Belmont Massacre - 1862

So early as June reports reached the Belmont settlers that there was likely to be trouble with the Indians. On only one occasion, however, did the Indians who sometimes visited the settlement show any signs of hostility; the exception was the wanton killing of an ox belonging to Ole Larson, of Christiania township.  Finally the rumors of an outbreak were confirmed. A German fleeing from New Ulm brought news of the attack on that village, which had occurred only a few days before. He could not impart the details of the tragedy on account of his ability to speak English, but the settlers could understand enough to know that New Ulm had had trouble with the Indians.  The Belmont settlers seem to have been undecided what course to pursue. Nights they gathered at the different cabins that seemed to offer better protection or where the firearms and ammunition were kept, their fears were not so great during the day time, and generally they returned to their homes in the morning to attend to the farm work. A decision was finally reached that stockades should be built, and Monday August 25, was the date set for the settlers to get together and select the sites. On the day before this was to have been done the attack was made and there had been enacted the drama of brutal and beastly bloodshed which depopulated the county.

It was a few days after the attack on the Lower Agency and four days after the massacre at Lake Shetek, in Murray county, that about fifty of White Lodge’s band of Sisseton Sioux proceeded down the Des Moines river, apparently to repeat the performance of Inkpaduta of five years before. They proceeded as far south as Englebret Olson Slaabaken’s home on the southeast quarter of section 22 Belmont township without making their presence known. Then instead of proceeding down the river, they began the at-tack, and retraced their steps up river.  The attack began at 10:00 forenoon.  The route of the Indians into Jackson county Is not known definitely but it is supposed they came by way of Fish Lake. Lower’s lake and Independence lake and they followed the river bank. It Is almost certain they would have been discovered before reaching the point where the attack was begun.

So far as is known Lars Olson was the only man in the settlement who saw the Indians in a body consequently he was the only competent authority as to the number participating.  He estimated the number at fifty. Mr.  Olson, who was an old man living on section 30 Christiania had been down into Belmont township on Sunday, and while returning, when a little north of the Ole Fohre home, he came upon the party of savages in the woods, before the attack was begun. He was not seen by the Indians, nor were the Indians recognized as such by him. He supposed they were soldiers, come to the defense of the settlers, and was accordingly thankful for their arrival. Mr.  Olson continued his journey home, and neither he nor his wife saw the Indians afterward, although the red men must have passed close to his house.

The attack was begun at ten o’clock in the forenoon.

The attacking savages divided into small parties and, going swiftly from cabin to cabin, they took the inmates by surprise and encountered no resistance except in one instance. The men, women and children were shot down without warning and without an effort to save their lives except in flight.

At the Ole Fohre home, on the northwest quarter of section 22, Belmont, several families had gathered, namely, Johannes Axe and wife, Lars G. Jornevik and wife, Mrs. Carrie Fohre, the wife of Ole Fohre, and her twelve year old son, Ole Olson Fohre, and eight small children belonging to the several families. Here the massacre was begun at ten o’clock in the forenoon. When the Indians were seen approaching, Mrs. Fohre, Mrs. Jornevik and Mrs. Axe with the eight small children went into the cellar, the trap door was closed, and twelve year old Ole Olson Fohre piled clothing, boxes and trunks over it. The others remained upstairs.  They barricaded the doors, but being without arms, their efforts to guard the cabin were futile.

The Indians approached the cabin from the east and burst in the east door. All who were in the cabin, except the boy.  were instantly killed, and no one knows the particulars of their taking off. Johannes Axe was evidently pounded to death, as no bullet wounds were found on his body. Lars Furnes and Lars G. Jornevik were shot.

Lars G. Jornevik was a man with a violent temper and in some particulars lacking In Judgment. When he was advised, some days previous, that It was possible the Indians would come and to prepare himself. Mr. Jornevik flew into a violent rage, stating that he was ready for the Indians any time they wanted to come. He filled his pockets with stones and considered himself amply protected. When his dead body was found, his pockets were filled with the missiles which he had not opportunity to use.

When the east door was broken down and the Indians entered the cabin, Ole Olson Fohre, the boy, who was standing guard at the west door, bolted out that door and ran down a trail that led to a spring. Hearing the door slam, the boy looked over his shoulder while running and saw an Indian taking aim at him.  With presence of mind he made a quick jump to the left into the brush. He dodged Just in time to save his life, for the bullet struck him, tearing away the tip of his right elbow. Ole hid in the brush, and the savage who had fired followed and searched for him. When the Indian was only about three feet from the boy’s hiding place, he gave up the search and returned to his companions at the cabin—the Indian’s love of “firewater” saved a life. One of the first acts of the savages was to search the wagons, which had been brought from Mankato the day before, loaded with provisions, and just as the Indian was about to discover the boy in the brush, the others at the cabin found a jug of whisky in one of the wagons and raised such a shout of joy that the one after the boy gave up the hunt and hastily rejoined the others. Safe from immediate pursuit, Ole ran through the timber down the river to find a place of refuge and to notify the other settlers of their danger.  About the time these events were taking place at the Fohre home, Ole Fohre, the owner of the cabin, was found by the Indians in the timber, between his house and the river, and killed. The place of this murder was on section 21.

The anxiety of the fugitives in the cellar while the murders were being committed over their heads cannot be described; so still were they scarcely breathed.  Their fears were made worse by the crying of the two year old babe of Mrs. Lars G. Jornevik. That lady, with heroism seldom equaled in the annals of Indian warfare, knowing that the painted demons surrounded the house, deliberately came out of the cellar to accept her fate.  To the other ladies she said: “I understand my time has come I must go up again. Your children are smaller than mine and they keep quiet if I stay here the Indians will find us. She came up from the cellar with the child and was killed, her body being horribly mutilated.  Fortunately the Indians were busy with their whisky and did not learn from whence Mrs. Jornevik had come.  The child was unharmed, but soon it began to cry. The door of the cabin had been left open, and the baby was frightened at the hogs, which came into the cabin.  One of the ladies came up, found the child in its mother’s blood, and took it back into the cellar and cared for it.  Then it was learned for the first time that the savages had left the vicinity. For the time being let us leave the two women and the children in the cellar, debating the course of action to pursue, while we consider events that were taking place in others parts of the settlement.

Close to the Fohre home, Mikkel Olson Slaabaken was killed and his nephew, Anders Olson Slaabaken, the thirteen year old son of Englebret Olson Slaabaken, was seriously wounded and left for dead.  The Englebret Olson Slaabaken home was half a mile south of the Fohre home, and also on section 22. About the time the attack was begun, Mikkel and his nephew started from that place for the home of Ole Fohre. They heard the firing but thought nothing of it, as they supposed the neighbors were shooting blackbirds.  They soon, became aware of the seriousness of their condition. The Indians were stationed along the trails in the timber, and the unfortunate white men were soon discovered. The savages fired and the white men set out on a run through the timber. Mikkel was hit at the first fire and exclaimed: “I am wounded and cannot on any farther.” Immediately he was hit again and killed instantly.  A bullet from the first volley passed through the hat brim of the boy, and a moment later another one inflicted a slight scalp wound, plowing a furrow through his hair. Anders was not stunned or badly hurt, but he was so scared that he fell and lay with his face to the ground. The savages came up and one of them plunged a knife into his left side and, as the victim described the event in after years, “twisted it around before he pulled it out.” The Indians left him for dead and Anders lost consciousness.  When he came to his senses he crawled to his father’s home. There was no one there; the Indians had visited the place and taken everything in the line of provisions.  The wounded boy made his way to the log stable and hid in a manger, where he remained three days with nothing to eat except two raw eggs. When the cows came home at night he tried to milk them, but they would not allow him to approach them on account of the blood on his clothes. From the time of the attack on Sunday until Wednesday Anders remained in the manger then he was found by a rescuing party and taken to Estherville, where he slowly recovered from his wounds.

From the Fohre house the Indians went to the home of Englebret Olson Slaabaken.  a half mile south, but all the whites except the two mentioned, had gone to church. Here, after ransacking the premises, the Indians gave up the idea of going farther south, and began their trip to the north. Had it not been for the fact that many of the settlers were away from home, gathered at the Rainlo house and other places in religious worship, there is every reason to believe that the massacre would have been much more terrible than it was. When the murdering savages came to the house of Englebret Olson Slaabaken and the houses of others who were at the meeting and found them unoccupied, they feared the settlement was aroused and that the people had gathered at some place to put up a fight. As an Indian detests a fair fight more than anything else, they decided not to go farther south, but to begin their bloody work and make their escape before it became necessary to fight.

On their trip north (probably), at a point a few rods west of the Ole Fohre home, the Indians came upon Knud Midstad and his wife Breta and murdered them. These unfortunate people lived on the west side of the river, and were on their way to Ole Fohre’s when they were ambushed on the trail.

To return to the women and children in the cellar of the Ole Fohre cabin. When it was learned that the Indians had left the immediate vicinity, Mrs. Fohre and Mrs. Axe decided to seek another place of concealment. Accordingly they came forth with the children and hid in a cornfield.  The savages, returning from their visit to the Slaabaken home below, again came to the place of the original attack and when they found that refugees had been hidden in the cellar at the time of the first attack but had now escaped, they were very angry and spent considerable time searching for them, after the murderers had gone the second time the women started out with the children for the south and spent Sunday night in a blacksmith shop on the Englebret Olson Slaabaken farm. The next morning, not having had anything to eat since the attack, they started out again for the south in an endeavor to find a place of safety. They had proceeded to a point southwest of the present site of Jackson when they met Knud Langeland returning from Spirit Lake, and were pointed to a place of safety.

After the second visit to the house of Ole Fohre, the Indians (at least a part of them) crossed the river to the west side, but did not encounter any whites and returned. Then the band proceeded up the river to the home of Knud Langeland, where he resided with his family on the southeast quarter of section 16. There no warning had been received, and five human lives were taken. Mr. Langeland was down by the river rounding up his cattle at the time of the attack and so escaped.  At the house his wife, Anna Langeland, and four children, Anna, Aagaata, Nicolai John and Knud Langeland, were murdered. Martha Langeland escaped the fate of the rest of the family by hiding in a cornfield. Two of these children who were killed were hid in the cornfield at the time of the attack, but when they saw the Indians attack their mother they rushed out to her assistance and were murdered, Mr. Langeland went to the house after the Indians departed and viewed the terrible work of the monsters. He thought he witnessed signs of life in two of his children. Gathering them in his arms, he carried them all the way to Spirit Lake.  One of the children, died soon after his arrival the other recovered.

From the Langeland home the Sioux proceeded on their way up the river to the homes of Ole Estenson and Ole Torgenson, where they arrived in the evening about dark. These men were the only ones in the settlement to make any effort to save their lives except in flight, they had the old Berserker blood in them and put up a good fight. Messrs. Estenson and Torgenson barricaded one of their houses situated on the southeast quarter of section 31, Christiania township and made other preparations to defend their families.  They had guns and ammunition and the knowledge and disposition to use them.  When the Indians appeared, they called all the white men to come to them. Instead, the white men ordered their families to lie down and returned the fire of the enemy so successfully that they fought off every attack. Volley after volley was poured into the house, and the bullets penetrated the walls and roof, knocking down several articles that were on shelves.  The white men loaded their army muskets with slugs, and, as it had become dark, they fired only at the flashes of the Indians guns. No one within the cabin was hit, and the attackers finally departed.  The defenders did not know whether or not they hit any of the savages, and had no evidence that they did.

After their repulse the Indians went down the river and made camp Sunday night on the southeast quarter of section 8, Belmont township. The next day they proceeded up the river on the east side without renewing hostilities. The Des Moines river was crossed, and Monday night camp was made on the southwest quarter of section 24, Delafield township.  Thence the Indians continued their journey to the north and out of Jackson county.

The Belmont massacre was over. Thirteen innocent people had been murdered in cold blood. Several of the bodies were mutilated, but no scalps were taken.  None of the cabins and no property was burned. The savages carried away much property, and some of this was abandoned or destroyed on the march out of the country, otherwise there was no destruction of property.

Killed Johannas Axe Lars Furnes Lars G, Jornevik Mrs. Lars C. Jornevik Ole Fohre Mikkel Olson Slaabaken Knud Midstad Breta Midstad Mrs. Anna Langeland Anna Langeland (child) Aapaata Langeland Nicolai John Langeland Knud Langeland Wounded Ole Olson Fohre Anders E. Olson Slaabaken Langeland (girl)

Memorial in Jackson that was erected in 1909 In Memory of those of the Belmont Massacre