Page:History of Stearns County, Minnesota; volume 1.pdf/699

 the market was St. Anthony Falls, now a part of Minneapolis. The transaction netted him $10 and required a three day trip. The cattle were fed in a grove near where the Nicollet hotel now stands, and the river was crossed in a ferry, about where the stone arch bridge now is.

In the fall of 1855 Charles P. Collins and his family returned to Massachusetts. In the spring of 1856 he returned to Minnesota and settled at Lewistown on the Canon river about five miles from Northfield. There he built a hotel. In the fall of 1856 Loren Collins returned to Minnesota and joined his father at Lewistown. In the fall of 1858 the boy obtained a position as teacher of a small country school about two and one half miles up the river from Canon Falls. For teaching a four-months'term he received $60 and with this as his sole asset he went to Northfield in the fall of 1859 and began the study of law in the office of Smith & Crosby.

In 1862 the firm of Smith & Crosby dissolved and Loren Collins remained with Judge Crosby until August when he enlisted as a private in Company F of the Seventh Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. The company had been recruited at Hastings by Captain John Kennedy. Ten days afterward he was commissioned second lieutenant of the company, the men having indicated their choice by ballot.

Loren W. Collins served through the entire war with the Seventh regiment. With the command he participated in the first and second Sibley campaigns against the Sioux Indians. The first expedition ended with the battle of Wood Lake, where the Indians were routed, five white captives recovered and several hundred Indians taken prisoners. Among the prisoners were the 38 Indians afterward hanged at Mankato. Company F was on duty at the execution. In the spring of 1863 the regiment participated in the second Sibley campaign, marching into North Dakota.

At the close of the Indian war, in the fall of 1863, the regiment was ordered south. At St. Louis Lieutenant Collins was detached from his regiment and detailed to the provost guard military police. The city was at this time under military control and for three months Judge Collins served as head of the military police, a position of great responsibility. He then rejoined his regiment in the south and until the close of the war was engaged in the operations against the Confederate forces.

At the decisive battle of Nashville, Lieutenant Collins was on the staff of Colonel S. G. Hill, commander of the Third Brigade, First Divisioen, Sixteenth Army Corps, and was with Colonel Hill when the colonel was killed. Shortly after the battle Colonel William R. Marshall of the Seventh regiment recommended the promotion of Lieutenant Collins for gallantry and efficiency in the service. His recommendation was acted upon and Lieutenant Collins, who had become a first lieutenant January 8, 1863, was made a brevet captain.

Mustered out with his regiment in St. Paul in August, 1865, Captain Collins returned south and for six months served in Alabama as an agent of the Federal department of the treasury. He then returned to Minnesota and settled in St. Cloud in May, 1866, forming a nominal law partnership with Seagrave Smith, who later moved to Minneapolis and became a district judge.