Among the Sioux: A Story of the Twin Cities and the Two DakotasCreswell, R. J. (Robert J.)
History
Among the Sioux: A Story of the Twin Cities and the Two Dakotas
Creswell, R. J. (Robert J.)
Dakota Indians -- Missions; Missionaries -- Great Plains -- Biography
Mrs. Barnard was first interred at the Selkirk settlement, in Prince
Rupert's Land (now Manitoba). In the absence of other clergymen, Mr.
Barnard was compelled to officiate at his wife's funeral himself. In
obedience to her dying request, Mrs. Barnard's remains were removed to
St. Joe and re-interred in the yard of the humble mission cabin, Dec.
3, 1853.
In 1854, Mr. Barnard visited Ohio to provide a home for his children.
On his return, at Belle Prairie, Minnesota, midway between St. Paul and
St. Joe, he met Mr. Spencer and his three motherless children,
journeying four hundred miles by ox-cart to St. Paul. There in the rude
hovel in which they spent the night, Mr. Barnard baptized Mr. Spencer's
infant son, now an honored minister of the Congregational church in
Wisconsin. On his arrival at St. Joe Mr. Barnard found another mound
close by the grave of his beloved wife.
The story of this third grave is, also, written in blood. It was Aug.
30, 1854. The hostile Sioux were infesting the Pembina region. Only the
previous month, had Mrs. Spencer written to a far distant friend in
India: "Last December the Lord gave us a little son, whose smiling face
cheers many a lonely hour." On this fatal night, she arose to care for
this darling boy. A noise at the window attracted her attention. She
withdrew the curtain to ascertain the cause. Three Indians stood there
with loaded rifles and fired. Three bullets struck her, two in her
throat and one in her breast. She neither cried out nor spoke, but
reeling to her bed, with her babe in her arms, knelt down, where she
was soon discovered by her husband, when he returned from barricading
the door. She suffered intensely for several hours and then died. And
till daybreak Mr. Spencer sat in a horrid dream, holding his dead wife
in his arms. The baby lay in the rude cradle near by, bathed in his
mother's blood. The two elder children stood by terrified and weeping.
Such was the distressing scene which the neighbors beheld in the
morning, when they came with their proffers of sympathy and help. The
friendly half-breeds came in, cared for the poor children and prepared
the dead mother for burial. A half-breed dug the grave and nailed a
rude box together for a coffin. Then with a bleeding heart, the sore
bereaved man consigned to the bosom of the friendly earth the remains
of his murdered wife.
Within the past thirty years civilization has rapidly taken possession
of this lovely region. Christian homes and Christian churches cover
these rich prairies. The prosperous and rapidly growing village of
Walhalla (Paradise) nestles in the bosom of this lovely vale and
occupies contentedly the former site of Old St. Joe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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