Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-07-05

In the fall of 1869 occurred the massa
4 ere of settlers in southeastern Minnese
la by the Sioux IndIants, in whicl
hundreds of men, women and chlldrel
We're rnthlessly b~utchered-the humble
of slain and the brutality o
i their butchsry exceeding ali other mas
: %sacres in the history of the country-no
excepting that of Wyoming, famed il
history, poetry and on the canvas o
the painter. The massacre was perpe,
trated by the tribe o part of whose
members ans our guests to-day and fern
q part of the attraction Of this celebra.
ton, and it does not require q stretch OF
imagination or a violation of the truth
to say that there are to-day within our
gates and enjoying our hospitality some
whose hands twenty -four years ago were
red With the blood OF men, women and
~children-the pioneer settlers of Mime
sot and Dakota. When the Indians
were driven before the military force
that was brought against them in Min
nesota they fled westward in.
to Dakota and %signalized
their entrance into the territory
by the murder of Judge Amadon and
his son who were at work in their corn
field near Sioux Falls. The remaining
settlers fed from the town, some coming
to Yankton and the othsrs going to
Sioux City, and as they fed they spread
the alarm, and within q very few days
almost the entire population of the
territory east of Jim river abandoned
taeir hemes and sought safety
elsewhere. A very large majority of the
settlere, especially those living east of
the Yankton county line, LETT the terri
tory making their exit by way Of
Sioux City. Eighteen of the families
living east OF Jim river in Yankton coun-
ty assembled for mutual protection at
the house of Ole Samson in Hagins'
bond whore they remained about two
weeks, but when the excitement be-
parently more imminent. they
ka where they remained until
the danger WAS passed and then return
ed to their deserted homes. When these
settlers crossed over into Nebraska
they had ninety-eight head of cattle
which were made to swim the Missouri
river and the task was performed with
out the loss OF q hoof. All the balance of
the ~ssttlera in that region, together with
those west ef Jim river, came to Yank-
ton, bringing with them their horses and
cattle and such household effects as
could hastily be thrown into their wag-
ons. Those OF Bon Homme and the
regions north and west of us also came
to Yankton, and right hore within q
steckade 400 feet square were congre-
gated for the space of nearly two months
ninetesn-twentieths Of all the settlers
lett in Dakota in the fall of 1s62, and the
total numbsr here did not excsed $50,
including men,. women and children.
And truth compels me to say that those
people were here because 1t was
more dangerous to go than to stay. If q
steamboat had happened along about
that time headed down stream there
would not have been . settler left in
Dakota eighteen months after it's or
ganization. But it being safer to stay,
they stayed and formed the nucleus of
the population that is now within our
borders. None of these old defenders
were killed or MANNED or suffered any
other serious physical disability, and
consequently do not draw pensions; but
when the libsrallty of the government
makes o penaisn eligible to those who
we're badly scared the b~eIeagured set.
tiers will be entitled to a liberal allow
ance and full back pay and upon as
good grounds as some OF the present
bsneficaries OF tho pension department..
i may here remark that in the exodus
from tbs territory and in the fight to
Yankton there was one man who at
first refused to join the procession, and
that was j. B. Greenway, who had a
rope ferry on Jim river where the bridge
is now, and with his wife lived in o log
L chantv nm thn aout kar1r 1C 81, ~,-au IL !.
was a typical frontIerman, tall, muscular
as straight as an arrow and brave to
rashness. One morning, probably about
a week after all the other settlers had
left the territory or assembled at Yank.
ton q messenger was started for Sioux
City with a dispatch to Gov. Jayne ap.
psaling to him to send US some arms
and ammunition-becausc the settlers
were short on both these essentials and
long on Indians. The reason the gov
ernor had to be addressed at Sioux City
was because he and all the other terri
torial officials, upon the first note of
alarm, remembered that they had i'm
pertant business at Sioux City and i'm
mediately went down to attend to. it
and 1t was OF SO much Importance that
they didn't get back to Dakota until the
trouble was all over. But then it was
the habit in those days, as it has been
to some extent since, for federal officials
to draw their salaries at q long range
from the supposed scene of their official
duties. When the messenger reached
the Jim river, just in the grey dawn of
q September morning, he was, to use
a popular expression, paral-
lied to see Greenway on the
opposite bank, single handed and with
q single barrelled musket, and q muzzle
loader at that, standing off q band OF
sixty Indians who had attacked his
shanty with the view of possess
ing themselves of his team-a white
mule and an Indian pony-and such
ether valnsbles as he might have about
him, including his scalp. The messen-
ger came back to Yanktoa-he didn't
need any orders to make this movement
and he came back quick. On his way
he gave the alarm TO our townsman A.
NJ. English, an officer in company b
Dakota cavalry, who with twelve men
were in camp near the present cite of
Maj. Hansoa's farm house, and be iai-
mediately with his little squad pursued
the Indians and followed them to Gay
vile, or where Gayville is low, where
the Indians took shelter in a deserted
log house and opened fire on their
pursuers. Being armed with
better guns than those possessed by the
soldiers and outnumbering them five to
one, the little squad was reluctantly
compelled to give up the unequal and
hopeless contest and return to Yank
ton. After this experience, Greenwa5
Il and his w1fe. with sucb af their effact,