The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1937-05-27
SAW MILL CONSTRUCTED
HERE IN 1855, STOOD
THROUGH MASSACRE

THROUGH MASSACRE
1.-THE following paper prepared
bu Minnie M. Lee Knudsor1 ana
oiven at q recent Twentieth Gen.
turn club meeting is being pub
Iished in The Gazette. IN install
mentS, because of its general
neaps INTEREST,"
We live not alone in the pre-
sent for we can never look out
thoughtfully at our own immed-
late surroundings but course of
reasoning will start up, leading us
to inquire into the causes that
produced the developments ar
ound us and at the same time we
are led to conjecture the results
to follow causes now in operation.
We are thus linked indissolubly
with the past and the future.
I feel fortunate in having been
assigned this topic as l am a
fairly old settler, though not hav-
ing lived here continuously since
my birth in Shutdown township
May %, 1876, and the past week
I have taken time to look up new
material, besides refreshing my
memory on many of the happen
ings of the olden days.
1 thought it would be a very
easy task to obtain the material I
wished from the descendants of
our old settlers but 1 found this is
not the case for here in Redwood
Falls we are sadly lacking in this
respect; though I appreciate any
information I received and espec-
tally thank William Thomas for
his assistance and the loan of pic
lures and papers and I feel per-
haps if I had written to H. M.
Hitchcock I would have obtained
valuable information but thought
this hardly necessary for club
paper. So I find myself confront
ed with a situation I wished to
avoid; that of speaking of per-
sonal "reminiscences and of show
ing you my own keepsakes to q
great extent.
1t has only come to me the last
few years, and more so perhaps
since the death of my mother
whom I believe had one of the
most beautiful characters of any
woman, that I have, thanks to
her, quite complete data, docum-
ents and pictures of the pioneer
life here in Brown and Redwood
counties. Fred Johnson of New
Ulm has many times insisted
that these be turned over to the
Brown County Museum, but
though I have aided him to some
extent, I must first decide just
where they belong, whether in
Brown or Redwood county.
I will try to present these
, things in natural succession and
hope to arouse you as clubwomen
to a more serious study of our
early history and of the Sioux I'D
rising, for I feel our education is
lacking if we do not have this
knowledge and are not able to
pass it on to the next generation.
1t would be impossible to give
a complete history in any sort of
way in so short time and as
most of us are more or less famil-
lar with the later history and
doings here, I am combining my
self more to the beginnings, we
may call 1T the firsts, and trust ]
can bring out few facts of in
terest some of you might not 9TH
erwiSe find out.
Other Counties
First we must take up the
county itself. We find Redwood
at first was part of Blue Earth
county and that in 1856 Brown
county was set off from Blue
Earth and that in 1857 seven 9TH
er counties were set off from
Brown county but we were still
a part of Brown. We also find
Minnesota was still a territory
but in 1857 we became state
with H. H. Sibley as our first gov
ernor and in 1859 Alexander
Ramsey was elected governor
Fort Ridgely had been built ir
1853 and the Lower Agency was
established in 1854. The reserva.
ton to which the Sioux Indian.
had been removed by the treaty
of 1851 extended along the Min.
nesota river through a part of the
extensive Brown county including
within its lines the whole river
front of Redwood county, or wha
now is Redwood county, for al
average of ten miles on either
side and the same distance on tn,
east, extending from near New
Ulm to the western boundary O
the state. 1t was divided into tn,
upper and lower Agencies by /;
line few miles west of our city
The strip on the north side of tn,
river was little used by the Ind
ians and we find was relinquish
ed in 1858. But the little Siou,
agency played quite a part, lat