Gideon H. Pond and Samuel W. Pond

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Gideon and Samuel Pond, about 1860

The Pond brothers, both Congregationalists who became Presbyterians, came from Connecticut to the area around Ft. Snelling in 1834, a full fifteen years before the creation of Minnesota Territory. They made an effort to teach the Dakota how to farm more intensively and urged them to consider conversion to Christianity. Opposed to the reservation system and frustrated with the 1851 treaties, they left their work with the Dakota mission and founded Presbyterian churches in white communities. In 1862, Gideon was ministering at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church and Samuel was the minister at First Presbyterian Church of Shakopee. Both congregations counted Christian Dakota among their members.

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Pond Family: An Inventory of Their Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society Manuscripts Collection

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