author
Gideon H. (Gideon Hollister) Pond
1810–1878
A pioneering missionary on the Minnesota frontier, this 19th-century writer is remembered for his work with the Dakota people and for helping preserve the Dakota language in print. His life joined religion, language study, and early territorial history in a way that still draws attention today.
1 Audiobook
Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society for the Year 1867
by Charles Edwin Mayo, Henry M. (Henry Mower) Rice, A. J. (Alfred James) Hill, Gideon H. (Gideon Hollister) Pond
About the author
Born in Connecticut in 1810, Gideon Hollister Pond traveled to the area around Fort Snelling in 1834 with his brother Samuel at a time when American settlement in Minnesota was still in its earliest stages. He became known as a Presbyterian missionary and clergyman, and he was also active in public life as a territorial legislator.
Pond is especially associated with his long work among the Dakota. He learned the Dakota language, helped produce written materials in it, and took part in mission efforts that combined religious teaching with schooling and agriculture. Because of that work, he is often remembered both as a missionary figure and as part of the early printed record of Dakota language and culture.
He died in 1878. Today, he is of interest not only as an author of religious and historical writing, but also as an early Minnesota settler whose life reflects the complicated encounters between missionaries, settlers, and Dakota communities in the 19th century.