In 1862, after settlers of Roseville Township fled to Richmond upon hearing of Dakota attacks in Kandiyohi County, a group made up of John, Hugh and Robert Blakely, Hugh Jones, O. Freeman, Smith Flanders, E. H. Bates, Peter Lagro and John Boylan returned from Richmond to thresh their crops during harvest time. For two days they worked threshing grain on their farms without attack, driving their teams each evening to the relative safety of Paynesville. On September 15, 1862, after one of the threshers spotted a fire, John Boylan went to investigate and was fired upon and wounded in the leg. The Dakota then pressed their attack to the house where the other men were sleeping, but the men slipped away while the Dakota seized the horses, wagons, and threshing equipment. The wounded Boylan was taken to Richmond, and a party was organized to return to Paynesville, but the teams, wagons, and threshing machines were never found.