Attorney for the frontier : Enos Stutsman

197 Pages·1983·5.259 MB·English

by  Dale Gibson, Lee Gibson, Cameron Harvey

ATTORNEYFOR
THE FRONTIER

A T T O R N EY
F O R T HE
F R O N T I ER
Enos Stutsman
BY DALE GIBSON
WITH LEE GIBSON AND CAMERON HARVEY
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA PRESS
© The University of Manitoba Press 1983
Printed in Canada
Designed by Norman Schmidt
This book has been published with the assistance of the Canada Council.
The frontispiece is a photograph of Enos Stutsman in 1864.
Illustrations frontispiece, 6, 9, 11, 23
courtesy of Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection, Chester Fritz
Library, University of North Dakota
Illustration 1
courtesy of the State Historical Society, Iowa State Historical Department
Illustration 2
courtesy of Sioux City Public Museum
Illustrations 3, 4, 7
courtesy of Yankton County Historical Society
Illustrations 5, 12, 22, 25
courtesy of the State Historical Society of North Dakota
Illustrations lo, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2O, 21
courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Manitoba
Illustration 24
courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gibson, Dale.
Attorney for the frontier
Includes index.
ISBN 0-88755-131-9
i. Stutsman, Enos. 2. Dakota - Biography.
3. Red River Rebellion, 1869-1870. I. Harvey,
Cameron, 1939- II. Gibson, Lee, 1933-
III. Title
F655.S78G528 978'.o2 C83-O91173-1
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue xi
1. Sioux City and Before: 1826-1858 3
2. Yankton: 1859-1866 13
3. Pembina: 1866-1869 45
4. The McLean Trial: September 1868 77
5. The Kiel Rebellion: 1869-1870 97
6- The Final Chapter: 1870-1874 149
Notes 163
Index 177
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ENOS STUTSMAN IS AN ALMOST FORGOTTEN
frontier figure, remembered only by the name of a county in
North Dakota, a street in Pembina, and a few fragmentary,
often inaccurate, references in regional and specialist histories. The at-
tempt to shed light on the personality and career of so elusive a person
required the assistance of numerous individuals and organizations.
Happily, such assistance was almost always made available - often
enthusiastically - when requested. I wish to record my gratitude to all
who helped, and to acknowledge explicitly some of the more impor-
tant contributions.
The greatest debt is owed to Lee Gibson and Cameron Harvey.
Although Lee and Cam have chosen to be designated as "assistants,"
they would be more accurately described as collaborators. The
Stutsman project has been a shared hobby for the three of us over the
past dozen or so years. The idea of undertaking a study of Stutsman
occurred independently to Cam and to Lee and me at about the same
time, and we agreed to join forces as soon as we learned of each others'