ACTON MONUMENT

The Inscription Reads
On a bright Sunday afternoon.  August 17, 1862, four young Sioux hunters, on a spur-of-the-moment dare. They decided to prove their bravery by shooting Robinson Jones, the postmaster and storekeeper at Acton in western Meeker County. Stopping at his cabin they requested liquor and were refused. Then Jones, followed by the seemingly friendly indians, went to the neighboring Howard Baker cabin, which stood on this site.
 Here the whites and the Indian engaged in a target-shooting contest.  Suddenly, the Indians turned on the settlers and without warning shot Baken Viranus Webster, another settler and Mr. and Mrs. Jones. Mrs. Baker, Mrs, Webster, and several children escapes by hiding. Then the Indians rode off shooting Jone's adopted daughter, Clara D. Wilson as they passed the Jones cabin.
 The indians fled south to their village forty miles away on the Minnesota River. There they reported what they had done, and the Sioux chiefs decided to wage an all-out war against the white triggered the bloody Sioux Uprising of 1862.
 The bodies of the settlers were buried in a single grave in the New Lutheran Cemetery. Near present-day Litchfield. In 1878 the state of Minnesota erected a granite monument there. This site, where the Makers cabin stood. Was similarly marked in 1909.

On August 17, 1862 four young Wahpetons were returning from a deer hunt in the big woods near Acton in Meeker County. These young indians names where Kiling Ghost, Breaking Up, Runs against Something when Crawling, and Brown Wing. On the way back they came upon some eggs, and one of them picked one up and was going to eat it.  One of the others said that he shouldn't, and they got into a big dispute about it. As they continue to argue a white mans ox walks by and he says he is brave and shoots it. They passed Robinsons Jones, a farmer, postmaster, and storekeeper, farmplace at about 11:00. Here they asked for liquor and Mr. Jones refused, because one of them had borrowed a gun from Mr. Jones the previous winter and did not returned it. Jones asked the indians to leave his house at this time. Jones now left and went to Howard Bakers' House while the Indians secretly followed him.
 At Mr. Bakers' Place the Indians asked the white people to a round of target practice. The Indians shot and reloaded, but the whites shot and never reloaded. Then the Indians violently turned on them and shot down Baker, Jones, his wife, and a man named Webster. The Indians then went to the house and killed Mr. Jones adopted daughter. Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Webster and some children in the panic of it all had fallen into the cellar and the Indians left without killing them.
 Now with 5 killed, the Indians went to their village which was located on the Minnesota River near the mouth of the Redwood. Here they repeated their violent actions to the leader of their band of Sioux, Red Middle Voice.

Sources

Blegen, Theodore C. Minnesota a History of the State. Minnesota: St. Paul, University of Minnesota Press 1963: 260.
Anderson, Gary Clayton. Through Dakota Eyes. Minnesota: St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Society Press 1988: 13.
Buck, Daniel. Indian Outbreaks. Minnesota: Minneapolis, Ross & Haines, Inc. 1965: 85.
Heard, Isaac V. D. History of The Sioux War and Massacres of 1862 and 1863. New York, Harper 1863: 52.

This Page Was made in 11\09\99.
 Tony Prechel, RRC