New Ulm review., 1915-04-28
VISITED THESE PARTS OVER
FIFTY YEARS AGO
Tells Of Experiences in This Vicinity
When Lamberton Was 4 Wilder
ness.
By Nathan Butler

Dy NdCAaN 6uClef 5Ea
In the summer Of 1861, the year be-
fore the Indian outbreak in Minnesota,
l helped to run the township lines be-
tween the first and second standard
parallels and the fifth and sixth guide
meridian in Murray and Pipestone
counties in Minnesota under contract
with the United States government.
There were then about half dozen
families living around Lake Shetek and
no others within those. two counties.
We hired a Mr.. Everett, who lived at
Lake Shetek to work for US on that job
as mound builder. He was strong,
able bodied man, able and willing to
work and a very pleasant man in crew.
The Indians filled him full of lead in that
marsh east of Shetek where they at
tackled the settlers, who had fled from
the lake in the direction of New Ulm.
They did not kill him there, but he died
several years after, mainly from the
effects of the wounds received then.
The Indians were roaming over that
territory during our stay there, ostensibly
hunting elk in the groves around Shetek
Bear lake and the Des Moines river.
They would sit around on the high land
and watch us all day to see what we were
doing and then we would keep guard
all night to see what they were doing.
They did not molest us that summer
though they passed through our party
one day in single file and open order
looking neither to the right nor left.
They refused to respond to our call in
English or Sioux. They would pull up
our stakes and throw them away into
;, the tallest grass nearby until we found
out what they were doing and then we
drove the stakes into the ground too
hard for them to pull up. They did not
like to see us surveying and stalking off
their land. It indicated to them that
the white man had taken possession.
One night we were camped on the south
end of lake in Pipestone county with
some Indians camped on the northern
end of the same lake, mile away.
Fearing they would steal our horses the
teamster drew the wagon up in front OF
the tent and tied the horses to it, one
on each side of the pole. He tied the
picket ropes to their front feet and the
other end of them to his leg in the tent.
The light in the tent had not been out
ten minutes when one of the horses
started to pull the teamster out OF the
tent. The horse was standing off the
length of the picket rope with halter
rope hanging loose. We heard the
Indian running through the brush down
to the lake. The horse was tied up
again with the picket rope tied to- the
tent pole. The halter rope was found
united again in the morning but the
picket rope saved him. The Indian did
not get on to that picket rope attach
ment.
When we went out we went by way
of Mankato up the Watonwan river
by Madelia until we struck the first
standard parallel and followed that
west into Murray county where our
work commenced. When we had finished
we took the wagon trail that the settlers
had made from Shetek to New Uln.
There was no one living on that trail
until we came to ''Dutch Charley" who
lived on Charley Creek about seven
miles south by east from Lamberton.
I have heard that the Indians did not
kill Charley because he was sandy COM
plected and red headed and they thought
that he was an Irishman or Scotchn1an
and belonged to the Hudson Bay Fur
Company. They would not injure a
Hudson Bay man because on them they
depended for arms and ammunition.
But what became of the settlers
around Lake Shetek? I could not do
them justice if I tried. I have read
every account of them that could
find, but never but one that did them
anywhere near justice, and that was the
one written by Agnes C. Liant and
published in Outing Magazine in June,
1908. 1t is in the principal libraries in
the state and copy might be had Of the
publishers Of Outing. 1t should be re-
published in every local paper from
Shetek to New Ulm, for the present
generation have little idea OF the hard
ships that the first settlers in the state
endured, especially the women of the
western frontier. They are in class by
themselves. They are class who never
had the credit given them that they
deserve. 1t takes more courage for a