Teamsters Hauled It All

 After the large Sibley Expedition passed through Ransom County in 1863 at least one of its participants liked what he saw and returned to live here after the Civil War ended. James M. Kinney served as a “wagon” or muleskinner, driving a six-hitch supply wagon.

The local Sheldon Progress editor wrote about him as an old man of seventy-seven who had walked from his home into town from somewhere on the Sheyenne River, a distance of sixteen miles in six hours time. On March 10, 1911, snow still covered the ground, and he remarked he could’ve arrived in Sheldon sooner but the snow slowed him.

Reaching town about 2 PM he had to spend the night until the NP train arrived in the morning on its way into Lisbon. His purpose for traveling was to spend the winter in the North Dakota Soldiers Home. As was common, overnight guests often found amusement at Chauncey Durgin’s saloon. That evening Kinney’s storytelling attracted an audience who sat listening to his experiences on the Dakota plains.

His early employment of driving a stagecoach in Minnesota wasn’t exciting enough. He wanted action on the Indian frontier. On his last day he pulled in from a trip, delivered the mail, and let someone else tend to his team. He walked over to a recruiter and joined the ranks of Company B, 10th Minnesota as a wagoner under General Sibley’s command.

He found action all right. Before crossing into Dakota Territory, his company kept engaging in little skirmishes. In one engagement Indians succeeded in killing several of their horses. The soldiers fought from behind the dead animals. When the expedition concluded, Sibley declared it a success after they had traveled 1,039 miles in a little less than three months.

Now Kinney was free to join the Northern war effort in the Civil War where he again served as a wagoner. Maybe he was no angel since in the South he participated in some high jinks. The Union Army raided cotton warehouses whenever they found them. Kinney and the boys tried their hand at a little blackmarketing by stuffing cotton in the bottom of their wagon boxes and covering it with false flooring. It didn’t make them any money, though, since the scheme was discovered.

A personal experience caused me to become interested in his life story. I have relatives buried in several cemeteries in the Sandhills. While placing memorial flowers in the Owego Lutheran Church cemetery, I noticed a solitary gravestone on the west edge, its white marble defined against a green field behind it.

When he died a stone marker had not been placed over it. Possibly there had been a wooden cross, but it would have deteriorated over the years.. His death occurred in 1915, but not until 1939 was a stone marker placed. Colonel J.W. Carroll, Commandant of the North Dakota Soldiers Home, made application for it from the War Department.

I have a copy of the paperwork requesting government action which states “This application is for the Unmarked grave of a veteran. It is understood the stone will be furnished and delivered at the railroad station or steamboat landing above indicated, at Government expense, freight prepaid.”

Mr. Henry Ylvisaker was named to receive the shipment. As a committee member overseeing the cemetery he was to see that the marker was properly placed which is where it stands today.