The year was 1831, near Montreal Canada, at a place called Hoag’s Hollow, a male child was born. His name was John H. McKenzie. For years Quebec, or “Lower Canada” was at odds with their colonial ruler — the British Crown. In 1837 and 1838 Lower Canada separatists staged a pair of insurrections against the Crown. The armed conflict, which has become known as “The Patriot’s War,” was bloody and claimed around 300 lives. Young John McKenzie’s father was part of this insurrection and in 1841 fled to the United States with his family. The McKenzie family moved to Illinois and began farming. At the age of 15, for whatever reason, McKenzie ran away from home to begin life on his own. In 1850 he found himself on the way to Minnesota.
Minnesota was still a new territory in 1850, having been given that status just a year prior. McKenzie’s trek to the state was with a party of pioneers who were heading overland through Wisconsin. Among the party was a man named John Stevens who would become a well-known fixture in the early days of McLeod County. The party located in Minnesota, yet McKenzie was looking for something more and headed north to Itasca where he entered the trade business with Native Americans.
Things didn’t work out for McKenzie, and in 1855 he lost all of his possessions, including 1,214 town lots in Minnesota. Hard of luck, McKenzie moved south, back to Illinois, and married a young woman named Mary Trumble. The couple didn’t linger long, however, and in the fall of that year found themselves traveling north to Minnesota where he would try to make it once again. They settled in Hutchinson where John recorded his experiences.
“About the middle of June, 1856, I took two yokes of oxen, a wagon, my two brothers, and drove to Hutchinson and camped. Several log cabins then constituted the village. We went out east of town, made a claim and prepared hay for the winter. I moved into a house that stood on the north side of the river. It was built of poplar logs, contained two rooms, and was shingled with clap boards. The following winter, my family occupied one end of the house while the other was occupied by Timothy and Solomon Pendergast. Solomon trapped wolves within sight of the house that winter.
“At that time, the country was celebrated for its great quantities of wild game. Fur-bearing game consisted of otter, mink, muskrat, sable, fox, wolf and fisher. Around the lakes were well-beaten paths made by deer, moose, and around these same lakes were ducks, geese, brands and swans. In the spring of 1857, the boys in Hutchinson built a fish dam across the Crow River and caught great quantities of large fish, with some of the buffalo fish weighing over 100 pounds.
“Most of the new settlers in McLeod County were of limited means, and many were the hardships that we were called upon to endure, but as there is more to be enjoyed in pursuing an object than there is in possessing, everybody winked at the hardships and looked forward to the glorious future of McLeod County.”
McKenzie didn’t stay in McLeod County for long and in 1861 moved to the Red River Valley. When the war with the Dakota broke out in 1862, he became a scout. The following year he gained fame for apprehending two prominent Dakota leaders from the “Uprising,” Medicine Bottle and Little Six, and bringing them across the Canadian border to the United States.
There’s no doubt that John McKenzie lived a fascinating life filled with adventure and the struggles presented on the frontier. Though his time in McLeod County was short, his foresight to record his experiences offer a rare glimpse into the early years of the area. McKenzie’s full manuscript includes much more, yet as only part of it refers to this region, the remaining is beyond the scope of this article. One thing that is for certain, however, when it comes to the storied history of the man, McLeod County can pridefully say that he was once one of our own.
— Brian Haines is executive director of the McLeod County Historical Society and Museum, 380 School Road N.W., Hutchinson. The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday, 1-4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment. Admission is free. For more information, call the museum at 320-587-2109.