Samuel McPhail

Samuel McPhail (May 2, 1826 – March 6, 1902) was a Minnesota settler, lawyer, judge, military officer, and is the founder of Caledonia, Redwood Falls, Alta Vista Township, and Redwood County, Minnesota.

Early life McPhail was born on May 2, 1826, in Russellville, Kentucky, to John McPhail and Hannah McAdams, both of whom were of Scottish ancestry. He attended a military school in his youth and later participated in the Mexican–American War as a private in Company C, 3rd Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. McPhail and the 3rd Illinois Volunteers were present at the Battle of Cerro Gordo and the Siege of Veracruz. After the war McPhail married Martha "Minnie" Kingston and moved to Minnesota Territory in 1850. Together the McPhails had four children, two of which died at young ages.

McPhail arrived in Brownsville, Minnesota in 1850, where he first settled. He platted what would become the city of Caledonia, Minnesota, from 1854 to 1855, and was greatly responsible for it becoming the county seat of Houston County. He named the city Caledonia after the Latin name given to Scotland by the Roman Empire. Two plots of land were donated by McPhail to erect a school, as well as two more plots to erect a Methodist Church.

On October 10, 1862, McPhail became the commanding officer of the 1st Minnesota Cavalry Regiment, with the rank of Colonel. The 1st Minnesota Cavalry would go on to fight against the Dakota in several punitive expeditions under Henry Hastings Sibley and Alfred Sully at the Battle of Big Mound, the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake, and the Battle of Stony Lake. McPhail mustered out of service with the rest of the regiment between October 20 to December 7, 1863.

Founding of Redwood Falls and Redwood County On May 2, 1864, McPhail came to what is now Redwood Falls, Minnesota with a party of four other land speculators in order to claim land. The settlement itself consisted of a stockade wall made of sod and reinforced with a four-foot ditch, along with a log cabin lined with bricks on the inside for added protection. He served as the county attorney and county surveyor for Lincoln County; It is so named because Colonel McPhail utilized the area as an overlook and vantage point during the Battle of Big Mound where the 1st Minnesota Cavalry Regiment controlled the highest vantage point during the course of the battle.

McPhail is credited with founding several places in the state of Minnesota: Redwood County, Redwood Falls, Alta Vista Township, and Caledonia.