Joseph Renville

Misc notes gathered by Dr. Anna Amrud, researcher for the Minnesota Historical Society .
Copy acquired by Thomas Edworthy in 1978.

     On what is generally known as the Sisseton Indian Reservation, which extends along the west shores of
Big Stone and Traverse lake and extending west well into the Coteau Hills, there is well known family
who have had a prominent part in the development of the country for not less than one hundred and fifty years. I have a reference to the descendents of a Frenchman by the name of Renville.

     The following facts and near facts have been gleaned from various passages in old histories and accounts
given by early explorers, fur traders, missionaries and some statements from the present living descendants. There is some conflict as to actual dates and places, but we trust there is nothing very far wrong.

     The older Renville was born in France [we question this fact], was thought to be a well educated man and came to America in search of fortune and adventure. He ws first heard of at the head of Lake Superior, near where Duluth is located. He came by canoe from the St. Lawrence River, and the Great Lakes.
This was about the year 1775. We next hear of him as portaging from the St. Louis River to the upper branches of the Mississippi and coming down from this stream to the indian village known as Kaposia. This is just below St. Paul, Minnesota, near where the Minnesota River joins the Mississippi. He located there temporarily as a trader and took for his wife, Miniyuhe, one of the daughters of a chief known as Little Crow (Petit Carboneau). This chief was the first of three leaders by the same name. The third Little Crow being the leader in the uprising in the Minnesota valley in 1862 (?).

     Two sons were born to them. One was known as Joseph Renville and the other was Victor Renville.
Joseph was the older and was born in 1779 at or near Kaposia. Victor was a year or so younger.
Soon after his birth Mrs. Renville left the family and went back to her people.

Joseph Renville

     Before ten years of age, Joseph Renville was taken to Canada to receive an education. He was accompanied by his father. He returned to Kaposia at the age of about sixteen or seventeen. His father died very soon after his return. Joseph Renville was apparently in considerable demand as an interpreter even at this age.
Later in his life he became quite famous.

     In 1797, at the age of 18, he is mentioned as trapping and wintering in a cabin near Sauk Rapids and was
with a Frenchman named Perlier. He was married in 1804. No mention is made as to who his wife might have been until years later when she is often mentioned as being one of the first Christian Indians.

     In the year 1805, September 10, he was engaged to guide and act as interpreter by Zebelon Pike in his quest of the sources of the Mississippi River. He spent the whole winter of 1805 and 1806 with Pike.

     About this time he became associated with a Scotch trader of renown, known as Colonel Robert Dickson and had much to do with him for many years.

     He was made a captain by the British in 1812 and was used in the capacity of getting the indians to fight the Americans during the war of 1812. He was considered a brave warrior and could be depended upon at all times. After the defeat of the British he travelled to Canada and stayed there for some years, with Colonel Dickson. He was retired on a Captain's pay by the British. He worked for the Hudson Bay Company.

     However, in a short time he became desirous of returning to this country and discarded his English rights and returned to the home of his birth. This part of the country had not been surveyed at this time and most of it, if not all of the Red River Valley, was thought to be Canadian or British territory. Up to 1819 he is frequently mentioned as being connected with various trading posts in or near the Red River Valley.

     In 1819 he became connected with Colonel Snelling, the founder of Fort Snelling. However, he continued his fur business. At about this time, he with the help of four others established, either for themselves or others the Columbia Fur Trading Company. This was a fort-like stockade enclosing several buildings and was built on the east side of Traverse Lake about two miles from the South end, and nearly opposie the well known spring on the west side.

     He also established his own post at Lac Qui Parle (the lake that speaks) where he made his home until his death.

     The year 1823 found him in the employ of Long and Keating in their expedition to the source of the St. Peters and Red Rivers. He acted as guide and interpreter and served in this capacity with their expedition as far north as the Sioux country which extended at that time which is about as part north as Wahpeton. At this point he left them and returned to his trading post.

     In 1824 he sold his interest in trading post at Lake Traverse. It seems that Robert Dickson was associated with him at various times during those years.

     He was now firmly established at Lac Qui Parle where he was the first man to begin raising cattle and
sheep this far west. It was said his cattle numbered scores and that his sheep were hundreds. During this time
he was associated much of the time with Rev. Willamson. The latter established a mission at Lac Qui Parle
and translated a great deal of the bible into the Sioux language, which he could only have done through the
great aid given by Joseph Renville.

     He maintained a squad of from fifteen to twenty-five guards at all times and these were known as Renville's Soldiers. Later one of his sons would evolve this into the Renville Rangers.

     An incident that happened at the Columbia Trading Post in 1836 is mentioned as it has to do with the past history of that part of the country.

     Joseph Renville was at the post in the summer of 1836,visiting. As a past-time a shooting match with rifles
was underway. When it came Mr. Renville's turn to shoot, just as he pulled the trigger a girl passed in the line of the bullet and it wounded her through the hip. The nearest doctor was Dr. Williamson at Lac Qui Parle.
He was sent for and arrived the third day. The wounded girl was a niece of Joseph Renville and a daughter of his brother Victor. Anyway, the girl happily soon recovered, but while recovering she met Joseph R Brown who was in charge of the post at that time and they later were married.

     Brown and Renville had been partners in the past for a time before this, but they disagreed and Brown bought Renville's interest. They had many business dealings after this however. The post since 1824 had been sold to the American Fur Trading Company.

     Joseph Renville was the father of several children. The names of some of them were Michel and Joseph junior. There were at least three daughters, two of whom were teachers at the Lac Qui Parle mission under Dr. Williamson, another daughter is mentioned as a guide and interpreter to Nicollet to the Pipestone quarries in 1830.

     Mrs. Renville was a full-blooded Sioux. Married Joseph in 1804 and died of pulmonary trouble in 1838 at
Lac Qui Parle. There were eight children, some of whom died in infancy. They were or had been married
thirty-six years at the time of her death.

Victor Renville (Ohiya) --

    Not as much can be found concerning Victor. Fragmentary records would indicate that he was born about 1780 near Kaposia. He was a noted warrior and was killed by the Chippewas in the year 1834. He was shot from ambush while ascending the Mississippi River near Sauk Rapids. Some say this was in the river near where Sauk Center is now located.

     He was the second husband of Winona Crawford, a mixed blood, who was the mother of a daughter by
her first husband, who was Joseph R. Brown's wife.

     Victor had a son who became one of the most noted of his people in this country. He was called Gabriel.
A full account of him has been well written by Sam Brown of Browns Valley. So I will merely touch on the high points of his eventful career.

     He was born at the Sweet Corn village on the west shore of Big Stone Lake in April 1825, and this was really his home throughout his life. He died at the cabin of Sam Brown on August 26 1892. He never learned
the English language but is said to have perfect control of the Sioux language than any other indian in this vicinity. He was of the utmost aid to the whites during seeral Indian out-breaks in the fifties and sixties.
He had considerable property which was lost through his help to the whites. He was never recompensed by the Government for his great help during these troublesome times. He made several trips to Washington to aid his people. He acted as guide to General Sibley on his expedition to Devil's Lake. He was named chief of the Sisseton Sioux by recommendation of General Sibley, and was the last Indian known as "chief" of this band.

     He had a son called Victor, who was the father of Alex Renville now living four miles west of Peever, South Dakota. This acquaintance with Alex is the reason for the gathering together of the facts concerning this noted family.

     Gabriel Renville's sons, besides Victor, were John, Moses, Eli, Peter, Samson, James, Amos, Herman
and Harry.

     These and their posterity are widely distributed throughout the State of South Dakota and many of them
are well known in the ministry.

     Victor Renville's sons were as follows: Alex, David, Sam, and Lucas.

     Alex lives four miles west of Peever, South Dakota on a well improved farm, and his family are held in the highest esteem. He has two well educated daughters. One is trained as a nurse and the other one a teacher.
His son's names are George, Everett, Arnold, Cyril and Mac.

     The Renvilles's are and always have been a credit to their race.

     A county and town in Minnesota bear the name of Renville                                                        -- A.A.

Name: Joseph* RENVILLE
Sex: M
Birth: ABT. 1779 in Kaposia, (now St. Paul, Minnesota, USA)
Death: ABT. 15 MAR 1846 in What is now Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota

Father: Joseph* RAINVILLE b: 23 MAR 1753 in St.Constant, Montreal, PQ, Canada
Mother: MINIYUE* b: BET. 1760 - 1770 in Kaposia

Marriage: Mary LITTLE CROW b: ABT. 1789 in Kaposia,
         (now St. Paul, Minnesota, USA)
Married: 12 JUN 1829 in A Catholic Church, Prairie Du Chein, Wisconsin, USA
Married: 1804 in according to custom of the area

Children
     Joseph RENVILLE b: BET. 1804 - 1807 in Kaposia
     Francois-Joseph* RENVILLE b: ABT. 1807 in Pembina Territory/Manitoba
     Antoine RENVILLE b: ABT. 1810 in Kaposia, (now St. Paul, Minnesota, USA)
     Angelique RENVILLE b: ABT. 1813 in Kaposia
     Marie-Madeline RENVILLE b: ABT. 1822 in Big Stone Lake, Browns Valley, MN
     Michael RENVILLE b: ABT. 1822 in Big Stone Lake, Browns Valley
     Rosalie RENVILLE b: ABT. 1823 in Big Stone Lake, Browns Valley, MN, USA
     Marguerite RENVILLE b: 1825 in Big Stone Lake, Browns Valley, MN, USA
     Gabriel RENVILLE b: ABT. APR 1825 in Sweet Corns Sisseton village
          west side of Big Stone Lake
     John-Baptiste RENVILLE b: OCT 1831 in St Peter's River, Lac Qui Parle, MN

Note:
From a newspaper, The Montevideo Leader, Montevideo, Chippewa County, Minnesota Feb 20, 1914

Joseph Renville
Chippewa County's First Great Citizen

     The name of Joseph Renville, the French-Indian fur trader, will always be closely linked with the early history of Minnesota and of what is now Chippewa County. He was born near St. Paul in 1779, during the      Revolutionary war, his father being a French trader and his mother a Dakota Indian woman. He was brought up until he was 10 years old among the Dakota indians, but when his mother deserted her family and went to live with her own people, his father took him to Canada and placed him under the care and training of a faithful Catholic priest where he also gained considerable knowledge of the French language and elements of the Christian faith.

     He was brought back while yet a boy, and after his father's death became a skillful interpreter. At the breaking out of the war of 1812, he with many others of the Northwestern tribes were induced to take sides with the British and he received an appointment with rank of captain, and with them marched east to the frontier. He was present at the seige of Fort Meigs in 1813, and after the war was over, accompanied the Kaposia chief to Drummond Island where a British officer thanked them for their services, and, pointing to a large pile of presents said they were gifts from Great Britian to them; Replying to this the Kaposia chief said his people had been prevailed on by the British to make war upon a people that they scarecly knew, and who had never done them any harm. "And now," said he, "After we have fought for you, under many hardships, and
lost many of our people, and have awakened the vengeance of our neighbors, you make peace, for yourselves, and leave us to get such terms as we can. No, we will not take your presents, we hold them and yourselves with equal contempt"

     Following the war, Joseph Renville lived in Canada for a time and then entered the service of the Hudson Bay Company, spending his winters with the Dakota Indians. After the establishment of the military post at
Fort Snelling he became much better acquainted with the American people and was ever loyal to this country.

     In 1822 he with other experienced trappers and traders organized the Columbia Fur Company of which he was the leader, but some time after the American Fur Company with wise old John Astor at its head, bought them out. Not wishing any rival companies in the western field, but wisely retaining the members in it's employ, and Renville settled permanently at Lac Qui Parle where he erected a trading house and carried on an extensive business with the Indians.

     About that time he was also regarded by Major Long, commandant at Fort Snelling, as interpreter on an expedition to ex[plore the Minnesota River and the Red River of the North., and Professor Keating, the historian of that expedition, gave to the world some of the most interesting accounts of the Dakota nation that have ever been published, and also gave Mr. Renville as the source of his information.

     The Lac Qui Parle mission was established in 1835 largely through Mr. Renville's influence. Although raised as a Catholic he was very liberal in his religious views, claiming and conceding the right of private judgement. While at Prarie du Chein in 1834 he met Dr. Thomas Williamson who had been sent out by the American Board of Foreign Missions to visit the indian tribes in the upper Mississippi country, and urged him very strongly to visit the large Indian village at Lac Qui Parle and establish a school and mission there, and promised to help him in every possible way.

     Dr Williamson with other missionaries and teachers went to Lac Qui Parle in June 1835, and was heartily welcomed by Renville and his family. The site chosen for the mission was a beautiful one on the east side of the river, a few rods from the fording place and under shelter of the bluff, and with plenty of good timber, the springs of pure water, and only a short distance below Lac Qui Parle. It was an ideal spot, convenient to the indian village of four hundred people and accesible from all directions. Here the indians lived for unknown generations; and had held their councils and had burired their dead. The woods were full of fur-bearing animals and wild fowl; the lake and streams full of fish and the prairie country on either side was the favorite feeding ground of the buffalo and deer. The woods gave them fuel and shelter and they could raise such vegetables
and grains as they desired, and live in comfort. Here they brought the trophies of the chase, prepared them for market and exchanged them for needed supplies.

     Mr Renville was a practical as well as a honorable man. He realized that the great need of the indians was civilization and education along practical lines. He carried on farming operations to a considerable extent, raised horses, cattle, sheep and poultry and also raised grain, potatoes and other vegetables. He lived with the indians, but set up a better standard of living not wholly out of their reach, and because he was honest and just in his dealings he had great influence over them. It is said that for this, the mission would have been a failure from
the start as the indians did not take kindly to the religion of the missionaries, so different from their own belief. However a native Christian church was established, which was greatly strengthened later on, when Dr. Riggs and other missionaires arrived there later in 1837.

     Renvilles's greatest work perhaps was in assisting Drs.Williamson and Riggs to translate the Bible and other books, hymns, etc into the Sioux or Dakota language. He had a bible of his own of great antiqity.
It was printed in 1588 at Geneva and had a preface written by John Calvin, in his own handwriting. Most unfortunately this bible was destroyed when the mission house, where it was kept, was burned. In translating the bible it was the practice to read a verse at a time from Renville's French Bible and have him give the translation in Sioux, which was carefully noted down. These notes helped make the basis of the Sioux written language. The Missionary Herald, published in Boston in 1846, said "Mr. Renville was remarkable for the energy with which he pursued such objects as he deemed of most importance. His power of observing and remembering facts and things was extraordinary. In translating he seldom took a book into his hand, choosing to depend on hearing rather than on sight, and in giving the intended meaning and impression. He had few if any equals."

     Years before there was a Christian minister of any kind in Minnesota, Renville took his Indian wife to
Prairie du Chein where they were married by a Catholic priest, his wife having previously renounced the religion of her people and adopted Christianity. They both lived the life of devoted Christians and both joined and were honored members of the little Mission Church at Lac Qui Parle as long as they lived. His wife died first, rejoicing in the faith, and he died peacefully one Sunday morning in March 1846, in a happy and trusting faith. Their children were also worthy descendants of such worthy parentage and some of them have been strong active workers in the church and missionary field.

     No one can tell what would have been the awful consequences of the terrible Sioux Indian outbreak of
1862 had it not been for the restraining influence of a large class of so called "friendly indians". It was terrible as it was, but we are told that very few indeed of those who had come under the influence of the mission schools and churches took any part in that unholy uprising, and most of those who were in any way under the influence of those missions, were strongly opposed to the outbreak and zealous in protecting and defending whites. The great uprising was soon crushed, and very largely through the efforts of the friendly indians, may of whom were civilized and Christianized in large measure through the faithful efforts of Joseph Renville, our first great citizen,
                                                                                                                                       -- H.E. Hoard

RENVILLE COUNTY, North Dakota

     In 1871 there were only two counties in what is now known as North Dakota. Renville County of today was part of a great territory known as Buffalo Country, and the Red River area was known as Pembina. In 1872 the territorial legislature made further divisions. It created Rolette, Bottineau, McHenry, Stevens, Mountrail, Williams and Wallette counties.

     Stevens County included all of the present Ward and McLean counties and more besides. Williams lay mostly south of the Missouri River where Dunn County is now. Mountrail was a narrow strip including parts of the present Mountrail and Burke Counties and Wallette took the place of the present Divide and Williams Counties.

     Thousands of buffalo then roamed these plains and the earliest pioneers, hunters and trappers, thrilled at the sight of the vast herds of the shaggy animals. However, they disappeared rapidly with the onslaught of hunters who slaughtered them mercilessly, some for sport, and some for the railroad.

     By 1875 the large herds had been reduced to scattered groups here and there found mostly in out of the way places. The Coteau Du Missouri hills and the breaks along the Mouse River were among the favorite haunts of the buffalo and many of them were killed in these hills.

     The last buffalo hunt.. called The Itbig Killing, was in 1882 and many thousands of the animals were killed in this famous hunt. After that year they were practically gone. Down through the years these beasts had furnished the meat supply for the Indians, together with antelope and deer, which were also in abundance in the vast plain area.

     With the progress of civilization, the antelope and deer soon disappeared and now are only seen on very rare occasions.

     With the extermination of the buffalo those who had been engaged in this occupation turned to gathering the bones, a harvest which lasted only a few years. During that time it almost became an industry in the northwestern part of the state. A firm by the name of Worner and Stoltz was the leading buyer in Minot and they paid from $6.00 to $15.00 a ton for the bones delivered there. Products manufactured from the bones included knife handles, commercial fertilizer and converted carbon used in filtration of sugar.

     Indians roamed the plains in large bands and chiefly among those found in the north and northwestern part of the territory were the Gros Ventre tribe. Each tribe laid claim to a certain unbounded territory and were constantly giving way to a more powerful tribe. The larger tribe would remain for a time, move on to conquer a smaller foe, and the tribe previously conquered would come back to claim their territory until a stronger tribe came again to dislodge them.

     Thus they sought new hunting ground, only when driven off by a stronger foe, until the white man came to slaughter and drive away the animals on which they depended for existence.

     The trails which they made threaded their way near the present site of Mohall and crossed the Mouse River near McKinney and other trails made by them in what is now called Renville County crossed the Mouse River near Henry Stammen's ranch in the western part near the county line. One of their burial grounds was located several miles farther south along the river. This burial ground, in tradition with the old Indian custom was made on poles. When the Government took charge of the Indians this ceremony was forbidden.

     Wherever virgin prairie still prevails, many circles of stone can be found to mark the spot where teepees stood to form part of an encampment of Indians at some time. Many relics, as memories of these Indians include numerous arrowheads, stone hammers, skulls and spear heads.

     Among the hundreds of bone collectors who searched here and there over the plains for the buffalo bones, were a group of half breeds from Pembina. They came to the northwest in search of bones, with large boxes on large two-wheeled carts, introducing for the first time this type of cart to the northwest country. The cart was the Red River cart and the bones were gathered rapidly by these men, as with their squealing carts and oxen they went here and there.

     Foremost among this group of men was a French half breed-named Joseph Renville, who with this group
of half breeds visited the Mouse River Valley.

      He returned again several years later, and it was through this man's visits to this part of the country that Renville County later came to be known by that name.