USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 46
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"Ex-Governor Ordway, who had served twelve years as sergeant-at-arms and paymaster of the United States House of Representatives, and several terms in both branches of the New Hampshire Legislature, was appointed governor of Dakota in May, 1880, to succeed Governor William A. Howard, who died at Washington, while filling out a term as governor of Dakota. Governor Ord- way, having had pretty large experience in public life, determined to make himself personally acquainted with every part of the territory over which he was called upon to preside, and after having cleared up the executive work which had accumulated during Governor Howard's illness at Yankton, started up the Mis- souri River to Fort Sully, where he took an ambulance across the Big Sioux reservation to the Black Hills, traversing the rolling prairies and taking account of the resources of that vast country which was still in the possession of the Indians.
"The presence of the new governor in the Black Hills pleased the people, and the governor was royally entertained for nearly two weeks, during which he explored nearly all the principal mines, and procured large quantities of speci- mens, to be forwarded by express, to make up an eastern exhibit, which he was co-operating with the Northern Pacific Railroad in arranging, with the view of bringing in immigration and developing the country. From the Black Hills he took transportation 250 miles to Bismarck, in the north; and thence, examining the famous wheat fields and procuring specimen products in the James, Red and Sioux River valleys, returned to the Missouri River Valley and Yankton, the seat of government. Remaining there for a period to attend to accumulated business, he afterwards shipped the products thus secured to Chicago, to be placed in the elegant car specially built by the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- pany, for a complete exhibit of the products of Dakota and other territories on
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their line, which was en route for the New England Agricultural Fair, to be held at Worcester, Mass., in September, 1880. The governor, by special invitation, accompanied this exhibit, which embraced almost everything grown in the various counties in Dakota, and was the guest of the City of Worcester and the New England Agricultural Society for the entire week of the fair. During this time many thousands of people visited the car, and entered their names upon a register prepared for that purpose, requesting printed documents giving information as to the resources of this new country and its vast wheat fields. The governor remained east until November, only returning to Yankton in season to cast his vote at the November election. During this period the exhibition car was taken all over New England and a considerable portion of the Canadas, thus securing the names and addresses of nearly two hundred thousand land seekers or appli- cants for information in regard to the new Northwest. This exhibition of the resources of Dakota undoubtedly started and kept in motion the unprecedented boom which followed in 1881, and continued during nearly all of Governor Ordway's term.
"The Territorial Legislative Assembly convened at Yankton in January, 1881, at which time the governor found himself confronted with very grave responsi- bilities. The territorial laws required the governor to make contracts with the managers of insane hospitals and officers of penal institutions in adjoining states, for the keeping of all the indigent insane and convicts sentenced and decreed to be confined in the territory. This requirement was practically impossible, as the insane hospitals in adjoining states were all filled to overflowing, and there was no desire on the part of any of the states to increase the number of convicts in any of these institutions. The outstanding securities of the territory bearing IO per cent interest were selling at So cents on the dollar, and there was not a piece of brick, stone or iron laid in any suitable public building. The governor earnestly called attention to this state of things in his first message, and by subsequent appeals secured the enactment of laws providing for the erection of a comparatively fire proof insane asylum at Yankton, and a stone penitentiary at Sioux Falls, for which bonds bearing 6 per cent interest were authorized. An appropriation was also secured for a small deaf mute asylum at Sioux Falls.
"This first session of the Legislative Assembly was rather exciting, and at some times the relations between the legislative and the executive departments were considerably strained over the governor's determination to prevent the issue of any bonded indebtedness by counties or municipal corporations, unless the same had been approved by a vote of the people, the governor deeming this pre- caution necessary to keep down an incipient spirit of wildness, tending to repudia- tion. The records of the territory show that the governor withheld his signature to nearly or quite one-third of the acts passed by that Legislative Assembly.
"Immediately following the adjournment of the Legislative Assembly, disas- trous floods caused by immense ice-gorges in the Missouri River, swept over a large portion of the lower Missouri and Sioux River valleys, carrying away houses and destroying thousands of horses, cattle and other domestic animals, and driving several thousand people from their homes, leaving them in a destitute condition. At the request of the mayor and an executive relief committee of the City of Yankton, Governor Ordway, who was at Washington, secured supplies from the war department for the immediate relief of the settlers, which were
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stored for feeding the Indians along the river, and subsequently the governor visited New York and Boston, endorsing the appeal made by the Yankton aid committee for aid, and was thus enabled to forward several thousands of dollars in money and seven or eight tons of clothing and other necessary supplies which the people of the East freely contributed to the sufferers by these disastrous floods.
"During the summer of 1882 the governor made a tour of inspection through the center of the territory, traveling over the fertile prairies nearly four hundred miles from Yankton to Fort Totten, and in the fall of 1882 he made a very exhaustive report to the secretary of the interior of the condition and resources of the whole territory.
"When the Legislative Assembly convened at Yankton in January, 1883, although the insane hospital at Yankton and the penitentiary at Sioux Falls had both been completed and placed in good running order, the capacity of these institutions was found to be entirely inadequate to the rapidly increasing require- ments. The governor recommended the enlargement of both these institutions, and secured aid from the United States for a wing to the penitentiary, which would accommodate prisoners sentenced by the United States courts. He also recommended an appropriation for a suitable stone structure as a deaf mute school, the small one previously provided for at Sioux Falls having got well under way, but not being fire proof ; and as under a previous act, Clay County and the City of Vermilion had established the foundations for a small university, the governor recommended its enlargement and endowment by the territory, and a sufficient appropriation to found a creditable university for the southern portion of the territory. And, inasmuch as communication between the northern and the southern portion of the territory had to be carried on through Minnesota and Iowa, the governor advised that a large saving would be made by the erection of another penitentiary at Bismarck, on the Missouri River, which would be a great saving in the cost of transportation of prisoners from the Black Hills and the northern portion of the territory; also, that another insane asylum be provided for at Jamestown, and another university to accommodate the rapidly increasing population of the north, at Grand Forks, on the Red River.
"In order to encourage a better and more thorough system of tilling this rich soil, the governor recommended and approved bills for the establishment of an agricultural college at Brookings, in the south; also at Fargo, in the north; and in order to secure a higher grade of teachers he advised the Legislature to endow a normal school at Madison, and another one of the same character at Spearfish, in the Black Hills,-thus giving the southern and the northern portions of the territory duplicate institutions, which would enable them to perform all the duties and obligations which are usually imposed upon states ; in fact laying the foundation for a division of the territory and the creation of two states.
"The Legislative Assembly, realizing the phenomenal increase of population and taxable property in the territory, by a nearly two-thirds vote adopted all of the governor's suggestions, and made such appropriations as could safely be made within the approximate increase of the resources of the territory for the next two years, leaving, when these buildings were all completed, a 5 and 6 per cent bonded indebtedness of less than four hundred thousand dollars, which securities were sold by advertisement in the open market, at from 3 to 5 per cent above par.
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"Yankton being situated in the extreme southeast corner of the territory, and the development in the northern and central portion having become so great, the Legislative Assembly, without any suggestion from the governor, after the appointment of committees to consider the subject, decided by nearly a two- thirds vote to change the seat of government to some more central and accessible locality, provided some such town or place would erect and convey, without expense to the territory, a capitol building suitable for the transaction of the public business, with sufficient grounds for its completion and embellishment. The governor approved an act providing for commissioners to carry out the will of the Legislative Assembly, and a capitol was built and the seat of government changed thereunder from Yankton to Bismarck, which was exactly in the center east and west, but somewhat north of the geographical center of the territory.
"Thus at the end of Governor Ordway's term, the last of July, 1884, all these penal, charitable and educational institutions had been erected and put in suc- cessful operation and the capitol built and occupied, leaving a bonded indebted- ness of less than four hundred thousand dollars, to meet which there was a surplus in the territorial treasury of $200,000 towards paying this bonded indebtedness as it became due. The governor not only recommended and approved the acts for building all of these public buildings, but, as a member ex officio of the dif- ferent boards, he exercised a personal supervision over their construction, traveling all over the territory to assist in laying out the grounds and attending to the organization and meetings of the various boards, without ever having presented a bill or drawn one dollar for the per diem and expenses which the officers of these institutions were entitled to receive under the territorial laws-the governor holding that the organic act of the territory, which must be regarded as its con- stitution, prohibited Federal officers from drawing salaries from the people of the territory.
"After Governor Ordway retired from the executive office he organized the Dakota and Eastern Land and Loan Company, and gave his attention to securing eastern capital for the use of the settlers, through the First National Bank of Pierre, and the Capital National Bank of Bismarck, both of which institutions he organized, and he was the first president of each.
"Governor Ordway served as a commissioner for Dakota, under an appoint- ment from Governor Pierce, on the centennial board of one from each state and territory, for celebrating the adoption of the constitution at Philadelphia, during the years 1886 and 1887, and honored Dakota by being placed by the full board of commissioners upon the executive committee for making all the arrangements for that historic gathering; was selected to respond at the great banquet for all the territories; and on the day of the final ceremonies in front of Independence Hall, was selected, on account of his large acquaintance with the public men of the country, as a member of the committee on reception. He also represented Dakota in behalf of the governor, on the various boards during the year 1888 of the proposed National Exposition, to be held in Washington in September, 1889.
"During the sessions of Congress in 1887 and 1888 he gave a large portion of his time at Washington seeking to impress upon the members of Congress and the friends of the Indians the advisability and justice of opening to settle- ment such portions of the Indian reservations as were not required or used by
NEHEMIAH G. ORDWAY Seventh governor of Dakota Territory, 1880-1884
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the Indians, especially a large portion of the great Sioux Reservation; watching the opportune moment, which came after the last presidential election, to secure division and immediate admission of North and South Dakota, without allowing it longer to continue a political question.
"That it was largely due to Governor Ordway's long and intimate acquaintance with the older and controlling members of both Houses of Congress, and his accurate knowledge of the rules and the modes for overcoming the friction which was known to exist in regard to the manner of bringing in new states, no one in Dakota who was in Washington during that session of Congress will attempt to deny. Many members of both Houses of Congress, looking back over the diffi- cult and rugged road which the omnibus bill passed, have since expressed wonder that a bill of such far-reaching consequences to both political parties, as well as to the people of the territories, moving the political power westward to such an extent that New York will never hereafter be an essential pivot upon which presidential elections hang, could have been passed in so short a period. It will hardly be denied that ex-Governor Ordway has accomplished great results by giving his time in Washington during the sessions of Congress, to promote legislation for opening the reservation, and above all, by his work in bringing in the two Dakotas at the same time, and in placing North Dakota, in which he has made his home since the change of the seat of government to Bismarck, fully equal in every respect to its western sisters as a great and prosperous state."
Governor Ordway was of the opinion that the admission of Dakota undivided would give a stronger state than if admitted as two states. In consenting to the capital commission bill it is clear that he hoped for the success of Pierre.
The resolutions of the Fargo Convention of 1882 were strongly in favor of division. The delegates appointed were Judge Alphonso H. Barnes, delegate at large, with Col. Peter Donan alternate. A. A. Carpenter, Clement A. Lounsberry, Wilbur F. Steele, George H. Walsh, H. G. Stone, J. S. Eschelman, M. J. Edgerly, Anton Klaus, Folsom Dow, H. B. Crandall, William Thompson, W. F. Clayton, Judson LaMoure, L. D. Austin and E. A. Healey.
The memorial presented to the congressional committee at the hearing was drawn by this writer, who.spent five winters in Washington favoring the division of Dakota before later advocates, who gained prominence and preference by reason of such action, came to the territory.
HON. ALEXANDER MCKENZIE
No history of the State of North Dakota would be complete, or entitled to credit, without reference to Alexander McKenzie. He has been a part of that history to a greater extent than any other living man. He has been identified with the history of the state almost from the very beginning of its territorial life. He kept in touch with it, laboring for its development during all of its years of development as a territory, and since its admission to statehood, prospering not as a money loaner, banker or merchant, but as the result of investment in North Dakota real estate and in North Dakota securities. He has held no office ex- cepting that of deputy United States marshal and sheriff and a director on the Bismarck penitentiary board, during the construction of that institution, nor has he sought office, either in the state or nation. He was appointed by the
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governor, however, to take charge of an exhibit made by the territory at the New Orleans Exposition, where much was accomplished for the good of Da- kota, and where he formed acquaintances which had much to do with establish- ing the credit of the state and incidentally in securing a market for state or county securities in which he became a heavy dealer. He was Republican Na- tional Committeeman for North Dakota during the Roosevelt administration, succeeded by James Kennedy of Fargo in 1912.
Alexander . Mckenzie came to North Dakota in 1868 with Don Stevenson's train carrying supplies to Fort Rice. There he was employed by the military authorities to carry important dispatches to Fort Buford, passing through a country infested with hostile Indians.
He returned in 1872, then a young man of twenty-two, in connection with the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and during that summer he had charge of the track laying on the line west from Fargo. After the com- pletion of the railroad to Bismarck, in June, 1873, he was interested in the manufacture and sale of carbonated drinks, and after the organization of the county in 1873, and the election of the first county officers in 1874, he was appointed sheriff to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Sheriff Miller, who was drowned, together with his deputy Charles McCarthy, by going- through an air hole in the ice on the Missouri River. He was elected sheriff at the ensuing election, in 1876, and thereafter for ten years, when he declined to be a candidate for re-election. During all of this time he was deputy United States marshal, and while in office was instrumental in ridding the country of more than one hundred criminals of greater or less degree who had sought asylum or business in the opportunities offered by the opening of the Northern Pacific country.
Mckenzie had been with the Northern Pacific from the beginning of its construction and he knew the methods and the faces of every crook on the line, and was able to spot any new arrival almost instantly, and was peculiarly fitted to the work on which he was engaged. He was in St. Paul one day when a most atrocious murder was perpetrated. He took up the work of inves- tigation on his own account and from force of habit, and through information he was able to give, the authorities landed their man inside of forty-eight hours.
In his pursuit of criminals, some of whom took refuge in the Indian camps, Mckenzie took desperate chances, but he never flinched. He gained the ad- miration of Gaul and other noted Sioux Indian chiefs by arrests made in their own camps in the face of demonstrations by the Indians which seemed to threaten certain death.
It was through him that Gaul, Rain-in-the-Face and other noted Indians became a part of the exhibit at New Orleans, and that Sitting Bull was at the head of the procession at the time of the laying of the corner stone of the cap- itol at Bismarck.
He was successful in the pursuit of steamboats attempting to leave the country without paying for wood or supplies procured from settlers or mer- chants. Without resorting to the third degree, as the badgering of prisoners is now styled, there was that about him which led the large majority to plead guilty. He had the evidence where there was real guilt, and there were few mistrials.
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Born of sturdy Scotch ancestry he spoke the mother tongue of his country- men, winning confidence that might not have been reached by other means. No friend of his had to appeal for help that he could give, in the hour of real distress, and many a person received timely aid without ever knowing the source from which it came, for Mckenzie always has taken pride in not letting one hand know what the other has done. From the talk others have given he has gained many a valuable pointer, sometimes for their own un- doing. He leaves the boasting to others. His fame was not confined to Bur- leigh county, but in every village, and on the lonely ranches, and among the sturdy farmers he had friends, or old time chums, ready to dare or do as he requested.
About 1880 he had charge of an exhibit made by Burleigh County at an expo- sition at Minneapolis, and Burleigh County won the banner which was then and has been all of the years since then a source of great pride. It was for the best grain and vegetables on exhibition. It served to attract wide attention to North Dakota and was the beginning of the great boom which followed. This was fol- lowed by the exhibit made by him on behalf of Dakota at the New Orleans Exposition, the influence of which was enduring. He asked the several counties of the territory to contribute, to be refunded by the Legislature. While some twenty thousand dollars was raised in this way and was refunded by the Legisla- ture, Mr. Mckenzie advanced the money in the first instance and added to it some twenty thousand dollars of his own money which was not refunded. But he won much credit for himself and glory and honor for the territory.
In 1882 he attended the session of the Legislature at Yankton and it was through his persistent labor that North Dakota gained its set of territorial institu- tions, the penitentiary being located at Bismarck, the Agricultural College at Far- go and the University at Grand Forks. This was the foundation for the action which followed in locating these and other institutions, in the constitution of thic state, which was accomplished on the suggestion and through the planning and work of Alexander McKenzie, including the location of the capital at Bismarck.
While he did not go to Yankton for the purpose of securing the location of the capital of the territory of Dakota at Bismarck, lie saw the opportunity and accomplished his purpose.
To discredit Governor Ordway, Yankton parties caused his arrest and fixed his bond at $50,000. Mckenzie furnished that amount of currency for his bail. which was reduced to a reasonable sum and nothing ever came of the prosecution.
After the location of the capital at Bismarck he did not take advantage of the boom to sell real estate, by reason of such location, but held on and is today reaping the advantage that he foresaw.
To him, even more than to Governor Ordway, was due the successful efforts in Congress to secure the division of Dakota and the admission of North Dakota as a state.
He was not the tool of any man or set of men. He had the magnetic power to draw allies to his assistance and the power of organization to hold them together and make them willing helpers. He does not appear in any biographies of pioneers, legislators or other characters, but his name should lead all others in writing of those responsible for the material development of North Dakota.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DELEGATES, 1861-1890
John B. S. Todd, a delegate from Dakota Territory; born in Lexington, Ky., April 4, 1814; moved with his parents to Illinois in 1827; was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1837; commissioned second lieutenant in the Sixth Infantry, July 1, 1837; first lieutenant, December 10, 1837, and captain, November 8, 1843; served in the Florida war, 1837-1842, and the war with Mexico; resigned, September 16, 1856, and became an Indian trader; settled in Fort Randall, Dakota Territory; elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1861-March 3, 1863) ; successfully contested the election of William Jayne to the Thirty-eighth Congress and served from June 17, 1864, to March 3, 1865; appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the Union army, September 19, 1861; appointment expired July 17, 1862; served as speaker of the Dakota House of Representatives, 1867 ; governor of Dakota Territory, 1869-1871; died in Yankton, Dakota Territory, January 5, 1872.
William Jayne, a delegate from Dakota Territory; born in Springfield, Ill., October 8, 1826; completed preparatory studies; studied medicine and practiced in Springfield eleven years; mayor of Springfield, 1859-1861; apppointed gov- ernor of Dakota Territory by President Lincoln in 1861, and served two years, with residence in Yankton; presented credentials as the delegate-elect to the Thirty-eighth Congress, and served from March 4, 1863, to June 17, 1864, when he was succeeded by John B. S. Todd, who contested his election; returned to Springfield, Ill .; president of the Lincoln Memorial Library; president of the State Board of Charities under Governors Yates and Deneen.
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