On to Fort Ridgely and points beyond

With my disappointment in Minneapolis (finding Fort Snelling closed on Monday) behind me, I called some long time friends - dairy farmers - in the southern part of the state. I told them I would be arriving at their farm on Tuesday evening after an overnight stay in the campground at Fort Ridgely State Park.

Their suggestion that I should try their favorite authentic German restaurant in nearby New Ulm was a good one.

Fort Ridgely was a relatively short 100 miles or so from Minneapolis. I arrived there in mid-afternoon, set up my trailer, and then drove to New Ulm, only about 16 miles away.

It was a little too early for dinner, so I stopped by the local tourist information center and asked what they recommended for a tourist with a free hour or so.

I was directed to the top of the hill on Center Street, where I found the Hermann Monument. Check out this tab for the history of the monument and some interesting background.

I can personally verify that there are 100 steps to the top. Here are a few pictures of my adventure.

Hermann Monument in New Ulm, MN

I climbed, and carefully counted the stairs, until I was standing at the railing just under Hermann's feet. The view from the top will give you some idea of what the local terrain is like - gently rolling hills.

New Ulm, and the Minnesota River Valley from Hermann Monument

So, now it was time for dinner. I went to the authentic German restaurant recommended by my friends and enjoyed a good dinner.

Authentic Bavarian Restaurant

Fort Ridgely - History in a cemetery

It was back to the campground, where I discovered that there was nearby graveyard associated with the Fort of years past.

You can learn a lot about the history of a place by studying the monuments and headstones in a cemetery. Here was a very informative monument at Ft. Ridgely for a pioneer named Hazen Mooers.

Hazen Mooers - First White Settler

 The inscription on the top reads:

• "Hazen Mooers, one of the pioneers of the fur trade with the Sioux, came to the No. West in 1816 conducted a trading post at Big Stone Lake for 15 years. In 1835, established a post at Little Rock, 5 miles below Fort Ridgely. In 1853 secured contract for erecting the first govt. bldgs. at Lower Sioux Agency. This work completed, retired to a small farm home in the valley just below Fort Ridgely. There he died Apr. 3, 1857. Age 68 yrs."

Might Jerome have met Hazen Mooers? He was at the fort for the last year of Hazen's life, so it's possible.

The face of the monument reveals even more about life in the 1800s in Minnesota.

I noted the boat depicted in this scene resembles the dugout canoes that were key to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition. This blog provides some history of such boats.

More history of the 10th Regiment

Jerome's time at Ft. Ridgely included a call for his Company D to respond to a massacre that occurred during March, 1857. Word reached the fort on March 19th.

Jerome's unit sees action

• "Captain B. E. Bee with "D," numbering forty-eight rank and file, left the post at noon of the same day and proceeded down the valley of the Minnesota River to South Bend."

The history goes on to describe the conditions, which included deep drifts that had thawed so they would not support the men and sleds. The company made slow progress over several days.

• "By marching the command in column of fours and relieving the men at the head of the column, at short intervals, they were able to break a road through the deep and heavy snow. They would then stack arms, and the soldiers would fall back to the assistance of the sleds. In spite of these difficulties the command marched fifteen or eighteen miles a day."

The unit reached the area of the Massacre in March 28th

• "On the afternoon of March 28th, after a weary march of twenty miles, the command arrived in sight of the Indian village, which was situated in a thick grove of timber and apparently consisted of about thirty lodges.

Not surprisingly, the small Sioux band, led by war chief Inkpaduta, had fled. Capt. Bee had the unit continue the pursuit for another three days, but finally:

• "...his men being foot-sore and weary from a march of one hundred and forty miles under difficulties not easily portrayed, Captain Bee was obliged to return disappointed to his main camp.

Back to the present

It was Tuesday morning. Having spent a night near the fort where Jerome had served, I was now ready to trace his path to Spirit Lake, where the massacre took place.

 

On the way, I would finally meet and spend a couple of days with, my friends of twelve years. Until this day, we only knew each other through phone conversations, emails, and letters - mostly discussing electrical problems on their dairy farm. They were gracious hosts, as you will see in my next post.

 

In Minnesota at last...

After my second night in Bismarck, ND, I resumed my trip on I-94 into Minnesota. I noticed that I would be passing through Fergus Falls. That brought back memories of my first few weeks on my new job in Washington state, in 1966.

My first job for the company where I would work for 38 years, was to communicate with customers and potential customers, providing requested information about our products and their operation.

I was suspicious one day when I received a request for quote from the Otter Tail Power Company in Fergus Falls, MN.

Why was I suspicious?

Well, the 1960s featured the tv show, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and many episodes took place in the fictional Frostbite Falls, MN. Hmmm - Otter Tail, Fergus Falls...was this a practical joke hatched by my co-workers?

I quietly researched the company and the town in the company library (not so easy before the internet), and found that both the company and the city were real, so I answered the quote request without mentioning my suspicions to anyone.

Since I would be in Fergus Falls anyway, I decided to find the Otter Tail Power Company offices. I took this picture before resuming my trip.

Otter Tail Power Company

Sunday night in greater Minneapolis

I arrived at my campground, near Minneapolis in the evening on Sunday, July 22nd.

After setting up my trailer and finishing dinner, I took advantage of the WiFi service, offered by most campgrounds these days, to plan my visit to Jerome Mann's first duty station - Fort Snelling.

Imagine my dismay when I discovered that Monday was the one day of the week that the fort, now a State Park, was closed. As a result, I took no pictures and was left to rely on internet sites to provide some history.

It turns out that in the same year that the Lewis and Clark party was wintering at Ft. Mandan, Lt. Zebulon Pike (for whom Pike's Peak, CO would later be named) was tasked with exploring the Mississippi River and selecting sites for forts. The site selected near what is now Minneapolis would become Ft. Snelling in 1825.

 I learned this and more in the Expansionist Era pages offered by the Minnesota Historical Society.

Jerome's early life as a soldier

My great grandfather was in Company D of the 10th Infantry Regiment, and went through basic training at Carlisle Barracks near Harrisburg, PA before being deployed at Ft. Snelling.

This, from the history of the 10th Regiment.

August, 1855

• To facilitate the necessary military instruction, Companies A, B, D, G and K were placed under the supervision of Lieut.-Col. Smith, and C, F, H and I, under that of Major Canby.

September, 1855

• Preparations were commenced for the transfer of the regiment to its first regular station.
• Hardee's Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics were first used for instruction in the regiment. 

Note: You can view the contents of Hardee's book, as published in 1856, here.

October 13, 1855

• The Field, Staff, and A, B, C, D, F, G, H, I and K, left Carlisle Barracks near Harrisburg, PA.

October 17, 1855

• Regiment arrived at Galena, IL. Headquarters and A, C, D, I and K left by steamboat for Fort Snelling.

Judging by the distance between Carlisle Barracks and Galena, IL (805 miles), and considering that their travel only took 3 days,  I can only assume that the regiment moved by train to Galena for this deployment.

October 20, 1855

• Headquarters and A, C, D, I and K arrived Fort Snelling.

 Apparently, there were early problems with troops going AWOL and deserting the service.

This note appears in the Regiment history.

• Of the first five hundred men enlisted for the regiment, sixty-six were born in the New England States, one hundred and forty-nine in the Middle and Western States, and two hundred and eighty-five were foreign born. From this total enlisted, two hundred and seventy-five deserted before completing their enlistment.

Marksmanship was stressed in training, as noted in this description of the training regimen.

March, 1856

• A system of regimental instruction was instituted. Exercise in drill, target practice and marching was zealously kept up. It was impressed on the soldiers that their duties as "Light Infantrymen" required of them a complete knowledge of the use of the rifle, and especially deliberation and calmness in firing, that each shot might be effective. The ranges for target practice were two, three, four, five, six and seven hundred yards. Five shots were allowed at 200 yards, seven at 300, nine at 400, nine at 500, and ten each at 600 and 700 yards. The target used was a piece of white cotton, seven feet long and four feet wide, stretched on an iron frame. The bull's-eye was a circle eight inches in diameter, four feet from the ground and equidistant from the sides, painted black, with the exception of a small spot in the centre left unpainted to determine the centre accurately. Outside the bull's-eye were two black rings concentric with it, with radii of six and nine inches respectively. All shots were recorded and the men classified according to ability. Squads and individuals were practised, and the percentage of hits to misses governed the score, record in the cases of individuals being kept of bull's-eye hits.

I can't help wondering how Jerome might have scored in these exercises.

June, 1856

• Regimental headquarters and four companies, under Colonel Alexander, left Fort Snelling June 24th of this year, and arrived at Fort Ridgely June 30th, taking station there.

Company D must have been one of those that moved with headquarters to Fort Ridgely, because it was from there, in the following winter, that Jerome's company was called to investigate a massacre.

Fort Ridgely, and the Spirit Lake Massacre will be the subject of my next segment.

Where Theodore Roosevelt Roamed...

My first stop in North Dakota was the little town of Medora.  Here I found the entrance to the south unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

I knew that Roosevelt ranched in the North Dakota Badlands, but I soon found out that his focus on conservation efforts later in life, when he was our 26th president, originated with his experiences here.

                                               North Dakota Badlands near Medora, ND

I drove about 10 miles into the park, towing my trailer on a primitive gravel road, but soon turned around and resolved to make a later trip where this would be a destination rather than a casual stop.

There was much more here to explore than I would have time for on this trip. The park, and the 
vacation destination town of Medora are on my list for a more relaxed, but also more thorough, week of activities sometime in the future.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in learning more about Theodore Roosevelt's early life, or the history and current activities available in Medora, you can explore more here.

Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation

Medora, ND - A Family Vacation Destination

My ultimate destination in North Dakota was the site of Lewis and Clark's winter encampment of 1804-05. My plans called for two nights at the KOA campground in Bismarck, with a day trip, sans trailer, to the reconstructed Corps of Discovery campsite and interpretive center in Washburn, about 40 miles to the north.

How it all began...

Washington D.C., June 20, 1803

    To Meriwether Lewis Esquire, Captain of the first regiment of Infantry of the United States of America.The Object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river & such principal stream of it as by it's course and communication with the waters of the Pacific ocean, whether the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent for the purpose of commerce.

Thomas Jefferson

 A year and a half later, the Corps of Discovery was encamped near a Mandan Indian village more than 1,000 miles on the Missouri River above St. Louis. They set about building a fort in which they would endure the harsh winter. I photographed this map at the interpretive center at nearby Washburn. It shows the path of the roughly 1,500 miles they would yet have to travel to reach the Pacific.

The blue dotted line showing Clark's return route on the Yellowstone River in this map approximates the path I followed on I-90 and I-94 to reach the fort on the bank of the Missouri River where I now stood. The artist George Catlin captured a scene at a Mandan village in 1837 that is how I imagine Lewis and Clark found it 33 years earlier. Bird's-eye View of the Mandan Village

And here is a bird's eye view of the Ft. Mandan replica.

Here are a few detailed pictures I took in the reconstructed replica of the fort built by the Corps.

View from the entry gate looking to the interior.

Store room for provisions that were packed in canoes and on horses for the trip

Officer accommodations for Lewis and Clark. 

Each room in living quarters had its own fireplace,

on the right in this view.

 Enlisted mens' accommodations

I reluctantly left Fort Mandan and took this shot of the nearby Missouri River. I imagine it looks much like it might have to the members of the Corps. nearly 200 years ago.

Across the wide Missouri

The next day's drive took me from North Dakota into Minnesota - destination - Minneapolis.

After a brief stop in Fergus Falls, MN, my next segment will begin to follow Jerome Mann, my great grandfather, on his five year adventure as an infantryman in the U.S. Army in the 1850s.




 

Following Lewis and Clark

Visiting sites where the Lewis and Clark Corps. of Discovery once trod

Leaving the depressing situation I found in Butte, Montana, I traveled on I-90 to Three Forks, where I picked up William Clark's trail of 1806 as he and 12 members of the Corps. of Discovery split from the main party that was returning via their outbound trail of the year before. Clark's goal was to explore the Yellowstone River to the point where it joined the Missouri River in North Dakota.


A short while later, I found myself in Livingston, where Clark's party intercepted the Yellowstone River. This town brought back memories of a day our family spent there in the late 1990s on our way to a 60th anniversary celebration for my wife's aunt and uncle in Colorado.

On that trip, our RV chose a moment at the top of a pass in Yellowstone park to have a mechanical failure. My son and I were able, literally with the help of a coat hanger and duct tape, to patch the vehicle, allowing us to limp back to Livingston, MT where we spent a day making more permanent repairs.

My comment to our mechanic, when he asked why I was so calm through the process, was, "When you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." We modified our schedule to make up for the lost day, and had a great time in Colorado.

Next stop - Pompey's Pillar

I passed Billings, MT and soon switched to I-94,which would take me to destinations in North Dakota, including a reconstruction of Ft. Mandan, where the Lewis and Clark group spent the winter of 1804-5.

Since I-94 follows the Yellowstone River, it was no surprise to find many signs and markers relating to Lewis and Clark. About thirty miles east of Billings I spotted one for a National Monument called Pompey's Pillar.

Sacagawea's son

You may recall that Lewis and Clark had three people with them that had not been with the party when it left St. Louis in 1804. While at Ft. Mandan for the winter of 1804-5, they hired Toussaint Charbonneau, a French trapper who spoke several Indian languages, as a guide for the continuation of their trip up the Missouri. Charbonneau was married to a young Shoshone girl, Sacagawea, who was pregnant. It was agreed that she would accompany them because of her knowledge of the Shoshone language. It was decided that this could be useful when they encountered those tribes later on their trip. After they resumed their trip in the spring, Sacagawea gave birth to a son, Jean-Baptiste, who became a favorite of William Clark. Clark nicknamed the child "Pompy", which means little chief in Shoshone.


Sacagawea proved invaluable to the Corps. Her language skills would help the party negotiate for horses with the Shoshone. She contributed in other ways as well, all while nursing and caring for her infant son. Truly an amazing woman.

Pompey's Pillar from the visitor center trail

Clark named the distinctive rock adjacent to the Yellowstone River that I was now visiting after Sacagawea's son. And, as has often happened with other place names, the spelling changed at some point from Pompy to Pompey.

 

Signature left by Clark on the pillar

William Clark carved his signature on this sandstone butte. It is the only known physical evidence that remains of the expedition.

Further reading about Pompey's Pillar here:

Next, I traveled to North Dakota, a first for me. I'll visit Theodore Roosevelt's ranch and then make another stop at a Lewis and Clark site.

My goal for a recent trip I took was to pick up great grandpa Jerome Mann's trail west from Ohio, beginning on February 5, 1855 when he joined what would become the Tenth Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army, in Chicago.

In this entry from his service record, you can see him on line 4, where we find that he is from Lorain County, Ohio, he is 21 years old, and his occupation is listed as a clerk.

Continuing across the page, we also find that he was sworn in at Chicago by a Lieutenant Collins for a 5 year term, and that his eyes were blue, his hair brown (trust me, several before him had the same hair color, hence the " marks), his complexion was fair, and his height was 5'9 1/2". He was enlisted in Company D of the 10th Regiment.

Finally, the last piece of information we have about Jerome in the army is that he was discharged on February 5, 1860 at Ft. Bridger, Utah Territory, as a Private.

From the History of the 10th Regiment I have learned that his first duty station was at Fort Snelling, located on the Mississippi River at what is today Minneapolis, MN. He arrived there on October 20, 1855, after first undergoing training in Pennsylvania. I decided to begin following Jerome's path of 157 years ago in Minneapolis...

Getting there

Since I live a few miles north of Seattle, WA, picking up Jerome's trail meant that I had to first drive 1,680 miles to Minneapolis. I decided to make the most of that task by visiting family, and investigating  historic sites along the way.

My first stop was near Spokane, WA, where I visited my sister and her family for a day or two. Then, it was on to Montana.

Anaconda Copper Company open pit mine, Butte, MT

I was interested in the story of  the open pit mine that scars the hillside in Butte. It reminded me of a similar pit, opened and operated by the same company in Mason Valley, NV where I grew up. As I found out, both pits were opened in the early 1950s, and an Anaconda executive, Clyde Weed, was instrumental in both operations. In fact, the company town site above the Nevada operation was named Weed Heights in his honor. Both pits have ceased operation, and have filled with water, but the one in Butte has an ongoing water treatment program to remove contaminants from the water before it rises to the level where it would pollute the region's aquifer. Quite a legacy for Clyde.

Learn about the Berkeley Pit Superfund Site here:

The Nevada site is also of concern to the Environmental Protection Agency - you can read more about that operation here:

Weed Heights, NV Mine Details:

Clyde Weed is revered in mining circles, as is evidenced by this article about his career.

Clyde Weed Article

In my next blog segment, I will go back in history to before Jerome Mann's time. As I continue across Montana, I'll trace paths followed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-06.

The New England Planter Migration to Nova Scotia - 1760

As near as I can determine, there were seven Newcomb families who became part of the re-population of Cornwallis Township in Kings County, Nova Scotia. Many were the sons and families of Deacon John, but there was at least one brother and several nephews who also became part of the new community.

Wikipedia offers this description of the migration, of which my ancestors were a part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Planters

With some of Deacon John's immediate family, and many of his extended family remaining in Connecticut, the seeds were sown for a split in the loyalties of family members. Those who moved had to declare their allegiance to the King as a condition of their land grants, but most of those remaining in Connecticut were in the area that became the center of Connecticut's support of the Continental Army.

Who moved?

Deacon John, and his wife Alice, moved to Cornwallis Township, with their children, Eddy, Abigail, John, and Jonathan. The three adult sons were grantees of land there in 1761. The Deacon would go on to help found the Presbyterian Church in the township in 1762, as he had done so many years before with the Congregational Church of Columbia, CT.

He and Alice lived with son John and family, on their grant land. Both would die before the Revolutionary War began.

Deacon John's son Eddy, would join the British Army and serve as a Captain under General Cornwallis at the battle of Yorktown in 1781. That battle resulted in the British surrender to Washington's troops. He was wounded in this battle, and, though he made it back to Nova Scotia, he died a short time later due to complications from his injuries.

In my next post, I'll complete the story, in Nova Scotia, that led to my grandfather Newcombe's move to the United States. Then, we'll switch families to that of my mother's grandfather, Jerome Mann.

Deacon John's story in Connecticut

Simon's son John was born and raised in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard, MA, but in 1715, John, with his wife Alice, and their family of three, followed his father to Lebanon, CT where he was accepted into the First Congregational Church, settling about eight miles northwest of the young community.

John is instrumental in the establishment of a second church.

He was one of 24 men who, in that same year, petitioned the church for permission to form their own Ecclesiastical Society to the north. Permission was given, and in 1720 he became First Deacon of that organization, a position he would hold for the next 40 years. Their church was first known as the Second Congregational Church of Lebanon, but in 1804, the community to the north was officially recognized as the town of Columbia. Today, the church is known as the Columbia Congregational Church.(pictured at the right).

Among the several pastors that Deacon John was instrumental in hiring was the church's third, Eleazar Wheelock. He became pastor in 1735 and was active in the religious movement of the day, known as the Great Awakening. He served as pastor of the Congregational Church for 35 years, and would then go on to become the founder and first President of Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.

Deacon John's family grew to include eight children. Their third child was a boy named Eddy, born in 1713. He will be discussed at more length in my discussions about the Revolutionary War. Their sixth child, born at Labanon in 1720, was named John, after his father. This John is in my direct ancestral line.

The New England Planter's Migration

The really interesting part of Deacon John's story occurs late in his life - in about 1760. Several years earlier, the British governor of Nova Scotia at the time, Charles Lawrence, was dealing with the Acadian population in New France, portions of which were in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Lawrence was tasked by the British Crown to gain the allegiance of the Acadians to the King, with their further agreement to serve in the British military. The Acadians refused, and Lawrence had more than 11,000 of them forcibly removed from their lands in western Nova Scotia. Many of them later settled in Louisiana and are today known as Cajuns.

Governor Lawrence next made those lands available in 1,000 acre plats to those in New England who would take the loyalty oath to the king and serve in his military. Deacon John, his son John, and many others in his family took the deal.

Next: the Newcomb family on both sides in the Revolutionary War