The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-03
HUTCHINSON HAS A
/. SEMICENTENNIAL
Minnesota Town Will Celebrate
Founding and Dedicate Mem
orial Tablet.
Special to The Journal.

special to The journal.
Hutchinson, Mimi, Oct. 3.-On his
torlc ground, where pioneers of Mime
sofa resisted and repealed the attack
1862, Hutchinson will tomorrow rTS'e cei L.
brate it's golden :jubilee-the semicen-
tennlal Of the towns founding. Near
the, center Of the city is a beautiful
park, the site in 1923 Of a stockade
tort which sheltered 300 men, women
and children. Here, on a massive eight
ton granite boulder, will be dedicated
tomorrow a bronze tablet bearing the
following inscription:
This tablet marks the site of a
stockade built by the settlers of Hutch
inson and vicinity for a defense against
the Sioux Indians. On Sept. 4, 1862,
Chief Little Crows band attacked this
stockade and was repulsed. Erected
Oct. 4, 1862
i The Old stockade.
At the unwilling 800 school children
will form in a hollow square, represent
ing as nearly as possible the original
stockade and standing on it's exact site.
Inside the lines Of children will be
grouped the survivors of those who
were here in 1862 and other pioneers,
around the memorial tablet.
The opening address will be by DR..
Zee Wakefield, followed by a dedica-
among the pioneers.
Preceding the unwilling of the tablet
there will be a historical parade in
which will appear the old stockaders,
scouts, Indian fighters, guests of the
city, and there will be other features
reminiscent of bygone days. In the
evening there will be a campfire and a
Colonel Stevens a Founder.
The people of Hutchinson take pride
IN the TACT that Colonel J. H. Stevens
was one OF the first white men to set
1oot upon its townsite with the pur-
pose OF making it the nucleus for a set
tlement. The other members of the
party were: Asa, John and Judson
Hutchinson, Lewis Harrington, B. 3.
Messers. r. II. Pendergast, e. 3. John
son. John H. Chubb, Henry Chambers,
l.. N. Parker, John Calef, W. S. Chap
man and A.. j. Bell. They arrived on
the site of the present city of Hutchin-
son Nov. 10, 1855: having come from
me east to the Mississippi; thence to the
Falls OF St. Anthony by boat, and then
by way Of Shakopee, Carver and Glen
coe to Hutchinson. of these men. Col
onel Stevens afterwards became noted
as one of the pioneers and upbuilders
OF Minneapolis; W. ". Pendergast be-
came state superintendent of public in
structlon; Lewis Harrington, a civil en-
glneer, plated the Hutchinson town
site n surveyed most of the govern
ment roads. westward from Minneap-
oils. All Of this band of men who
blazed the way for the thousands who
followed them and who gave Hutchin-
son a place, have :j%ourneyed to the
Great Beyond, excepting R.. H. Pen
dergast, who, at an advanced. age, re-
sides in Duluth, and John W. Hutchin-
son, Hthe last sovereign of a race''-
he OF the famous family of abolition
singers-who lives at Lynn, Mass, and
whose recent romantic marriage has
been noted in TIL j Journal.
Laid Deep Foundations.
The early pioneers Of Hutchinson
were fervent advocates of education
and Of religious liberation, and they
laid deep and well the foundation
stones for a progressive, ~law-abiding
community. The Pendergasts came from
a long line of educators, the Hutchin-
sons sang for temperance and the broth
erhood of man. These two families in
the town along moral and educational
lines. and thta it is the model it is
for temperance, education and social
cleanliness is due in no small degree to
them.
Hutchinson was a struggling hamlet
of less than 200 souls when the out
break of the civil wal convulsed the
nation in 1861. Privation and want
pressed hard upon the new settlers.
Crops on the new, untried soil were
scant, and supplies must be hauled from
Carver or Minneapolis. the nearest
points of river traffic. There was much
sickness, especially among and
children. Medicines were scarce and
were enlisting for the war.
The Sioux Massacre.
1t was during such gloomy times that
the Sioux Indians, numbering thou
sands Of warriors, resolved to sweep the
white settlers from western Minnesota.
Hutchinson was the most eastern out
post of the country the savages planned
to devastate, and it should be here
noted that it was the one point in that
whole vast region at which they were
repulsed without loss to settlers or sol
diers. Several settlers who received
killed while on their way to Hutchin-
son, but all those who reached the
stockade escaped unframed, tho for
one full day q band of from three hun
dred to four hundred Sioux surrounded
the town. burned outlying buildings ana
from ambuscade shot at every living
object appearing near the stockade or
above its ramparts.
Aug. 18, 1862. George G. Whitcomb
came to Hutchinson from Meeker coun-
ty with the news Of the Sioux outbreak.
1t was decided to build a stockade
10Q feet annara FOR nrofnntinn and 70