USA > South Dakota > A brief history of South Dakota > Part 8
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Terry arrived on the Custer battleground, on the Little
CUSTER AND THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN 1
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Big Horn, the morning after the Indians left. The Indians, without ammunition, were unable to follow up the advantage they had gained, and the government at once threw a strong force into the field; but the Indians kept out of reach, and no engagements of any conse- quence were fought. The government sent to the vari- ous agencies and disarmed all of the Indians and took their horses away from them, leaving them quite helpless. Gall, Sitting Bull, and the most influential of the hostiles escaped into Canada.
In the fall (1876) the government sent out a new commission to treat for the cession of the Black Hills. Disregarding the provision of the treaty of 1868 which required the signatures of three fourths of all of the adult male Indians to any treaty which disposed of any of the lands, this commission went about from agency to agency and secured the signatures of only a few of the chiefs at each place. This treaty sold the Black Hills outright to the government, in return for which the government agreed to support the Indians until such time as they had progressed far enough to enable them to support them- selves.
There has always been a dispute between the Indians and the white men about the terms in this treaty. Most of the Indians were present and heard Senator Allison tell them in 1875 that the whites wished only to buy the right to mine, and they never were called into council to hear any other provision discussed. The impression therefore went out, among the Indians, that the treaty of 1876 gave to the white men only the right to mine in the
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THE PRICE OF GOLD
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Black Hills, and did not sell any land. This is still a matter of much interest and discussion in the Indian eamps, and the Indians in 1904 appointed a general committee-to go to Washington and -insist upon what they deem their rights.
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CHAPTER XXV
ON TO THE DIGGINGS
THE year 1874 was one of the most distressing which the American people ever suffered. The great reaction- ary crash in business affairs, following the great boom which came after the war, had fallen in September, 1873. Not only were thousands of great fortunes wiped out, but everywhere, from the poorest cottage to the grandest mansion, the pinch of hard times was felt. At no time have the people been more despairing and hopeless.
On the evening of August 2, 1874, William McKay, an expert miner with Custer's expedition in the Black Hills, went down to the bank of French Creek, a few yards from the camp, and washed out a pan of earth. When the earth was gone, he held up his pan in the evening sun and found the rim lined with nearly a hundred little particles of gold. These he carried in at once to General Custer, whose head was almost turned at the sight. Cus- ter, as we have seen, at once sent a dispatch about this discovery to the army headquarters in St. Paul. It was received there on the evening of August II, and the next morning the papers throughout America announced to the discouraged people that rich gold mines had been discovered in the Black Hills.
There was magic in the announcement, and drooping
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spirits everywhere revived. Thousands of despondent men resolved at once to recover their fortunes in southern Dakota. The action of the military in preventing the entry of the miners into the Black Hills cooled the ardor of many of them, but that very obstacle made the people believe that the army was guarding a vast storehouse of wealth, and that fortunes were awaiting them. Some, hardy enough to pass the barrier, sent out reports of rich finds, and this increased the determination of very many to get into the Hills.
To the people of southern Dakota, after the long years of dreary struggle through Indian troubles, grasshoppers, and bad crops, the Black Hills gold excitement seemed a godsend. The settlements along the Missouri were thronged with determined strangers waiting for an oppor- tunity to slip into the Hills. Transportation companies were organized, roadmakers were sent out, and all was activity and excitement. Almost daily some miner would creep back from the Hills with exaggerated stories of the wealth of the diggings. Every one was sure that the treaty for the opening of the Black Hills would be made at once, when there would be wealth for everybody.
The route to the Hills, in which the Dakota people were interested, was advertised everywhere as the Yank- ton route. It was by railroad to Yankton, thence by steamboat to Fort Pierre, where stages were taken for the remaining one hundred and seventy-five miles into the diggings. The advantages and pleasures of this route were represented most extravagantly in the adver- tisements.
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Although more than a year passed before military op- position to entering the Hills was withdrawn, there was no abatement of popular interest in the gold diggings. Late in the fall of 1874, a party organized at Sioux City had slipped into the Hills by way of northern Nebraska, and had built a stockade on French Creek near the site of the present city of Custer. They were removed by the military in the early spring, and the reports they brought out served to increase the gold excitement throughout America.
During this period the prospecting for gold was in the placers along the streams in the vicinity of Custer; although gold was found generally distributed in that region, these diggings never proved to be particularly rich. Late in the fall of 1875 John B. Pearson, of Yank- ton, made his way over into the Deadwood gulch in the northern Hills, and discovered rich placer diggings. The following winter was severe, with very deep snow, but many thousand miners assembled at Custer and in that vicinity. Custer city is said to have had eleven thousand population on the Ist of March. As the snows began to disappear in the spring, word was re- ceived of Pearson's find in the Deadwood gulch, and there was a stampede for the northern Hills. In a day Custer was practically depopulated. It is said that less than a hundred people remained, where so many thousands were making their homes but the day before. €
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During the next summer there were not less than twenty-five thousand people in the Deadwood gulch. They were trespassers upon the Indian land. The laws
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of Dakota territory could not reach them. The United States government could only regard them as being in contempt of law. The excitement had brought there not only thousands of honest men, who hoped to secure
DEADWOOD GULCH IN THE SEVENTIES
fortunes in the search for gold, but also many hundreds of the most desperate gamblers and criminals in America. The community had to protect itself. The miners met, organized a government, elected officers, established courts, and succeeded in maintaining order to a creditable degree. Of course, in such a community as existed in
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Deadwood in 1876, many crimes were committed, but most of them were promptly punished. Many of those pioneer gold diggers are still living among the most suc- cessful and most respected men of South Dakota. It
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GROCERYSTORE
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DEADWOOD CITY IN THE SEVENTIES
will always be to their great credit that in this period of excitement they possessed the good sense and the courage to uphold the dignity of organized society.
While the sturdy miners were thus protecting themselves from these great dangers from within, an even greater peril threatened them from without. The Sioux Indians,
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jealous of these trespassers upon their land, lay in wait behind every rock, and few white men who straggled away from the main camps without protection were spared. This condition, however, ended as soon as the treaty of 1876 was signed in the fall of that year. By 1877 the laws of South Dakota were executed throughout the mining country; federal courts were established, and the region of the Black Hills at once became the quiet, rich, safe, well-organized part of the country that it has continued to be.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE MIRACLE OF THE BOOM
THE discovery of gold in the Black Hills had turned the eyes of the world upon South Dakota, and many who had come out to find gold had found the boundless prairies of fertile soil and were led to believe that they were intended by Providence for the happy homes of men. Among those who came into Dakota during the gold excitement was Marvin Hughitt, president of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. The purpose of his visit was to assist in establishing a line of transporta- tion into the Black Hills, by way of his railroads to the Missouri, and thence by steamboat and stage. While on this errand, he was impressed with the vast possibilities of the Dakota prairies, if only railroads were built to bring in supplies and carry out the products. He went home resolved to try a great experiment in western development. He believed that the railroad should be the pioneer, lead- ing the way for the settler, and that if such railroads were built in the Dakota prairie, settlers would flock in and, by their industry, provide freight for the railways that would make the investment profitable.
President Hughitt laid the plan before his directors and it was approved, and as speedily as possible he under-
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took its execution. His plan was also adopted by his great rival, the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Rail- way, and more than two thousand miles of new railroad were quickly built out into the unsettled part of Dakota, furnishing convenient access to every portion of southern Dakota east of the Missouri River.
Mr. Hughitt's faith was more than justified. Almost in a day, population spread all over the broad land, towns were built, farms opened, schools established, churches erected, and in the briefest possible time the wilderness was converted into a thriving, prosperous, productive, well-settled American commonwealth, having all the conveniences and comforts and institutions of the older states. This period, from 1877 until 1883, is known as the great Dakota boom. History has no other instance to compare with it.
When this period began, Sioux Falls was but a little village of three or four hundred people, and was the northernmost point of any consequence within what is now South Dakota. Within five years Brookings, Madi- son, Mitchell, Huron, Pierre, Watertown, Redfield, Aberdeen, Webster, and Milbank had become impor- tant cities. When the boom began, of course, no one had any information as to which were to become the important cities, and which were to remain simply way stations and country trading points. Ambitious men, men of great ability, settled in about equal numbers in each of these villages, and each set out to make his town the chief city of the locality. The rivalry between the various towns, therefore, became very strong, and re-
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sulted in many incidents that were very funny, and in . disappointments that were pathetic.
Every village was ambitious to become the county seat of its county, and contests were entered into which even to this day influence the affairs of many communities.
STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, MADISON
Men with learning and ability to grace the United States Senate have frequently spent the best years of their lives in a vain attempt to develop a village, intended by nature and environment simply as a local market for farm products, into a commercial city, and sometimes they have succeeded at the expense of a neighboring village much better situated. In several instances county seat
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contests resulted in actual violence, particularly in the fight between Redfield and Ashton, in Spink County, in which it was necessary for the governor to send the territorial militia to preserve peace and protect the county records.
CHAPTER XXVII
A MEMORABLE WINTER
THE year 1880 brought a greater inflow of new settlers than had come in any previous year. They were chiefly homesteaders, who built temporary homes - shacks, they were called - for the summer, and devoted their efforts chiefly to breaking up the soil, making hay, and producing such crops as could be grown upon the sod, leaving the construction of more substantial and per- manent buildings until the autumn months; for the experience of older settlers had taught that glorious autumn weather, extending on until nearly the holidays,
might reasonably be expected. But in this year, a year when of all years it was most unseasonable, a great bliz- zard came at the middle of October. In a hundred years of western history such a thing had occurred but once or twice before, and in those instances the October storms were less severe than that which came upon the unpro- tected settlers in 1880. The snow fell to a very great depth and was blown by a violent wind until the open shacks and stables were filled, ravines were drifted full to the level of the general country, stock was driven away or smothered in the drifts, and the settlers suffered very severely. A few lives were lost; very few indeed, con-
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sidering the severity of the weather and the exposed con- dition of the people.
Every one believed that the snow would melt away and that we should yet have our glorious late autumn, but such was not to be; the October blizzard was the be-
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HOW THE RAILROADS FIGHT THE SNOW AT THE PRESENT DAY
ginning of a winter the like of which has not before or has since been known. The snow did not go off, and early in November an additional fall came, to which additions were made from week to week. The railroads, as yet unprotected by snow fences, were covered with drifts, and it was with great difficulty that trains were moved at all. SO. DAK. - II
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By New Year's Day operation of the trains was given up entirely. The stocks of goods in the country were natu- rally small, and the difficulty of operating the trains in the fall had in many instances made it impossible to get in the usual winter supplies.
The supply of fuel in the country was exhausted almost as soon as the trains stopped running. There was, how- ever, an abundance of wheat and of hay, and soon the settlers were reduced to the necessity of grinding wheat in coffee mills, and baking their bread upon fires made of twisted hay.
One of the great inconveniences was the lack of any material out of which to make lights. Kerosene oil was not to be secured at any price, and the stock of tallow was very small. Many families were compelled to sit for months through the long winter without a light of any kind in their houses except the glow of a hay fire.
To save the limited supplies on hand and particularly to secure the advantage of warmth without consuming too much fuel, families would club together and several of them live in the most comfortable home in the com- munity. Most of the people were young, vigorous, and hopeful, and they made the best of the bad circumstances. Every one exerted himself to be cheerful, and to keep those about him in a cheerful temper. Many an old settler will to-day refer to the bad winter of 1880 as one of the most enjoyable he ever passed. Dancing was a favorite pastime, and the number of persons who could be accommodated, for a dancing party, in a little homestead shack, is a matter of astonishment to those who enjoy
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A MEMORABLE WINTER
that recreation in the spacious halls of to-day. Morti- mer Crane Brown, who spent that winter as a pioneer in Lincoln County, has told us in verse of the joys of a coun- try dance during the snow blockade: -
WHEN THE SNOW IS ON THE PRAIRIE
When the snow is on the prairie An' the drift is in the cut, An' life gets a trifle dreary Joggin' in the same old rut, Nothing like a good old fiddle Takes the wrinkles out o' things. There's the chirp o' larks an' robins In the twitter ov 'er strings.
When the whizzin', roarin' blizzard Is a shuttin' out the day, An' the balmy breath of summer Seems a thousand years away, You can start the eaves a drippin' With the tinglin' ov 'er strings, You kin hear the water bubblin' From a dozen dancin' springs.
Rub the bow across the rosin, Twist the peg an' sound your A, There'll be bobolinks a clinkin' When you once begin ter play; Bees'll waller in the clover, Blossoms whisper in the sun,
All the world a runnin' over With the sunshine an' the fun.
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Git the gals and boys together.
"Pardners all for a quadrille," Cheeks aglow with frosty weather, Hearts that never felt a chill; Youth an' music never weary, Tho' they meet in hall or hut - When the sun is on the prairie An' the drift is in the cut.
"Sashy by an' s'lute yer pardners. Sashy back an' how d'ye do !" Everybody's feelin' funny An' the fiddle feels it too. Out o' doors the storm may sputter, But within the skies are bright,
Pansies peekin' out, an' butter- Cups a bobbin' in the light.
O, the joy of healthful pleasure ! O, the trip of tireless feet ! While the fiddle fills each measure With its music wild an' sweet; Glints of sun the shadows vary, Though from out the world we're shut, When the snow is on the prairie An' the drift is in the cut.
During that winter Dakota had an actual snowfall, on the average, of more than twelve feet; much snow re- mained upon the ground until late in April, and then, under the influence of a warm south wind, was converted into water in a single day. The broad prairies were simply
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A MEMORABLE WINTER
a great sea, while the valleys were filled with roaring tor- rents. Great damage was done to property, particularly at Sioux Falls and along the Missouri. The troubles on the Missouri were greatly increased by a gorge of ice which formed at the mouth of James River, and backed the water up that stream until the city of Yankton was flooded ; and then when the gorge finally broke, it carried away the town of Vermilion, which then was located below the hill. Fortunately the loss of life was very small, but the loss of property was terrific, and fell very heavily upon settlers who had not yet accumulated a reserve fund in cash to assist them over such an emergency.
Yankton was then a railroad terminus, and at that point began the commerce by steamboat up the Missouri River. Fifteen steamboats were on the ways at Yankton when the flood came. Great cakes of ice went hurtling against them, crushing holes in their sides, snapping im- mense hawsers, and tossing them into a common jumble. Green Island, a beautiful little village under the timber, across the channel from Yankton, was utterly destroyed, and since then the main channel of the Missouri has passed over the spot where the village formerly prospered.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE FIGHT FOR STATEHOOD
WHEN Dakota territory was created in March, 1861, it comprised the land now occupied not only by the states of South Dakota and North Dakota, but also by part of Wyoming and most of Montana. In 1864 Montana was organized as a territory, and in 1868 Wyoming also was cut off, leaving only North and South Dakota within the territorial boundary.
As early as 1872 the pioneers, looking forward to the time when all of the territory would be populated, and so- licitous for the convenience and interests of their children, began to agitate for the division of Dakota territory upon the 46th parallel, making two territories of equal size; and the territorial legislature petitioned Congress to take action in the matter. No action, however, was taken, and there was really no great interest in the subject until, in the autumn of 1879, some speculative gentlemen began to talk of buying the entire amount of school land in the territory at a low figure.
The school lands consisted of two sections in every congressional township, set apart by the United States government for the creation of a permanent public school fund out of the proceeds of their sale. At that time
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scarcely a farm in the territory was worth so much as ten dollars an acre. The proposition, however, to buy the school lands at a nominal price came to the attention of General W. H. H. Beadle, then territorial superintendent of public instruction, and he promptly inaugurated a movement to prevent such action. He de- clared that the people . should adopt, as an irrevocable condition, that not one acre of our school lands should be sold for less than the sum of ten dollars. This proposition seemed like a hopeless dream, even to the most hopeful of the Dakotans, but General Beadle stood strongly for it.
Fearing that a scheme might be worked through Congress to GENERAL W. H. H. BEADLE sell the school lands for a small price, General Beadle believed that safety lay only in the division and admission of the Dakotas as states, and in placing the ten-dollar principle in the constitution, and he joined the two plans into one general movement, for the success of which he talked and wrote constantly. In this work he was loyally 7 assisted by Governor Howard, Dr. Joseph Ward, president
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of Yankton College, and Rev. Stewart Sheldon, and, though the price of land did not increase very rapidly, he had, by 1882, so impressed his views upon the people that it was generally said that the ten-dollar idea should be made the rule.
The first wide-reaching movement in this direction was a convention of citizens held at Canton, June 21, 1882, when an executive committee was appointed to promote the division and statehood idea. This committee carried the matter to the territorial legislature the next winter and secured the passage of a bill providing for a con- stitutional convention for South Dakota, but the bill was vetoed by Governor Ordway. This veto caused much indignation among the people of South Dakota and did very much to arouse the people to the necessity of prompt action. The executive committee thereupon called a delegate convention to meet at Huron, June 19, 1883. Every county in South Dakota was there represented by its strongest men. Its action was most calm and dignified. A solemn ordinance was passed providing for a constitutional convention for the south half of Dakota territory to be held at the city of Sioux Falls on Sep- tember 4 of that year.
Pursuant to this ordinance, an election was held for delegates and they assembled at Sioux Falls in September. Hon. Bartlett Tripp was elected president of the conven- tion, which was composed of the ablest men from every community. An excellent constitution was framed, and submitted to the people at the November election, and adopted by an almost unanimous vote. A committee of
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the convention, composed of Bartlett Tripp, Hugh J. Campbell, Gideon C. Moody, and Arthur C. Mellette, carried this constitution to Congress and asked that it be accepted, and that South Dakota be admitted to the Union; but without avail.
The next legislature, by law, provided for a new con- stitutional convention to be held in Sioux Falls in Septem- ber, 1885. Meanwhile General Beadle had carried on his agitation for ten-dollar school land, and the principle was adopted by the new constitutional con- vention. The consti- tution framed by this convention was duly ratified by the people at the November elec- tion, and a complete set of state officers BARTLETT TRIPP were elected, together with members of Congress and a legislature. Arthur C. Mellette was elected governor. Huron was chosen for the temporary capital. The new (state) legislature met at Huron on December 15 and elected Gideon C. Moody and Alonso J. Edgerton as United States senators. Oscar S. Gifford and Theodore D. Kanouse had been elected members of the lower house of Congress.
These gentlemen and the governor carried the new con-
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stitution to Congress with a prayer for admission. South Dakota was a' strongly Republican community, while the national government at this time was dominated by the Democratic party, and Congress objected to the ad- mission of a state which was certain to send Republican United States senators to cut down the narrow majority of the Democrats in that body. Consequently the prayer for admission was denied, the officers elected under the proposed constitution had no power, and the territorial government continued as before.
The Democratic leaders declared for admission of Dakota territory as a whole, and the federal government used its influence to oppose the division movement in Dakota; therefore, a considerable party grew up in Dakota in opposition to division, but at every test the people pronounced strongly for two states. The popu- lation of Dakota was increasing rapidly, there were nearly six hundred thousand white citizens in the territory, and, under the territorial form of government, they were de- nied many of the privileges of citizenship. Yet year after year passed without action for their relief.
The Republican national convention of 1888 made the division and admission of North and South Dakota a national issue and it was discussed from every platform in America. The Republican party prevailed in that election, and, before the close of the Congress then in existence, the bill for the division of Dakota territory and the admission of North and South Dakota was passed on St. Valentine's Day and approved on Washington's Birthday, 1889, and that bili provided that no acre of
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