The
reminiscences of early-day Irvington at the time of the Indian war scare
presented herewith were written by O.W. Robinson, who was boss sawyer at the
Irvington sawmill at the time the occurrences which he describes took
place. Mr. Robinson was also one of the
county’s first sheriffs. He left this
county after a short residence here, and is now living retired at Chassell,
Mich. This article was first published
in some Michigan newspaper, a copy of which Mr. Robinson addressed to Levi W.
Parsons, who died many years ago. The
paper was delivered to M. de L. Parsons, who gave it to President Reed, of the
county historical society. Mr. Reed
selected from it the portions here given, as thus revised, the paper was read
by Miss Zelda Reed at the recent annual meeting of the historical society.
News of Spirit Lake Massacre.
In
April of 1857 there occurred at Spirit Lake, Iowa, a massacre committed by a
small band of Sioux Indians. At that
time all of the northern part of Iowa, except along the Mississippi river, was
called frontier, and the settlements were few and far between. I was then living at Irvington in Kossuth county.
The
first news of the massacre was spread by a young trapper who chanced to visit
the settlement a few days after the tragedy.
As he approached the settlement he saw no signs of life, which he thought
odd, and he received no response to his rap on the door of the first house he
reached. He opened the door, and entered
the single room cabin, where he found piled in a corner and covered with straw
the lifeless bodies of six people. He
did not wait to make further investigation, but sped on to the nearest
settlement to spread the alarm, and as the news traveled it became exaggerated
until the excitement and fear among the pioneer settlers became intense.
Military Companies Organized.
A
volunteer military company was formed at Fort Dodge, and another at Webster
City, and both companies marched immediately to the scene of the massacre, a
distance of eighty miles or more. They
found no traces of the Indians, only the results of their hellish work, so they
buried the dead, and retraced their steps homeward.
In
the meantime the exaggerated reports had reached our little settlement in
Kossuth county, but as we could trace none of the reports to an authentic
source it was decided, at a hastily called meeting of the citizens, to send out
a young man on horseback the next morning to learn the facts if possible. He left early, and had gone about sixteen
miles in the direction of Spirit Lake when he met the volunteer troops on their
way home, learned from them the actual facts, and returned home the same
evening.
Six Men Appointed Scouts
A
meeting was held that night, and six men appointed as scouts to keep a lookout
for Indians north and west of us, and to report each night. They were furnished with fleet saddle horses,
and directed to return at once if they saw any Indians. No Indians were discovered in the
neighborhood, so, after two days, the scouting was discontinued, and the
settlers were becoming quite convinced that there was no immediate danger when
a messenger appeared from the nearest settlement five miles north of us. He informed us that Indians had been
discovered some twenty miles north, apparently moving in the direction of our
settlements. He was greatly excited, and
wanted our people to move up there, and join them in building a fort, as he
felt sure that the Indians would reach the settlement in a day or two.
Another
meeting was called that afternoon, and it was decided to send all the women and
children to Webster City, and to build a fort and organize a military company
at Irvington instead of going north with the messenger to his settlement. About sixty men were enrolled in the military
company, and a man by the name of Smith, from New Hampshire, was made
Captain. Mr. Carlon, from Pennsylvania,
First Lieutenant, and myself Second Lieutenant.
We chose as our military advisor a man about seventy years old who had
been a soldier and Indian fighter during the Black Hawk war.
Fort Built at Irvington
He
drew the plan of our fort, which was a hundred feet square, with projecting
corners, so that we could rake the four sides in case of an attack. It was located on a level plat of ground, and
constructed of four-inch plank, set endwise into trenches three feet deep, with
twelve feet standing above the surface. The
plank were held together by two rows of plank spiked lengthwise along the top
and middle of the uprights. The material
was donated by those having logs at a small custom sawmill there, and the
mill-crew volunteered their services to help.
It
was an exciting and busy day for all hands, but conducted in a systematic
manner, and by nightfall everything was in readiness to begin our defense
against a possible raid by the Indians, and the day closed with the impromptu
wedding of a young couple who had intended marrying later in the year.
Wedding Interrupts Preparations
A
license was hastily procured, and all hands invited to the wedding, which was
held at the home of the bride’s parents at eight o’clock in the evening. All the young people attended; the bride’s
younger sister was the bridesmaid and your humble servant the best man. A justice of the peace performed the ceremony,
and after congratulations had been extended to the happy couple the festivities
of the evening began, which, to say the least, were hilarious, and lasted a
couple of hours.
The
next morning everybody was up by daybreak and busy at the task assigned him by
our military commander. Some were
digging the ditches for the fort, some sawing plank, others teaming them from
the mill to the location of the fort, and still others setting them upright in
the three foot ditches, and tamping the earth solidly around them, taking care
at the same time to keep the sides in perfect line.
Women Leave for Webster City
The
older men made the preparations for taking the women and children to a place of
safety, as they were to accompany them.
Ox teams and prairie “schooners” were our only mode of conveyance, and
by noon the caravan was ready, and started for Johnson’s Point, about twelve
miles down the east fork of the Des Moines River. Here they expected to camp the first night,
and cross the prairie the next day to the Boone River, which they would follow
down to Webster City.
They
reached Johnson’s Point early in the evening, made camp, and were just in the
midst of preparing supper when two young men from a small settlement three
miles farther down the river rushed in, and said that Indians had been seen
standing on a mound a few miles west of the settlement that afternoon. They said the settlers had all been ferried
across the river, and started for Fort Dodge, some thirty miles down the river,
and that they had come to warn the settlers at Johnson’s Point and at other
places along the Boone River and across the prairie.
Panic Over News of Indians.
This
information created a panic and without finishing their supper everything and
everybody were immediately loaded into the schooners, the oxen hitched up, and
the caravan started on its way again, marching all night, with the two men
leading it. One of the women of the
party told me afterwards that they spent a dreadful night. She feared the reports might be true, and the
Indians attack them, and she was utterly disgusted with the men who had charge
of the party. The oxen were urged forward with a vigorous application of long
whips, while only subdued tones were used in speaking, and a small dog which
persisted in barking was held by the hind legs so the hind wheels ran over it
breaking its neck.
About
daybreak they reached some settlements on the Boone River, the first house
being that of a young California couple, about three miles from the other
houses. The young men had walked in
advance of the caravan, and they told the Californian of the situation, but as
he was a man of some experience in frontier life, and at that time his wife was
very sick, with a sister taking care of her, he was more concerned over her
recovery than a probable Indian raid. He
sent the young man on, and, taking his rifle, went out to meet the caravan,
which he did some two miles distant.
One Pioneer Not Stampeded.
He
listened to the exaggerated reports concerning the Indians, their stories of
having seen reflections of burning villages in their travel across the prairie,
and their entreaties that he and his family join them in their flight to
Webster City, and told them in no uncertain language that he did not believe a
word of their reports, and ordered them to pass his house quietly, in order not
to disturb his sick wife. He piloted
them past his place, rifle in hand, and then, leaving his sick wife in charge
of her sister, he mounted his swiftest horse, and galloped across the prairie
to Johnson’s Point, where he found young Johnson, who had also refused to join
the caravan.
From
Johnson he learned that there were no Indians in sight, and that no lights of
burning villages had been seen, so he turned back and went home.
Meanwhile
the caravan had reached Webster City in a state of frenzied excitement, and spread
the groundless reports of their escape, the burning of the villages, and the
probable massacre of those that stayed behind.
At the same time they entered Webster City from the north a volunteer
military company entered from the Des Moines.
They had heard reports that the Indians were about to make a raid on
Webster City, and had come to help defend the place.
Stay tuned for Part II.
Notes from KCHB: The military advisor described in the story would likely have been an older Irvington resident by the name of John Edwards who had been a soldier and Indian fighter. The bride and groom mentioned would have been the first couple married in Kossuth County. They were William Moore and Sarah Wright who were married at the home of her parents, Jacob and Nancy Wright on April 22, 1857, by Justice of the Peace George Wheeler. William later served as a soldier in Company A, 32nd Iowa Infantry and died at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on December 30, 1862.
Until next time,
Kossuth County History Buff
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Thank you for such a great article! I grew up two miles east of Irvington.
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