The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-10-13
THE CAUSES ANDRtSULT |NKPADUTAH MASSACRE
Paper Read By Thomas Hughes Before State
Historical Society, Monday, Oct. 9, 1905.

i'll their flight glanced back from the
bluffs of the Boone they imagined that
! they saw the cabin in flames and heard
the dying shrieks of Mrs Lott and the
it. Lott and his stepson fled down the
| Des Moines about one hundred miles to
| Point.
| Here John Pea undertook to raise Il
company to 90 back with Lott to look
for his family and punish the Indians.
At Elk Rapids, chief Chemeus tcalled
and NIusquakie tribes volunteered to join
the expedition with twenty three braves,
glad of an opportunity to 60 on this
warpath once more against their old
enemy, the Sioux.
dams and six white recruits under John
Pea, Lott hurried back, but on arriv-
his wife, and children safe except his son,
Milton, lad of twelve years, who, his
mother said, had left the cabin for fear
of the Indians shortly after his father,
and had not been seen since.
A search disclosed the fact that he had
followed the tracks of his father and
brother down the Des Mones prob
ably only few hours behind them,
though they knew it not, until exhaust
ed by cold and hunger he fell in the
snow and persisted within three miles
of where stands the present town of
Boonesboro. A few months later the
mother, who had been overcome by ter
ror and grief, sickened and died and
Lott laid both deaths to his account
against Sintomndutah.
The old chief and his band easily
eluded the posse Lott had brought with
him to punish them, until, running out
of provisions, they soon returned to
their homes disappointed.
Some accounts omit from the forego-
ing narrative the horse stealing episode,
and attribute the attack on Lott to the
antipathy of Sintomnidutah to any
white man locating in his territory. 9th
er accounts say the trouble arose in
this wise: While Lott and his step
son were away at the settlements on
business, the chief and number of his
followers called at the cabin and de-
manded some liquor, which Mrs Lott
refused to give them. The Indians
thereupon seized it by force, and in
their drunken frenzy drove Mrs. Lott
and her children from home, and in at
tempting to reach the nearest white
settlement, about one hundred miles
down the Des Moines, in the dead of
winter, without food, shelter or prop
er clothing, they suffered untold hard
ships and one boy froze to death on
the way and the mother died few
months later as result of her terrible
experience. Others again claim the In
dams made no attack on Lofts house
but were merely celebrating some spe-
cial feast, and the noise they made so
terrified Mrs. Lott in the absence of her
husband that she fled from her cabin
with her children.
So as accounts differ, we may not de-
termine as to the details of the trouble
But as to the main points of the story,
all accounts agree. These points are to
the effect that, in the winter of lS4S,
because of some unusual demonstration
or other on the part of Sintomnidutah
and his followers, intentional or under
some prOvOcation or otherwise, Lofts
family were driven from home, and one
son in consequence thereof frOZe to
death and the wife died soon thereafter
and Henry Lott held Sntomnidutah re-
sponsible for both deaths and thirsted
for vengeance.
In addition to his many other evil
characteristics this degenerated son of
Puritan blood could never forgive an
injury, and time instead of eXtinguish-
ing his anger only intensified its fury.
Apparently Lott was soon consoled for
the loss of his wife. for he soon married
:! one Frances Mcclure, daughter of one
of the first settlers of Yell township,
Iowa. and built new cabin on the
Des Moines, not far from the mouth of
the Boone. Here this second wife died
on Dec 10th, 1851. In the meantime
settlers had been pushing up the valley
of the Des Moines and into the Boone
lriver country in great numbers. Their