The party, however, finally reached the claim, and their first job was to put up a little cabin. This was one of the first houses erected in Meeker County. At the time of the Indian outbreak, Salisbury and his family left the farm and went into the village of Kingston, which Jonathan helped to fortify. For two weeks, his family occupied someone's house, and then all the refugees who had gathered in the village spent the nights in the grist mill, which was being used as a fort. Salisbury and his family stayed in Kingston for about one month, at which time he sent his family to their old home in Iowa. Salisbury enlisted in the “Mounted Rangers,” or the First Minnesota Cavalry, and he served through the Indian War for one year. He then enlisted in Hatch's Independent Battalion of Minnesota Cavalry for three years and served on the frontier. Upon being honorably discharged in the spring of 1866, he sent to Iowa for his family and again returned to their Kingston farm and cultivated it until June 1875, when they moved to Litchfield. In 1868, Salisbury was elected to represent his district in the Legislature.