The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1907-04-05
Peter Schaefer, st. Peter
Pioneer, just Died.
HIS CAREER ONE OF EVENTS
Witnessed the Assault on Sumter: An
Old-Timer i'm NicOllet County
Passes Away.
From Saturdays Daily.

From Saturdays Daily.
Peter Schaeter, one of st. Peters YER
early settlers, and a man who had ha
an interesting and eventful career, die
at his home in this city at $3.50 O'clOcl
Wednesday evening, says The st. Pete
Herald. His death was due to chroni
nephritis and followed comparativel.
short illness. Although he had not beer
in robust health for some time, his con
dition did not become serious until re
Gently. On March 10th he was able t.
walk down town, but week before h'
died he was compelled to take to hi
bed and thereafter failed rapidly.
Peter Schaefer was born in Sussen
hansen, Mariarochdorf, Germany, July
81, 1888, and was in his sixty ninth year
He was reared in his native province and
when mere youth served an enlist
ment in the German army. This was
during the revolutionary period, when
the German federation was being formed
and the people were clamoring for re-
cognitiOn from the crown, and Mr..
Schaefer always retained vivid impress
sions of those troublous times.
At the age of nineteen he emigrated
TO America, taking passage in sailing
vessel in the spring of 1857. They had
an extremely tempestuous voyage, eX-
pecting the ship to founder on several
occasions, and were tftysix days in
making a voyage that now consumes on
ly week. After landing in New York
the young emigrant made his way to
Chicago. 1t was then nothing more than
a struggling village, old Fort Dearborn
being the principal building, and Mr..
Schaefer remained III it but few
months, coming to st. Peter in the fall
of 1857.
When he arrived in Nicollet county
there were only few buildings on the
site of the present city, and the state
was literally in its infancy. 1t offered
few attractions to a young man and
after remaining here about twelve
months he left for the south and spent
three years travelling through the south
ern states and Old Mexico. The opening
of the great civil war found him in
South Carolina, and although he was
surrounded by ardent secessionists, his
sympathies were with the north in the
approaching struggle. When that state
went out of the Union, however, he was
forced to enlist in the Confederate army,
and then began series of exciting ad-
ventures.
After being drafted his command was
sent to Charlestown and became a part
of the rebel force that fired upon Fort
Sumter He served through the siege and
witnessed the surrender, but few
weeks later he and another northern
sympathizer managed to escape from
their Confederate comrades. One dark
night they stole on board vessel in
the narbor and its captain concealed
them in the hold. A rebel patrol in
spected the ship but failed to find their
hiding place, and after eight days of
discomfort they succeeded in reaching
the Union lines.
Mr.. Schaefer returned to st. Peter in
1862 but, as events proved, he had not
seen the last of military life. A few
months afterward Little Crow and his
Sioux went on the warpath, and MIR.
Schaefer was one of the first to enlist
in Capt. Charles Z. Flandrau's company.
They marched at once to the relief of
New Ulm, and the deceased participated
in both of the battles at that place.
He helped guard the wagon train bear
ing the women and children and wound
ed when the town was evacuated and
on Dec. 26, 1862, was present at the
execution of the thirty eight Indians
at Mankato.
When peace had been restored on the