The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1923-07-11

tale of the many tales told by mas
sacre refugees.
Among the Indians who accostcd
them were Cut Nose, Shakopee and
Dowanniye, three of the most blood
band. They were about to make
short work of their white captives
when one of the Indians whom Mrs.
Brown had saved from freezing the
previous winter, recognized her, leap
ed into her wagon, and cried that he
would protect her. The vengeance of
the Sissetons and Wahpetons would
come upon them if they harmed any
member of her family or the neighbors
who accompanied her, Mrs. Brown
warned, and her vigorous defense re-
suited in six weeks of captivity in
stead of death.
George G. Allanson of Wheaton,
Mimi, grandson of Major Brown,
wrote recently detailed account Of
the family's flight and it was pub
lished in Wheaton newspaper. His
mother, Mrs. Ellen Allanson, is res
ident of Henderson, MINI.
Welded Wounded Maiden.
Major Brown came to Minnesota
with the detachment of troops which
built the cantonment at Mendoza in
1919. He left the army in 1925, and
began his activities which included
trading with the Indians, numbering,
publishing and serving in public Of
flee. He laid out the first town site in
Minnesota, was the first lumberman
to raft logs down the Saint Croix,
aided in the erection of the first
crame and the first stone building in
Minnesota, assisted in stalking out the
first road from Fort Smelling to Prai-
RE du Chen, drove the first wagon
over it; served as justice Of the peace
in Wisconsin territory with office at
his trading post on Grey Cloud island,
twelve miles below ST. Paul; and was
distinguished legislator in the pio-
neer law-making bodies.
He married a Sisseton woman after
brief and romantic courtship, so the
story goes.
With Moran Kittson, St. Paul eel
brity in the early days, and one of
the Renvilles, Brown was shooting
with muzzle loading rifles at mark
IN tree. They had fired one round,
and having reloaded, fired again, not
Noticing that an Indian girl had come
within range. A bullet struck the
maiden near the hip. The three men
rushed to aid her. Brown directed that
she be taken to his housed and there,
while she had medical care and be-
came convalescent, Brown wooed her
| and made her his wife.
Steam Wagon Dream Fails.
Ahead of his day, Major Brown
conceived and had built several of
his historically famous steam wag
0ns, great machines resembling the
present day steam roller. He made a
few thousands of dollars from his In
dian trading and went East to super
wise the construction of the wagons
and to try. to interest Eastern capt.
tai.
There on the morning of Novem-
Der 8, 1870, he was found dead in bed.
His death was pronounced natural, al
though he apparently had been in his
usual good health the previous
day. Some papers that he had intend
| ed to take to the Patent office at
Washington were missing, relatives
learned, but whether they had been
lost or stolen was never ascertained.
Out on the Western prairie lay the
rusting, broken down wagon that he
had believed would solve the problem
of better transportation facilities
across the vast stretches beyond his
own Minnesota. His browning effort
to contribute to the progress of the
Northwest had failed, except as il