01 RCHS Sp03-Cover 6/12/03 7:43 PM Page iii RAMSEY COUNTY The St. Paul Volunteer Fireman and the Battle of Gettysburg HıstoryA Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Page 13 Spring, 2003 Volume 38, Number 1 An ‘Attempt’ on His Life? Sitting Bull’s 1884 Visit to St. Paul —Page 4 Sitting Bull around 1880, just before his 1884 visit to St. Paul. Minnesota Historical Society photograph. See article beginning on page 4 on Sitting Bull’s visit and an alleged attempt on his life. Minnesota Historical Society photograph. 02 RCHS Sp03-Mast 6/12/03 7:45 PM Page 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director RAMSEY COUNTY Priscilla Farnham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz Hıstory RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 38, Number 1 Spring, 2003 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS James A. Russell C O N T E N T S Chair Marlene Marschall 3 Letters President 4 ‘A Shady Pair’ and an ‘Attempt on His Life’— George Mairs First Vice President Sitting Bull and His 1884 Visit to St. Paul W. Andrew Boss Paul D. Nelson Second Vice President 13 The St. Paul Fireman Who Rose to Command the First Judith Frost Lewis Secretary Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg Peter K. Butler Patrick Hill Treasurer 17 The Volunteer Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company Duke Addicks, Charles L. Bathke, W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Norbert Conzemius, 18 Oakland Cemetery and Its First 150 Years Anne Cowie, Charlton Dietz, Charlotte H. Chip Lindeke Drake, Joanne A. Englund, Robert F. Garland, Howard Guthmann, Joan Higinbotham, Scott 19 Roots in the English John Wesley Hutton, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lindley, George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Richard St. Paul’s First German Methodist Church T. Murphy, Sr., Richard Nicholson, Marla Helen Miller Dickison Ordway, Marvin J. Pertzik, Penny Harris Reynen, Glenn Weissner, Richard Wilhoit, 25 Growing Up in St. Paul Laurie Zenner, Ronald J. Zweber. ‘Homer Van Meter, a Member of the Karpis Gang, EDITORIAL BOARD Was Shot Across the Street from Our House’ John M. Lindley, chair; James B. Bell, Thomas Bernice Fisher H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Mark Eisenschenk, Pat Hart, Thomas J. Kelley, Tom Mega, Laurie Murphy, Richard H. Nicholson, Paul D. Nelson, Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from David Riehle, G. Richard Slade. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton The Society regrets an omission from the 2002 Donor Recognition Roll Dietz, William Finney, William Fallon, Robert in the Winter issue of Ramsey County History. The list of supporters should S. Hess, D. W. “Don” Larson, George Latimer, have included the name of Albert W. Lindeke, Jr., a generous and loyal supporter. Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Mirick, Marvin We apologize for this omission. J. Pertzik, James Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner James McDonough, chairman Commissioner Susan Haigh n 1884 the Lakota Indian leader Sitting Bull visited St. Paul. Our feature article in this issue fo- Commissioner Tony Bennett Icuses on the circumstances of his two brief stays in the city that year and whether during the lat- Commissioner Rafael Ortega ter visit there was an attempt to assassinate the man who embodied so much of the conflict between Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt Commissioner Janice Rettman the white settlers and the native inhabitants of the American West. This issue also includes Civil Commissioner Jan Wiessner War historian Patrick Hill’s account of Wilson B. Farrell, a St. Paul volunteer fireman, who gave his life as a member of the First Minnesota Regiment in the Battle of Gettysburg and a brief salute to Paul Kirkwold, manager, Ramsey County the sesquicentennial of the founding of St. Paul’s Oakland Cemetery, where Farrell is now buried. Ramsey County History is published quarterly This issue concludes with Helen Miller Dickison’s history of today’s Fairmount Methodist Church, by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 Minnesota’s first German Methodist church, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2002. Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street,St. Paul, Readers of Ramsey County History and anyone interested in the history of Ramsey County and Minn. 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in U.S.A. St. Paul now have a new resource for history searches: the Society’s web site at www.rchs.com. On Copyright, 2003, Ramsey County Historical the site’s home page, the researcher can click on several links that are of value. One is “Ask the His- - Society. ISSN Number 0485 9758. All rights torian,” which provides questions and answers about the area’s history that recently have come to reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced Society staff members. Another briefly profiles the histories of some of St. Paul’s neighborhoods. without written permission from the pub- All the information on this link comes from the Society’s Ramsey County Historic Site Survey Re- lisher. The Society assumes no responsibility port, a major resource in the RCHS library. The final link on the Society web page connects the user for statements made by contributors. Fax 651- to information on the contents of the most recent issues of Ramsey County History and ties to a 223-8539; e-mail address [email protected].; complete listing of articles published in the magazine since its initial publication in 1964. We hope web site address www.rchs.com this new link will get many hits from users and increase awareness of the richness of the content of our magazine’s back issues. John M. Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board 2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 04 RCHS Sp03-Sitting Bull 6/12/03 7:48 PM Page 4 Sitting Bull and His 1884 Visit to St. Paul ‘A Shady Pair’ and an ‘Attempt on His Life’ Mark Diedrich Adapted, with permission, from a longer article by Paul D. Nelson September 4, 1884. An attempt on Sitting Bull’s life occurs at the Grand Opera House in St. Paul. Sitting Bull is there as part of a program, where, incidentally, he meets Annie Oakley. —Minnesota Book of Days (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002), p. 181. e was a living symbol of American Indian resistance—to progress and Manifest Destiny in one view, to genocide in another. In 1884 the Indian wars had not yet Hended; many whites still feared the Red Man generally and Sitting Bull in par- ticular. His murder in a downtown theater would have called up wrenching memories nationwide of Lincoln’s similar assassination just nineteen years earlier. All eyes would have turned toward St. Paul, not to celebrate its growth and progress, but to lament (or celebrate) an historic crime. It is surprising how little press cover- camp in southeastern Montana for all— age this event provoked. The next day’s including not just Lakotas but also Pioneer Press reported only that Sitting Cheyennes, Yanktonai, and Santee Bull planned to leave soon for New York Dakotas—who wanted to resist Ameri- but wished first to visit the German horti- can domination. In June 1876 George cultural fair at Market Hall, because he Custer’s Seventh Cavalry attacked Sit- was “desirous of seeing how big the ting Bull’s encampment on the Little pumpkins grow in these parts.” Neither Bighorn River, with electrifying conse- the St. Paul Daily Globe nor either of the quences. Although he did not participate Minneapolis dailies mentioned the great in the fight, many whites considered Sit- A carte-de-visite photograph of the Lakota Lakota leader at all. ting Bull the “general” of the Indian leader that, at $1.50 each, found a ready How could this be? As it turns out, the forces and hence the “killer of Custer.” market in St. Paul. Photo by Palmquist & Jurgens, Minnesota Historical Society 1880s newspapers, from which the Book In time he fled to Canada, seeking collections. of Days extracted this account, were just refuge and assistance from Queen Victo- as eager to hype a story as they are today. ria. The British, however, gave limited There is both much less to this story of help. In 1881 the starving leader and his whites mean him no harm and bear him that September 4 and much more. last remaining followers surrendered to naught of malice, and then by some little the Americans, who held him for two preferment or authority—almost imper- McLaughlin’s Plan years at Fort Randall in Dakota Territory. ceptible in itself, but to a man who be- By the early 1880s Sitting Bull had be- He was then ushered to the Standing lieved he might be hung when captured, a come the most famous American Indian Rock Agency at Fort Yates, where he very great deal—he can gradually be in- in the United States (though rivaled in the came under the authority of United States duced to learn the truth that his best inter- West, at least, by his contemporary Lakota agent James McLaughlin. ests will be subserved by obedience to Geronimo.) He had become a leader of The ambitious and possibly self-de- the power that be.” To achieve this goal, the Hunkpapa Lakotas on the high north- luded McLaughlin wanted to reduce Sit- McLaughlin allowed, or perhaps urged, ern plains and resisted white intrusion ting Bull to an “agency Indian” (mean- Sitting Bull to participate in some public into their ancestral domain. In the 1870s ing, presumably, dispirited and events. On September 5, 1883, for exam- his war parties attacked Northern Pacific compliant) and make him ready for as- ple, he joined former President Ulysses railroad crews and the soldiers who pro- similation into white civilization.