New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1904-06-29
WHAT WAS THEIR FATE?|
Was Timmins Family Murdered
During Massacre.
Wisconsin Man Searches For His
Lost Relatives.
Hardly Likely That They Lived in
or Near New Ulm.

After more than forty years of sep
aration from his mother, Allen Richal
of Chetek, Wis, is endeavoring to
learn her fate and whether rumor
that she was massacred in 1862 has
any foundation in fact. The story is
strange one and was related by Wal
ter Speed, a pioneer newspaper man
of Chetek, who was here last week rep
resenting Mr.. Richal.
The editor reached New Ulm last
Wednesday on a trip through this
part of Minnesota and during visit
at the Review Office detailed the re-
markable history. Allan Richal, he
says, was born in Germany in 1914.
About three years after his birth his
father died but in 1S48 his mother
brought himself and his sister to Amer
lea. Arrived in this country she was
remarked to George Timmins and
they settled in Chetek, where three
other children were born.
At the outbreak of the civil war in
1861 Allen Richal was anxious to en-
list in the Union army but his mother
refused to give her consent. The fam
lily was then arranging to move west
ward to Minnesota but the young man
could not curb his patriotism and final
ly ran away from home. He joined
the Sixth Wisconsin volunteers and
with that regiment fought until the end
of the war, receiving an honorable
discharge in 1866.
When he returned to Chetek in that
year the Timmins family had disap-
peared and, beyond being told that
they had gone to Minnesota, he could
learn nothing of their whereabouts.
Then came a rumor that they had lost
their lives in the Little Grow massacre.
This was accepted by the son and un-
fortunately he deferred his search for
his mother but as the name of Tim
Minis was not to be found in the list of
killed he came in time to doubt the
truth of the statement. Circulars con-
tanning the facts were printed and dis
trlbuted broadcast but as yet his quest
has been fruitless.
His long silence, of course, acted as
a great handicap and another difficulty
was that his mother would not have
been likely to have instituted inquir-
les concerning him. When he enlisted
she did not know the name of his reg
iment and, to further complicate mat
tiers, a report was carried back to his
home town that he was killed in one of
the early battles of the war. He was,
in fact, grievously wounded, but the
account which was sent back to
Wisconsin was sufficiently misleading
to cause his mother to give up all
hopes of ever seeing him again.
| While here last Wednesday Mr..
Speed called upon Col. VIM. Pfaen-
der but the latter could give him no
information. Col. Pfaender was in
the south with the First Minnesota
battery at the time the Timmins family
is supposed to have arrived in Mime
sofa, but he is positive that the people
did not come to New Ulm before the
departure of his command. He has no
recollection of the name and the circu-
lar admits that there is some doubt on
this point, that the spelling may not
have been Timmins, but something
similar. Col. Pfaender is of the opin-
ion that there would be some record OF
the family, had its members been mas.
sacred, and thinks they must have set.
tied in some other part of the state.
/ IVA NunE nDAExIC DE nnr