The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1888-04-12
BEslEGEn NV sIOrJx.

On the morning of August ls, 1852, as
l was carrying pail Of milk from the
COW yard to the house, on the farm of
William Miller, seventeen miles from
New Ulm, Minn., l saw q covered wagon
coming across the prairie as fast Is two
horses could pull it. l handed the pail
into the house, called to Miller and his
wife, and by the time we were out doors
the wagon had stopped at the gate. 1t
was vehicle belonging to man named
Saunders, living about nine miles awav.
and he and his family were inside. We
had not reached the gate when he
shouted:
ely for your lives, the Indians are on
the warpath 70
He would have driven off with that,
but one of his horses fell down in the
harness from exhaustion. There was
Saunders, his wife, and four children and
l never saw people so broken up. 1t was
fully ten minutes before we could get
their story in shape TO understand it..
The Sioux rebellion, which many pio-
neers had predicted, had broken out at
last. For the past three months we had
noticed change in the demeanor of the
Indians, some of whom called at the
house almost daily. They had become
lmpudent and threatening, and many of
the Older settlers were becoming alarmed.
Some would have given up their farms
but there were few smart Alecks who
rode about the country saying there was
no danger, and that there were enough
soldiers in the forts in the State to thrash
all the Indians in the whole West. These
men were, as we afterward found out,
interested in the sale of real estate, and
of course they did not want any sensa-
! tlonol report sent East. But for the
civil war then raging there would have
been no uprising of the Indians. Uncle
Sam had his hands full in the South, and
hundreds of our young men had enlisted
to fight the Confederates.
| Saunders had received warning at day-
light from settler on horseback, whose
whole family had been butchered. He
was teamster, and his wagon then con-
tanned part of load of stores which
be was hauling out to store keeper in q
new settlement. He had unloaded some
of the stuff and flung in household goods
and provisions, and had driven at such a
! pace as to exhaust one of his horses.
Miller and his wife we're Germans, cool
and phlegmatic. Their all was invested
right here. While they knew that trouble
was at hand, they did not want to aban-
don everything a: a mere alarm. We had
three horses in the stable and Saunders
begged hard for one to take the place of
his exhausted beast. He was bound and
determined to get on, even if he had to
60 on foot, and Miller consented to let
the horse go. While he was being har-
messed in Saunders asked US to throw out
some of the merchandise and tighten the
vehicle. We took out four kegs of pow
der, about one hundred pounds of lead,
fifty pounds of shot, three double bar
relied shot guns, and some groceries, and
the horse was no sooner in the traces than
Saunders drove off at a gallop.
"Well, what shall we do P" asked Mrs.
Miller, as we stood looking after the
wagon.
"Stay and fght," replied the husband.
was then boy of l6, and had been
with the Millers over year. There was
never day but that some of the Sioux
came along, and in many instances they
had eaten Of our food. Miller did not
think it as serious matter as it turned
out to be, and with true Dutch grit he
proposed to stick. We went into breAk-
fast, ate as heartily as usual, and when
we were through my employer said:
"Now we will get ready for the Indi-
ans"
AS we went out doors we saw three
columns of smoke in different directions,
showing that the murderous redskins
were at work Miller had 100 acres of
land, almost every acre as level as floor
We had just finished building q milk
house over spring, about 800 feet from
the house. Around the spring was
about two acres of broken ground, under
laid with rock, and we had blasted out
sufficient of this to lay up the walls of
the milk house. Miller was stone ma.
son by trade, and his work had been we'll
done. The house was pretty large, being
1924 inside the walls, and the walls
were perhaps foot thick. The roof
had been planked and then sodded, and
the door was of heavy plank. The place
would make capital fort, and while l
was carrying into it such things as Mrs.
Miller directed, the husband used crow
bar to make loopholes in the walls. In
the course of an hour he drove Eve or six,
| and then he bored two in the door with .
big auger.
We carried in sll the provisions in the
house followed by the clothing and the
bedding. While we worked we kept
our eyes open for sight Of Indians, but
it was IL o'clock before we saw them
coming. They were not more than
mile away when we retired to our fort
and barricaded the door. All the live
stock had been turned loose and driven
away, while the fowls we're flying about
on the prairie. There was very little
left in the house, and the worst they
could do was to burn it. When we shut
ourselves up missed two of the kegs Of
powder, but to my querry a. to what had
become of them Miller made no reply,
except by laugh. He had been work
ing by himself all the forenoon, digging
holes and running trenches, but had
been to busy to notice just what he was
| mp TO. f's.i 8. o.tr4z1t .at
| There were thirty-two mounted In
dians in the band which came mp, and
among them they had Eve fresh scalps.
Every one had plunder Of some sort from
the ssttlsrs' csbins, and TIVE or three ap-
psared much the worse tortiquor. They
had probably seen ~ enter the milk
| house. for they rode right MP TO the