Danielson Township, Meeker County, Minnesota

About Danielson Township, Minnesota

Danielson Township is a township in Meeker County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 327 at the 2000 census. Danielson Township was originally a part of Acton. Noah White was the first settler in 1857, but he moved to Kandiyohi County in 1858. The township was organized on March 12, 1872, and named after Nils Danielson, who settled there in 1861. (Another source says named after Nils AND his son, Daniel Nils Danielson.) Before coming to the township, Nils Danielson had been in Litchfield. Danielson came to Meeker County by covered wagon in the spring of 1857 and settled in Litchfield. In the township area, Nils had almost daily visits from the local Indians and they got along just fine. The braves had a camp by Hope Lake near where Hans Jensen lived. Chief Cut Nose (Marpiya Okinajin) used to come to Nils’ farm to sharpen his hunting knife on the Danielson grindstone and whetstone. (Ex-State Senator Steve Dille owns the knife today.) Chief Cut Nose was the local chief and he had acquired the name because one of his nostrils had been bitten off or cut off in one of his numerous fights with other tribes. Nils would sharpen knives for the Indians and give them food, whenever he could spare any. It was understood then that Chief Cut Nose would not steal from Danielson and he didn't. He marked Nils’ land with a yellow feather on a stake in the ground out front, meaning “friend”. Nels Olson alerted his neighbor Nils Danielson, who was four miles to the west of the Baker place, about the. Danielson got some other settlers, they armed themselves, and they went to investigate. At the Baker farm, eighteen-year-old Hans Evenson was the first to discover the bodies. (He later did sentry duty at the Forest City Stockade.) The men buried the dead in one grave at the Ness Lutheran Church cemetery and then they went to get their families to go to Forest City for protection. While at his house gathering his possessions, Nils heard shots being fired at his neighbor Anders or Andreas Olson's place by Ellsworth. It was just fifty rods away. Sensing what was taking place and knowing that the Indians were close by, Nils gathered his wife, Ragnild, and his family and he grabbed a few possessions including a single feather mattress with ticking, which was a luxury in those days of straw beds. He rolled the mattress up, strapped it to his back, and he and his family took off into the woods, heading for Forest City. They ran and ran for their lives, never really seeing any Indians, but knowing that they were close by. When they stopped to rest, Nils took the mattress off his back and, only then, he discovered that there was an arrow sticking out of it. The mattress had saved his life. It was later discovered that Anders Olson and his entire family had been killed at their farm. Anders was shot and scalped while he was tending his cattle. At the end of the Indian War, Nils Danielson's friend was convicted of being involved in the attack on New Ulm and he was one of the thirty-eight Indians hanged in Mankato. Nils Danielson was born in 1817 in Norway and he died in 1870.

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• Population: 327 inhabitants