The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-10-27

Captain Bee, having buried the dead ut
Springfield and left Lieutenant Murray
with twenty men to guard the few SUR
yivors, returned across the country with
the balance of his command to Fort
Pidgely. which he reached ON the 9th
of April.
The news of the outbreak went like
fire through all the settlements, throwing
the whole country into frenzy of fear,
and the widest rumors were spread
broadcast.
On section one in the extreme north
east corner of WatOnwan county are
three small lakes with groves of trees.
Here five of six families of peaceable
Sissetons were fishing oblivious of trou
BILE near the cabin of Theodore Leisch
and Phillip Schaffer. In the same grove
a little to the north lived Blister and his
family and north of him, Boeckler and
family. Hearing of the massacre. these
people became uneasy at the mere pres
cnce of an Indian, and leaving their
cabins fled to the house of Isaac Slocum.
This started the rumOr that these In
dians. who in the story had grown to
several hundred in number, were on the
war path. Joseph Chelfins happened to
OF
his way to Mankato from Springfield
and his description of the horrors that
he had just witnessed did not tend to
allay the fears of the people.
Slocum and the others sent by him to
Nankato requesting immediate help to
protect the settlers on the Watonwan.
Reaching Mankato on Friday night, APP
ril 10th, Cheffins delivered his message.
rendered Il hundredfold more impressive
by his vivid report of the scenes he had
beheld two or three days before at
Springfield The fire bell hanging by
the Manliato house, was rung to call the
people together, a mass meeting was
held at the log school house, and as Il
result a company. of thirty eight voun
teers with Dr. William F. Lewis as cap
tain left next day for Slocum's cabin
on the WatonWan four or five miles be-
low the village of Madeiia. Reaching
their destination that evening at a late
hour, at daybreak next morning, Sunday
April 18th, they proceeded to the small
Indian camp by Liesch and Schaffer's
cabin three or four miles Off, and sur
prised the savages by sudden attack.
\ warm skirmish was kept up for a
few minutes from behind trees. One
Indian was hit in the arm and two or
three of the whites had narrow escapes.
Soon both parties retreated, fleeing in
opposite directions, each imagining it
self pursued by the other.
The excitement now was at its height.
All theprevious day and night refugees
had been pouring into Mankato, st. Pet
er and other towns and the quiet of this
Sabbath day was completely forgotten
in the turmoil of teams and terror
stricken people. The news of the little
skirmish reached Mankato in few
hours, but magnified to battle in which
a number had been killed on both sides,
and that the Mankato company was
then shut up in SlOcums cabin, be-
seged by several hundred painted sava-
ges. On this same Sunday, Captain
Dodds with about forty volunteers from
st. Peter reached Mankato and hearing
the many startling reports the captain
despatched a mounted messenger to Fort
Smelling for military aid, and then hur-
ried on to reinforce the Mankato com
pany. Monday the two companies uni
ted forces at Slocum's place, and went
down the Watonwan to the mouth OF
Perch creek, where Sintomnidutah (An
Over Red a SissetOn subchief, with Il
small band had been encamped during
the winter. They found the place de-
serted and in the camp ashes was dis
covered a stone painted red, and on a
log trough, which had been used for
holding maple sap, pair of snow shoes
pointing southeast, and tied to branch
above them a number of goose bones.
1t simply meant "All Over Red" has
gone southeast of here to hunt wild
geese" This same Monday a company
of about thirty volunteers under George
Mcleod as captain from Traverse Des
Sioux, passed through Mankato, and the
next day ran across Sintomnidutah and
his band with a few other Sissetons up
on the Blue Earth not far from the
village of Vernon, and chased the aston
ished Indians, squaws, papooses and all
over the prairie and across the Waton-
wan toward the northwest. One feeble
old squaw and one starved little pony
with quite an amount of Indian furni-
ture, fell into the hands of these dough-
ty warriors from Traverse. The same