Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-03-20

THE FIRST MASSACRE AT SPIRIT LAKE.
Among the pile Of six hundred bills
introduced in the lower house Of the
Twenty-first General Assembly is n
by Mr.. Anderson, of Hamilton county,
which proposes the erection of a mon
ument at Spirit Lake to commemorate
the names of those who were so brutally
massacred by the band of Sioux headed
by I~nkpadudah in the month of March,
1857, and the two men who lost their
lives in the subsequent pursuit. The
bill also provides that silver medals
shall be furnished all the volunteers in
the relief expedition that was organ
lied rs soon as the appalling news
reached Fort Dodge and Webster City.
Knowing that the later settlers in
Iowa, as well as the thousands Of
youth now growing up. are not clear
in their minds as to the fact that there
were two massacres of settlers at Spirit
Lake, and that the first incursion of
savages is barely a memory ven to
the older settlers, The Leader has
sought. with some success it is hoped,
to restore the awful incidents of Ink
padudah's murderous quest for food
among the homesteaders along the
northern boundary of Iowa before win
49, l~zlyn -. IgET h. M. ~z
has been interviewed and modestly re-
lates his recollections as follows:
Berry Anderson, his father, settled
in Hamilton county, about one hun
dred miles south of Spirit Lake, in
1855. Mr.. Andersen was a Swede. and
there were several other families in
the sparselY settled county. Crops be-
ing good, the people all ~neighborly,
and no u%nfrien1ly Indians near, the
frontier settlement seemed a prospect
i've promised land to all. Late in the
winter of 1867 Berry Anderson fell
sick and was confined to his bed for
weeks. About the 18th to 18th of
March came the awful news from
Spirit Lake. and as i'll news grows as
it travels a great panic seized the set
Element. The fleeing settlers as they
passed Berry Anderson's cabin advised
A. r.. the Oldest son. and Augustus.
now representing Hamilton county, to
pack up and leave, taking their mother
and sisters, and leave their father to
his fate. The poor bows caught con
siderable of the infection of the panic.
In truth, their facilities Of escape were
rather meager. Their father owned a
cart. and a single man of the neighbor-
hood owned a yoke of oxen that the
Anderson's were feeding for the win
ter. which would enable them to re-
move their mother and the little ones,
but not their father. The sick man at
last noticed the preparations for flight
and demanded tho reason. Re-
~luctantly and in tears Mrs. An
derson told the news of the
barbarism at Spirit Lake. The
neighbors were all flying for their
lives, for the %marauding devils were
coming down the river with scalping
knife and torch. II was her duty to
save the children while there was yet
time. The poor sufferer pleading not
TO be left, and the terror that p~ervaded
the settlement took instant hold Of
him. and the e~loquence of tho hus-
bands despair prevailed over maternal
provision for The children. 1t was
then arranged that the mother and the
little n should 60 with the cart, the
owner of the oxen driving, and with a
final farewell to her husband and a
bare hope that the boys might escape.
the poor woman left the cabin accom-
panied by the younger children. An
upper window of the cabin commanded
a long view up the Boone, and here the
boys kept watch. If the Indians should
appear they would carry their father
to the woods rear by and trust to the
Lord for the rest.
But no Indians came. Then came
the news to the boys that Webster City
was arming, and their fears were al.
layed. Mr.. Anderson says that a
stream of people passed their house FOR
two or three days, all headed for the
denser settlements, and that a number
of families
"Like one who on q lonesome road,
Doth walk In fear and dread;
Because he knows a g~rinning fend
Doth close behind him tread"
never stopped in their flight till they
reached the Swedish settlement at
Madrid. twenty milesfrom Des Moines.
Mr.. Anderson remembers that about
thirty men organized at Webster City
under command of Captain Johnson,
and, marching to Fort Dodge, joined
the companies organized by Captains
Dun oomb be and Richards. The column