Charlotte Isabell Renslow

     Charlotte Isabell Renslow was born on 25 August 1854 at Northampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts, USA^B,G.^2,3,4,5 She was the daughter of Lucius N. Renslow and Mary Ann Boyle.^6,5 Charlotte Isabell Renslow was a buggy whip manufacturer in 1860 at Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, USA^B,G.^7,4 She was a witness The US-Dakota War of 1862 (formerly known as the Sioux Uprising)

In 1862 in the Minnesota River Valley, the Dakota Sioux Indians were starving. Their crops had failed the year before and were not doing well this year either. The US was balking at living up to its treaty obligations. The Civil War was raging, and many Minnesota regiments had gone to fight the Confederates.

The Dakota on their southwestern Minnesota reservation--from the Minnesota River to the South Dakota border--were hungry and desperate. The Homestead Act had passed that year, and migrants and immigrants were flooding in. Crops had failed in the fall of 1861, the 1861 fall hunt was fairly unsuccessful, and the winter of 1861-2 was terrible.

Then came a bureaucrat. By treaty, the Indians ceded land for food and money aid. Thomas Galbraith, Indian agent at Lower Sioux Agency in Renville County, Minnesota, was a good bureaucrat and always followed the rules, which said the food and money were distributed together. Trouble was, the money was late, and the Indians were starving. Tension rose.

At a meeting between the Indians and the US government, an Indian is reported to have said, "This is our reservation, and yet you go out and you cut our grass for your animals. You cut down our trees for your building and your fire. You shoot our game, which we have very little of anyway. It's ours, you leave it alone."

In retort, a trader named Andrew Myrick said, "Well then, if you want it then you eat your grass. And we won't trade with you", implying the Indians were no better than horses or cattle.

Thus began the US-Dakota War of 1862, on August 17. Some Indians favored emptying the Minnesota River valley of settlers. Settlers, particularly at New Ulm, responded in kind. Fighting extended as far west as Wood Lake in Yellow Medicine County and to northern Iowa. Five weeks later, at least 300 settlers were dead along with countless Dakota. Myrick, appropriately, was found dead with grass stuffed in his mouth.

The Dakota lost their land, forced first southward to Davenport, Iowa, then westward onto reservations in South Dakota. They lost their culture, their economy, their society. 38 Dakota were hanged at Mankato in revenge. All treaties were abrogated, and all Dakota, for or against war, were treated alike. Uninvolved Winnebagos were ejected too. Settlers suffered too; many orphans never regained the lands settled by their families. Farms were sold for taxes. And in our case, Lucius and Mary Ann Renslow took their family back to Massachusetts for eleven years.

The wound is open today. At least one historian claims that until 9/11/2001, it was the highest civilian wartime toll in U.S. history.

(Grateful thanks to Minnesota Public Radio, whose piece in September 2002 http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200209/23_steilm_1862-m/, was the basis of this summary) with Lucius N. Renslow and Mary Ann Boyle at Minnesota River Valley, Minnesota, USA^B,G.⁸

     Charlotte Isabell Renslow married George Washington Stewart Jr., son of George Washington Stewart and Sophia A. Kling, on 25 December 1876 at Methodist Church, Rochester, Olmsted, Minnesota, USA^B,G, at age 22.^9,1
     Charlotte Isabell Renslow died on 14 April 1933 at Rochester, Olmsted, Minnesota, USA^B,G, at age 78 of carcinoma of the colon descending.^10,11 She was buried on 17 April 1933 at Oakwood Cemetery, Rochester, Olmsted, Minnesota, USA^B,G.⁷