“Sam Brown’s Ride”

APRIL 19-20, 1866

Samuel J. Brown was the son of Joseph Renshaw Brown, early day fur trader, and Susan Frenier, descendant of an Indian Chief, Walking Buffalo. Soon after the Sioux uprising of 1862, Sam enlisted as a scout and by 1865 was Chief of Scouts at Fort Wadsworth. On April 19, 1866, news arrived that a war party was approaching the settlements. Sam wrote a note to Lt.

Cochrane, Commander at Wadsworth, to be forwarded to Fort Abercrombie the next morning. He then rode to the scout camp on Elm River, where Ordway now stands. Arriving at midnight, he learned that the supposed ‘hostiles’ were friendly Indians. Fearing that his message to Cochrane would cause unnecessary alarm, he secured a fresh pony and started back to Fort Wadsworth. Upon crossing the James River flats, a spring blizzard set in. Caught in the blizzard’s gale, he missed the fort and drifted southeast to a point he recognized on Waubay Lake, not far north from this marker. Turning, he faced into the storm and finally arrived at the fort. Slipping off the pony, his paralyzed legs failed him. He never took a natural step thereafter. A heroic sense of duty drove Brown on to complete his 120 mile ride a good half of which was in a condition that dictated abandonment. Sam Brown’s ride will live in history, not for what it accomplished, but because of the sterling character it revealed.

Day County, US 12 - 2 miles east of Webster