Meeker County

When Captain Strout was informed that a party of Indians were camped about three miles off there was considerable excitement among the boys, but few slept that night. The old condemned Belgian guns furnished Captain Strout’s men by Uncle Sam to scare the red men with, and which most of the men thought they would have no use for, were quickly examined, and it was found that only about one in five had ammunition that would fit, and the boys were kept busy till daylight preparing ammunition that might soon be needed. By the time it was fairly daylight, breakfast …

How the Boys Got Out of Acton Read More »

There were eighteen wounded, Captain Strout in his official report says: “The loss of the corn pang in this encounter was three men killed and fifteen wounded, some of them severely, all were, however, brought from the field.” The reader will notice a material discrepancy in regard to the dead. That the 3d Regiment boys did not bury them, or Strout did not take them with him, requires no proof. Captain Strout continues, “in addition to this, they lost most of their rations, cooking utensils, tents, and a portion of their ammunition and arms. Some of their horses became unmanageable …

Captain Strout’s Report Read More »

Swan Lake, was named after a lake of that name in this township-originally part of Kingston. The first settlers were men by the name of Ayres and Richardson in 1856, from Mexico, N. Y. They were surveyors. They left in 1862 and the Indians soon burned their cabin. After the Indian war, Isaac N. and A. W. Russel, were the first settlers in 1864 or 5, and were followed soon after by a colony from Kentucky. The village of Dassel is embraced in this town, and was platted and settled in the spring or summer of 1869, on the completion …

Additional Towns of Meeker County Read More »

Acton was organized April, 185, and originally embraced 118-32, and the south half of 120-32. Acton takes its name from Acton, Canada, where the Ritchie family came from when they first settled in Acton, in 1857. In 1857 Robinson Jones, Howard Baker and mother and Abram Kelley settled here. Capt. Robinson and John Blackwell came in about the same time. All except John Blackwell had formed an acquaintance with each other in a lumber camp the previous winter, on the upper Mississippi. Of the old settlers named, Abram Kelley alone remains. The first child born in Acton was to Peter …

Acton and Kingston, Minnesota Read More »

The morning of the 4th, of September 1862, was celebrated in Forest City by the early arrival of about 200 Indians. They were evidently unaware of the existence of our stockade and appearances indictated that they intended to take the people by surprise. Coming into town at 3 A. M., some twenty or more mounted Indians advanced to about the center of the town-site and discharged a volley in the air evidently intending to rouse the sleeping settlers, and during the panic, have things their own way. In this they were disappointed. With what we knew of the Indians in …

4th September 1862 Read More »

In conclusion of what we promised on the 4th, of July, 1876, we have but little to add. As a primal history it has been a much more difficult job than we anticipated and yet we regret not the labor. For the innumerable facts, names and dates, we think our book is reliable and will promise a fund of material for- the future historian, far better qualified than our self, for the task of putting it together in readable shape-we have endeavored to do no injustice to any one-we have had nothing to refer to but our memory and an …

4th of July 1876 in Meeker County Minnesota Read More »