The West Lake Massacre

On Wednesday, August 20, 1862, during services in Rev. Andrew Jackson's Norway Lake Swedish Lutheran Parish at the Lundborg cabin at West Lake, now known as Monson Lake in Swift County, a warning came that Indians had arrived at the Broberg cabins about two miles away and were abusing children left at home. Andres P. Broberg and the four Lundborg brothers went at once to the cabins, while Daniel Broberg put the women and children into a wagon with an ox team and took the prairie trail home. At the cabins, Indians known to the settlers pretended friendship, then fired on a prearranged signal. A. P. Broberg was killed in his cabin, Johannes Nilson and four small children were killed in or near the cabin, and Anders, Gustav, and Lars Lundborg were shot and killed. Samuel Lundborg survived a flesh wound by pretending to be dead. Elder Lundborg saw his sons shot, fled, and escaped. The attackers then turned to Daniel Broberg's wagon, shot Daniel, and attacked the women and children. The two Broberg wives were caught and tomahawked after jumping from the wagon, and only one member of each Broberg family survived alive, Anna Stina from the A. P. Broberg family and Peter from the D. P. Broberg family. The survivors later gathered on an island in Norway Lake known as the Isle of Refuge and escaped by way of Lake Prairie, Paynesville, and St. Cloud. The massacre wiped out the Norway Lake Parish.

New London, Minnesota · United States