GEORGE GALBRAITH, EARLY BUSINESSMAN

When thumbing through a scrapbook belonging to the Kossuth County Genealogical Society, a news clipping of George Galbraith and his store caught my eye.  It appeared that he had been a leading merchant from the time of his arrival in 1870 until his passing at the age of 81.  I knew of the “Galbraith block” in downtown Algona, but had to admit that I knew virtually nothing about the man it was named for.  I found a few mentions of him in the 1913 edition of the “History of Kossuth County,” but he seemed a bit of a mystery man.  I put on my detective hat and went to work.

WHO WAS GEORGE GALBRAITH?

George Galbraith came to Algona at the age of 21.  By the time he died on July 21, 1930, he had amassed a large fortune and left an indelible mark on the city which had become his home.

The son of Scottish immigrants who settled in Wisconsin in 1844, George was born there on April 2, 1849.  George’s parents, William and Isabella Galbraith, had four other children:  Mary, John, Jane and Isabella.  When the family moved to Algona in 1870, his father began farming but also opened a dry goods store in partnership with George.  John eventually replaced his father in the store, but the two brothers later parted and each ran separate businesses.

After moving to Algona, George met Mary Ellen Cordingley whom he married in 1876.  The two became more than marriage partners—Mary ran a millinery department for many years in the Galbraith store. 

THE STORE

The first Galbraith store was located on Call Street, but as more businesses opened on State Street, George decided to construct a new building on the southwest corner of the intersection with Dodge in 1886.  It was the first double front brick store in town.  In addition to housing the Galbraith Store, sections of the building were rented to others such as barbers.  In fact, George Galbraith dug a cistern in the back and had soft water piped into the building for the comfort of the barbershop customers.

George and an unidentified woman employee are pictured in the accompanying photo of the inside of the store circa 1892.  You will note that the woman pictured is seated on a J.P. Coates thread case.  The young lady is holding a palm leaf fan which was the only “air conditioning” available in those days.  One can only imagine how warm those sultry summer days were in those long sleeves, corsets and full length skirts!

Many bolts of fabric lined the walls and notions of all kinds were sold.  Clerks would bring fabric to the piece goods counter for perusal by customers seated on stools there.  The store provided alterations and sewing in the back.

Women’s undergarments were sold in the store but were not put on public display.  You will see a picture hanging above the seated woman showing women in the various styles of intimate garments for customers to use to choose the item needed.

Advertisements through the years touted the varying supply of dry goods offered by the “mammoth” establishment including everything from groceries to hats and caps and boots and shoes.  Kerosene lamps are shown hanging from the ceiling to provide the necessary lighting.  It must have been fun to light those each day when opening the store.  Plus there would seem to be an element of danger with kerosene lamps so close to fabric and other flammables.

OTHER INTERESTS

George continued to expand his real estate ownings.  He purchased several properties in the downtown area which he rented out. Farmland also became an investment of choice.  He acquired over a thousand acres, much in southern Kossuth County.  When the Northwestern Railway built its tracks diagonally through Sherman township, a station called “Galbraith Switch” was built in Section 9 named for the owner of the land—to this day that area is known as Galbraith.

Active in the community from the time of his arrival, George served as the first treasurer of the town of Algona beginning in 1872.  He was a stockholder and director of the Algona State Bank. He was also instrumental in bringing Swift & Company to the city by constructing a building for use as their production plant on one of his many properties. 

THE PICTURESQUE GALBRAITH HOUSE

In 1894 George purchased a house and large lot located at 502 East State Street in Algona.  Remodeling soon began.  The house was lifted, moved slightly to the southwest and a new basement excavated.  A new front was constructed expanding the living area which included a tall turret.  A large wrap around porch was added and its entrance near the front door of the house had an almost gazebo-like appearance.  One can imagine many lovely hours spent relaxing and entertaining in this outdoor space as the northwesterly breezes helped to keep the mosquitoes in check.

The following spring the Galbraiths graded the yard and laid a wooden sidewalk.  The couple carefully preserved the majestic elm trees which graced the grounds.

The two enjoyed their roomy new home and celebrated by hosting a large group of relatives at a New Year’s dinner in 1896.  No children had been born to them, but they delighted in entertaining their friends and extended family members.  Their beautiful home was featured in “Picturesque Algona” a few years later and it was their pride and joy.

By 1905 Mary Galbraith was suffering from debilitating asthma.  It was recommended that she move to a warmer and drier climate. The couple then relocated to San Antonio, Texas.  It became Mary’s permanent home, but George traveled back and forth to take care of his business interests.  He found managers for the store and eventually downsized and moved it first to a location farther east on State Street and then to a site on North Dodge.

After a few years, he transferred ownership of the house to his brother, John.  During his visits to Algona George would stay with various relatives in the area.

 
THE PASSING OF THE GALBRAITHS

By 1930 both Mary and George were in failing health.  Asthma had taken a toll on Mary’s body and she passed away on January 20^th of that year.  Much of Algona was saddened at the news of her death as she was well liked and her charming personality made her a social favorite in her younger days. 

George was too ill at the time to accompany her body back to Algona for burial.  Her brother escorted her back where she was placed in the burial vault at Riverview Cemetery for storage until her husband could regain his health and travel back to Algona for her funeral.  Sadly, that was not to be.  State law required that burial take place within a prescribed time period and so on July 19^th Mary Galbraith’s body was laid to rest.  Two days later in San Antonio, George himself departed his world, bringing his story to an end.  He was interred next to Mary a few days later.  His obituary published in the Upper Des Moines on August 6, 1930, states:  “He was known for his honesty, integrity and business acumen.  He was always kind to unfortunates often taking tramps home and feeding them from his own table.”

 
THE PROPERTIES TODAY

The Galbraith house passed to many owners before being purchased in July of 1968 by William and Arlene Hood.  It had served not only as a private residence but as an apartment house as well.  The house was razed to provide space for an addition to the west side of Hood’s Super Valu store and additional parking which took place in 1971.  The site is now occupied by American Marine.

Although much different in appearance today, the Galbraith block still stands as an anchor in downtown Algona, a legacy to a well-known and well-respected businessman.

Until next time,

Jean, a/k/a KC History Buff

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RECORD OF A VAGABOND TRIBE - PART II

This final installment of Judge Ambrose Call's record of the Indian raids in northwest Iowa delves into the encounters leading up to the Spirit Lake massacre.  It was published on December 24, 1902, in the Upper Des Moines Republican:

        In the autumn of 1856, however, Inkpadutah and his followers came down from the northwest, passing down the East fork of the Rock in Lyon county, thence on the Floyd and Little Sioux rivers, creating consternation wherever they went; the helpless settlers repeatedly called for assistance from the state and government but their call was unheeded.  Major Williams had been appointed by Gov. Grimes to do what he could to protect the settlers on the frontier, but he had no resources and consequently was powerless.

        The Indians crossed the Minnesota line, going south, about Nov. 15^th and were at Sutherland and working up the Little Sioux by Jan. 1^st, 1857.  They followed the line of settlements, robbing cabins, killing stock, running the settlers out, taking their guns and abusing their wives, becoming more bold and insolent as they advanced until they reached Clay county.  I copy from local historians the record of their depredations from Peterson up to Lost Island Lake and Spirit Lake.  Their depredations at Peterson are described by the Clay county historian, Gilbrath, in the following language:  “The Clay county settlers had heard of the depredations they were committing and were thoroughly alarmed for the safety of themselves and property.  When they came to the home of Mr. Bicknell, and finding no one there, he with his family having gone to Mr. Kirchner’s, across the river, they immediately appropriated everything that met their fancy.  The next day they made their appearance at the

Kirchner Cabin 2015

Kirchner house, where they found the terror-stricken settlers huddled together.  Without any ceremony they captured all the arms to be found, killed the cattle and took what they wanted.  After remaining in the Peterson settlement a day and a night they pushed on, leaving the whites badly frightened but thankful they had escaped with their lives.  The band of bloodthirsty Sioux then proceeded to the house of Ambrose Mead, who was absent at Cedar Falls.  Previous to leaving for this place he had arranged with a Mr. Taylor and family to remain with Mrs. Mead and the children during his stay.  When the Indians came Mr. Taylor protested against their taking the property or disturbing the premises.  Becoming angry at Mr. Taylor for his intervention they threatened to kill him if he didn’t keep out of the way.  Fearing they would carry out their threats, Taylor left the women and children and set out to secure assistance.  The Indians killed the stock, drove off the ponies and carried the women with them, but fearing they would be pursued and overtaken they decided to allow the women to return, after taking such liberties as the helpless women could not prevent.  They then directed their steps towards Linn Grove and Sioux Rapids where they subjected the settlers to the treatment they had given the Mead and Taylor families.”

        Mrs. Sharp in her book enters more into the details.  She says:  “After remaining a few days in Cherokee, where they busied themselves with wantonly shooting cattle, hogs and fowls and destroying property generally, sometimes severely beating those who resisted, they proceeded up the Little Sioux to the little settlement in Clay county, now called Peterson.  Here the tarried two or three days, committing acts of atrocity as usual.  At the home of A. S. Mead, Mr. Mead being away, they not only killed his cattle and destroyed his property but knocked down his wife and carried off to camp her daughter seventeen years old, and started away with a younger sister, but she resisted so hard and cried so loud that an Indian picked up a stick and whipped her all the way back to the house and left her.  At the same house they knocked down Mr. E. Taylor, kicked his boy in the fire and took his wife off to their camp, but as yet had committed no murder.  After one night in the Indian camp Mrs. Taylor and Miss Mead were permitted to return home.  From Peterson they passed up to Sioux Rapids, where similar scenes were enacted and similar outrages perpetrated.  They killed the stock and destroyed everything capable of being destroyed.  It was at the home of Abner Bell that their atrocities assumed the most fiendish aspect.  From Sioux Rapids they went up to Gillett’s Grove.  The Gilletts were two brothers who had moved in late in the summer, bring with them about a hundred head of cattle, intending to go largely into stock business.  The Indians made more general destruction here than they had hitherto done.  They killed every living animal on the place, took all their bedding, clothing and provisions and destroyed everything they could not take away.  They even cut a new wagon to pieces to get the bolts.”  The Gilletts soon after this left the country and did not return.  One of the brothers, many years after came back and according to Mr. Gilbrath, the Clay county historian, told the following story as the cause of his sudden departure:  He said one day after the Indians had destroyed their property while they were encamped at Lost Island Lake a young buck came down to his cabin and in his absence insulted or abused his wife.  Upon his return soon after his wife told him of the circumstances and he took down his rifle and followed his tracks until he got within range of him, when he shot him, killing him in his tracks.  He told his brother and they decided to leave at once, as the Indians would surely be looking for the missing Indian, so the next morning they cut the head from the dead Indian, which they took with them, boxed up, hid the body in a hollow tree and immediately left for Fort Dodge and the East.  This story was probably true to the letter.  From Lost Island the Indians went to Spirit Lake.  The details of this massacre are too awfully sickening to tell here, but suffice it to say that every soul in the settlement of over forty persons was killed excepting the four women who were carried away into captivity.

This ends the recollections of Judge Call as published in the Upper Des Moines Republican in December of 1902.  Harvey Ingham, who later went on to write a more thorough account of the Indian raids in a book called, "Indian Days," submitted the following article which originally appeared in the Des Moines Daily Register and Leader and was reprinted by the Upper Des Moines Republican immediately after Judge Call's final installment.

Harvey Ingham

THE STORY OF INKPADUTAH.

        In the columns of the Algona Upper Des Moines Republican Mr. Ambrose A. Call is writing some of his personal recollections of Inkpadutah.  The name recalls the Spirit Lake massacre, one of the most tragic events in the pioneer history of Iowa, as well as the story of some of the most lawless Indian bands which were to be found in the entire northwest.

        The Sioux in Iowa were in the main the renegades from all the Dacotah tribes.  They were known as the Wahpecoute or “Shooters at Leaves,” which seems to have been a title of derision.  Pike says of the Wahpecoute, “they hunt generally at the head of the Des Moines.  They appear to me to be the most stupid and inactive of the Sioux.”  And Elliot Coues in a footnote in his edition of Pike’s Journal adds that they were merely “a band of vagabonds formed by refugees from all the other bands, which they left for some bad deed.”  In the later 40’s, when the white settlements first began to encroach upon the lands north and west of Des Moines, two of the conspicuous chieftains of the Wahpecoute were Sidominadotah, or chief Two Fingers, and his brother, Inkpadutah, or Scarlet Point.

        How in 1848 Sidominadotah drove Marsh, the United States surveyor, away from the Raccoon Forks of the Des Moines, and how in consequence Brigadier General Mason was ordered to locate a fort where Fort Dodge now stands, have often been told.  The first white man to penetrate still further to the north, was Henry Lott, who had been a whiskey seller among the Sacs and Foxes in Marion county, and a stealer of Indian horses.  In 1848 he had gone north among the Sioux, and in Boone county had stolen horses from Sidominadotah, who gave him a “moon” and told him to “puckachee,” and had at the expiration of the time gone to his home, killed his stock and abused his family.  Lott escaped and went to Boone.  His little boy attempted to follow him and after walking twenty miles was overcome by cold and his little body was found frozen stiff on the ice.  Mrs. Lott had died soon after from injury and exposure, and Lott was now moving north of Fort Dodge to be revenged.  It was in the spring of 1854 that he beguiled Sidominadotah, who was in his winter lodge with his family, nine in all, out for a hunt, and, killing him, returned and massacred the family, all but a boy and a girl who had hidden in the weeds.  He chased the aged mother of Sidominadotah and Inkpadutah a hundred yards in the snow and tomahawked her.

        It is from this massacre of Sidominadotah by Lott that the career of Inkpadutah in Iowa dates.  He had ranged further north and west prior to this time, but now came in to avenge the murder of his relatives, while in 1854, the white settlement began to push out into his territory.  Judge and Ambrose A. Call located at Algona in that year, and the settlements on the west branch of the Des Moines and about Spirit and Okoboji Lakes followed in 1856.  Inkpadutah demanded that the murderers of his brother be given up by the whites, and attempted an inquest at the town of Homer, which he supposed was merely a preliminary to the surrender of Lott.  When he discovered that the legal proceedings were formal merely and that Lott had escaped, his indignation foreboded trouble.  And his determination to be avenged was not lessened when he later saw the skull of Sidominadotah nailed to the court house at Homer.

        During the three years that intervened until the Spirit Lake massacre Inkpadutah molested the settlers along the entire Upper Des Moines.  Trappers and the surveyors were stripped, houses were rifled, stock was killed, and no one was free from danger, although no one received physical injury.  It was in the summer of 1855 that the Indians made their raid upon Mr. Call and his neighbors at Algona, of which he is giving his recollections in his present interesting sketches.  Why the Indians waited three years before taking full revenge may never be fully known.  One reason was probably the rapid influx of white settlers.  Another was the vigorous admonition of Col. Wood of Fort Ridgley, who, when he learned of the massacre of Sidominadotah, had called the chiefs together and told them in his own peculiar way, with which they were well acquainted, that if they caused any trouble in consequence, he would “blow them all to hell.”  The winter of 1857 was very severe.  The Indians suffered great deprivations.  In the spring they were hungry and ugly.  They were in the proper frame of mind when they reached Spirit Lake to take the revenge they had been waiting for, and they took it.

        The Indian chiefs with whom Inkpadutah was associated were Umpashotah, or Smoky day, Titonka, or Big Buffalo, Istahabah, or Young Sleepy Eyes, and some younger men, Cosomenah, Wahkonsa, Mokococquemon and Mocopoco, the latter two sons of Inkpadutah.  But among them Inkpadutah was easily leader.  He was a dark, sullen, pock-marked man short and stout, the natural leader of a band of outlaws.  He had no standing with the Sioux leaders of the great tribes in Minnesota and along the Missouri, was not recognized at the Sioux agencies, and fought his way in Iowa for himself.

Our early settlers were indeed brave souls who were willing to risk all they had to establish a new life on the prairie.  It appears that to some extent the Sioux nation received a bad reputation because of actions by rogue groups identifying themselves as Sioux warriors.  Do you ever wonder if many of these killings could have been avoided if Henry Lott had left with his family when first told to do so?  It is one of those questions which can never be answered.

Until next time,

Kossuth County History Buff

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RECORD OF A VAGABOND TRIBE - PART I

The last two posts featured the story of the incident when Indians came to raid the Maxwell cabin.  In that story, Ambrose Call spoke briefly of going to the Indian camp to speak with Inkpadutah to demand that the Indians leave the area immediately.  Judge Call wrote of that visit in more detail in two articles entitled “Inkpadutah and his Band in the Fifties.”  His description of the artistry decorating Inkpadutah’s teepee made it come alive in my imagination and I found his encounter with Inkapdutah’s daughter/niece to be quite touching.

Inkpadutah and His Band in the Fifties

By HON. AMBROSE A. CALL

       I find in Hon. R. A. Smith’s history of Dickinson county this description, which I gave the Upper Des Moines, of Inkpadutah some years ago:  “Of Inkpadutah, who led in the Spirit Lake massacre, and who was present in person at the raid on Mr. Call and the settlers south of Algona, he says:  ‘Inkpadutah was about fifty-five years old, about five feet, eleven inches in height, stoutly built, broad shouldered, high cheek bones, sunken and very black sparkling eyes, big mouth, light copper color and pock-marked in the face.' "  This was a fairly good description.

        Inkpadutah was something of an aristocrat.  His teepee was very conspicuous.  I never before nor since have seen one on which so much painting for decorative purposes had been done, or where as much pains had been taken to beautify it.  The material was elk skins neatly sewed together and around the whole teepee, beginning about four feet from the ground, were three broad bands painted in red, which were each about a foot in width and painted in the form of looped-up drapery.  The teepee was very large and the artist evinced considerable skill in the painting.  The Indians themselves when they visited us had their faces more or less painted with the same material.  I did not discover that Inkpadutah had any family except one daughter, about twelve or fourteen years old.  She may have been the daughter of his brother, Sidominadotah, killed by Henry Lott.  It was said that one girl about ten or twelve years old escaped the general massacre.  At any rate she was quite a comely lass for a squaw, dressed in scarlet blanket and leggins.  When I first visited Inkpadutah’s village, near Holland’s, I was struck with the beauty of the big teepee and of course knew it was occupied by the chief, so I unceremoniously pulled the door one side and walked in, I having learned that this was not a violation of Indian etiquette if one did not stand in the doorway.

        The chief lay on a buffalo robe, evidently nursing his foot, and did not even grunt a welcome, but the young miss approached me, looking intently at my coat.  I wore a checkered cotton or linen one, on one side of which were three large bone buttons about the size of a half dollar, with no button holes to match, and these were what interested her.  She took hold of one of them and gently pulled, at the same time patting her breast and making a fairly good attempt to smile.  She was begging for the button.  I was curious to know what she wanted of it and managed to make myself understood, when she took from her neck and from under her blanket a curiously wrought necklace principally made up of claws of bears, mountain lions and other beasts and birds of prey, bright colored stones, agates and shells, and among the rest four brass army buttons.  She was a curio fiend, and as persistent and energetic as her white sisters.  When I enquired where she got the buttons she seemed much pleased and holding her hand high up, indicating far away, said:  “Heap big captain!”  So, thinking my button might get in good company I gave her my knife and she, selecting the one that best suited her, cut it off.  Holding it up she jabbered to the old man, who gave her a grunt of approval.

        A brief history of the career of Inkpadutah after the death of his brother, Sinominadotah, the last of January or first of February, 1854, when he became chief of the outlaw band, might interest the reader.  I have taken considerable interest in following his wanderings up to and until after the Spirit Lake massacre, when his outlaws disbanded and sought to lose their identity in other tribes and bands to escape punishment.  The first heard from him was on July 2^nd, five months after the death of his brother, when he robbed two surveying parties, under Captains Leach and Ellis, two miles south of Algona on section 15.  These surveyors had no weapons except one old gun, and the Indians who were well armed found them easy victims, took everything they had and ordered them out of the country.  Had the surveyors been armed they were probably in sufficient force to have successfully resisted them.  It was these parties who in glowing terms told my brother and me of the beauties of this section of the country and of the fine grove of timber, and we determined to come up at once and take possession of as much of it as we could.  We reached the grove July 9^th.  The Indians had gone East and were next heard from two weeks later on the head waters of the Cedar on Lime creek, and at Clear Lake, where they had their own way, intimidating the settlers, killing stock, etc.  They found a Winnebago Indian who was working for Capt. Hewitt, an Indian trader at Clear Lake and killed him.  The only person who resisted them so far as I ever heard was Mr. Dickerson who found an Indian carrying off his grindstone and took it away from him, thumping him severely over the head with it.  Hence the settlers rested their laurels on this occurrence and christened it “The Grindstone War.”

        The Indians returned to their rendezvous on the Missouri by a more northerly route, crossing the east fork just below the mouth of Union slough and the west fork above the state line, going by the way of Lake Cheteck and Kempaska.  Later in the season they scattered, sneaking into the different agencies and drawing annuities from the government.  Their next appearance was in our settlement at Algona, in July, 1855, with the result as I have heretofore stated.  They again returned to their rendezvous on the Upper Missouri, scattering and drawing annuities as they could.

        Judge Flandreau, whom I regard as the best authority of Sioux history and nomenclature who has ever written on the subject, having been personally acquainted with them for a long period of years, says of Inkpadutah:  “In August, 1856, I received the appointment of Indian agent for the Sioux of the Mississippi.  The agencies for these Indians were on the Minnesota river at Redwood and on the Yellow Medicine river a few miles from its mouth.  Having been on the frontier some time previous to such appointment, I had become quite familiar with the Sioux and knew in a general way of Inkpadutah and his band, its habits and whereabouts.  They ranged the country far and wide and were considered a bad lot of vagabonds.  In 1856 they came to the payment and demanded a share of the money of the Wahpekutahs and made a great deal of trouble, but were forced to return to their haunts on the Big Sioux and adjoining country.”

        Mrs. Sharp, one of the women carried into captivity by Inkpadutah and who has written a book, says:  “According to the most authentic testimony collected by Major Prichette, Inkpadutah came to the Sioux agency in the fall of 1855 and received annuities for eleven persons, although he was not identified with any band,” so it seems that in 1856 Inkpadutah’s band were trying to work the agencies for annuities and with some success, and did not make their annual July raid on the frontier settlements.  The Indians usually make their raids in July, as their ponies are not sufficiently recovered from the starvation process of the previous winter to be able to haul their luggage on their “travois poles” and run down buffalo and elk before that time.  In the early spring they are scarcely able to walk, and many die during the winter, as they must subsist on dead grass and branches they crop off the willow bush.


In our final installment, Judge Call will share his recollections of the incidents leading up to the Spirit Lake massacre.

Until next time,

Jean, a/k/a Kossuth County History Buff

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THE INDIAN RAID OF '55 - PART II

The story of the raid on the Maxwell cabin continues.  When we left Ambrose Call and Levi Maxwell last week, their Native American visitors were busy cooking mush for their dinner, paying no attention to what was going on around them.  Meanwhile, the two men had positioned themselves in such a way to block the Indians from accessing their guns as they waited for back up.  

        They made a rush for their guns but did not get them.  Their probable action, when our reinforcement came, had been anticipated.  We stood in front of the guns, with our revolvers in our hands, and ordered them back.  What the result might have been had not Zahlten and Hackman appeared in the doorway at that moment, with their cocked guns in their hands, will never be known; but as it was the Indians were completely cowed.  These two old Prussian soldiers, Hackman and Zahlten, ran all the way from my brother’s cabin to our assistance, and arrived just in time.  The two Browns and Cummins were not far behind them.

        The Indians made no attempt to secure their guns by force but their spokesman, who two hours before had twice drawn his tomahawk from his belt, approached, and with the palms of his hands turned upward pointed towards his gun.  I threw his blanket back from his shoulders, uncovering a number of stolen articles, which he took out and reached towards me.  I motioned him to lay them on the floor, thinking that I might have other uses for my hands, and he did so.  He then took off his blanket to show me he had nothing more concealed, after which I gave him his gun, first removing the caps, and told him to “puckachee,” which he did, making the best possible time to the woods.  The next to approach was the sullen fellow who just missed getting the bag of meal.

        He also was made to take off his blanket and pile his stolen articles on the floor, after which he took to the woods as soon as an opportunity was given him.  Each in turn did the same.  Maxwell missed nothing from the house their mess of pottage being left untouched.  It was the first time I had ever known an Indian who did not want to eat.

        Soon after the last one had gone W. G. Clark came to the cabin with his long rifle on his shoulder.  He was known to be an old frontiersman and fighter.  He was a brother of Mrs. Hackman, who recently wrote an interesting article concerning the very first settlers, published in the Advance.  Clarke told us the Indians had pitched their tepees near his cabin and he came over to talk with us concerning the advisability of trying to drive them away.  We thought the time opportune.  Eleven young braves, probably the flower of the band, had been completely cowed.  It might be said whipped; figuratively speaking, we had them on the run, and we started at once.

        Taking their trail across the river at the Indian ford and through the timber to hear the old Mann homestead, we found their village.  It fell to my lot to be spokesman.  The chief’s tepee stood near the center and was a very large one.  We walked rapidly to it and went in without ceremony.  The chief was a large man past middle age, who seemed to be lame, having one foot bandaged with rags.  I accosted him roughly and seizing his tent gave it a hard jerk to give emphasis to my words and show him what I wanted, telling him to “puckachee.”  He seemed very much frightened but after a few moments’ hesitation explained that a part of his young men had gone after elk, pointing in a southeasterly direction, and would not be back until after dark; that the next morning at sunrise they would pull down the tepees and “puckachee Dakota.”  He made a circular motion with his arm, showing that he would go around the settlement, thence north and thence west.  He watched us with considerable interest while we discussed his proposition and seemed relieved when I nodded my head in assent and took his hand.  He then went outside and in a loud voice ordered the squaws to gather wood and brush and make racks on which to jerk their meat.  He seemed to take it for granted that the hunters would get game, which they did, bringing in several elk, as we learned from Clark and Cummins, who saw them return.

        They worked all night stripping and curing their elk venison and before daylight took down their tepees, and by the time the sun was a half hour high their village had disappeared.  They took the route indicated by Inkpadutah, keeping clear of the settlement, crossing the river below the mouth of Buffalo Fork and then went west.

        But few eyes were closed in sleep during the night before their departure and their every motion was watched, but great as was our anxiety we did not fully realize our danger or the danger the settlement has passed through.  Of course Mr. Maxwell and I knew we had passed through a terrible ordeal and those who came to our relief knew they had taken their lives in their hands by so doing, and what must have been Mrs. Maxwell’s feeling after hearing the threat of the leader to murder herself and the babes, with eleven against two to carry out this threat, mothers can imagine.

        As I have stated, we sent John Brown to tell my brother Asa and the boys of our trouble, but they were away looking after their cattle and knew nothing of it until it was over.  The only persons who came from his place were Zahlten and Hackman, the others coming from Mr. Brown’s, but we had enough help as the sequel proved.  We also had enough to frighten old Inkpadutah into promising, without hesitation, every demand made of him.  Those composing our party were as follows:  August Zahlten, Christian Hackman, Jacob Cummins, Alexander Brown, Robert Brown, W. G. Clark, Levi Maxwell and myself. 

        The old cabin, which is still on the Fry place, just a mile east of Alexander Brown’s, is where the trouble occurred.  Mrs. Maxwell ran all the way to Brown’s, carrying her little boy, eighteen months old, her little girl seven years old running beside her.

        John Brown with a number of others of those who participated with us had passed over the dark river into the unknown beyond.  He was a younger brother of Alexander, and was the courier who ran his horse to my brother’s cabin after help.  Christian Hackman and W. G. Clark are also dead.  Jacob Cummins and Robert Brown have passed out of sight.  Levi Maxwell was alive a short time since and living in the southern part of this state.  August Zahlten, Alexander Brown and myself only remain.

        I have said the people of our settlement did not fully realize the imminent danger they passed through.  They did not know what blood-thirsty, villainous murderers these Indians were.  Inkpadutah had not established his reputation as the fiend incarnate he proved himself to be a year later.  This was the first time and the only time he and his band were ever successfully resisted.  Inkpadutah was a brother of Sidominadotah, usually known as Chief Two Fingers, who was killed by the Indian trader Lott, in January or February 1854, with his family, and thrust under the ice in “Bloody Run,” which empties into the Des Moines river in Humboldt county near Livermore.  Upon the death of Sidominadotah the mantle of authority fell upon the shoulders of his brother Inkpadutah.

_____

Following the publication of these articles regarding the Indian Raid of 1855, Mrs. Levi Maxwell took the time to write to Mr. Call.  The Upper Des Moines Republican printed this report:

A Letter From Mrs. Maxwell

        Ambrose A. Call has received a letter from Mrs. Levi Maxwell acknowledging receipt of the Upper Des Moines Republican containing the first of the series of articles on Inkpadutah’s raid on the settlement in 1855, with which she is well pleased.  The Maxwells have prospered and are enjoying in their old age the fruits of an exemplary life.  They have plenty of this world’s goods to satisfy all their wants and have reared a family of which they may well feel proud.  “Dicy,” the little girl seven years of age at the time of the raid, has a home in California, and Henry, the boy of seventeen months whom his mother carried through the woods to Brown’s cabin is living in Montana.  The old people pass their summers in Iowa and their winters visiting their children in a warmer climate.  Mrs. Maxwell writes that she will send their photos within a few days, but it will be impossible to get them in time to use them.

Next week we will read in more depth of Call's visit to Inkpadutah while camped near the Call's Grove settlement as we read the first of the articles entitled, "Record of a Vagabond Tribe - Inkpadutah and His Band in the Fifties."

Until next time,

Jean, a/k/a Kossuth County History Buff

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