Joseph Fifield was a veteran from the War of 1812, and he is buried at the Russell Cemetery in Lyon County. The following information is from a May 26, 1979, article in the Marshall Independent about historian Arthur Louis Finnell’s search on information regarding Joseph Fifield. It was during the search that Finnell was able to obtain a copy of Fifield’s pension papers from the National Archives in Washington D.C.

“What brought Fifield from New Hampshire to Minnesota? Was he 14, 15, 16 years old, merely a boy, when he served in the War of 1812? Those questions are proving difficult to answer at this point. Art Finnell, coordinator of the History Center at Southwest State University, only speculates the answers. It isn’t for a lack of trying, however, that he has relatively little information about Joseph Fifield or Thomas Hicks, another War of 1812 veteran buried in Lyon County. The remains of Hicks lie at the foot of a gravestone in Marshall Cemetery, having been removed from an old Marshall Cemetery and placed in the present location in 1911.”

“Numerous sources have been tried by Finnell in attempting to piece together the history. Most of search has proved fruitless. Finnell went to the courthouse for death certificates; he looked at the Grand Army Republic records, the 1875 census, and township and Grantor-Grantee records. He is now waiting for Fifield’s pension papers to be sent from the National Archives in Washington D.C.”

Veterans of the War of 1812 are more likely to be buried in the eastern part of Minnesota, Finnell explained, because that part of the state was settled first. Some war veterans settled the frontier because they received land certificate in payment for war services. The U.S. Government was rich in land but money was not plentiful.”

“According to the pension papers, Fifield was drafted and served 45 days in the militia during the War of 1812, he received a pension of $8 a month until he died, and he was a resident of Camden in Lyon County at the time of receiving his pension. Joseph died in Lyon County in 1887; he was around 92 years old.”

The Lyon County Historical Society is a non-profit, member-supported organization. For more information on membership, research, volunteering, or the museum’s collection, please contact us at 537-6580 or director@lyoncomuseum.org. Like our page and follow us on Facebook.