G.M. Powers (Excelsior book) i
Summer. Whether they liked it or not, the white settlers had an audience watching
potatoes and flour." Their kitchen, on the open side, was all out of doors.
(McG -A &B) every move they made as they built their cabins, planted their gardens, and ploughed
One day while the two men were building Bertram's log house, they heard some- their fields. These were the Sioux Indians, who called themselves Dakota. Although
one calling in the woods. They yelled back repeatedly, until a very hot, tired and they had given up their rights to this territory west of the Mississippi when the Sioux
hungry stranger appeared on foot. According to McGrath, he was a "sorry- looking Treaties were signed in 1851 and ratified in 1852 they still lingered along Minne
individual," whose clothes were "the worse for wear and his patent leather shoes in tonka's shores, sadly watching white settlers take over their hunting grounds.
tatters and tied onto his feet by strips of bark ... or small twigs twisted together."
The Indians did not leave until the Sioux Uprising of 1862. As late as the winter
(McG -A) This was the Rev. Charles Galpin, whose vigor and versatility, encouragement of 1859 to '60, some 200 Sioux of all ages camped west of town near the old DeGroodt
and faith would become so important to the other colonists who followed soon after. house. Moreover, Chief Shakopee's band, numbering 20 to 30 tepees and lodges,
camped year after year in and around Excelsior. The settlers, who were more annoyed
June. When George Bertram, President of the Excelsior Colony, arrived with a small by the "redskins" than afraid of them, thought garrulous Chief Shakopee was much
band of followers, he found his house (at First and Center Streets) ready for occu too long-winded when he came into their cabins to harangue hour after hour." And
pancy. The colonists set to work platting village lots and building shelters for their on Sundays, Indian braves would wait until the church service had started before
families, either on the town lot assigned each one or the outlying farm each settler marching in and seating themselves on the floor in the center of the room. Then they
could claim. Among the earliest arrivals were Lemuel Griffith, James Phillips, H. Bir would "adjust their long- handled pipes and proceed to fill the room with smoke."
mingham, Samuel C. Staples, H. Blake, Patrick Murphy and Hezekiah Brake with his They usually filed out before the close of the service, "taking their departure with a
team of oxen and covered wagon. (He had left Mrs. Brake at St. Anthony to recover regulation grunt." (McG -B)
from an illness while he built their cabin on a quarter section of land outside the One of the first Excelsior women to confront a war party must have been timid
village limits.) Mrs. Bertram, who was alone in the cabin one Sunday morning with her three small
children. All of the men except Robert McGrath had gone with Preacher Galpin to
June 14. The first town meeting was called by President George Bertram. It took attend a meeting in Chanhassen.
place in the log carpenter shop McGrath had built for himself after finishing the Left to guard the settlement, young McGrath saw "six savage looking_ fellows
Bertram house. At this meeting the settlers voted unanimously to use, for their town, evidently on the war path, feathers in their hair, faces hideously painted and guns
the same name they had chosen when organizing the "Excelsior Pioneer Association." in hand ... They marched single file out of the woods and straight into the Bertram
Because Excelsior means "ever higher" or "onward and upward," they felt it expressed cabin. Hurrying after them, McGrath found the Indians standing in the middle of the
their hopes and dreams for the new village. (AS, 1279; McG -B) room, with their guns at their sides. Their mixture of Sioux words and sign language
was not easy to interpret, but this is the story in McGrath's words:
July 17. This Sunday was a special day, because Preacher Galpin had invited his
Chanhassen congregation to join the Excelsior group in the parlor of the Bertram's a Cherokee had shot a Sioux squaw ...scalped her and then taken a
new house. There he formally organized "The Independent Church of Excelsior and canoe and paddled away on the lake ... [These Sioux warriors] wanted to
Chanhassen" with the following nine original members: George and Julia Bertram, borrow three canoes I had at the shore and paddle after [the Cherokee] .
James Phillips, Samuel Staples, Joshua Moore and daughter Hannah, Clarissa Cleave- I wanted to get rid of them, so I told them to take my canoes and go, which
land, George M. Powers and David Griffith. (N, 250) they did, promising to bring them back. After a few days [the canoes]
Since his arrival in Excelsior, the Reverend Galpin had been preaching alternate were back, sure enough. [The Sioux had accomplished their mission.]
Sundays in Chanhassen township where four families of the Northampton Colony (McG A)
from Massachusetts had settled in April. Among those earliest settlers were the H.M.
Lymans, the G.M. Powers, Joshua Moore and Hannah, and Arba and Clarissa Cleave- Fall. Peter M. Gideon came from the East with his dainty black- haired, dark -eyed
land (incorrectly spelled Cleveland). (DD, 6; FF, 366) wife (Wealthy Hull) and their first two children. He chose 160 acres beside what is
Mrs. Clarissa Cleaveland, by the way, was a sister-in-law of the Rev. Henry Martyn now Gideon's Bay and planted one bushel of apple seeds and a peck of peach seeds
Nichols, who had decided against Wayzata as a site for his Northampton Colony they had brought with them. Gideon's chief goal was to develop an apple tree hardy
because there were too many trees. (HAW, 1) Others of his colonists than those in enough to withstand Minnesota winters. It was to take ten years of hardship and
Chanhassen had settled near Faribault, but the Reverend Nichols had a church in disappointment, climaxed by a big freeze that killed all his trees but one Siberian crab,
Minneapolis when tragedy struck his family. It happened in 1860 when the Cleave- before the seedling of that crab would produce the famous Wealthy apple Gideon
lands were visiting the Nichols family and all decided to go swimming in Lake Cal- named for his wife. (AS, 1281)
houn. The multiple drowning which resulted took three members of each family, one
after the other. Mrs. Cleaveland was forcibly restrained by spectators who had gather- Late October. The Reverend Galpin, with Robert McGrath's help, was hurrying to
ed, or she would have waded in after her husband, two daughters, sister, brother -in -law finish building a one room frame house before the arrival of his wife. Despite their
and niece. Instead, she was left with two remaining small daughters and a nephew she best efforts, it still lacked floors, doors and windows when the preacher had to leave,
the Chanhassen farm. with his "half broken yoke of oxen," to meet his Semantha at St. Anthony. He
adopted, all of whom she took back East with her after selling
(FF, 163 -5) brought her to stay with the Bertrams until the house was livable.
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