The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1926-10-20
SOLE SURVIVOR
OF CAPTIVITY
Is VISITOR HERE
MARY SCHWANDT SCHMIDT RE-
LATES STORY OF CAPTURE
BY SIOUX IN 1862 WHEN
IA YEARS OF. AGE.
BORN IN RENvILLE COUNTY
GIRL LIVES TWO MONTHS IN
GOOD THUNDER'S TEEPEE IN
INDIAN VILLAGE; BOUGHT
FOR SCRUB PONY.

Redwood Falls had one of Mime
sofas honored citizens as her guest
last week although few people in the
city knew about it. This guest was
Mrs. Mary Schwandt Schmidt of st.
Paul, the only living person who was
taken captive during the uprising of
the Sioux in 1862. Mrs. Schmidt was
a girl of fourteen at the time she
was taken captive and still retains,
at her present age of seventy-eight,
very clear picture of all the horrors
of those days. While here Mrs.
Schmidt was guest at the home of
Mrs. Louise Henze. She returned to-
her Saint Paul home Saturday.
As Mary Schwandt, Mrs. Schmidt
came with her parents to Flora Town
ship, Renville County, only a few
months before the Sioux decided to
kill the whites. This was at the time
of Governor Ramsey's administration.
At the time of the outbreak the
Schwandt girl was staying at the
home of Mr.. and Mrs. Jos. Reynolds
who kept halfway house in what
is now Redwood County, this tavern
being maintained on the public road
near the Redwood River, as Mrs.
Schmidt recalls it. Her own family
lived on the farm now marked by
monument erected by the Govern
ment several years ago, on the old
Schwandt farm in Flora.
Mrs. Schmidt's own parents with
the other members of her family were
killed very early in the outbreak. Sew
eral people, including, Mr.. and Mrs.
Schwandt, their daughter and son-in-
law, two young sons and young man
who was a guest at the house at the
time, were killed just as they were
about to eat their monday meal. An
eleven year old son of the family was
hit in the head by tomahawk and left
for dead Later he escaped and the
story of his adventures and encount-
ers is indeed a terrible one. This
brother and Mrs. Schmidt were sep
arated for many,many years, and
finally found each other through his
torical reports of the outbreak
In company with two young wo-
men and three men from the Reynolds
house, Mary Schwandt tried to make
her way to Fort Ridgely. The story
of their attack by Indians, of the
killing of the three men, the capture
Of the three girls and the death of one
of them and the terrible happenings
of the two months that followed this
capture makes an interesting picture
of the history of Minnesota during
4,rr-, Inxy leo
alton of what the pioneer Mime
sotans endured in hardship and ter
ror. Mary Schwandt, by virtue of
her captivity, became the property
of the young Indian who captured
her. She was destined to be set up
as living target for the pleasure
of himself and his comrades when
: she was bought by Sonona, the wife of
Good Thunder Sonana, having been
trained somewhat in one of the early
mission classes, had the rudiments of
Christianity, which prompted her to
save the white girl. She purchased
her by giving her pony to the owner
of Mary. The girl was then kept a
member of Good Thunder's family, in
the village of Little Crow until Gen.
eral Sibley and his soldiers rescued
her with the other women and chill
dren kept by the Indians. The story
of her capture, her purchase by her
Indian mother and her life in the
camp is as thrilling as any story ever
told by any Indian writer.
Following her rescue and her re-
lease at Camp Release Mary Schwandt
went to Wisconsin where she was car
ed for by relatives. 1t was only af-
ter she reached them that she knew
Continued on page twelve)