Exploring Minnesota - Minnesota River Valley Trip - Ft. Ridgely, New Sweden, and Norseland in the Indian Wars

She is lost, but not forgotten.  She is buried somewhere near Norseland or New Sweden, Minnesota.  In the year 1850 Astrid Jonsdatter married Ole Østensen Bøen in Vestfjorddalen, Telemark, Norway.

Vestfjorddalen (West Fjord Valley)

Ole and Astrid set out by ship for "Amerika" in 1851.  The family group included her father Jon, her brother Osten, and their new baby named Aase (Oh-sa).  The journey to Minnesota Territory was long and difficult.  Astrid lost her father and baby on the journey.  Ole worked the railroad westward and Astrid gave birth to a second child, Jon, in a railroad shanty near Galena, Illinois.  Eventually, they settled in the Minnesota River Valley and were a founding family of New Sweden, Minnesota Territory.  They lived within the Sioux Indian territory for several years.  Ole built a cabin for the family. It had two windows and a door.  A second son, Osten, was born before Minnesota Territory became a state.  They were surrounded by Swedes but four Norwegian families lived near a grove of trees named Norwegian Grove.  The Sioux War of 1862 came to their very doorstep.  More on that below.  Astrid died after giving birth to a baby girl.  Ole named the baby Astrid (awe-STREE in Norwegian) after her mother.  Astrid traditionally became Ester in America.  Ole is buried at Norseland Lutheran Church.  In Norwegian, his tombstone tells of leaving Norway for America in 1851.

Next to Ole is a headstone, an unknown identity in the cemetery records.  Is this Astrid?  Like I wrote above, my great-great-grandmother Astrid Jonsdatter Estensen is lost but not forgotten.

At this cemetery is this monument to a pioneer woman and her son killed at Norwegian Grove.

I was just a kid when we had a family reunion at Ft. Ridgely along the Minnesota River Valley and near Norseland and New Sweden.  I remember playing on the cannons with my cousins.  More important, I heard my elderly aunts speaking of a grandmother who baked bread for the Indians.  I learned later in life that some settlers were spared destruction to their farms, even death, because of acts of kindness to the Sioux Indians when the Sioux Uprising of 1862 brought terror to the Minnesota River Valley.

We returned to visit Ft. Ridgely and surrounds this summer.

Fort Ridgely was built along the Minnesota River to offer protections for the settlers from Norway, Sweden, and Germany as they swept into Minnesota Territory.  They pressed the Native Americans, the Sioux, onto reservations.  One promise after another made to the Sioux was broken.  Over time tensions mounted and war broke out.

Ft. Ridgely came under attack.  Here is an account from a Sioux Warrior and a summary of the Uprising of 1862.

Ole and Astrid were nearby, at Norseland and New Sweden.  They  farmed with three other Norwegian families at Norwegian Grove.  The war came to Norwegian Grove where Mrs. Erik Johnson and her son were killed but the other settlers at the grove were spared.  More on that later as our trip continues.

The cannons at Ft. Ridgely saved the day for the army.

The intensity of the Indian attacks at New Sweden, and nearby Norwegian Grove, can be summed up in this account.

Mrs. Ingar Holmquist

(Ingar Johnson)
[Source: Dakota Conflict of 1862 Manuscripts Collections of Minnesota Historical Society. St. Paul, Minnesota]

INDIAN OUTBREAK IN (NEW SWEDEN TOWNSHIP) NICOLLET COUNTY, MINNESOTA, AUGUST 1862.

Statement by Mrs. Ingar Holmquist, nee Ingar Johnson, or Jessen, of Faribault, Minnesota, 1920.

On the 14th of August we were told that the Indians had broke out and were killing people and burning houses, stables and grain. That same night all the dogs in the neighborhood kept howling all night. The men got their rifles ready but did not have any ammunition and we had 16 miles to St. Peter where ammunition could be bought but they went out anyway to see if they could see any Indians or fires, but they could not see anything. The next day all the men hitched up their teams and everybody went to the Church which was five miles from where we lived. We stayed there till the 21st of August. Then a man named Thorson told us that scouts had been out to see and there were no Indians so it was safe for us to return home. But the very same night after we were back home someone discovered fires and all the rest of the families (in the neighborhood) went back to the church in the night, except my parents, who had not been told of the fires. In the morning one of the neighbors was sent to tell us, but got scared and forgot to tell us. Some other men and father went on horseback out west on the prairie toward where they had seen the fires to see if there were any Indians. They rode on till they came to a big slough. They saw men on the other side of the slough who beckoned them to come. They rode as near as they could; then the Indians fired at them but did not hurt anybody. Our men turned around and galloped back as fast as the horses could go. Mother and we children were ready in the wagon to drive away. When we saw the men coming so fast we knew there was danger. Mother did not want to leave till father came. He jumped off the horse, and my brother (John) jumped on the horse father had been riding. Father took the lines of the team to drive away. We met the Indians. Father turned and drove to the end of the pasture. There he stopped while we jumped off the wagon and hid in the grass. The Indians took our horses and were pursuing my brother and a neighbor. They shot a neighbor boy (John Solomon, changed name later to Wilson) through the wrist. Then they came and found Mother, one brother, Pehr, twelve years old, one brother ten months old, and myself. They shot Mother in the chest. The last words she said were, "Lord Jesus receive my soul." They then kicked my twelve year old brother and told him to get up. They then kicked me and said get up. I was in a trance and could hear and feel but could not move and see. They asked brother if I was dead. Do not remember his answer. Then two Indians dragged me across the pasture holding my wrists; they felt of my pulse and threw a feather mattress over me. I thought an Indian was near me watching. I have a big scar on my right side above my knee from being dragged. I lay there from between two and three o'clock until nightfall. When I got up it was dusk. It looked to me like the corn in the field was walking - fires all around, houses, stables and grain. I heard my little brother cry. He had laid by Mother and cried all that time. I went and got him and walked back to where I had been left. There I found a piece of bread and masticated it some as it was very dry and no water near. He ate it and went to sleep. I went through the fence into the field where some hay was cocked and went into one of the cocks with my brother. Father had gone farther away so the Indians did not find him. He had two small brothers with him (Olof and Nels). When it was dark father came to look for his dead as he had heard a shot for each one of us. He saw a dog sitting on one of the haycocks. He went and tipped it over. There he found a neighbor's wife with her little daughter. Then he turned them all over and found me in the last one. Father, my two brothers, myself, the neighbor's wife and her daughter walked five miles that night to the Church. There there were some soldiers who had started for St. Paul to go South, but had been called back. The next day father with the soldiers went to find my twelve year old brother (Pehr) and to bring mother to be buried. They did not find brother till a week after. He was buried in the same grave with mother. It was on the 23d of August that the Indians murdered my brother and my mother. I was then 14 years old and am now 73. We went to St. Peter and stayed in a fort that was not finished. I was so nervous that I could not sleep nights, thought I heard Indians outside the house. The next spring I began to sleep again nights, but dreamed of Indians and often woke up with a scream. Have never go over being nervous. The least little thing startles me. My father's name was Erick Johnson.

Respectfully,
Mrs. Ingar Holmquist,
East Side,
405 5th Ave.,
Faribault, Minnesota.

To the best of our knowledge and belief the above statement is true.
Signed, Andrew Nelson, C. C. Nelson, S. O. Strand, Witnesses.

[1] The Pehr Carlson cabin was also spared. I don’t know about the grain, but the Carlson family believed that their home was spared because mother Chastie Carlson had always fed the Indians who came looking for food. This first log cabin existed until at least the 1960s.

[2] Many of the families stayed in Minnesota, including that of the author, the Carlsons, the P.M. Fritjoff family, and others.

  

After the uprising, trials were held for the Sioux Warriors.  Some 300 were sentenced to death.  President Abraham Lincoln spared all but 38.  Those 38 were hanged simultaneously in the largest execution in American history at Mankato, Minnesota.

Our trip down the Minnesota River Valley took us to Mankato and the site of the hangings.  Today, the tone is of reconciliation.

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Directly across the Minnesota River from the hanging site is the home where Dianne's grandparents lived.  Spinner's Bar, the local hangout back then, was quickly located.  From there, Dianne knew instinctively where to walk.  She quickly pointed out the home.

Our trip down the Minnesota River Valley was filled with history and memories.  As I write this, I realize there is a strong possibility that I live because of a grandmother who fed the Sioux bread and was spared when the war came to Norwegian Grove.