Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-03-03

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Home Guardian
KEPT THE SIOUX AT BAY.
The Terrible Slaughter Of White Settlers
in Minnesota in 1852.
On the morning of August Is. 1862,
as was carrying pail of milk from
the cow yard to the house, on the farm
of William Miller, seventeen miles from
New Ulm, Mimi, I saw covered
wagon coming across the prairie as fast
as two horses could pull it I 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. It was vehicle belonging
to man named Saunders, living about
nine miles away. and he and his family
were inside. We had not yet reached
the gate when he shouted:
Sly for your lives, the Indians are
on the war-path!"
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 chill dren,
and I never saw people SO broken up.
It was fully ten minutes before we
could get their story in shape to un-
derstand it. The Sioux rebellion, which
many pioneers 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 impudent and threatening,
and many of the old settlers were be-
coming alarmed. Some would have
given up their farms, but there were
q few smart Alexis 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-
tional reports sent East. But for the
cival 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 Confederatss.
Saunders had received warning at
daylight from settler on horseback,
whose whole family had been butchered.
He was teamster, and his wagon then
contained part of load of stores
which he was hauling out to store
keeper in a new settlement He had
some of the stuff and flung in
household goods and provisions, and
had driven at such pace as to exhaust
one of his horses. Miller and his wife
were Germans, cool and phlegmatic.
Their all was invested right there.
While they knew that trouble was at
band, they did not want to abandon
at 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 go on foot, and Miller consented
to let the horse go. While he was be-
ing harnessed in, Saunders asked us to
throw out some of the merchandise and
tighten the vehicle. We took out four
kegs of powder, about one hundred
pounds of lead, fifty pounds of shot,
three double-barreled shotguns and
and some groceries, and the horse was
no sooner in the traces than Saunders
drove off at gallop.
well, what shall we do?" asked
Mrs. Miller, as we stood looking otter
The wagon.
"Stay and fight" replied the hus-
band.
I was then boy of 16 and had been
with the Millers over year. There
was never day but that some of the
Sioux came along, and in may instances
hey had eaten of our food. Miller
lid not think it as serious a matter as
It turned out to be, and with true Dutch
grit he proposed to stick. We went into
breakfast, ate as heartily as usual, and
when we were through my employer
said:
"Now we will get ready for the In
1ians."
As we went out doors we saw three
of smoke in different direc- !
lions, showing that the murderous red
skins were at work. Miller had 100
acres of land, almost every acre as level
as floor. We had just finished build
ing milk-house over spring, about
300 feet from the house. Around the
spring was about two acres of broken
ground underlaid with rock, and we
had blasted out sufficient of this to Law
up the walls of the milk house. Miller
was q stonemason by trade, and his
work had been we'll done. The. house
was pretty large, being 1sx24 inside
the walls, and the walls were perhaps
foot thick. The roof had been planked
md then sodded, and the door was of
henry plank. The place would make a
capital fort. and while I was carving
into il such things as Mrs. Miller di.
rected. the husband used crowbar to
make loopholes In the walls IN the
course of an hour he drove five or six
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