Philander Prescott
Philander Prescott was the son of Dr. Joel Prescott and Phildelia Reed. He was a native of Phelps, Ontario County, New York. He headed west in the spring of 1819, stopping a few months in Detroit, Michigan, before continuing west to Fort Snelling.
In 1823, he married Na-he-no-Wenah, also known as Mary Ke E Hi, daughter of Man-Who-Flies, a Dakota subchief who lived near Lake Calhoun. She was born around 1804–1806 and died on March 29, 1867, at Shakopee, Minnesota. They had sons, William Prescott; Hiram Prescott ; and Lorenzo Taliferro Prescott ; as well as a daughter, Lucy Prescott Pettijohn; and two more children.
During his life on the frontier, he served as a government interpreter of the Dakota language. He worked as a miner, a trapper, and on a steamboat on the Mississippi River. He also ran trading posts, in several locations, and farmed.
From 1839 to 1862, he operated a trading post along the St. Croix River - its location became the town of Prescott, Wisconsin, named for him.
He was killed at the Lower Sioux Agency during the Dakota War of 1862; he was buried in the Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, as were his wife and son.
His papers are in the Minnesota Historical Society library.
