Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Eliza “Ella” Victoria Hunt was born November 12, 1840, in Nicolet, Centre-du-Quebec Region, Quebec, Canada. Her parents were Joseph Vidler Hunt and Anne Marie Roche.

One of Ella’s older brothers, Thomas Benjamin, emigrated to the United States before 1850 when he declared his intention to become a U.S. citizen, which he did in 1855. Eliza decided, at age 15, to emigrate to Shakopee, Minnesota Territory to be near her brother.

Tom was a lawyer in Shakopee, according to Ancestry.com. He was a member of the first territorial legislature of Minnesota from January 2 through March 1, 1856, when it adjourned.

In September 1861, Tom joined the Fourth Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers and was commissioned second lieutenant on October 15, 1861. During his military career Tom served mostly as quartermaster. He was complimented often on his ability and organization. In recognition of his long and faithful service, he was made Brevet Lt. Col. Volunteers, on October 30, 1866. His litigious nature, however, caused problems. Tom was court-martialed three times; acquitted twice, judged guilty the third time. Tom was also frequently in debt, which led to more court problems. Toward the end of his life Tom was increasingly troubled by what the family called rheumatism; it was locomotor ataxia, a form of late latent syphilis. According to military records, this was the cause of his death on September 7, 1890, at the Sherwood Hotel, Fort Monroe, Virginia.

As for Eliza? When she arrived in Shakopee, she met Dr. Josiah Schroeder Weiser (1832-1863). They were married in Shakopee on June 2, 1859, in St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church.

Eliza and Dr. Weiser had a daughter, Ada Alicia (1860-1894) born on March 18, 1860, and two years later, on September 16, 1862, they welcomed another daughter, Florence (1862-1863) in Shakopee.

Josiah enlisted in the First Minnesota Cavalry (Mounted Rangers) as a surgeon on October 21, 1862, under Col. Samuel McPhail of the Mounted Rangers who headed to Dakota Territory by Gen. Henry H. Sibley’s Minnesota volunteers. “Doctor Josiah S. Weiser, regimental surgeon for the 1st Minnesota Mounted Rangers, was from Shakopee, Minnesota, and had lived among the Dakotas, learning their language and serving as their doctor,” said Paul N. Beck in his 2013 book, Columns of Vengeance: Soldiers, Sioux, and the Punitive Expeditions 1863-1864.

While Dr. Weiser was in the Dakotas, Ella was stuck in Shakopee with Ada (Florence had died in infancy).

Most of the four thousand Upper Sioux from the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands had been reluctant participants in the U.S.-Dakota War. A few of these refugees from the war fled to Canada, but more than four thousand congregated in the summer of 1863 in a large encampment in present-day Kidder County, North Dakota. Tȟatȟáŋka Nážin (Standing Buffalo), Ožúpi (Sweet Corn), and other Sisseton and Wahpeton leaders who favored peace had led their people to the Big Mound area. Other groups of Dakotas, led by Iŋkpáduta (Scarlet Point) and other leaders who favored continued resistance, were also camped nearby to hunt. Some Hunkpapa Lakotas also crossed the Missouri River to join the hunt. They included Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull), Phizí (Gall), and Nážin Maȟtó (Standing Bear).

Dr. Weiser, chief surgeon, spoke Dakota and was assisting in the discussions. “Believing he saw men that he knew, Weiser and his African American orderly rode out of camp to a nearby hill, where scouts were meeting with some young warriors,” said Beck, when he was unexpectedly shot. A member of Iŋkpáduta’s band suddenly pulled out a gun and shot Dr. Weiser in the back, probably thinking he was Sibley.

So, Ella was left a widow, with a child, when Dr Josiah Schroeder Weiser was killed on July 24, 1864.

Ella applied for a widow’s pension of $25 a month starting in 1864. On February 14, 1865, at the petitioned probate court she was awarded $200 for one year’s maintenance. After probate on Dr. Weiser’s estate was completed on May 27, 1865, Eliza joined her brother, Thomas, who was living in Iowa. Ella applied for allowance for her minor child, Ada. She was awarded $25 per month, commencing in April 1867, in that same month, on April 25, 1867

Eliza “Ella” Victoria Hunt Weiser married Rev. Alfred Houghton Stubbs. Eliza and Rev. Stubbs had a daughter, Emilie Eugenie Houghton, and a son, Thomas Houghton Doane. Ella and Alfred moved to Milford, New York in 1870. Over the next ten years, they had another daughter, a son, two other sons who died as infants, and another daughter.

In early 1880, Ella separated from Rev. Stubbs. Ella moved to Queens County, New York with her five living children: Alda, Genie, Boys, Rollo, and Daisy.

Ella supported herself by working for St. Nicholas Magazine, a popular monthly American children’s magazine, in New York. She then moved to Brooklyn, New York, and ran Willowmere as a summer hotel on Gravesend Bay. Eliza “Ella” Victoria Hunt Weiser Stubbs died January 25, 1897, in Manhattan, New York. She died of chronic intestinal nephritis. Eliza was interred on January 29, 1897, according to Find a Grave.

Eliza Ella Victoria Hunt Weiser Stubbs was buried in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Bibliography

Beck, Paul N. Columns of Vengeance: Soldiers, Sioux, and the Punitive Expeditions 1863-1864, 2013.

Morgan, Charlie. “Eliza Victoria Hunt Stubbs.” Find a Grave, 3 Nov. 2014. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138244911/eliza-victoria-stubbs.