
warm and swept, nearly all the scholars
were there except Lettie. a few minutes
after Mr.. Fi6eld arrived, and raped for
us to take our seets. Lettie had said she
would start in half an hour. If sac had