USA > South Dakota > History of southeastern Dakota, its settlement and growth, geological and physical features--countries, cities, towns and villages--incidents of pioneer life--biographical sketches of the pioneers and business men, with a brief outline history of the territory in general > Part 1
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Gc 978.3 H62 1281088
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01066 6961
E.C. WALTON. ENWALTON.
1
@Walton
HISTORY
OF
Southeastern
Dakota
ITS SETTLEMENT AND GROWTH,
Geological and Physical Features-Counties. Cities Towns and Villages-Incidents of Pioneer Life -Biographical Sketches of the Pioneers and Business Men,
WITH A BRIEF
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE TERRITORY IN GENERAL.
"Therefore I hope, as no unwelcome guest, At your warm fireside, when the lamps are lighted, To have my place reserved among the rest. Nor stand as one unsought and uninvited !" -Longfellow.
SIOUX CITY IOWA: WESTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1881.
4
PERKINS BROS. Steam Book and Job Printers SIOUX CITY, IOWA.
.
SOMalton
1281088 CONTENTS.
PAGE
PAGE
HISTORY OF DAKOTA 10
Federal Offleers. 28
Members of Legislative Assembly 29
Marion Junction 189
The Census of 1880. 32
Union County and Elk Point. 191
History of Bon Homme County 196
Bon Homme 197
Scotland. 198
Dakota's Claims to Statehood 37
Springfield.
201
History of Clay County
205
Vermillion .
206
History of Davison County.
215
Mitchell.
216
Abandonment of Sioux Valley ... 52
Establishment of Fort Dakota ... 54
History of Yankton County
222
History of Sioux Falls 56
Dell Rapids. 106
Valley Springs 113
History of Lake County. 116
Elkton
319
Madison. 118
Marion Junction.
318
History of Moody County
123
Flandreau.
124
Egan.
131
History of Brookings County. 134
Brookings. 138
Volga.
141
Elkton 145
Kingsbury, Hamlin, Deuel, Grant,
Clark and Spink Counties
145
History of Beadle County.
148
Huron. 149
MeCook County 154
History of Codington County.
154
Watertown 150
Beloit, Calliope and Portlandville, Iowa . 164
History of Lincoln County 170
Canton 175
Eden
180
Lennox.
182
Valley Springs 382
Volga 384
ERRATUM-On page 50, for "The spring and summer of 1863." etc .. rerd "1862."
336
Portlandville 338
Canton 310
Springfield 342
Eden 344
Calliope 345
Watertown 3.16
Elk Point 353
Brookings 359
Vermillion 362
Yankton. 368
The City of Yankton 237
Biographical Directory
306
Sioux Falls
306
Parker 319
Egan
Madison
Dell Rapids 327
Scotland 331
Huron. 334
Lennox
History of Turner County
185
Parker .. 186
Present Population (estimated) .. 33
Organized Counties of Dakota. 35
The James River Valley 35
History of Southeastern Dakota. 41
The Sioux Falls Settlement. 41
The "Provisional Government ...
48
Murder of Judge Amidon and Son 50
Hutchinson County 221
ECHallon
PREFACE.
CURIOSITY is inherent in human nature, especially concerning events affect- ing one's personal interests. What then em more pleasurable occupy the attention of the reader than a narrative of the primary incidents inseparable from the organization of his own civil and social surroundings? A narrative of the birth and growth of the community to which he is by every tie attached; a record of the happenings incident to that birth and growth; the prosaic and matter-of-fact details, and the romantic and adventurous details as well-a his- tory of an epoch of true Western progressiveness, the beginning of an era of so great possibilities, developing into the fact of so prosperous a present, and making doubly sure the assurance of an incredibly prosperous future. And how important it is that these early details be gathered for appropriate presen- tation while yet personal sources of accurate information are obtainable.
The publishers can but believe that every candid person will agree with them in thus highly estimating the importance, even at this comparatively early date- of preserving in proper and convenient form the HISTORY OF SOUTHEASTERN DAKOTA. While the contemporaneous reader may not value the work so highly as nature consideration would warrant, yet it is to those who come after that the historian must appeal, and if the result of his labors in this instance shall be to throw light upon the pathway of future workers, making clear the obscure places, and lessening the tasks of those whose lot it shall be to chronicle the History of the mighty State of Dakota, then, indeed, will a laudable mis- sion have been meritoriously fulalled. We have seen works of this character, even slightingly spoken of at first, nevertheless, in the lapse of years, attam high value and become accredited with having saved to the worldl much that was important, but which would otherwise have passed beyond the attempts of later history to recall.
Such considerations as these assuredly preclude necessity for apology in pre- senting the accompanying historical sketch of the early settlement and subse- quent development of Southeastern Dakota, in which section we include what is everywhere favorably known as the Valley of the Big Sioux River, an.l por- tions of the Dakota or James River country, embracing in all, for the purposes of the work, the counties of Spink, Clark, Codmgton, Grant, Deuel, Hamlin Beadle, Kingsbury, Brookings, Miner, Lake, Moody, Davison, Hanson, McCook, Minnehaha, Hutchinson, Turner, Lincoln, Bon Homme, Yankton, Clay and Union, with less particular reference to other counties contiguous.
6
HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
Obviously, the plan of such a work will include: 1. A brief outline history of the entire Territory. 2. A general history of Southeastern Dakota. 3. Particular histories of the different counties, their cities and villages. To these will be found to be added numerous biographical sketches of pioneer, official, professional and business men. a department which has been obtained at the expen-e of much labor and means, and which in a condensel form contains much interesting and valuable information.
With reference to the physical features of Southeastern Dakota, the character and composition of her soil, her surpassing fertility and the wondrous rapidity of her settlement and growth, the writer has not felt called upon to deal in Horid rhetoric or figures of exaggeration. It must be borne in mind that this is not a work is-ved for the pecuniary profit of speculators in real estate, nor at the instance of a bureau of immigration. While such books and pamphlets are calculated to benefit the country which in their usually glowing terms they may depict, and while the present HISTORY OF SOUTHEASTERN DAKOTA will doubt- less bear no small part in calling attention to the resources of the Territory and in aiding the good cause of desirable immigration; nevertheless, its objects, pure and sing le are as stated above, and its Publishers will be more than con- tent should these objects be satisfactorily accomplished. It is, indeed, most gratifying to know that it is not necessary to call in the aid of exaggeration or the puffery of extravagant literature to describe Dakota in attractive terms; hence we here a "plain, unvarnished tale relate," confident that Truth in her soberest, prosiest guise will 'throne "Supremacy like a shining star" within the fair borders of Dakota.
That instances of minor inaccuracies will occur in a work of this character, howsoever great care may be taken to prevent, is to be expected, since so many dates, and so numeroEs and varied incidents, are necessarily introduced; and especially is this true et the biographical department, errors in which, however, as in nearly every other instance, will be found to be attributable to uninten- tional misstatements by the parties themselves, who, naturally enough, not being so closely interested in the accuracy of details as the laborious compilers of the work, may have been more or less careless of their statements at the time of making them. All that painstaking and impartial effort can accomplish has been done, and no pains have been spared, either in the compiling or the print- ing, to secure strict accuracy in every respect; and so far as conscientious labor is concerned, we feel confident that the work will be ascertained to merit the lenient consideration of the candid and unbiased reader.
We desire also to acknowledge our appreciation of the uniform and cordial courtesy of the press of Southeastern Dakota, whose files we have had frequent occasion to consult, as well as the obligations which we owe to Mr. JAMES S.
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HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
FOSTER's excellent "Outlines of History." and especially to the admirable pro- ductions of the Hon. M. K. ARMSTRONG. We are indebted to the Hon. W. W. BROOKINGS for that portion of the work. which relates more particularly to the Sioux Falls settlement. from the beginning to about the year 1871-a narrative. which, we are pleased to state, is herein told for the first time accurately and in detail. The names of the good citizens of Southeastern Dakota, upon whose funds of valuable information we have felt at all times at liberty to draw, are Legion; and to them we wish to express our most sincere thanks.
December, 1881.
THE PUBLISHERS.
Echallon
HISTORY OF DAKOTA,
HE "LAND OF THE DACOTAHS" is peculiarly rich in abor- iginal traditions. A history of savage life within its borders, the origin. interminglings, warfares, mutations, diminishment and gradual disappearance of the red races that have inhabited it since the years beyond the limits of authen- tication, would necessarily be tinged with the rhythm of barbaric folk-lore; and since this is true of the most prosaic of these records, it is no wonder the dealer in the imagery of fiction has found herein abundance of material for poetic exaggeration. Whether or not "it is pretty clearly established that the primitive tribes of the Northwest migrated from Eastern Asia, and in their early drift- ing, like sea-foam, across the northwestern waters, brought with them a glimmer of civilized history, which has long since vanished into tradition. in the chase and war-path of the wilderness," may be left to the deliberation of the professional ethnologist or the amateur in love with the study of the curious. Certain it is, that this theory has become tacitly accepted, apart from speculation as to a sufficient reasonableness of hypothesis.
Seemingly well authenticated history traces Prince Madoe, or Madowe. from North Wales, with ten ships and a large colony of his countrymen. to the mouth of the Mississippi River in the early part of the fourteenth century, and the traditions of their own country have it that the colony settled somewhere in the interior of North America. where eventually their descendants became merged into tribal relations with the aborigines. It is even averred that the journeyings and ancient fortifications of this colony have been traced from the Ohio River to the old Mandan village in Dakota. In support of the theory that the Mandan tribe of Indians are descendants of Prince Madoc's colony, certain similarities in language and customs are instanced. Nicollet, who was sent by the government at Quebec to treat with certain tribes of western Indians in 1639, first mentions the Dakota family of Indians. Nicollet visited the Ounipcgons (Winnebagos), a name signifying "a people who came from a distant sea." Jogues
10
HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
and Raymbault, Jesuits, visited the Ojibways of Lake Superior in 1641, by whom they were informed that eighteen days' journey to the west of them lived a powerful nation known as the "Nadouechiouch," or "Nadsuessionex," meaning "enemy," but subsequently designated by the abbreviation, "Scionx," "Sioux," or "Sou," and now correctly called "Dakotas," meaning the "friendly nations," in consequence of alliances formed among them, at a later period, after the long and bloody wars with the Algonquins.
Two young Canadian fur traders accompanied a party of In- dians to the Far West in 1654, and it is thought were the first white men who entered the present Territory of Dakota.
In 1541 De Soto discovered the great Mississippi River; it was visited by Marquette and Joliet, who entered it by the way of Wisconsin, in 1673: Hennepin ascended it to a point above the present city of St. Paul, Minn., in 1680, and its month was dis- covered by LaSalle in 1683. In 1602, Viscaino, the Spanish navi- gator, ascended the northwest shore of the continent as far as the 43d parallel, by virtue of which discovery Spain claimed all the country between the Mississippi and the Pacifie. The American ship "Columbia," commanded by Capt. Gray, entered the mouth of the Columbia River in 1792, and gave it its name in honor of his vessel. The whole northwest country, embracing an "indefinite distance to the northward," was then known as Louisiana Ter- ritory.
It is claimed that the Indian tribes, who inhabited this vast region at this time, were the great race of the "Sionx." -- the Hurons, Iroquois, Winnebagoes, Wyandottes, Illinois and Foxes- all families of the great Dakota nation. and at war with the whole Algonquin race of the Atlantic coast. The introduction among the Algonquins of fire-arms, steel arrows and battle axes by Cana- dian traders, were effectual weapons against the flint-headed arrows and wooden war clubs of the Dakotas, and the great nation, de- feated and pursued by the conquerers, fled toward the regions of the setting sun. Very little is known concerning the tribes that inhabited Dakota prior to that bloody era. "Tradition says that the Cheyenne (Shiens, or Dog,) Indians were once a powerful nation, and were the first race of people who migrated to the Mis- souri Valley; that after having been repeatedly driven down from the regions of the North, they located on a western tributary of the Red River, where their blood poured out in battle against their
11
HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
invading foes, mingling with the waters of the northern stream, changed its hue, and gave it the name of the blood-colored or Red River of the North. Again they were defeated, and again they struck their tents and fled, with the bleeding remnants of their tribe, across the northern plains of Dakota, and formed a new home on a stream that enters with the Missouri from the west, which they called the Cheyenne.
"Charlevoix relates of the primitive tribes of Southern Dakota, that, nearly two centuries ago, the Iowas, Omahas and Ottoes were in this portion of the territory, and roamed and warred through the regions watered by the Des Moines, Big Sioux and James, or Dakota, Rivers, and that these tribes annually assembled in peace around their sacred council fires at the Great Red Pipestone Quarry. From here they were afterwards driven south and west by the great nation of Dakotas moving down from the North like a mighty army, and covering the whole plain with their tents and war dances."
· The period of this great Indian retrogression was probably some time before the beginning of the seventeenth century. Up to that era the Dakotas had remained as one nation; but during the great war and flight from the North. they had become disbanded and dispersed into smaller parties, and in order to be distinguished from other tribes, abandoned the ancient name of "Nadsuessioux." or "Sioux," and called themselves Dakotas, or the "friendly people." Since that period, history and tradition agree in placing the Dakotas as masters of the vast region between the Mississippi and the Mountains. The Yanktons at that time inhabited the region between the James and the Big Sioux Rivers, and were known as the "tribe that lives at the ent:" all the tribes to the northwest of them were called "those who came over the moun- tains from the sea."
In 1762. France ceded the whole northwestern territory to Spain. who in turn, in 1800, receded it to France, by which latter government it was transferred to the United States, in 1803, for fifteen millions of dollars. The number of white inhabitants in the whole northwestern territory at that early day, is variously estimated at from one to less than five thousand, the only "foot- prints of civilization" from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean being the small trading posts where now stand, among others, the present cities of St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee. San Fran-
12
HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
cisco and Astoria. Mention is made by the early navigators of the Missouri River, of seven poor families a few miles above the present city of St. Louis, which was the only settlement of white people in the Missouri River Valley in 1803. In 1787. the terri- tory northwest of the Ohio River, lying east of the Mississippi, was framed into a separate Territory, which in 1800 was divided into the Territories of Indiana and Illinois, and in 1805 the Terri- tory of Michigan was established. Soon after the purchase of Louisiana from France in 1803, the territory west of the Missouri was divided, and all south of the 39th degree was called the Terri- tory of New Orleans.
During the administration of President Jefferson, in 1804-5, Congress and the President authorized the exploration of the great unknown West, by way of the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, to the Northern Pacific Coast, the party to report to the Government the result of their discoveries and adven- tures. Thus was created the famous Lewis and Clark expedition, Captains Lewis and Clark, with a band of forty-two men, starting from St. Lonis, in open sail and oar boats, on the 14th of May, 1804, upon a journey of five thousand miles through an unknown wilderness, inhabited only by wild tribes of Indians. They were the first party of American explorers to ascend the Missouri River into the land of the Dakotas, their printed Journal affording to the world the earliest written description of this great valley of the Northwest. They reached the Big Sioux River, the present eastern boundary of Dakota, on the 21st of August, 1804; on the 28th of October they arrived at the old Mandan Indian villages, above the present crossing of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and began the construction of log huts and stockades for their winter quarters. Here they passed the winter of 1804-5, and on the 7th of April. 1805, Jannehed their boats on the river to continue their devions and perilous journey mountainward. The great Falls of the Missouri River, near the western boundary of Dakota Terri- tory, as originally organized, were discovered on the 13th of June, and on the 12th of August. the enthusiastie little party of adven- turers stood upon the summit of the great range of the Rocky Mountains, around the little spring from which came bubbling the remotest waters of the great Missouri. "They had now reached that hidden source which had never before been seen by civilized man: and as they quenched their thirst at the chaste and icy
13
HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
fountain,-as they sat down by the rivulet which yielded its dis- tant but modest tribute to the parent ocean,-they felt themselves rewarded for all their labors and difficulties." Crossing the moun- tains on horseback. they reached the source of the Columbia, built canoes, and descended that mighty river to the Pacific Coast, where they passed the winter of 1805-6, among the Indians, living in bark and earth huts, and speaking a jargon of languages like the natives of India and Tartary, from which countries many of the early Indian tribes of the Northwest are believed to have migrated.
During their westward journey. on the morning of the 27th of August, 1804, the Lewis and Clark expedition passed the month of the James River, when an Indian swam to their boats and in- formed them that a large body of Sioux were encamped in their immediate vicinity. Three men, with an interpreter, were dis- patched to the Sioux camp. while the boats proceeded on about eleven miles, where. on a beautiful plain, near Calumet Bluff, above where Yankton now stands, the party encamped and waited the arrival of the Sioux. A speech and appropriate presents were prepared, and here at noon the chiefs and warriors of the Yank- tons arrived, and were received in council under a large oak tree. near which the American flag was flying. Thus, nearly four- score years ago. did this little band of American adventurers first fling to the breeze of an unknown wild the flag of the American Republic, on the spot where now stands the capital of a vigorous and growing Territory, with its sturdy population of over two hundred thousand energetic souls, and on the threshhold of admis- sion to the mighty sisterhood of States.
Soon after the Lewis and Clark expedition, American traders and adventurers began to push their way into the thitherto un- known Northwest, establishing posts for the trade in furs with the natives. The goods for the trale with the Dakotas were brought up the river in open boats, propelled by oars and wind. and "cordalled" over the bars with long tow ropes fastened to the boats and drawn by men walking along the shores. The furs and peltries were taken to the distant St. Louis market in the spring. the journeys down the upper tributaries being often made in circu- lar boats of skins, with which the channel could be followed. regardless of the sand-bars. snags and darkness. The Missouri Fur Company was established in 1808: the American Fur Com-
14
HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
pany, by John Jacob Astor, of New York, in 1809, and about this time the first trading posts were established in the country drained by the Missouri River. Astor fitted ont the first over- land fur party in 1811. who voyaged in oar-boats up the Missouri River to the Arickaree Indian villages, and thence overland across the country north of the Black Hills, through the Wind River and the Rocky Mountains, to Astoria. on the Pacific Coast. The Rocky Mountain Fur Company commenced to make annual expeditions to the head-waters of the Missouri in 1826. The American Fur Com- pany, stimulated by this competition, extended their operations, until, in 1832, it had become the controlling corporation in the whole Northwest. It is claimed that Pierre Choteau, of this com- pany, was the first man to run a steamboat up the Missonri River into Dakota Territory, and under his pilotship the steamers Ante- lope and Yellowstone, in 1832 and 1833, were the first to plow Dakota's waters. The first steamboat had ascended the Missis- sippi to Fort Snelling, above the present city of St. Paul, ten years prior to this, and in the same year Lord Selkirk established the oldest settlement in Dakota, on Red River, near the British boundary.
Canada passed into the control of the British government in 1763. MeKenzie, of the old Hudson Bay Company, leading the first party of white men across the continent, from the Canadian border to the Pacific, north of the 34th parallel, as early as 1787.
The old Northwest boundary of 49 degrees. between the United States and the British Possessions, was proposed in the early part of the present century. a long diplomatie controversy ensuing as to the rights of discovery and occupancy of the territory south of this boundary.
The first treaty with the Indians west of the Mississippi was made by General Scott. at Davenport, in 1832. and the great Ter- ritory of Wisconsin was organized in 1836, with Burlington as the capital, at which place, in 1837, the first Legislature northwest of the Mississippi River assembled. Father De Smet, in 1840, was the first to carry the cross of religion and the seeds of agri- culture to the wild natives of the Rocky Mountain regions.
Connected with this era there is a period of history comprising the earlier exp litions of Robert Campbell's fur parties to the West. and the discovery of Great Salt Lake, 1826, and of Captain
15
HISTORY OF DAKOTA.
Bonneville's two years of adventure in the mountains with his train of trappers, in 1833-34, and of the early trials and wander- ings of the Subletts, Choteans, Wythe, Fitzpatrick, Henry, Stuart, and many others, who long ago led their cavalcades across the vast wilds of the Northwest, when no trace of civilized settlement could be found in all the country between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean; also the later explorations of Nicollet and Fre- mont, and of Catlin, in 1833, Pope in 1849. and the still more recent expeditions of Stevens, Warren, Harney, Hayden, Mullen, Sully, and others; while the memorable slaughter of Colonel Fet- terman and his whole command west of the Black Hills in the winter of 1865-66, the perishing in a snow-storm near Fort Wadsworth of Captain Fields and his soldiers, together with the terrible fate of General Custer and his mounted battalion of gal- lant men, all form a part of the pioneer history of the great Northwest.
Not until 1834 did the first American colony emigrate to the Pacific Coast, and in 1839 the first printing press was carried be- yond the mountains. In 1835 the first newspaper in the Missouri Valley was published at Dubuque, in the then Territory of Wis- consin. from which vast region of country have since been carved and organized the Territories of Iowa in 1838, Minnesota in 1849, Nebraska in 1834, Dakota in 1861, Idaho in 1863, Montana in 1864; while still farther to the west. beyond the mountains, have been framed the Territories of Oregon in 1848, and Washington in 1853.
By act of Congress in 1849, a portion of Dakota was included within the boundaries of the newly organized Territory of Minne- sota, which had hitherto remained a portion of the old county of St. Croix, in Wisconsin Territory. In 1851. at Traverse-de-Sioux, Minnesota, was consummated the memorable treaty between the United States and the upper bands of Dakota Indians, by the provisions of which the Government became possessed of the first acre of land in Dakota, to which the Indians had relinquished their title. It embraced a strip of land in the upper valley of the Big Sioux River. covering the present towns of Sioux Falls, Flandreau and Medary, including that portion of territory lying between the Big Sioux and the Minnesota State line and taking in the western shores of Big Stone Lake. In the same year the · Minnesota Legislature divided their Territory into nine counties.
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