Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020

Jane Lamont was around 13 years old. She spoke the Dakota language. She did not speak English.

She was born Jan. 11, 1827. It was 1840, now, and Jane’s mother, Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ (Hush the Night) was Dakota. Jane’s grandparents were Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa and Caŋ Paduta Wiŋ of the Bde Maka Ska band who lived in the southern shore in Minneapolis. Maḣpiya Wic̣aṡṭa was also known as Cloudman, and Caŋ Paduta Wiŋ was known as Red Cherry Woman.

Jane’s father, Daniel Lamont, married Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ à la façon du pays around 1824. He married a second time to Margaret, daughter of Markpeemanee, or Walking Cloud, a Sisseton leader in 1827. Besides Jane, Daniel had two sons, Colin and Charles.

Daniel died in 1837.

In the spring of 1840, Samuel Pond was planning to abandon the Lake Harriet mission. Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ had known the Ponds while living in their father’s village called Ḣeyate Otuŋwe, or the village at the side. It was near a marshy area, later called Lake Calhoun, and now known as its original name, Bde Maka Ska.

Haŋyetu Kihnaye Wiŋ asked Samuel to take Jane and raise her with the Pond family. This fluidity of family comes from Indian tradition. “This had always been a part of active life, this ability to hand over a child to a sister, or to someone else, to raise for a while if you’re having trouble,” said author Louise Erdrich.

Jane lived with Samuel and Cordelia Eggleston Pond, as well as Gideon and Sarah Poage Pond at Oak Grove and at Shakopee for 13 years. She learned English.

In 1847, Samuel, Cordelia, and family, along with Jane Lamont, moved to Tínṫa Otuŋwe, which Samuel named Prairieville.

Moses Starr Titus met Jane while at Bde Maka Ska (Lake Calhoun).

On March 14, 1850, at the age of 21, Jane married Samuel Pond’s nephew, Moses.

In the fall of 1851, Moses came to the residence of his uncle, Rev. Samuel W. Pond, Jr., and spent the winter in Prairieville.

In the fall of 1852, Moses and Jane, along with their first child, Seymour Starr Titus, built a house. In 1860, the house was moved two blocks west and a little north. The land for the cabin was the area that Jane bought from land scrip from the government.

Moses and Jane had four children, three sons and a daughter: Seymour Starr (1851), Henry Harlan (1854), Moses Starr (1858), and Jane Marilla (1866). Moses and Jane were involved in the founding of the Presbyterian Church, and they took an active role. Jane was remembered as a woman of kindness and mercy. As a wife and mother, she was true and tender, and as a mother she exerted all a mother’s love and watchful care.

Moses was a farmer. He also organized one of the first schools in the Minnesota River Valley.

Moses and Jane quickly prospered on their new homestead.

Moses Starr Titus, for 26 years a resident of Shakopee and 34 years an inhabitant of Minnesota, died Sept. 22, 1878. He was 58 years old.

Jane Lamont Titus died March 26, 1899, at age 72. She was buried at the Valley Cemetery in Shakopee.