Huggins, Alexander G., 1802-1866

Alexander Huggins and Lydia Pettijohn were married in Ohio in 1832. They came to Minnesota in 1835 under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) of the Presbyterian Church and served as missionary assistants under Thomas S. Williamson at the Dakota Indian missions at Lac qui Parle (1835-1846) and Traverse des Sioux (1846-1852).

In January 1852, Alexander Huggins apparently conveyed to townsite developers part of the land that was to become the town of Traverse des Sioux. He was appointed town postmaster in May. In August he requested his release from the missionary service and began farming near Traverse des Sioux. He died in 1866.

Alexander and Lydia had eight children: Amos Williamson Huggins (1833-1862); Jane Sloan Huggins Holtsclaw (1834-1920); Eliza Wilson Huggins (1837-1873); Mary Ann Longley Huggins Kerlinger (1839-1929); Eli Lundy Huggins (1842-1929); Rufus Anderson Huggins (1846-1862); Frances Gilliland Huggins (1848-); and Harriet Cordelia Huggins (1851-).

Amos Williamson Huggins married Sophia Josephine Marsh in 1856. The couple had one son and one daughter before Huggins was killed by the Dakota Indians during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Another son was born in 1863 and named Amos Williamson Huggins after his dead father. Josephine remarried in 1869 and Amos eventually went to live with his aunt, Jane Huggins Holtsclaw.

Jane S. Huggins married James P. Holtsclaw "a few years" before the Civil War. James was killed in Mississippi in 1864.

Mary Ann Longley Huggins married John Murray Kerlinger in 1870. Kerlinger was born in Baltimore in 1828. He was at the Lower Sioux Agency at the beginning of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War and served in the defense of Fort Ridgely. He later joined the Union Army, was captured, and was incarcerated in the infamous Andersonville Prison. After their wedding, the Kerlingers farmed for a time near Mankato but soon moved to California, where John Kerlinger died in 1897.

Eli Lundy Huggins joined the Minnesota Volunteers in 1861 and enlisted in the regular Army after the Civil War. He served in Alaska (1868-1869); was professor of military tactics at the University of Minnesota (1872-1875); was in the Indian wars in Montana with General Nelson A. Miles, becoming Miles' aide in Chicago; served in China (1900); and "made an honorable record" in the Philippines (1900-1901). He retired in 1903 with the rank of brigadier general and died in California in 1929.

Julia Laframboise, daughter of trader Joseph Laframboise and granddaughter of Dakota chief Sleepy Eye, came to live with the Huggins family about 1852. She continued her education in Ohio and Illinois and eventually returned to teach among the Dakota people in Minnesota. She died in 1871.

This sketch was taken from the Huggins Papers and from two books: Thomas Hughes' Old Traverse des Sioux (St. Peter, Minn.: Herald Publishing Co., 1929), and Amos Williamson Huggins' Sketch of the Life of Amos Williamson Huggins by Himself, written in 1933 and edited in typescript form by Dorothy Huggins Harding, 1977-1980. The books are cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society's reference library.

From the guide to the Alexander G. Huggins and family papers., 1833-1976 (bulk 1833-1889)., (Minnesota Historical Society)