Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024

On April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began as Confederate forces bombarded Fort Sumter which was held by a dedicated group of Union soldiers.

With the news of the attack, Minnesota was the first state to answer President Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers to serve in the Union army. Scott County citizens gathered for a meeting on April 20 at the Shakopee Courthouse. Immediate support was given to defend the union of the nation, according to The Shakopee Story by Julius A. Coller, II, p. 58.

Harrison Lyons was born in Chautaqua County, New York on May 31, 1841. In 1855, the family, including his parents, Alexander H. Lyons (1806-1898) and Eliza A. Lyons (1811-1888) moved to Shakopee.

Steven was 22 and Harrison was 19 when they enlisted in Company A of the First Minnesota Volunteers. George Lyons served in the 9th Minnesota and John Lyons, the youngest, served in the 11th Minnesota.

Steven, the oldest, was promoted to corporal and then sergeant in Company A. On June 29, 1862, at Savage Station, while charging a Confederate artillery battery, Steven was wounded by a piece of shell cutting the right side of his right knee. The regiment retreated.

He was left on the field and eventually captured. The hospitals were full of sick and wounded. He lay on the battlefield without shelter for ten days, all the time being exposed to heat, cold and rain. He was then moved to the Libby prison hospital in Richmond. He was exchanged six weeks after his capture. He mustered out with the regiment on May 5, 1864. Steven never recovered from his wound. His leg was permanently in a bent position, and he used crutches for the rest of his life. In his diary on Aug. 1, 1894, Daniel Storer noted, “Steven Lyons was here today. He is all out of shape by blood poison. He gets around on crutches.”

Harrison was wounded the day after Steven, during the repulse of Picket’s charge. He was sent to recover at the hospital located at Fourth and George Streets in Philadelphia. He was there during August and September 1862. Dr. Gross, who treated him, told him that he would have a weak knee for the rest of his life.

Both Harrison and Stephen were mustered out with the regiment on May 5, 1864, though Harrison was absent sick at the time.

Shortly thereafter, Harrison enlisted as a substitute for someone who had been drafted. That person would have paid Harrison a cash fee of some amount for him to take his place in the Army. He was placed in the 9th Minnesota Infantry, thus serving with his brother, George. Harrison was the drillmaster for the 9th. He was mustered out at Fort Snelling, for the second and final time, on May 11, 1865.

After the war Harrison settled back into the life of a farmer. He lived in Shakopee for a while. On Dec. 3, 1866, Harrison married Sarah Lisa Elizabeth Moore. He and Sarah settled in Duluth. They had three children. In 1875, they decided to move to Wadena. Sarah died in Wayzata, on Oct. 20, 1875, during the trip.

Harrison started his farm in the small community of Aldrich. He soon married an Irish girl named Ann Gillespie. There were no children by that marriage. Later they divorced.

Harrison developed rheumatism because of his war-time injury. By 1887 he could not work as a farmer more than half the time. In 1888, he was confined to his bed for most of the winter. In 1889, he was stricken again and laid up for nearly a year. With that he gave up farming altogether and moved from his farm to the village of Verndale.

On March 6, 1890, Harrison married for a third time, to Flora Wright, in Hubbard, Minnesota. He was 49. Having been born in 1853, she was 37. They had two children. Minnie died, as an infant, on June 13, 1890. The other, Isaac, grew up to also be a soldier. Unfortunately, Isaac died in battle in the Argonne Forest during World War I. The only child to survive Harrison was Effie Lyons Castle, from his first marriage. She lived in Woodburn, Oregon.

Harrison lived for a while at the Soldiers’ Home in Minneapolis. He was there from June 5 to 15, 1890. Apparently, he had difficulty writing because of a bad arm. His handwriting on the admission papers was practically illegible. At the time the doctor wrote that “unless God intervenes in a dramatic way he (Harrison) will lose his arm at the shoulder.” But Harrison didn’t lose his arm. He kept it for the remaining 35 years of his life. He asked to be discharged after only 10 days and returned to his home near Verndale, just outside the town of Wadena.

He became destitute when his health prevented him from working his jobs. By the late 1880s his circumstances were so bad that the First Minnesota Association collected money to aid him. He attended many reunions and is pictured in several of the reunion photos. He was a Commander of the CC Parker GAR Post in Verndale. He enjoyed attending the reunions of the First Minnesota veterans. His last reunion was in 1923, when only three veterans attended. They had a large bottle of wine the “Last Man” was to open and drink a final toast to his comrades. The last three decided it would be a shame if they all died in the same year, so they opened it to have a toast together. Once they had opened the bottle and sampled the wine, they were disappointed to find out that it had turned sour! That bottle of wine is now on display in a glass case at the state capital in St. Paul.

Harrison died at the Wesley Hospital in Wadena on April 25, 1925. He was 83 years old. He was buried in the Verndale Cemetery. The local newspaper, the Verndale Sun, called him “The Grand Old Man of Wadena County.”

According to Daniel Storer’s diary, Storer mentioned on April 15, 1857, “There is considerable excitement here about the Indians. We hear that they have killed fifty white people at Spirit Lake, Iowa.” On April 18 Daniel noted “It is not a general outbreak of the Indians by any means….”  Later, on June 23, Daniel noted, “Saw Miss Gardner who was captured by the Indians last spring at Spirit Lake. She was bought from Ink-pa-du-tah by friendly Indians. There are four captives taken, two of them were killed. Miss Gardner had to be wife to one of the Indians while she was with them.” Abigail (Abbie) Gardner was in Shakopee to be photographed by William S. Judd, a daguerreotypist who did his work in Shakopee. In another entry, Daniel noted, “They are going up into the Indian country to try to find Ink-pa-du-tah.” Harrison Lyons, at age 16, was part of a party that chased the Dakota leader Iŋkpáduta (1787-1881).

A whiskey trader, Henry Lott, murdered Iŋkpáduta’s brother, but the U.S. authorities did not bring Lott to justice. In 1857, a severe winter starved Iŋkpáduta’s band, and so he asked for food from the colonist-traders to stop starving. At first, they did, but later they refused and so the band headed to Spirit Lake, where thirty people were killed. Iŋkpáduta eluded capture while engaging in more skirmishes against U.S. forces, earning him an almost mythic reputation. Following the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Iŋkpáduta fled with others into Canada and never returned.