Jacob Nix Platz

Jacob Nix Platz. To a Patriot, Soldier, Public Servant. Jacob Nix from Bingen Am Rhein in Germany was a key figure in the defense of New Ulm in 1862. Born in 1822, Nix early joined the push for a united Germany under a republican form of government. During the ill-fated 1848 Revolution, Nix served as Captain in the revolutionary "Free Corps." Captured, charged with high treason, and sentenced to be shot as a revolutionary, Nix escaped. Like many German "48ers", he emigrated to America. , In 1855, at a national convention of German-American Turners, Nix enthusiastically supported William Pfaender's proposal to establish a German Turner colony on the Minnesota frontier. Three years later, the Nix family joined Pfaender and friends in the settlement of New Ulm. , When the Dakota Conflict flared up in 1862, the sheriff appointed Nix as Commandant of New Ulm to protect the frontier city. His military know-how helped Nix hastily organize the battle by barricading three downtown blocks. In the heat of the 1st Battle of New Ulm (Aug 19), Captain Nix had a finger shot off but continued to lead the barricaded settlers in repulsing a fierce Dakota attack. , His public service continued in the U.S. Army (1862-1864), as city Assessor (1875-76), and for five terms as Town Clerk. Patriot, soldier, and public servant, Jacob Nix personified the spirit of the German Forty-Eighters: "For liberty by word and deed in the Old Country and in the New!" (from the Hecker Monument in Cincinnati, Ohio: Mit Wort und Tat fuer Volksfreiheit im Alten und neuen Vaterland!) , Sponsored by , City of New Ulm and , New Ulm Area Foundation.