Colonel Flandrau said "he was the most interesting character that ever came to the Indian Frontier".
Andrew was a Scottish immigrant, a frontier man, fur trader, government farmer and interpreter working among the Dakota people, teaching them farming and serving as their teacher on the Minnesota frontier.
Orphaned at three, his grandfather, Alexander Robertson, raised and educated him at Durham College, Dumfries, Scotland.
Was he, as said, "The Lost Earl of Athol" of the Royal Family of England? He spoke of holding Queen Victoria, born 1819, upon his knee when she was a small child, and admiring daily a life size portrait of his mother hanging at the foot of the stairway on the wall in his grandfather‘s home.
At a time of great Scottish unrest he and an unknown Lord left Scotland and traveled to South America where they owned and operated a plantation. Later Andrew sailed to Russia, and many other countries, on board a whaling ship for three years. Arriving in Canada about 1834, he practiced medicine in Lower Canada. There he met and married Jane Anderson.
Coming to the US about 1835, in New York his trunk and papers were destroyed in a hotel fire prior to leaving for Minnesota in 1836 or 1837 with his wife, Jane, leaving only his family crest on his watch fob.
After the wedding he canoed and portaged to Minnesota to help his new wife reconnect with her American Native mother, Gray Cloud Woman, in Little Rock, Minnesota Territory.
There a business partnership between Mooers and Robertson began. The Robertsons moved their families onto this island in the Mississippi River, which Andrew named Grey Cloud Island, after Jane's mother.
They inhabited the bark and willow lodges left behind by Chief Medicine Bottle's band of Dakota. They farmed gardens and cornfields, selling some to Fort Snelling for the army's use in 1840. Robertson was credited with raising the first wheat grown in the Minnesota region in 1839. Their home site was on the upper part of Grey Cloud Island.
In 1847 he was appointed government farmer for Mde-wa-kan-ton bands of Dakota - head farmer for Little Crow's band of Sioux at Kaposia. 1846/1847 they lived at Cave Springs, then two years at Cottage Grove near Stillwater, and a village about three miles down the river from St. Paul, now near South St. Paul stockyards.
He and his son Thomas, went to Washington DC with Joseph Renshaw Brown, and a delegation of Dakotas chiefs to Washington, DC in 1858 when the north half of the reservation was sold.
Andrew, was the first Assessor in Dakota County. In 1853 he was sent to build and establish the Redwood Agency.
In 1854 he was appointed as superintendent of farms on the Upper Agency, sent to establish the Yellow Medicine Agency.
At Yellow Medicine in 1857, he then became the first superintendent of Indian schools for two reservations, which required moving back to the Redwood Agency.
He had a crest on his watch fob, which he used to order supplies and luxuries from Scotland was destroyed during the Sioux Outbreak of 1862. He sent a lawyer to Europe to look into his estate, but the ship, the Titanic sunk in the Atlantic with any information.
He held the position of Superintendent/Government Farmer for Little Crow's Band, as Redwood Agency, until his death on May 4,1859, at age 68, from heart disease.
He was buried a few steps from his home there, at Morton, Minnesota, near the present Interpretive Center at the Lower Agency in Redwood County. "He never forgot his beloved Scottish homeland and hoped to take his family back to his estate".[D. Patrick].
He is buried "Up the river on the edge of high bluffs overlooking the beautiful Minnesota valley and in a neglected spot, which may or may not have been at one time a cemetery, but which is now a cow pasture surrounded by a barbed wire fence, there you will find a large marble oblong slab, (A white marble gravestone was sent out from New York in 1860 by an unknown lodge) lying flat upon a crumbling foundation of brick, with an inscription to the effect that it was placed there in memory of Andrew Robertson, a Scotsman, who was born in Dumfries in 1790 and died at Redwood Agency in 1859." - from the Brown County Historical Society.
Andrew was a Scottish immigrant, a frontier man, fur trader, government farmer and interpreter working among the Dakota people, teaching them farming and serving as their teacher on the Minnesota frontier.
Orphaned at three, his grandfather, Alexander Robertson, raised and educated him at Durham College, Dumfries, Scotland.
Was he, as said, "The Lost Earl of Athol" of the Royal Family of England? He spoke of holding Queen Victoria, born 1819, upon his knee when she was a small child, and admiring daily a life size portrait of his mother hanging at the foot of the stairway on the wall in his grandfather‘s home.
At a time of great Scottish unrest he and an unknown Lord left Scotland and traveled to South America where they owned and operated a plantation. Later Andrew sailed to Russia, and many other countries, on board a whaling ship for three years. Arriving in Canada about 1834, he practiced medicine in Lower Canada. There he met and married Jane Anderson.
Coming to the US about 1835, in New York his trunk and papers were destroyed in a hotel fire prior to leaving for Minnesota in 1836 or 1837 with his wife, Jane, leaving only his family crest on his watch fob.
After the wedding he canoed and portaged to Minnesota to help his new wife reconnect with her American Native mother, Gray Cloud Woman, in Little Rock, Minnesota Territory.
There a business partnership between Mooers and Robertson began. The Robertsons moved their families onto this island in the Mississippi River, which Andrew named Grey Cloud Island, after Jane's mother.
They inhabited the bark and willow lodges left behind by Chief Medicine Bottle's band of Dakota. They farmed gardens and cornfields, selling some to Fort Snelling for the army's use in 1840. Robertson was credited with raising the first wheat grown in the Minnesota region in 1839. Their home site was on the upper part of Grey Cloud Island.
In 1847 he was appointed government farmer for Mde-wa-kan-ton bands of Dakota - head farmer for Little Crow's band of Sioux at Kaposia. 1846/1847 they lived at Cave Springs, then two years at Cottage Grove near Stillwater, and a village about three miles down the river from St. Paul, now near South St. Paul stockyards.
He and his son Thomas, went to Washington DC with Joseph Renshaw Brown, and a delegation of Dakotas chiefs to Washington, DC in 1858 when the north half of the reservation was sold.
Andrew, was the first Assessor in Dakota County. In 1853 he was sent to build and establish the Redwood Agency.
In 1854 he was appointed as superintendent of farms on the Upper Agency, sent to establish the Yellow Medicine Agency.
At Yellow Medicine in 1857, he then became the first superintendent of Indian schools for two reservations, which required moving back to the Redwood Agency.
He had a crest on his watch fob, which he used to order supplies and luxuries from Scotland was destroyed during the Sioux Outbreak of 1862. He sent a lawyer to Europe to look into his estate, but the ship, the Titanic sunk in the Atlantic with any information.
He held the position of Superintendent/Government Farmer for Little Crow's Band, as Redwood Agency, until his death on May 4,1859, at age 68, from heart disease.
He was buried a few steps from his home there, at Morton, Minnesota, near the present Interpretive Center at the Lower Agency in Redwood County. "He never forgot his beloved Scottish homeland and hoped to take his family back to his estate".[D. Patrick].
He is buried "Up the river on the edge of high bluffs overlooking the beautiful Minnesota valley and in a neglected spot, which may or may not have been at one time a cemetery, but which is now a cow pasture surrounded by a barbed wire fence, there you will find a large marble oblong slab, (A white marble gravestone was sent out from New York in 1860 by an unknown lodge) lying flat upon a crumbling foundation of brick, with an inscription to the effect that it was placed there in memory of Andrew Robertson, a Scotsman, who was born in Dumfries in 1790 and died at Redwood Agency in 1859." - from the Brown County Historical Society.
Colonel Flandrau said "he was the most interesting character that ever came to the Indian Frontier".
Andrew was a Scottish immigrant, a frontier man, fur trader, government farmer and interpreter working among the Dakota people, teaching them farming and serving as their teacher on the Minnesota frontier.
Orphaned at three, his grandfather, Alexander Robertson, raised and educated him at Durham College, Dumfries, Scotland.
Was he, as said, "The Lost Earl of Athol" of the Royal Family of England? He spoke of holding Queen Victoria, born 1819, upon his knee when she was a small child, and admiring daily a life size portrait of his mother hanging at the foot of the stairway on the wall in his grandfather‘s home.
At a time of great Scottish unrest he and an unknown Lord left Scotland and traveled to South America where they owned and operated a plantation. Later Andrew sailed to Russia, and many other countries, on board a whaling ship for three years. Arriving in Canada about 1834, he practiced medicine in Lower Canada. There he met and married Jane Anderson.
Coming to the US about 1835, in New York his trunk and papers were destroyed in a hotel fire prior to leaving for Minnesota in 1836 or 1837 with his wife, Jane, leaving only his family crest on his watch fob.
After the wedding he canoed and portaged to Minnesota to help his new wife reconnect with her American Native mother, Gray Cloud Woman, in Little Rock, Minnesota Territory.
There a business partnership between Mooers and Robertson began. The Robertsons moved their families onto this island in the Mississippi River, which Andrew named Grey Cloud Island, after Jane's mother.
They inhabited the bark and willow lodges left behind by Chief Medicine Bottle's band of Dakota. They farmed gardens and cornfields, selling some to Fort Snelling for the army's use in 1840. Robertson was credited with raising the first wheat grown in the Minnesota region in 1839. Their home site was on the upper part of Grey Cloud Island.
In 1847 he was appointed government farmer for Mde-wa-kan-ton bands of Dakota - head farmer for Little Crow's band of Sioux at Kaposia. 1846/1847 they lived at Cave Springs, then two years at Cottage Grove near Stillwater, and a village about three miles down the river from St. Paul, now near South St. Paul stockyards.
He and his son Thomas, went to Washington DC with Joseph Renshaw Brown, and a delegation of Dakotas chiefs to Washington, DC in 1858 when the north half of the reservation was sold.
Andrew, was the first Assessor in Dakota County. In 1853 he was sent to build and establish the Redwood Agency.
In 1854 he was appointed as superintendent of farms on the Upper Agency, sent to establish the Yellow Medicine Agency.
At Yellow Medicine in 1857, he then became the first superintendent of Indian schools for two reservations, which required moving back to the Redwood Agency.
He had a crest on his watch fob, which he used to order supplies and luxuries from Scotland was destroyed during the Sioux Outbreak of 1862. He sent a lawyer to Europe to look into his estate, but the ship, the Titanic sunk in the Atlantic with any information.
He held the position of Superintendent/Government Farmer for Little Crow's Band, as Redwood Agency, until his death on May 4,1859, at age 68, from heart disease.
He was buried a few steps from his home there, at Morton, Minnesota, near the present Interpretive Center at the Lower Agency in Redwood County. "He never forgot his beloved Scottish homeland and hoped to take his family back to his estate".[D. Patrick].
He is buried "Up the river on the edge of high bluffs overlooking the beautiful Minnesota valley and in a neglected spot, which may or may not have been at one time a cemetery, but which is now a cow pasture surrounded by a barbed wire fence, there you will find a large marble oblong slab, (A white marble gravestone was sent out from New York in 1860 by an unknown lodge) lying flat upon a crumbling foundation of brick, with an inscription to the effect that it was placed there in memory of Andrew Robertson, a Scotsman, who was born in Dumfries in 1790 and died at Redwood Agency in 1859." - from the Brown County Historical Society.
Andrew was a Scottish immigrant, a frontier man, fur trader, government farmer and interpreter working among the Dakota people, teaching them farming and serving as their teacher on the Minnesota frontier.
Orphaned at three, his grandfather, Alexander Robertson, raised and educated him at Durham College, Dumfries, Scotland.
Was he, as said, "The Lost Earl of Athol" of the Royal Family of England? He spoke of holding Queen Victoria, born 1819, upon his knee when she was a small child, and admiring daily a life size portrait of his mother hanging at the foot of the stairway on the wall in his grandfather‘s home.
At a time of great Scottish unrest he and an unknown Lord left Scotland and traveled to South America where they owned and operated a plantation. Later Andrew sailed to Russia, and many other countries, on board a whaling ship for three years. Arriving in Canada about 1834, he practiced medicine in Lower Canada. There he met and married Jane Anderson.
Coming to the US about 1835, in New York his trunk and papers were destroyed in a hotel fire prior to leaving for Minnesota in 1836 or 1837 with his wife, Jane, leaving only his family crest on his watch fob.
After the wedding he canoed and portaged to Minnesota to help his new wife reconnect with her American Native mother, Gray Cloud Woman, in Little Rock, Minnesota Territory.
There a business partnership between Mooers and Robertson began. The Robertsons moved their families onto this island in the Mississippi River, which Andrew named Grey Cloud Island, after Jane's mother.
They inhabited the bark and willow lodges left behind by Chief Medicine Bottle's band of Dakota. They farmed gardens and cornfields, selling some to Fort Snelling for the army's use in 1840. Robertson was credited with raising the first wheat grown in the Minnesota region in 1839. Their home site was on the upper part of Grey Cloud Island.
In 1847 he was appointed government farmer for Mde-wa-kan-ton bands of Dakota - head farmer for Little Crow's band of Sioux at Kaposia. 1846/1847 they lived at Cave Springs, then two years at Cottage Grove near Stillwater, and a village about three miles down the river from St. Paul, now near South St. Paul stockyards.
He and his son Thomas, went to Washington DC with Joseph Renshaw Brown, and a delegation of Dakotas chiefs to Washington, DC in 1858 when the north half of the reservation was sold.
Andrew, was the first Assessor in Dakota County. In 1853 he was sent to build and establish the Redwood Agency.
In 1854 he was appointed as superintendent of farms on the Upper Agency, sent to establish the Yellow Medicine Agency.
At Yellow Medicine in 1857, he then became the first superintendent of Indian schools for two reservations, which required moving back to the Redwood Agency.
He had a crest on his watch fob, which he used to order supplies and luxuries from Scotland was destroyed during the Sioux Outbreak of 1862. He sent a lawyer to Europe to look into his estate, but the ship, the Titanic sunk in the Atlantic with any information.
He held the position of Superintendent/Government Farmer for Little Crow's Band, as Redwood Agency, until his death on May 4,1859, at age 68, from heart disease.
He was buried a few steps from his home there, at Morton, Minnesota, near the present Interpretive Center at the Lower Agency in Redwood County. "He never forgot his beloved Scottish homeland and hoped to take his family back to his estate".[D. Patrick].
He is buried "Up the river on the edge of high bluffs overlooking the beautiful Minnesota valley and in a neglected spot, which may or may not have been at one time a cemetery, but which is now a cow pasture surrounded by a barbed wire fence, there you will find a large marble oblong slab, (A white marble gravestone was sent out from New York in 1860 by an unknown lodge) lying flat upon a crumbling foundation of brick, with an inscription to the effect that it was placed there in memory of Andrew Robertson, a Scotsman, who was born in Dumfries in 1790 and died at Redwood Agency in 1859." - from the Brown County Historical Society.
Inscription
Sacred to the memory of Andrew Robertson Superintendent of Indian schools
Born in Dumfries, Scotland December 6th, 1790 Died May 11th, 1859
Aged 68 years 5 months and 5 days
