ANNALS OF IOWA. VOL. XI, No. 1. DES MOINES, IOWA, APRIL, 1913. 3D SERIES. ORGANIZATION AND SERVICE OF THE FRONTIER GUARDS. By CHARLES B. RICHARDS. After the return of the expedition which went to the relief of the settlers and buried the dead at Spirit Lake, Governor Grimes sent me a commission as Commissary General, authorizing me to represent him in all matters pertaining to the protection of the Northwestern frontier of Iowa. He also sent me five hundred muskets with ammunition to be distributed and used as I deemed best, and directed me to report to him. The muskets were stored in Fort Dodge, and I gave guns and ammunition to such settlers as desired them. After the massacre at Spirit Lake and Springfield in the spring of 1857, the only settlers left were at Algona in Kossuth county and the Irish colony in Palo Alto county. During the summer of 1857, Howe, Palmer, Wheelock, Rodney Smith and their friends, who had taken up claims before the massacre but had not moved in, with Prescott, a retired clergyman and his colony, and some others, settled on and about Spirit Lake and Okoboji. The stories told of the massacre of the previous winter, the suffering and brutal treatment of women taken captive, made. it almost impossible to keep any women in the country. Settlements were scattered and there were no troops to call. Fort Dodge, the nearest point where relief could be obtained, was ninety miles distant. Every rumor of an Indian seen in the country and the knowledge that the Little Sioux river and the lakes were a favorite hunting ground, frightened the settlers. At a meeting held at Spirit Lake, resolutions were adopted authorizing a petition1 to be prepared and signed, asking the State to furnish for their protection a company of mounted men, and if such protection could not be obtained, to abandon for the winter the settlements of Dickinson, Emmet, Clay, Buena Vista and O'Brien counties. Jared Palmer brought this memorial to me at Fort Dodge and I accompanied him to Des Moines where the Legislature had just convened. We laid the matter before Governor Grimes, the then retiring Governor, and Governor Lowe who was just inaugurated. The day after Governor Lowe was inaugurated he issued to me a commission as Commissary General and Acting Pay Master General with rank of Colonel, which commission I still have, all 'Spirit Lake, Jan. 9th, 1858. To the Hon. The General Assembly of the State of Iowa. The undersigned citizens residing in the vicinity of Spirit Lake would respectfully present for the consideration of your Honorable body the situation of the people on the frontiers in the northwestern part of the State. We are exposed to the attack of Indians under circumstances affording little hope of relief. The settlements are sparse and widely scattered with but little communication with each other. A hostile invasion has already been made and depredations committed in the vicinity where the outrages were commenced last winter and with a result to encourage renewed attempts. At any hour this may be repeated in points utterly unprotected and but poorly supplied with means of defense. Some of the surrounding settlements have already been abandoned for the winter and all are much weakened in numbers by persons who have left. Many of the settlers remaining cannot leave without abandoning their all and cannot collect in sufficient numbers to withstand an attack, and depending, as nearly all the remaining settlers do. upon their own exertions for sustenance must either endure great suffering or remain exposed to danger. If we apply to the general government, relief, if obtained, would be too late. Help for us to be efficient must be prompt. A small body of soldiers placed near the Little Sioux River in the vicinity of the state line would afford protection to all the settlements on the Little Sioux about Spirit Lake, and on the west fork of the Des Moines River and their vicinity. If those troops were mounted, the protection would be much more efficient. We would therefore respectfully pray that a law be passed authorizing volunteer troops, for the term of three months, to be stationed in the northwestern part of the state. Your petitioners also pray for such other means of protection as our circumstances demand. Orlando C. Howe William P. Gaylord Jareb Palmer Wm. D. Carsley Joseph Miller W. H. Packard Dan Calwell T. S. Ruff C. L. Richardson George Rogers E. E. Longfellow LADIES' NAMES. |