USA > South Dakota > Jerauld County > A history of Jerauld county, South Dakota > Part 30
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In Viola township the Houseman school house was burned; Chas. H. Stephens lost his barn and all his hay. W. W. Goodwin lost his stables and a number of animals, and John Phillips saved nothing but a few cattle.
Mr. Mihawk, in Wessington Springs township, had everything burned.
In the northeast part of Franklin township the flames destroyed all buildings owned by Wm. Posey except his house, and also his animals and poultry.
In Alpena township the Woodruff ranch was swept clean of all buildings ; Fred Heller saved nothing, but one team and harness ; R. J. Eastman lost his barn, hay, grain and some stock and his father lost his house.
The foregoing is but a partial account of the losses sustained in Jer- auld county on the 2nd day of April, 1889. The total damage in the . county was estimated, at the time, at $100,000.
As in all great calamities, many remarkable things occurred, but only a few can be mentioned here. In Marlar township, the families of Till- man Hunt and some of his neighbors, being driven from their homes took refuge on a plowed field between two ridges of high hills. The flames jumped across the valley and then drawn together came rushing toward the narrow field from both sides. For a moment the heat was
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intense and the people on the field suffered greatly, but escaped with only a few blisters.
During the years that followed many fires were started by people who without proper care attempted to burn fire breaks about their buildings, or stacks, and allowed it to escape. On May 8th, 1893, a fire started in that way in the north part of Anina township, burned south to Horse Shoe Lake destroying some buildings and a large amount of hay.
On the 23rd of April, 1892, Frank Weeks, in Harmony township, lost all his farming tools and some of his buildings by a fire that came from the south, W. C. Grieve lost ten acres of trees that were burned by the same fire.
All the grain and all buildings except his house were burned by a prairie fire, for Peter Klink in Viola township in Sept. 1891, and on the same day Mr. Kasulka lost a bin, containing several hundred bushels of grain, by the same fire.
On Aug. 13th, 1895, during a spell of dry weather, lightning set fire to the prairie grass and much of the west part of Anina township was swept by the flames.
More than the usual number of fires occurred in the year 1898, about the first of which was started a few miles south of Wessington Springs on the 20th of March, and burned over a great extent of pasture land.
Another fire came into Jerauld county on April 4th, 1898, at the northwest corner of Chery township, and burned to near Templeton be- fore it was extinguished. A few days later a fire escaped from a burning stubble field and burned over several sections in Media township. But little damage was done by either of these fires except to the prairie grass land.
On April 3rd, 1898, a fire started from the old P. B. Davis farm in Chery township and was driven by a strong northwest wind until it had destroyed a large quantity of hay belonging to Joseph and John Brown. On Sept. Ist of the same year a fire started north-east of Templeton and burned southeast destroying hay for a number of settlers. F. M. Brown and W. H. Coggshall lost most heavily.
The year 1899 was another season of heavy fire losses. About April Ioth two fires were started near Alpena by sparks being blown from burning straw stacks to adjacent prairie grass. In one instance the stack had been burning over two weeks. A great quantity of hay was de- stroyed.
A fire started from a burning straw stack in the eastern part of Har- mony on April 17th, burned with a hard west wind to the railroad track
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north of Alpena, destroying a large amount of property on the way. One of the Chery township school houses was destroyed by this fire. Aaron McCloud, whose residence was directly in the course of the flames at- tempted to save his buildings, but the back fire he started jumped past him and destroyed everything he owned but his land. The fire he was trying to guard against burned on both sides of the spot where his build- ings had stood. On the same day a fire in Franklin township again burned the property on the Wm. Posey farm.
April 28th, 1899. Another day long to be remembered by the people of Logan, Crow, Pleasant and Crow Lake townships. About the middle of the forenoon a dense cloud of smoke appeared in the south along the road toward Kimball. Some one, too indolent to have a due regard for the welfare of his neighbors, had applied a match to a field of dried weeds he had permitted to grow during the previous season. A strong south wind increased as the fire advanced. There was not a moment's pause at Smith Creek south of the old town of Waterbury. Here was located one of the best bridges in the county. The structure would have been destroyed but for the heroic efforts of little Katie Main, who kept the fire away. The county board rewarded her with a ten dollar warrant and a vote of thanks. The wind carried the blazing grass across the creek and straight toward the almost deserted village on section 21. There was no one in the town but W. E. Waterbury and the mail carrier from Wessington Springs. Waterbury met the fire in the valley south of the townsite and succeeded in keeping it on the west side of the road until it was well past the village. Then the unexpected happened. The. wind which had been blowing a gale suddenly shifted into the northwest and doubled its volocity. The blazing grass and refuse of the prairie were hurled across the road and again the fire was racing straight at the deserted buildings, landmarks of a once thriving market place. Soon but two structures were left to tell where the street of the village had been.
Being thus doubled back upon itself the fire soon burned itself out in Crow township except a backfire which was soon subdued.
When the wind changed a black strip, about three miles wide, cx- tended from the south line of Logan township to near the center of Crow. On each side of the blackened prairie side fires were burning and eating into the dry, standing grass. Now the line of fire on the west became a backfire working slowly against the wind. But all that long line on the east became a head fire. At this time there were less than a thousand acres of cultivated land in either of the townships crossed by the fire.
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Neither in Logan or Crow township was there as much as a section of plowed land, all told. So there was but small chance of stopping the line of head fire, now many miles in length that was rapidly charging east- ward. At the residence of Henry P. Will, the bulk of the property was saved, but Mrs. Will was caught in the flames and seriously injured.
On its way north the fire had destroyed the Fordham and Long resi- dence, in Logan township, and after the wind changed the houses of Meyers, Pflamn and others in the same township were destroyed. The old Combs and Harris shanty in which Peter J. Rhobe was killed by Ben. Solomon several years before, had been moved to the residence of A. E. Hanebuth in Logan township, and, it also, was burned.
In Pleasant township a great deal of property was destroyed. In Crow Lake township Geo. Deindorfer, who lived on section 10 lost all his buildings, while on the old Menzer ranch, west of Crow Lake a man named Russell saw his corral, sheds and 1100 head of sheep destroyed by the fire.
In the autumn of the same year the residence of Earnest Schmidt in Dale township was destroyed by fire. Two years later, on April 20th, a fire started from a straw stack, that for several days had been burning on the NE quarter of section 22 in Harmony township, was driven north into Hand county. In this fire a man named Hanks, living just over the line, in Hand county, was surrounded by the blazing prairie and burned to death. On the same day a fire started from near the center of Dale township and burned north about twenty miles into Beadle county.
In 1903 a fire started in the northwest part of Crow Lake township and burned south and east until stopped by the township fireguards that had been made through the center of the township.
In Dale township on Sept. 9, 1904, a fire destroyed a large quantity of hay belonging to L. F. and A. Russell and a lot of fencing on the old Vanderveen farm. On the 27th of the same month lightning started a fire in the same township that destroyed many stacks of hay on the Firesteel bottom.
On November 3rd, 1906, some section men, who were burning off , the right of way to prevent fires being started by passing engines, allowed the flames to get away from them. About 80 tons of hay were destroyed of which fifty belonged to Paul Kleppin.
In November, 1907, a prairie fire in the southern part of Logan town- ship burned ten stacks of hay owned by H. P. Will.
Last spring, (1908), sparks from a stack that had been burning two weeks, in the northwestern part of Blaine township, were blown into the adjoining prairie grass and started a fire that did immense damage in the southern part of the township and in Sanborn and Aurora counties.
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RETROSPECTIVE.
When the author started out to gather the material for this history -
he began to learn to ride a bicycle. This search for incidents and anec- dotes brought up many recollections which were set down in a series of articles entitled "Among Review Readers," which were published from week to week in the Jerauld County Review. This chapter is composed of extracts from those articles, which were historical in character.
I left Wessington Springs Monday afternoon April 12th, 1908, and led my wheel to the top of the grade west of town, and then, for want of a track smooth and wide, I led it on down into Hay Valley. There I got a chance to "spin," which I did-till I was dizzy-the wheel seem- ingly being made to roll toward town. I took the wire caps off the pedals and then got on very well-leading the "bike" along the pike.
A heavy smoke to the southwest attracted my attention and I kept on in that direction until I reached the corner of the old McGinnis place and then the smoke having subsided, I turned north to the residence formerly occupied by Jos. Rumelhart, and got a drink of splendid water. It is now owned by Mr. Carl Rott, who moved onto it the first of March from Audubon county, Iowa. From there I went west to where young Mr. Barnes was busy at work putting in wheat on a farm his father had rented from Amos Gotwais.
I continued the wrestle with the wheel and worked on west till I reached the beautiful home of Jas. Rundle. Here I took another drink of the cool, pure water that one finds everywhere in this county. This quarter section was taken by M. D. Crow as a homestead in the spring of 1883. The remains of his sod house now constitutes a black mound in a cultivated field at the northeast corner of the farm. Ray Holtry was earning his wages from Mr. Rundle in a desperate effort to make a walk- ing plow scour.
I leaned my wheel against the fence and took a walk into the field south of the Rundle farm to the spot where Chas. Kugler built his shanty in the spring of 1884. He lived on that place as his homestead till the 12th of January, 1888. The next day he and his yoke of oxen were found
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frozen to death near the residence of James T. Ferguson in Anina town- ship. He was lost in the great storm.
From the site of the Kugler shanty I could see the old house with the stone basement, where Gil Albert assumed the judicial ermine and with magisterial dignity conducted the examination in the then interesting case of the Territory of Dakota vs, Herb Gailey. I appeared as attorney for the prosecution, and C. V. Martin and E. C. Nordyke for the defense. Geo. N. Price was constable. For two days and one night the combat raged. This was in April, 1889. This case closed at about 8 o'clock in the evening of the second day in the midst of a violent snow storm. The case being closed and the defendant being held to court, the attorneys. witnesses and prisoner piled into Mr. Price's two-seated buggy and started for the Springs. On the way we met C. W. McDonald and E. L. Smith, wading though the snow going to court in obedience to a sub- poena issued by Justice Albert in the morning.
Breaking away from these reflections I came back into the road. seized the refractory wheel and set off north, past the old J. N. Cross place with its reminders of early days. A peep into the now open cellar of the old grout house for which hopes of county seat honors were once entertained, and a pleasant thought of the days when Will Ingham and J. E. McNamara ran the Jerauld County News in an office room on the second floor, while the aged friend of Whittier and Longfellow, Rev. John Cross, whiled away his time in his library below. I picked up the wheel and wrestled on north till I met Mr. Leander Bennett on the quarter-section taken by E. L. DeLine as a homestead in 1883. Mr. Bennett has the place rented for this year, but will go to Wyoming as soon as seeding is done to visit his son and look for a farm on Uncle Sam's domain.
At D. O. Eddy's home I stopped for the night, finding that the wheel, as well as myself, was somewhat wobbly. Dick has one of the best farms on the westside, good building, plenty of horses, cattle, and hogs, a half-section of land and his seeding well along. He and his excellent wife have demonstrated what a young couple can do by grit and industry on South Dakota soil. The next morning I went on as far as Templeton.
A fierce north wind put out of the question, the plan of going in that direction any further Tuesday evening, so I jumped on the wheel (two or three times), and went to the home of Mr. M. E. Fee, where I had a. really pleasant time in comparing twenty years ago in Dakota with the same time in Nebraska. Both Mr. and Mrs. Fee had interesting exper- iences in the great blizzard of Jan. 12th, 1888, which reached their homes in Antelope county about one o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Fee was at Neely, Neb., assisting a neighbor to make final proof on a homestead and
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Residence of Nick Steichen, in Blaine Township.
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was held by the storm until the 13th. Mrs. Fee, then a school girl, was attending a school taught by Miss Fee, now Mrs. Ray of this township, about a half mile from Elgin, Neb. She made her way home, about a mile, through the storm, but will never forget the experience.
Wednesday noon I jumped on the wheel again and walked to the old Jimmy Hoar place where he settled in the spring of 1883. He had moved there from Earlville, Ill., 'and built the house that now stands on the farm. Here his wife died, his daughter was married, and his son died. Uncle Jimmy then went to California to live with his daughther, Mrs. G. S. Eddy, where he still makes his home.
I then wrestled with the wheel to the old J. M. Hanson place, at the head of Long Lake. This is where Mr. Hanson settled as a homesteader in 1883, abandoning his occupation as a sailor on the Great Lakes to be- come a Dakota farmer. He lived here until he died, about 1898.
Literally working my way along with the wheel, I passed the well known residence of Allan G. Snyder, who could not repress a few pointed jokes at the combination of myself and the wheel. He enjoyed this all the more because of a prolonged wrestle I had with the machine just be- fore I arrived at his house. I rode and led the wheel, by turns, until I had passed around the south end of the lake and reached the home of H. L. England, where I received a hearty welcome and gladly accepted his invitation to stay the night. Mr. England's comfortable home, a view of which appeared in this journal a few month ago, needs no description. Suffice it to say that sitting in his well furnished rooms made pleasanter the reminiscences of the old times when things were different.
Thursday morning I rode as far as T. D. William's bachelor residence on Sec. 13 and got the use of his phone to tell the "Review" office who were new subscribers. For twenty-five years Mr. Williams has lived on this land, raising grain and cattle, independent and happy, monarch of all he surveyed. He has the best marked herd of Herefords in the county, numbering 102 head, all his own raising.
The next place I visited was L. G. McLoud's, who, working alone, can, year after year, put in as much crop and get as big a yield as any other man in the county who gets along without other help. He was almost done putting in 130 acres of small grain and will soon commence plowing for corn. For fourteen years Mr. McL. has farmed this place and never had a bad crop.
A few steps further and we found Will Davis pushing the work on the old Louis Nordyke homestead, the SW of 17. Mr. Davis is living on the John Gilbert farm, the NE of 17, where that pioneer lived for twenty-four years the lonely life of a bachelor, but by hard work ac-
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cumulated a competence. In far away Oregon he now resides with his brother, H. T. Gilbert.
Down in the valley to the south half of 18, I went and found Scott Starrett and his son-in-law, Earl Tripp, living on the quarter section that during the hard times of years ago was the abiding place of G. W. Titus, who is now a retired farmer at the county seat. Another order for the paper and I wrestled on against wind and wheel till I reached the cosy domicil of that prince of good fellows, Lyman Butterfield. Old times, jokes and politics, all in jolly good-nature, till eleven o'clock and then I went to sleep to dream of continuous wrestling, catch-as-catch-can, with a bicycle.
Friday morning, bidding adieu to Lyman and his good wife, I climbed to the top of the hill and then getting a "hip-lock" on that "infernal" ma- chine I mastered it and in the still morning air and over the smooth roads I had a delightful ride. In a few minutes I passed the former home of B. S. Butterfield where the old veteran and his aged companion celebrated their golden wedding a few years ago.
At Schuberts hill, three miles west of town named from a German farmer, father of Oscar Schubert, who had a homestead there several years ago, I turned northwest and past the Dr. Mathias tree claim, Will Spears and Myron Pratts 80 acre homesteads, Conway Thompson's pre- emption, homestead and tree claim; past Harl Stowell's old homestead. where John Brown now raises mighty good crops every year ; past Geo. Pratts quarter where he had a claim many years ago ; then by Doc Harris mile-long homestead filed in 1883, and so on, memory stirred by the things a quarter of a century old. I found Mr. P. A. Thompson, who has rented the O. O. England ranch, in Harmony. He was hurrying to get his 50 acres of small grain sown before the rain came, so as to be ready to com- mence breaking 50 acres of sod for flax. This land was taken by O. O. and C. W. England when there was not another ranch between James River and Fort Thompson. They brought a thousand head of sheep with them and made shelter for their flock by stripping up the sod from the prairie and building sheds covered with hay. A rough claim shanty com- pleted the pioneering outfit. Here they continued the sheep and cattle industry until from the profits of the business a fine farm house and good sheep and cattle barns were erected on what is known as one of the best farms in the county. O. O. England, now a county commissioner, lives in Wessington Springs while uncle Charley enjoys continuous summer in California.
After taking Mr. Thompson's subscription I rolled on north past the house built by John Murphy, of Amboy, Ill., in the summer 1883. He came to this county with J. R. Eddy and located his homestead here.
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Wednesday noon I took dinner with Joe Hunt, who lives on the old Fizenmeier claim in the northwest corner of Harmony township. The house in which the old German lived is gone, but a new and commodious house stands on the hill, near by. Another old building, now used as a granary stands near the site of the old claim shanty, and was made by- moving the house from the Orcutt farm over the way to 'which an addi- tion was built.
In my trip about the township I was surprised to find that only two of the settlers who located here in 1883, are still residing in the town- ship -- T. D. Williams and A. G. Snyder. Of the others, some have re- tired from farming and live at the county seat and some have left the state.
After dinner, April 22nd, I left Joe Hunt's and crossing the road entered Marlar township at the farm of Edward Tiede, located in section one. Two new barns and a granary have been added to the improvements since Mr. Tiede came on here in the fall of 1906. This season he will have 90 acres of old ground in small-grain, besides all the breaking he can do. Part of this farm was entered as a homestead by Al. Seizer in 1883, and later was all included in the Shull ranch. The balance of the Shull ranch is now owned by Gustave Tiede, brother of Edward, and WVm. Tiede father of both. New buildings, new fences, new breaking. and excellent farming are features of their work. Gustave's new house. a two-story structure newly plainted outside and finished inside with hard oil, is certainly a beautiful home. In 1883 this was Hub Emery's home- stead.
South of Wmn. Tiede's is the new 640-acre farm of Jacob Hasz. Every- thing shows the marks of industry and good farming. A fine grove pro- tects the farm buildings from the cold of winter and heat of summer. This grove was set out by Mr. Bemis on his tree claim in the 80's.
About the middle of the afternoon I reached the home of J. M. Cor- bin. Mr. Corbin has for many years been a teacher among the Indians on the western reservations, but has retained his residence in Marlar town- ship. The boys, Cass, Marion and Sidney, with their sisters, made my visit a very enjoyable one. My last visit to this family was in 1884. twenty-four years ago. At that time they were new comers, and like nearly all others, were experiencing the discomforts of pioneering. Then they lived in a "dug-out," of which only the spot now remains. On this visit we entered a large well furnished house and about supper time were joined by Mr. Verry of the Willard hotel, and Mrs. Louis Mead, also of Wessington Springs. During the evening ,I listened to some really excel- lent music ; Mrs. Dickinson, the oldest sister, at the piano, her husband Mr. Dickinson, last year in the Springs ball nine, playing the guitar, and
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Mr. Mead playing on the violin. All the instruments are high priced and the players evinced a skill hard to excell. The entertainment was closed by a few pieces with Marion at the piano and Mrs. Dickinson playing the violin. But few times in my life have I heard better music. Verily, twenty-five years in Dakota, though twenty-five miles from a railroad, have wrought wonders.
I then started on my return to Wessington Springs, and passed the old home of Uncle Billy Orr, who was for many years the representative of that township at the republican county conventions, and for a while the only republican voter there. He was proud of the fact that he had not "scratched" a ticket in thirty years.
After my return from Marlar township I went to Franklin.
On the NW quarter, 17-107-63, Mr. T. Chandler, who came here from near Woodward in Boone county, Iowa, in the spring of 1906, has built a fine new house and barn, and has a comfortable home. This is part of the land patented to Will Houmes by President Harrison nearly twenty years ago.
On another one of the old Houmes quarters, the SE of 8, in Frank- lin township, lives Paul Kleppin and his wife, formerly Tillie Brodkorb of the Springs. They have a good new house and barn and their pros- pccts are good.
The old Zink farm in north Franklin was purchased by Mr. Hoff- man who came from Wisconsin, in 1897. New buildings have been built for all farm purposes and he now has valuable property. A half-mile further north I. P. Ray settled a quarter of a century ago and lived on his land until he was offered $10 per acre and then sold and went to Kansas. The same land is now owned by Mr. Hoolihan and would be called cheap at $45.
Good improvements of every description are on the farm of Jacob Mees, the NE of 5. He moved on this place April 4th, 1885, paying $1000 for a relinquishment. Last summer he refused an offer of $55 per acre. While I was chatting with him he was setting out a large straw- berry bed.
Across the line and I was in Alpena township at the old Gorman tree claim which is still owned by the man who "took" it from the govern- ment. At the south west corner of this quarter is Fairview cemetery.
I have often thought that the history of a community might be very well written in its cemetery. I leaned the wheel against the iron gate and spent a half hour among these memories of the past. The spot is beauti- fully located and well kept.
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On variously colored head stones I read the following inscriptions of long ago :
"Jennie N. Harmon, wife of Z. T. Harmon." Beside the mother, in a thicket of rose bushes were two little graves each marked "Our Baby."
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