USA > South Dakota > Jerauld County > A history of Jerauld county, South Dakota > Part 26
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Although trains began running into Lane regularly on Sept. 28th and received and delivered freight at that place the railway company had no depot until the next year nor no regular agent. Sometimes Mr. Franzwa receipted for outgoing freight and stored it in his store, or in
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the company's tool house, built in November, and sometimes it was receipted for by the conductor.
But while Lane was coming into existence and Wessington Springs was trying to adjust itself to railway conditions, the town of Alpena was equally busy in taking care of the business demands that were going that way.
The Bank of Alpena moved into its new building during the first week in January. Fred Ferguson and Mason Smith were granted a franchise for a telephone exchange in the town on February 12th "to con- tinue as long as they do business under the same name and management." The telephone exchange was not put in, however, until in Nov. when the work was done by Bert Pinard, of Wessington Springs for another company composed of A. F. Smith, J. E. Shull, J. M. Johnson, D. S. Manwaring and R. E. Dye. At that time 40 phones were installed.
C. W. Miller sold and gave possession of the Reveve House to Mason Smith March 2nd, and about a month later A. N. Louder purchased the Franzwa store and business.
In April Grant Anderson increased the length of his store building making it 140 feet long by 24 feet in width.
Dr. Jenkinson closed his partnership relations with Dr. Shull in May and in August purchased the practice of Dr. Stewart at Wessington Springs and located there.
The Alpena Investment Co. was organized in May with J. D. Cham- berlain as president and A. S. Cory as secretary and treasurer. This company a few days later (May 24th) received of C. H. Prior a deed for a strip of land 66 feet wide by 2,100 feet long on the east side of the platted portion of the town, for use as a public street.
In April a petition was filed with the town trustees asking that the establishment of a saloon in Alpena be submitted to the voters of the town at the next election. The vote was taken May 4th and the saloon was voted in by 12 majority. C. J. Vandergrift applied for license to sell liquor and the application was granted. On June 10th the county commissioners held a special session and approved the saloon bond.
A meeting was held May 25th to consider the subject of putting down an artesian well in Alpena. A contract was entered into with Redfield parties to drill a three-inch well and on August 15th the work was com- pleted at a depth of 713 feet, having a flow of over 600 gallons per minute. A contract was made September 18th for laying the mains for a village water system, which was completed November 18th and a water tank for public use placed on the north side of Main street between the hotel and the depot.
On June 24th the largest Rebekah lodge in the state was organized
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at Alpena with 84 members, and named "Echo Lodge." The officers were, Mrs. Ella V. Milliken, N. G .; Mrs. Mattie Hillis, V. G .; A. S. Cory. Sec .; Miss Blanche Hatch, Treas.
W. H. McMillan sold his meat market to Geo. Marston June 23rd. About the same time J. S. Tripp opened a drugstore on the north side of Main street west of Chamberlain's store.
A few days later, the forepart of July, Ray Barber purchased of George Hatch both livery barns and the stock which he continued to own until the next year.
August 10th E. F. Allen came up from Woonsocket and took the management of the Columbia Company's elevator and has retained the position to the present time.
About the middle of August L. W. Castleman purchased the meat market, and K. O. Kettleson of Woonsocket bought G. Everson's restau- rant building and business.
About the 20th of August T. L. White bought an interest in the Bank of Alpena and became its cashier, and about the same time M. G. Shull and J. W. Doubenmier opened a pool and billiard hall on the north side of Main street.
In the forepart of September L. D. Miller built a photograph gallery in the west part of the business portion of Main street and T. B. Yegge put up a new store building west of the Revere House.
On September 10th the Alpena creamery that had started many a poor farmer on the road to prosperity was changed to a mere skimming station and the cream was thereafter sold to a cold storage company at Mitchell.
In the latter part of October, at the order of the village council a combined calaboose and hose house was built.
During the year 1903 the demand for millinery goods at Alpena was supplied by Mrs. Minnie Easton, of Wessington Springs.
In the first week in December R. W. Wiley bought the restaurant property of K. O. Kettleson and sold to him the furniture business.
And during the year things were happening in other parts of the county.
The Wessington Springs creamery, that had. the year before, closed its skimming station at the Albert well, in Chery township, this year closed the station at Walters' well in Viola. The cold storage companies were gradually choking the life out of the co-operative creameries. .
At Glen H. A. Frick sold his interest in the store to Wm. Barker who then became postmaster. The business was continued under the firm name of Eberly & Barker.
On the Reese farm in the northwest part of Crow Lake township
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another attempt was made to get an artesian well in the west part of the county. The flow was struck and the water came to within 32 feet of the top of the casing and there stopped.
In Chery township artesian wells were completed for R. W. Johnson. Geo. McGregor, C. H. La Bau, B. Horsley, and also on the old Wallace farm. The well of B. Horsley was completed at a depth of 883 feet in three days from the time the drill started into the ground. In Viola township P. H. Shultz finished his second well, and Thos. Shryock obtained one near Wessington Springs.
About the middle of March O. O. England moved the Templeton store and post office to the northwest corner of section 36. There it stood until the night of the 24th of November when it was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt at once and the business continued.
In Blaine township the Parsons postoffice, which had been under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Ole Johnson for a good many years was discontinued on March 31st.
In Pleasant township a Sunday School convention was held June 2Ist. A state conference of the Universalist church was held at Wes- sington Springs Sept. 10th and the Free Methodists held their state con- ference at the same town on Sept. 30th.
A labor union was organized in February at Wessington Springs with J. A. Houseman, president.
A town meeting was held February 16th to decide upon a location for the artesian well. The meeting voted to request the village council to locate the well on the block south of the Willard Hotel. Work on the well began March 31st and continued until June 9th when it was aban- doned, the town paying the drillers $1,000 and buying the casing that had been put in the well. The drill had been lost in the first hole, but the second one had been pushed down to over 1,200 feet when water rose to within a few feet of the surface. The town then planned to use it for a pump well, and in the latter part of the season mains were laid from the well to Main Street and the machinery purchased to make use of the well for protection against fire. This plan was never a success. While drilling for the artesian well a flowing stream was found at about 60 feet which landlord Dodge piped into the Willard Hotel, in July. About the first of July Mr. Jensen of Woonsocket, began drilling an artesian well on Miles & Hunter's Addition to Wessington Springs and on the 19th of that month the well was finished with a good flow.
The town on February 2nd granted to D. C. Wallace, J. B. Collins and F. M. Steere a twenty-year franchise for use of the streets and alleys of Wessington Springs for telephone system. In the first half of May the exchange system was completed with about 80 phones. The
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central office was located in a room on the 2nd floor at the north end of the Steere & Wallace building.
In February the Colman Lumber Co. purchased the Vanderveen lumber business and established a yard on 3rd Street north of the public school building, where it is still located. Mr. Vanderveen was retained by the company as their local agent.
On January 10th the W. T. George Co. opened their general store in the room vacated by Vessey Bros. in December.
In the latter part of January Wm. Zink sold his Alpena implement business to Pat McDonald and took John Farrington in as a partner in his Wessington Springs business.
On March 6th another change was made in the office of The Dakota Sieve, when Geo. W. Backus again took control of the paper
T. F. Vessey, village treasurer, called in all outstanding village war- rants, on March 12th. The village was then practically free from 'debt.
About March 18th R. S. Vessey and C. E. Gingery formed a partner- ship in real estate business and on April Ist Dr. John Cooper, of Des Moines, Iowa, located his office in Wessington Springs.
Near the middle of April Miles & Hunter's addition to Wessington Springs was laid out in town lots, and about the same time Vessey Bros. bought Mrs. Barrett's one-fourth interest in the old townsite.
In May money was raised by subscription to buy the land necessary to extend Main street east to the section line, but the project was not carried out until November 5th.
The lots on Court House Hill that had been obtained by the county from the townsite company and the people of Wessington Springs in 1885 as the result of locating the court house there, were sold at auction May IIth, 1903, the amount received being $2,016.00.
On June 2Ist Children's Day was celebrated in the new M. E. church building. This was the first regular service in the building, which. was dedicated July 12th.
The Fullertons, who bought a yard at the east end of Main Street. in May, was the second great lumber company, to locate in Wessington Springs.
The First National Bank moved into their new bank building on July Ist. The old building vacated by the bank, was at once moved to the south side of Main Street about opposite the new P. O. building and in it Henry Pfaff opened a restaurant.
July 2nd the True Republican printing office was moved into the Jacobs-Bancroft building on the north side of Main Street, built by C. S. Jacobs and W. F. Bancroft. A few days later the post office moved into the same room and was followed by the harness shop which Mr.
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Jacobs moved into the west room of the building during the latter part of the month.
During the summer Amos Gotwals erected a building on the east side of Zink & Farrington's warehouse, which was rented by Frank Linn for a confectionery store.
About the same time E. L. Smith built an office building with two rooms on the south side af Main Street between 2nd and 3rd streets.
About Oct. 15 G. T. England bought the interest of the other mem- bers in the furniture company and became sole proprietor of the business.
In October two dray lines were started in Wessington Springs. one by L. R. Theeler and one by Walter Bateman.
For several months P. H. Hackett and Homer Hackett had been run- ning the feed mill that was formerly owned by Howard Pope and Joe Mennill and also selling farm implements. J. W. Snart now bought P. H. Hackett's interest in the business, and it became known as the Hackett Implement Co.
Bert Healy early in the year had purchased a lot east of the Jacobs- Bancroft building and put up a one story building into which he moved his notion store the latter part of October.
The Sioux City Cold Storage Co. built a small building for their use near the railroad track, in the first week of November. The Wessington Springs Creamery, like the one at Alpena, was doomed.
The Hyde and Loomis elevators were opened for business the fore- part of November, and the Lane elevator the 3rd day of December. The latter building was sold as soon as completed to the Khewise-Moven Ele- vator Co.
A. W. Richardson began his livery business in Wessington Springs the first week in December.
Matters educational as well as things amusing were not neglected in the busy year of 1903. A gun club was organized at Wessington Springs as was also a baseball nine. The ball nine distinguished itself in a series of games with the Plankinton team. In none of these games did the score exceed six on a side until the last game when the Plankinton team won its only victory in the series with a score of 8 to 4. This last game was at the Wessington Springs fair and field day October 9th. On that occasion the home gun club was also defeated by the marksmen from Plankinton.
The rapid growth of the town necessitated increased school facilities and in July and August the roof of the school building was raised and another story with two rooms added.
The teachers' institute was held August 17th to 28th, Prof. S .. K.
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Clark, conductor, assisted by John F. Wicks, Miss Irma Hall and Miss Alto M. Harris.
A county meeting of school district officers was held at Wessington Springs on the last Saturday in March at which a resolution was passed recommending that the teachers of the county be paid from $25 to $35 per month.
For the first time in the history of the county the banks on the first of April began paying interest on deposits of county funds.
The June commencement at the Seminary placed diplomas in the hands of the following graduates : Dora Shull, Allie McClelland, Earnest Vennard, Pearl Jackson, Charles Keller, Jesse Morehead, Florence Moulton.
The county commisioners' records for the year contain but little aside from ordinary work. At the January meeting Commissioner R. J. Tracy was made chairman.
At their meeting on May 19th the commissioners changed and estab- lished highways in Marlar and Harmony townships as follows :
"Commencing at a point 34 rods east of the corner of section 30 on south line of Harmony township and running northwest 45 rods, thence west 150 rods, thence west of south 21 rods, thence south west 87 rods, to a point 27 rods west of the half section corner on the south side of section 36 in Marlar township. Commencing at a point 125 rods north of northwest corner of section 36 in Marlar township and running south- west 96 rods, thence south 93 rods, thence 42 rods to a point 77 rods south of the northwest corner of section 36 in Marlar township."
Chapter 16.
(1904).
After the bustle and hurry in business matters at the county seat. incident to the coming of the railroad had subsided the town settled down to a steady growth. The greatest work in 1904 was the building of homes for the people brought in by the rapid increase of the various lines of work. The number of residences built each year has increased to the present time.
The railway company began work on the engine stall the first week in January and on the 15th started the carpenters at work on the per- manent depot. On the same day the old box car that had been in usc
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as a station house caught fire and the contents badly damaged. A month later a daily passenger service was established and the freight train began running tri-weekly. The depot was completed the latter part of March.
In January E. V. Miles and his son, Leon, opened the depot hotel and a grocery store beside it. The store was continued until August, when the stock was sold to W. F. Yegge who moved it to his store in Chery township. The hotel is still in use.
The report of the management of the creamery at the annual meet- ing in January showed that the cold storage companies were making serious inroads upon its patronage. In June the Hanford Produce Co., of Mitchell, rented a room on Main street and began buying cream at Wessington Springs, J. H. Weast being the local buyer.
In January J. W. Snart bought Homer Hackett's interest in the . feed mill and for some time ran the business alone.
During the forepart of 1904 E. R. Bateman and J. W. Cowman con- ducted a meat market which Mr. Riggs had established the previous fall in a building put up by O. J. Marshall on the north side of Main Street near Third street.
About the 20th of January the town council thought to make use of the vein of water found while drilling the artesian well. A man with a well agur was employed to bore down to the vein. The man went at work and when down about forty feet stopped for the night. The next morning the hole was full of water and the walls of the hole caved in. The water had broken through from the artesian well, outside the casing of which the water had been rising for some time. In Sept. another effort was made to utilize the same vein. Robert McDonald was em- ployed to bore to the stream with a well augur. He put the hole down 73 feet and cased it. The water came to the top and ran over, but the village had no money with which to construct a system of water works and so that scheme failed.
An earnest move was now made to incorporate the town as a city of the third class. The effort did not succeed, however, until the next year.
During the forepart of the year a woman named Rice put up a build- ing on the south side of Main street, opposite the Jacobs Bancroft build- ing, for a millinery shop, but never carried out the plan.
About March Ist Geo. Nelson purchased an interest in the Sutton jewelry stock and moved it into the building put up the previous autumn by J. A. Housman, on the north side of Main street between Second and Third streets. The business was continued there until in October when Mr. Nelson and his sister, Mrs. Sutton, moved the stock into a brick two-story building they had built between the Gotwals confectionery
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store and Jacobs' harness shop. The upper rooms of this brick building were occupied by Dr. H. E. Jenkinson, and Dr. Wetherll, the dentist.
During the forepart of the year Zink and Farrington conducted a hardware business in the Steere-Wallace building, with the stock they had purchased on the death of W. H. Sutton. T. L. White bought an interest in the business in March and the firm then became known as White, Zink & Farrington. In the summer the firm moved into their new store on the north side of Main street.
The blacksmith work this year, (1904), was done by J. A. Zink, who had a shop on the west side of 2nd street, and S. T. Leeds, who had a shop in the south end of Snart's feed building.
In April Mrs. R. W. Probert and her brother, E. U. Cummings, built and equipped a steam laundry on the west side of 2nd street, which still continues, one of the most useful institutions in the city.
On March 29th, the old M. E. Church was moved to the NW quarter of section 19 in Blaine township for the use of the Solberg Swedish Lutheran Society.
In May K. S. Starkey drilled an artesian well on a lot owned by him in the north part of the town.
During the first week in July J. G. Bradford located in Wessington Springs to practice law.
F. W. Dodge sold the Willard Hotel about the 10th of July, but did not give possession until the forepart of October, when Mrs. Gehan and her son John became owners of the property.
In July Dr. O. C. Hicks, vetrinarian, built a dipping tank near the stock yards.
In August N. M. Spears packed up his stock of goods and moved to Lyman county. His place was taken by C. A. Voorhees with a stock of groceries. Mr. Voorhees had for some time been doing a confectionery business in the old building erected by Peter Barrett in 1883. This left the confectionery business in the hands of Frank Linn and Amos Gotwals who sold their business to A. V. Hall in October.
The Sidnam elevator was completed in August being the largest of the four then in operation.
A few days later A. L. Jenkins became the resident agent of the W. W. Johnson Lumber Co. at Wessington Springs.
In November Dr. Cooper completed and moved into his office rooms on the north side of Main street between Second and Third.
From the Wessington Springs Seminary, on June 15th, was gradu- ated a class of four students, Rosa B. Marshall, J. Mae Russell, August M. Anderson and O. Jesse Morehead.
Among the graduates of the county public schools was Malcolm E.
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Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Grisinger.
Mr. and Mrs. O. W. Morehead.
L. A. Pinard.
Mr. and Mrs. L. R. Thuiler.
L. E. Ausman.
James Weast.
Gco. N. Pricc.
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White, the 12 year old son of T. L. White, one of the youngest graduates ever given a diploma in the county. One other student, Miss Mona Mc- Donald had graduated at the same age a couple of years before.
In May the old flag pole that had for so many years stood in the center of the crossing of Main and 2nd streets was cut down and another put in its place, for use on Decoration Day and in the Fourth of July celebration that followed.
The Gun Club was re-organized in May.
On October Ist the Wessington Springs post office became a presi- dential office and also an international money order office.
While the foregoing events were occuring in the county seat, Lane was being pushed forward with that energy characteristic of new western towns.
On the 2nd of January the newspaper at Lane was admitted to the mails as second class matter. About the same time Henry Hatch of Alpena, and Haynes Cunningham bought the Lane livery stable and stock. but Mr. Hatch sold his interest in the business to R. McCurdy about February 25th.
During the forepart of the year L. W. Castleman supplied fresh meat to the people of Lane from his market at Alpena. But in March and April he put up a building, 16x20, one half of which he used as a meat market and rented the other half for use as a barber shop. He sold the meat market to Ira McCaul in December.
In May L. J. Grisinger began building a store on the corner south of The Farmers State Bank to be used by Geo. E. Whitney for a hardware store. June 8th the hardware stock had arrived and in the latter part of June Franzwa sold to Mr. Whitney his hardware stock. About the same time Mr. McCaul became a partner in the hardware business with Whitney and the store was opened. This firm sold their stock to A. Harris about the middle of December, who took possession the first of the following March.
C. A. Pray purchased the Star restaurant of Ed Eaton on March 15th, and June 20th sold it to Henry Koemn, of Plankinton. The build- ing in which this restaurant was located was owned by Mr. Franzwa, who added eight bedrooms to it in July. Not long after this addition was made the restaurant was sold to Mr. Shaw, who in December sold it to Carr & Kingsbury, from Woonsocket. The name was then changed to "The Owl."
In the latter part of May Frank McCurdy began putting up a double two-story building on the west side of Main street in which he opened a large stock of general merchandise on July 15th.
R. L. Goodwin began work in his blacksmith shop about June 20th,
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and in December McRoberts Bros. of Woonsocket, engaged in the same business in Lane.
In July Stakke Bros., of Woonsocket, put in a line of farm machinery at Lane, as a branch of their business at Woonsocket.
Sometime in May a company was formed with L. J. Grisinger, presi- dent, to take care of the water from the artesian well. By means of small surface pipes, by July the water was conducted into nearly every resi- dence and business house in town.
The railway depot was completed about the middle of June, and about the same time preparations began for celebrating the first anni- versary of the birth of the town,-July 30th, the date on which the town- lot sale occurred, the previous year.
June 28th the trustees of Franklin township approved Nick Weckers' application to open a saloon in the town of Lane, but the institution was not established because the county commissioners refused to approve the bond.
Work on the German Methodist parsonage began April 19th.
Mr. Joseph Kutil, the only station agent Lane has had, opened the C. M. & St. P. depot on August 16th.
July 8th R. B. Smith succeeded Mr. Franzwa as postmaster at Lane, and in October the office was made a money order office.
A Modern Woodman camp was formed at Lane on July 22nd with 25 members and a lodge of Royal Neighbors, with 20 members, was organ- ized the following October.
In the autumn of the year, (1904), the German Lutheran Societies north and south of Lane united and moved their church building from the southern part of Alpena township into town.
During the summer the first cement walk in Lane was built by F. A. Franzwa in front of his store building.
Shultz & Starkey, after working five days and four nights, completed a well for D. P. Burnison a short distance north of Lane on Dec. 10th.
In Viola township O. W. Morehead and Louis Villbrandt had arte- sian wells completed in October, both by Starkey & Shultz.
In Chery township the same drillers in June and July made good, strong wells for L. A. Pinard and W. T. McConnell.
In April a strong artesian well was struck on the T. W. Lane ranch in Crow township, and a couple of weeks later a good well was drilled at the Frick farm, near Glen, in Logan township.
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