The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1929-08-21
Daughter Recalls When Father,
Col. Samuel McPhail, Reliev-
ed Fort Ridgely in 1862
FIRST HOME PRESERVED
tbs of Site of StOckade Built
in Redwood Falls and First
Homes Outside

In connection with the annual Fort
Ridgely State Park and Historical
Association celebration to be held at
the Fort tomorrow Thursday, Mr..
H. M. Hitchcock, former Redwood
Falls citizen submits some interest
ing data regarding the McPhail fami-
ly, of which Mrs. Eta McPhall An
derson of Minneapolis, daughter OF
the officer who led the relief expedl-
tion to Fort Ridgely after the Indian
massacre of 1862, will be honor
guest at the celebration.
Mrs. Anderson will give brief
speech on the spot where her father
added more military laurels to his
reputation. Other speakers of the
day will be Governor Theodore Chris
tianson, Mayor w. F. Knuze and N.
j. Holmberg.
Mrs. Anderson was a little girl
when her father, Colonel Samuel Nc
Phail, was ordered by Governor RAM
sey to report to General Sibley at
ST. Peter. The McPhail family was
living in Caledonia, which Colonel
McPhail, hero of three wars, found
ed. So greatly did Colonel McPhail
fear for the safety of his family
while the Indians were on the war
path, he removed his wife, his daugh-
ter and his son, John, to Fort Shell
ing for safety for the entire camp
: aign.
With a force of citizen soldiers
Colonel McPhail left St. Peter at
sundown and marched all night to
reach the haven of the whites who
were holding off the massacring
Sioux. Colonel McPhail said if the
force under his command had been
attacked by "fifty we'll armed In.
dians" he could not have made any
kind of a stand and fight. He dio
not intend to fight but intended to
dash through the enemy and go on
with what force remained to him.
AS it was, he did not meet the
enemy but reached Fort Ridgely
without incident, "trotting, galloping
running, whooping, yelling, we ar
rived safely at the fort just after
sunrise. The condition in which we
found the garrison l have no desire
to recall to memory" From the fort
the colonel set out to relieve the
whites at Birch Coulee. Before that
Colonel McPhail had fought in the
Mexican and Civil wars. Afterward
he was in command at the first bat
tie in the campaign in Dakota under
General Sibley. The site of that
battle-ground is to be reserved as 8
memorial under the name of McPhal
park.
Mrs. Anderson, with her mother
were the first women to venture into
the devasted and still dangerous re-
gion where the bloodthirsty Indians
had swept along dealing death. Col
onel McPhail established the first
home in the first house in the first
permanent settlement of the upper
Minnesota valley. Fear of the In
dians had not departed with the
driving of the red men westward.
"We went to New Ulm in covered
wagon and remained there while my
father and others built stockade al
Redwood Falls, with a few houses in
side," Mrs. Anderson recalled. ED
mund Fosgate built the first house
outside the stockade and my father
the second. 1t was long time, how
ever, before the settlers felt it safe
to live outside the stockade."
Mr. Hitchcock, as he recalls, state:
that the first house built in the stock
Continued on page twelve)