USA > South Dakota > Jerauld County > A history of Jerauld county, South Dakota > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01103 4185
OF SOU
GREAT
SEA
IT
A HISTORY
OF
JERAULD COUNTY
SOUTH DAKOTA.
-
2
BY N. J. DUNHAM.
FROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO JANUARY 1ST, 1909.
WESSINGTON SPRINGS, SO. DAK. 1910.
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1142961
A FOREWORD.
In presenting to our readers this history of Jerauld County we are undertaking a rather large task. There is so little of record and so much of legend that it is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. However, we have carefully sifted the legends as received and have selected what seemed to be accurate. Of the later history, of course, records disclose the facts and that has been less difficult to gather.
The First Inhabitant.
The Second Inhabitant.
PART ONE.
Chapter 1.
The story of the country embraced within the limits of Jerauld county, prior to the removal of the Indians to their reservations in 1859, is almost legendary. Even the man. for whom was named the range of hills that run north and south thru the center of the county, is only known to have been a trapper who frequented the lakes and streams in this part of the great territory prior to 1863.
Of him it is related, that he in company with some other trappers was engaged in his usual avocation along the Firesteel and Sand Creeks at the time of the Indian uprising at New Ulm, Minnesota, in 1863. The whole western country was then swarming with hostile bodies of Sioux. As these bands were driven westward by the soldiers from Minnesota, the trappers were caught in the line of retreat taken by the savages. Wessington and his companions took refuge in the grove near the big spring. For several days the trappers fought off their enemies, but provisions and ammunition failing, they attempted to break through and escape. One by one they fell, selling their lives as dearly as possible. Wessington was the last of the number. He was wounded and captured. Taking him back to the grove where he and his friends had made such a gallant fight, the Indians tied him to a tree and put him to death by torture. The story of his capture and death was told by the Indians. Various trees about the spring have been pointed out in later years as the spot where the trapper met his death.
Among the soldiers who followed the Indians in their retreat through the hills and camped by the big spring, were Chas. Davis and Richard Butler, both in later years, residents of Alpena.
This was the last of the Indian raids in the country between the Mis- souri and James rivers. During the next fifteen years the Sand Creek and Firesteel valleys and the Wessington Hills were mainly occupied by peaceful Indians and trappers, and horse thieves and wild buffalo.
In 1876 two squatters named Hain and Nicholson settled at the foot of the hills. Hain laid claim to the northeast quarter of section 13, town- ship 107, R. 65, the land upon which the big spring is located. On the bank of the little stream that flows from the spring and protected by the
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trees that grew up from the ravine, he built a sod hut and later added to it a building made of logs, which for many years stood as a landmark of the county.
Nicholson selected his location about four miles north of Hain, at the entrance of a deep gulch afterwards embraced in the farm owned by H. J. Wallace.
These men made no attempt to cultivate the land further than a small garden patch. Their means of living was mainly a matter of conjecture.
In 1874 a scout with Custer's soldiers in the Black Hills washed a pan of gravel taken from the bottom of French Creek. The result was a find of marvelous richness. Custer sent a dispatch to army headquarters announcing the discovery of gold in the hill country.
This untimely message was unwisely published to the world. Im- mediately a stream of excited gold seekers started for the new Eldorado. They went by teams, on foot and on horseback, only to find the country" of gold guarded by troops who stopped the eager prospectors and turned them back.
The disappointed gold seekers returning to their homes told of the mighty expanse of fertile prairies that must be crossed before the gold country could be entered. The description of the country that had been marked upon the maps as the Great American Desert, fired the ambition of the young men of the east to obtain homes and try their fortunes in farming and stock raising in the upper Missouri valley.
The craze for gold changed to a craze for land. The government land laws permitted every head of a family, or single person, male or female, to obtain 480 acres of her most fertile soil on the continent.
In 1876 Sioux Falls was a town of but few scattered buildings and less than five hundred inhabitants. In less than five years a dozen towns of a thousand or more people had sprung up in the valleys of the Big Sioux and James rivers.
At no time since the gold fever of '49 took so many people across the plains to California, has the nation behield such a movement from an old to a new country.
Some officials of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad in crossing the prairies to lay out a line of transportation to the Black Hills gold region, saw the opportunity for developing an empire and at the same time in- suring an inexhaustable source of revenue to the railroad that should push its lines across these fertile prairies. A report to the directors resulted in an order to extend the system westward.
The C. M. & St. P. immediately followed the example of the North- western and hundreds of miles of railroad were built across a country that had never known a settler.
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Scene in Bateman Gulch.
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Immigrants by thousands and tens of thousands followed close after the locomotive and began the business of getting land. Some, more ven- turesome and hardy than others, pushed on ahead of the roads and took land far from the towns or settlements.
Chapter 2.
Two years after Levi Hain settled by the big spring three brothers, Moses, Peter and Ogden Barrett, came out from Minnesota and settled at the mouth of what is known as Barrett's Gulch. Peter Barrett filed on land in section one 107-65 on the 23rd day of May, 1878, while Moses Barrett at the same time made a homestead entry for 160 acres in sec- tions II and 12 of the same township. Ogden Barrett had made a timber culture entry for a quarter section in section 6-107-64 and he began to make improvements on that date.
The Barretts were men who enjoyed the wide range and the free life of the frontier. Their new homes were over a hundred miles from the nearest settlement, while the only means of regular communication with the rest of mankind was the Yankton-Ft. Thompson mail line which passed over the old Ft. Thompson trail every two weeks. A post-office, named Wessington, with P. R. Barrett as postmaster was established in 1878 and was supplied by this route. The lumber that was used in the construction of Peter Barrett's claim shanty was brought with teams from Beaver Creek, Minnesota.
The next spring, 1879, a man named W. H. Stearns bought the squatters right of Levi Hain to the NE 1/4 of section 13-107-65, and moved into the log house. Hain moved about three-quarters of a mile north and built another log house, which afterwards became the first public school house in the territory now embraced within the limits of the city of Wessington Springs. In this house Hain lived until he moved into Hand county about two years later.
The next settler in the vicinity of Wessington Springs was John Mc- Carter, who filed a homestead entry on the SW of 29-107-64, two miles south of the present city. About the same time a man named Strong filed on a claim in section 17-107-64. In the succeeding fall a Mr. Tucker settled in the vicinty of McCarter and Strong.
In the north part of the county Paddock Steves, Chas. Williams, M. J. Thornton and J. A. Palmer settled among the foot hills in 108 -- 65.
- II
Emergencies arise in the lives of pioneers that call for heroic action. No matter how carefully plans are laid, something will be overlooked, or some accident happen that brings about the unexpected. This happened to M. J. Thornton in February, 1880. His team was not in condition to drive and he was wholly without means of conveyance. In this con- dition the supply of flour for the family became exhausted. The nearest point at which flour could be obtained was the village of Mitchell, fifty miles away. It must be procured and he must get it. The winter had been mild and the prairie was free from snow. Bidding his family good bye, Thornton set out on foot to bring a sack of the much needed article from the distant station. It was a long walk but he arrived at Mitchell on the evening of the day he left home. He remained over night and the next morning obtained the flour and, carrying it on his shoulder, be- gan his long journey to the Wessington Hills.
It was not hard walking for the ground was frozen and the few streams he crossed on the ice. He followed the trail over which the mail was carried and had no difficulty until darkness came on. The prairie had been overrun by fires and was a great unbroken stretch of utter blackness. As night came the sky became cloudy shutting off even the faint starlight. The moon would not rise until near morning, and Thornton soon found himself trudging on in a darkness so intense that the burned prairie upon which he was walking could not be seen. The trail he had been following became invisible and he lost it. A light wind was blowing from the northwest and trusting that it had not changed he walked straight into it and kept on. There was not a habitation of any kind between Mitchell and the Wessington Hills. After walking for what seemed hours he ascended a small elevation and caught a glim- mer of a light that appeared to be miles away to the left. He had not yet crossed the Firesteel Creek and he knew the light must be a long way off.
He turned his steps in the direction of the light and soon felt him- self descending into what he rightly thought to be the bed of the creek. Guided by the wind he kept on until about ten o'clock when he reached the light which proved to be from the home of John McCarter. He stayed with the settler until morning and then continued his course north along, the foot hills, reaching home, tired but otherwise all right.
In the spring of 1879 the mail service was changed so as to make Wessington the terminal of the line from Yankton, another route begin- ning there and going on to Ft. Thompon. The time was altered so as to require the trips on both lines to be made twice a week.
As the mail in those days contained but few papers, and the letters
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were not numerous it was carried from Wessington to Ft. Thompson on horseback.
In the summer of 1879 Chas. Williams, one of the four settlers in 108-65, began carrying the mail from Wessington (Barrett's residence) to the Missouri river and back, making the trips according to the new schedule. The distance from Wessington to Ft. Thompson was forty- five miles and, as there was not a settler between the two stations, the trip must be made in one day or the rider would have to pass a night on the open prairie. In the warm weather a bivouac under the stars was no hardship, but in the winter time the experience was not at all desir- able.
A few days after Thornton made his trip to Mitchell for flour, Charles Williams started on his return trip from Ft. Thompson, Feb. 26, 1880, carrying the few letters and dispatches sent out by the people at the fort. The trail was a mere path, traveled by no one but the mail carrier. The day was mild and Williams was having a pleasant ride. He had crossed Elm Creek and had covered about half the distance to Barrett's place when one of those terrible winter storms that occur at rare intervals on the prairies west of the great lakes, struck him with scarcely a moment's notice. The fine snow filled the air so completely as to be almost suffocating. It was mid-day, but in the blinding snow the path was as invisible as in the darkest midnight. The trail was soon lost and after searching in vain to recover it Williams turned west in the hope of being able to reach the thicket of small trees that skirted the banks of Elm Creek, which he knew were but a few miles distant. He dis- mounted and led the pony, facing the furious wind and plunging through the snow drifts that formed with incredible rapidity. All the afternoon and all night he led his horse about, searching for the shelter of the thickets. The next forenoon he reached the creek and a small grove of trees. He gathered some dry twigs and attempted to make a fire. The few matches he found in his pocket were damp and one by one he saw them fizzle and die. Then he lost hope. The storm continued with all its fury and dropping the bridle rein he sat down to what he believed would be his last rest. How long he sat there he did not know, but was finally aroused by his horse tipping him over while trying to free its nose from icicles. Williams then got upon his feet and began wan- dering along the creek bed to keep alive until the storm should cease. Along the creek bottom he was protected somewhat from the fury of the wind, but unfortunately he fell into a pool of water that had not been frozen. He held up his feet and poured the water from his boots as much as possible and continued his combat with the storm. So for sixty hours the contest went on. - At last the storm abated, the sun came out
I3
4
Levi Hain's Log House.
The Big Spring, where Wessington was burned by the Indians.
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and although the weather was 30 degrees below zero he made his way, now walking, now crawling, now rolling over and over across the deep gulleys filled with snow, to keep from sinking to a depth from which he could not get out, he finally reached an Indian camp, from which he was taken to the fort. His feet were so badly frozen that both were am- putated. Williams became a traveling peddler, wandering over most of the United States.
Chapter 3.
The spring of 1880 found the little band of settlers at the foot of the hills all in good health. They were somewhat curious as to the move- ments of strange mien, who mysteriously came, were seen about the hills for a few days and then as mysteriously disappeared. There were rumours of the existence of an organization of horse thieves and cattle rustlers that extended from below Sioux City to far up the Missouri river, with a station somewhere in the hills. It was hinted that a depot or stable existed in the Nicholson gulch, but if so it was so well hidden that none of the settlers chanced to find it. So far no one had been disturbed in their possessions and the settlers were content to let the mysteries of the hills remain unsolved.
The late snow melted and the warm spring rains started the vegeta- tion and the prairies that had been black from the fires that had overrun them, began to take on the brightest green, that extended unbroken as fas as the eye could reach. From the high points of the hills a person with a good field glass could get a view of the great plain from Huron to Mitchell without seeing a human habitation, excepting the few shanties close to the range of hills.
The showers continued until the latter part of May and then ceased. By the middle of June the grass was evidently needing rain. By the first of July the prairie was taking on a dead-grass color and the vegeta- tion was shrinking and dying. One day in the fore part of July, when a strong north wind was blowing, a fire was started among the hills away to the north. As it advanced the stretch of flame extended east and west. The wind increased as the fire moved forward. With no streams nor lakes, nor broken prairie to hinder its progress a mighty billow of flame swept past the little settlement leaving only blackness where the beautiful green had been but a few weeks before.
None of the settlers lost anything by the fire, except the grazing for
Hudson Horsley.
L. G. Il'ilson.
Mr. and Mrs. P. R. Barrett.
Rob't S. Bateman.
Mr. and Mrs. Bromwell Horsley. George Wallace.
Daniel Kint.
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their animals. In the ravines among the hills the grass sprang up again in a short time, and although the cattle and horses were on short rations for a day or two they soon were able to obtain abundance.
Some rain came after the fire and by the middle of August the settlers could go into the draws and put up sufficient hay to last them through the winter.
During the summer of 1880 a number of prospective settlers visited the country in the vicinity of the springs and along the foot hills.
W. N. Hill came out from Minnesota and put up a few stacks of hay and was followed by Hudson Horsly and his brother Bromwell. The latter stayed, but Hill went back to spend the winter. C. M. Chery came in the fall and took up his residence on the NE of 20 in 108-65, though he spent the winter with P. R. Barrett.
Andrew Solberg filed on the NW of 14 in 107-64, and his son, Ole C. Solberg took a pre-emption and tree claim in section one of 106-64, where he lived during the winter. This was the first settlement in what is now Viola township.
During the winter of 1880 Mr. Stearns being away, Andrew J. Sol- berg lived in the log house near the big spring.
Among the people who visited the hills in the fall of 1880 were J. W. Thomas, Rev. A. B. Smart and D. W. Shryock, who selected land.
Though far removed as the settlers by the hills were from the towns and villages, yet they were not wholly deprived of the comforts of civilization. On the 9th day of May, 1880, Rev. Chapin, a Presbyterian missionary, held religious services at the residence of Peter Barrett and preached the first sermon ever addressed to an audience in the limits of the county. After the church services were concluded a Sunday school was organized and became a regular feature of Sabbathı observance through the summer and fall until October, when, because of the severity of the weather and the scattered condition of the settlement, it was dis- continued for the winter.
During the fall several unaccountable things occurred to annoy the settlers. A few animals mysteriously disappeared and 110 traces of theni could be found. The homes were too widely scattered and too few in number to render available and concerted action. They had their suspi- cions, but could prove nothing and the law and courts were too far away to afford them any relief even though the evidence could have been produced. They were attached to Hanson county for judicial purposes and there were no magistrates or police officers nearer than Mitchell. They suffered their losses as best they could, making no complaint except to each other. The houses of Strong, McCarter and Tucker were all
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burned while the owners were away and under circumstances that made it impossible for the fires to have been accidental.
Strong and Tucker abandoned their land and went away, but Mc- Carter built another residence and prepared to stay through the winter. A man named Stephen Smith had settled near the Springs, and one morning a fine colt he had brought with him was missing and never re- turned.
In 108-65 the shanties of Paddock Steves and J. A. Palmer were broken open and robbed while the proprietors were away from home for a night. Palmer's shanty was torn down and the boards scattered about over the prairie.
Hudson Horsley had a fat cow among his animals that would have afforded a good supply of meat for his family during the winter. Shortly after the winter set in the cow was missing and was never heard of after. One night a span of horses disappeared from P. R. Barrett's stable and all search for them proved fruitless.
The mysterious strangers continued to come and go, but who and what they were, or what was their mission was only a matter of surmise.
Joe Black, a young man who had come out with Hudson Horsley, took the job of carrying the mail between Wessington ( Barrett's place) and Mitchell, and made the trips without molestation two times each week.
The winter of 1880-81 was one of exceptional severity, not only on the plains, but throughout all of the middle west. Snow began to fall in October and continued on the ground, with an occasional light fall, until in February, when a heavy snow fall commenced that lasted a week with- out interruption. When at last the storm ceased and the sun came out the snow was five feet deep on the level.
During the severe weather the settlers were annoyed but little by the desperadoes. The timber in the gulches afforded plenty of fuel, so there was no occasion to make long trips away from home. The deep snow that kept the settlers at home, also prevented the horse thieves and rust- lers from moving about without leaving a trail that could be easily fol- lowed. So the winter passed quietly at the homes by the hills, the greatest hardship being the loneliness of their isolated locations.
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Chapter 4.
With the year 1881 began the immigration to Dakota Territory that culminated in the mighty rush two years later. Some who had been here in 1880 prospecting, came back in 1881 with other prospectors, who "filed" and wrote, or carried back to their friends such favorable reports that more came. The melting of the deep snows filled the draws and lake beds that were dry the previous year, full to overflowing. The spring rains were heavy and frequent, and were followed by abundance of moisture throughout the year. The "sod" crops that were planted grew prodigiously. All who came were greatly pleased with Uncle Sam's farms that he was giving away to all who would take.
With the return of warm weather Mr. Solberg went back to his claim on section 14. Solberg's shanty was a decidedly primitive dwelling. It consisted of four short stakes driven into the ground, one at each corner of the structure, and a tall one in the center. Brush, brought from a gulch in the hils, was stood up about the center stake leaving a small room underneath in which one could stay at night comfortably in warm weather, but the extreme rigor of the winter of 1880-81 had rendered it uninhabitable. Mr. Solberg then took up his abode in the log cabin by the big spring. With the return of warm weather, however, he was able to again take up his residence on his government land.
Mr. Stearns on the 30th of April, 1881, made proof and obtained his final receipt. That was probably the first "proof" made in what is now Jerauld county. The receipt was filed for record in the office of the register of deeds of Hanson county. On the 3rd day of June, 1881, Mr. Stearns sold the land to Dr. C. S. Burr, of Mitchell, and that deed, also, was recorded in Hanson county. The consideration for this transfer was $1,000.
During the summer of 1881 several men came to Aurora county and took up their abode north of township 105 who, though they did not become men of great wealth, yet had much to do with the development in may ways of the county subsequently created.
In May of that year two men left the train at Mitchell and tried to get a ride on to the end of the road at Mt. Vernon. The passenger train was going no further than Mitchell and they were finally offered a ride by the section boss if they would help "pump" the hand car.
They threw their grips on this western "limited" and began to liter- ally work their passage. Arrived at Mt. Vernon they took their grips from the hand car and set out on foot for the Wessington Hills, the out- line of which could be seen lying low on the horizon in the northwest.
One of these men was Almona B. Smart, afterward a first com-
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missioner of two counties; the other, Alden Brown, subsequently the first county superintendent of Aurora county.
The next day after leaving the hand car at Mt. Vernon they reached the hills where Mr. Smart had taken some land in the east half of section 12-107-65, on the occasion of his visit in the fall before and Mr. Brown made a settlement on the NW quarter of section 6-107-64.
C. W. Hill and his son, Wm. N. Hill, came on from Minnesota and settled in 108-65, C. W. Hill in June buying a relinquishment from Paddock Steves to the latter's claim in section 22. George Wallace pur- chosed the squatter's right of Nicholson and settled on the east half of section 17 in 108-65, while Russells and Eagles settled across the line in 108-64.
C. D. Brown moved his family on the NE of section 31-108-64, being the first family domiciled in that township.
A minister named J. W. P. Jordan, father-in-law of A. B. Smart, settled on a claim a mile east of the big spring in May, 1881, and was soon followed by J. W. Thomas and D. W. Shryock, who settled on the land selected by them the preceding autumn. About the same time C. W. P. Osgood, Hiram Blowers and R. S. Bateman and his son, William, joined the settlers near the hills.
On the 14th day of May of that year, John Grant made filing for a half section of land, the east half of 19, in town, 107-64, and was fol- lowed a few months later by his brother, Newell Grant. The two Grants became residents immediately after making entry at the Mitchell land office.
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