Philander Prescott: (1801-1862)
He was the son of Dr.Joel Prescott & Phidelia
(Lucy) Reed, born at Phelps, Ontario Co., N.Y. He married Mary Kee-e-hei
(Spirit of the Moon) Nahhenowenahkeehei (daughter of Wameduta/Red Eagle
or Keeehei/Man Who Flies, Chief of Lake Cahoun village) in 1823 in Minnesota.
Their children were: William A. (b.1824, Ft.Snelling), Lucy (1827/28-1910)(m.Eli
Pettijohn in 1849 at Shakopee), Harriet (b.1829), Hiram (b.1831, Big Sioux
River Post)(m.Margaret & Livina Hamilton in 1857), Caroline (b.1837),
Lawrence T.(b.1838, Ft.Snelling), Julia (b.1841, Ft.Snelling)(m.1st.Isaac
Barstow in 1855, 2nd.John C.Tyler in 1864 & 3rd.Charles N.Skillman
in 1877 at Wabasha), Sophia (b.1844, Ft.Snelling)(m.Emsily J.Hamilton in
1867), Lewis R.(b.1841) & Mary E.(b.1846).
Philander & his brother (Zachariah) left
there home in New York and arrived in Detroit in the spring of 1819. Zachariah
was employed as a sutler's clerk at the American fort at Detroit and Philander
left in the fall for the area of today's Hastings, Minnesota where his
employer, Louis Devotian, had sent up a temporary supply station
for the new fort (Ft.Snelling) under construction at the mouth of the St.Peters
River (Minnesota River). He traded out of Traverse des Sioux, Land's End,
Leaf Lake & Leech Lake Posts but in 1827 he left the Upper Mississippi
for St.Louis, Louisiana & Texas. In the fall of 1828 he was back at
Ft.Snelling searching for the Dakota woman who was the mother of his son
William. He found her accompanying a buffalo hunt in the Missouri Valley
and upon their return to Ft.Snelling were married by Samuel Pond in 1829.
He was employed as an interpreter at the Fort & when Taliaferro (U.S.Indian
Agent) helped create a Dakota farming community on the south shore of Lake
Calhoun which he called "Eatonville", he employed Philander to teach the
European methods of farming. By 1831 he was back into the fur trade, wintering
on the Big Sioux branch of the Missouri River in that year and back at
Traverse des Sioux in competition with old trader Louis Provencalle (Lablanc)
in 1833. In 1837 he was farming on the east side of the St.Croix near its
mouth (Prescott, Wisconsin) and three years later he was granted a license
to establish a ferry crossing on the St.Croix. During the 1850's Philander
was the Superintendent of Farming for the Dakota and with Willis &
Eli Pettijohn, built a flour mill powered by the Minnehaha Creek (near
Lake Harriet) which they called "Richfield Mills". In 1862 he was an interpreter
at the Lower Sioux Agency, on the Minnesota River, when he heard of the
Dakota raids. As he was heading for the safety of near by Fort Ridgely
on foot, he was killed by one of the raiding parties.
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