• George Luskey and Bryce Stenzel are both officers in the New Ulm Battery. Recently, they wrote and sent a letter to State Representative Paul Torkelson, expressing the Battery's desire to return the Anton Gag "Attack on New Ulm" painting back to the New Ulm community, instead of allowing it to be shelved in a warehouse, never to be seen again. George's great grandfather, William Luskey was one of the six LeSueur Tigers killed at the Second Battle of New Ulm on August 23, 1862, so the idea of preserving the art pertaining to the U.S. Dakota War of 1862, for all to see, is an issue of great personal importance to him. As historians, authors, re-enactors, and educators, it is important.
• A new second edition of Jacob Nix’s eyewitness history of the 1862 Uprising, edited by Don Heinrich Tolzmann, has just been published by the Max Kade German-American Center at Indiana University/Purdue University-Indianapolis & the Indiana German Heritage Society. The original German-language work appeared in 1887, and the German/English translated edition appeared in 1994. This has long since been out of print, and due to demand has been re-published with a new introduction, and additional illustrations. The new introduction includes coverage of the 150th anniversary commemorations in Brown and Renville Counties, Minnesota. References to recent publications on the Uprising are also included. The price of the new edition is $15.00, and can be ordered by contacting Steven J. Schmidt at: schmidt@iupui.edu
• This is from noted historian, Curtis Dahlin: “In the Nov.-Dec. 2015 issue of the South Dakota Magazine, they carried quite a number of articles on the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890. About 300 Dakota -- men, women and children -- were killed by members of the Seventh Cavalry. While the articles were interesting, they did not mention the earlier, 1862, clash between the Dakota and the whites. So I sent them a letter explaining that. I just received the Jan.-Feb. 2016 issue and they carried my letter, which is attached. They did a fair amount of editing, mostly cutting. Printing the whole letter would have been better and more complete, but what they have here is okay. I think that any time the subject of Wounded Knee comes up, we should refer to Minnesota's Wounded Knee. They have a number of parallels.”
• This article by Curt Brown, for the Mineapolis StarTribune, tells about William Duley, the executioner on the day 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato after the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War: http://www.startribune.com/image-found-of-man-who-hanged…/…
• The Brown County Historical Society in New Ulm, MN is compiling lists of Depredation Claims. Go to their website at: http://www.browncountyhistorymn.org/
Scroll down to the bottom to open the PDF documents. These valuable documents will assist historians in their research of the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War. After they have been transcribed, they will be available for a small fee.
• Ramsey County History Magazine: “With Pen, Ink, and Paper” - October 1857: The Kochendorfers Arrive in St. Paul The article contains the complete translation of the letter done by Dakota War survivor Margaret Kochendorfer that was written by her parents about the trip from Illinois to St. Paul in the early fall of 1857. The Kochendorfer story that survives is due to Margaret's efforts all those years ago to collect and translate all those letters and documents, and to include a photo of her taken about the time she began collecting those records. Click on: RCHS Winter 2015 Kochendorfer.pdf
• This is a Lifestyle article that appeared in the New Ulm Journal on May 17, 2015 that posted a rare photograph of William J. Duley, never before published. Duley was the man who cut the rope to hang the 38 Dakota Indians on December 26, 1862. Thanks to historian Elroy E. Ubl from New Ulm for submitting this. Scroll down to the second part of the article to view this story. Click on: The JournalLifeStyle.5.17.2015.pdf
• The Aftermath of the U.S. – Dakota War
Are you a descendant of any of the families listed below who lived in Renville County during the U.S. – Dakota War in 1862? If so, a new publication, What Happened to the Settlers in Renville County? has been prepared by Family and Friends of Dakota Uprising Victims. The book discusses the aftermath of the Renville County settlers after the war. Did they return to Renville County? If they didn’t, where did they go? And how did they rebuild their lives? Authors Jan Klein and Joyce Kloncz gathered stories from descendants and used census, death records, cemetery records and county histories to trace these families.
The book includes chapters on the seven inhabited townships along the Minnesota River in Renville County in 1862. There are also chapters on Fort Ridgely, one on Monuments, Military and Civilian Victims, and additional settler stories that have been submitted to our website since our first book in 2012. Finally, there is a listing of all victims known in the county by township, whether they were killed, captured or had escaped.
For questions, contact Jan Klein. The book will also be available at the Renville County Historical Society in Morton for $20.
• Renville County Settlers and Where They Lived
Ahrens: Beaver Falls, Bahlke: Beaver Falls, Bjorkman: Beaver Falls, Blair: Hawk Creek, Boelter: Flora, Boesch: Camp, Brooks: Birch Cooley, Brown: Sacred Heart, Bucher: Cairo. Buehro: Cairo, Buery: Birch Cooley, Busse (Buce): Flora, Cardinal: Birch Cooley, Carrothers: Beaver Falls, Chassie: Beaver Falls, Clasen(Clausen): Birch Cooley, Doyle: Beaver Falls, Earle: Beaver Falls, Eisenreich: Beaver Falls, Faribault: Birch Cooley, Frass: Flora, Frohrip: Beaver Falls, Gluth: Flora, Graf(f): Camp, Grundmann: Flora, Halvorson: Camp, Hauff: Beaver Falls, Hayden: Beaver Falls, Henderson: Beaver Falls, Henning: Flora, Holmes: Sacred Heart, Horan: Camp, Hose: Birch Cooley, Humphrey: Camp, Hunter: Beaver Falls, Ienenfeldt: Beaver Falls, Ingalls: Hawk Creek, Juni: Beaver Falls, Kaertner: Birch Cooley, Kelly: Camp, Kietzmann: Flora, Kochendorfer: Flora, Krause: Flora, Krueger (Krieger): Flora, Kumro: Birch Cooley, LaBelle: Hawk Creek, LaCroix: Birch Cooley, LaFramboise: Camp, Lammers: Flora Lane (Lehn): Flora, Lange: Flora, Laramie: Sacred Heart, Lenz (Lentz): Flora, Lettou: Flora, Levant: Beaver Falls, Lonsman: Sacred Heart, Machansky: Camp, Magner: Camp, Mannweiler: Flora, Martell: Birch Cooley, McConnell: Birch Cooley, McLane: Sacred Heart: Meyer, Beaver Falls, Neuman (Newman): Flora, Nichols: Flora, O’Connor: Camp, Perreault: Birch Cooley, Peterson: Camp, Picard: Birch Cooley, Quam (Sampson): Camp, Reyff: Flora, Rieke: Cairo, Robertson: Beaver Falls, Robideau: Hawk Creek, Roessler: Flora, Rosbe (Rusby): Birch Cooley, Rouillard: Sacred Heart, Rousseau: Hawk Creek, Schlumpberger: Camp, Schmidt, F.: Beaver Falls, Schmidt, W.: Flora, Schurch: Beaver Falls, Schwandt: Flora, Seder: Flora, Sharron: Camp, Shepherd: Beaver Falls, Sieg: Beaver Falls, Smith: Camp, Tenner: Flora, Thiele (Tille): Flora, Untermach (Andermach): Flora, Urban: Flora, Valiant, Birch Cooley, Yess (Gess), Beaver Falls, Wagner, Flora, Wallner, Flora, Walz, Flora, White (includes Wedge): Beaver Falls, Wichmann: Beaver Falls, Witt: Birch Cooley, Woehler (Wohler): Sacred Heart, Zabel: Flora, Zimmerman: Birch Cooley, and Zitzlaff: Beaver Falls.
• Searching for your ancestor’s homesteads?
Try this: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
Screen 1: If you click on Land Patents, you can search by name for individuals to see if they recorded a land patent.
Screen 2: If you find any, click on the code under Accession.
Screen 3: Click in the box under Map and the map below will show you a map of where the land was located.
Click on the document symbol to see a copy of the Patent.
• Death of a Dream, One Family’s Experience of the 1862 US/Dakota War: Author Paul Lundborg, M.Div., talks with Mary Hanson about his book and discusses how his ancestors were involved in that tragic war after they immigrated to the US in 1861. Here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYjyz-faQco
• Response to the recent Minnesota Public Television documentary, “The Past is Alive Within Us,” which premiered December 26. John LaBatte’s blog: http://dakotawar1862.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/review-the-past-is-alive-within-us-video/
• Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, and Enduring Conflicts of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1872: Julie Anderson wrote this paper as a dissertation for graduate studies at Georgia State University. It is well done and a must read: http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=history_diss
• New Tab: Settler Survivors: Did your ancestors return to their homestead? If not, where did they go? We have conducted research on fifty-four families from Renville County, and of those fifty-four, only eleven settler families returned to their original homestead. Descendants, go to tab Settler Survivors, click on the pdf of your township and check to see if we have your family information correct. Also note the Reader Suggestions about the Faribault Family, Oliver Martell, Boelter Family, and Johann Urban on the Survivor tab.
• Minnesota Historical Society is posting U.S.-Dakota War stories on this link. We encourage you to add yours: http://usdakotawar.org/stories/share-your-story.
• Data on Middle Creek and Sacred Heart Settlements, submitted by Gayle Coyer, great-great-grandniece of Pauline Wallner: Middle Creek and Sacred Heart Settlements: Middle Creek and Sacred Heart Settlers Involved in the 1862 Dakota Conflict.pdf