USA > South Dakota > Jerauld County > A history of Jerauld county, South Dakota > Part 34
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
Another experience in which John Groub and his neighbors of that ciay took an active part, serious and earnest enough at the time, but after- ward the subject of many a jest, was digging for coal on the Morris Curtis homestead in section 4 of Crow township. For some reason Mr. Curtis became convinced that a stratum of coal could be found at a reason- able depth below the surface of his claim. He succeeded in getting his neighbors and some of the business men in the village of Waterbury, in- terested in the matter and they began drilling for coal. A small derrick was built and to it was attached what they termed a "jerk-pole" drill. Nearly all the neighbors contributed a day or two at "jerking" the pole. For rods, John Snart, one of the Waterbury merchants, furnished several hundred pounds of iron, which S. T. Leeds joined together in his black-
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Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Fordham.
John McDonald.
Gco. W. Burger.
Mr. and Mrs. Duane Voorhees.
Mr. and Mrs. Deindorfer.
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smith shop. The steel point had been driven into the ground nearly three hundred feet when one evening Leeds, Dr. Miller, Joe Herring and George Light grew tired of the effort and between them concluded it would be just as well to "strike oil" as to strike coal. The next morning when work at the drill was resumed the smell of kerosene was strong. The dirt and water brought up by the drill was so strongly impregnated with the oil that it could be easily seen. The excitement became great, and a stock company was formed to develop the "find." Some one, to ascertain the true value of the "well" sent some of the stuff brought up by the drill to the government assay office at Chicago and received a reply that "if the fellows that poured oil in that hole had used crude in- stead of refined oil they might have carried their joke farther." That ended the excitement and also the drilling. It was years afterwards that Leeds and the other jokers told the real story of the "oil find" at Wa- terbury.
John Groub's dwelling on the SE of 19 was a sod house, built after the custom of those primitive days. In it was held the first school meet- ing of the township. The Groub family still own the land first taken by them besides the farm upon which they now live, which includes the Heaton, Endicott and Curtis land in section 33. In the great blizzard of the winter of '88 John Groub saved the lives of all the children in the school which his sister, Anna, was teaching in a school house then located about twenty rods southeast of his house, but was in turn himself saved by a scream from his sister after he had become confused and lost in the storm.
In the early '8os a slight change in a U. S. tariff schedule caused a small rolling mill in a New York town to discharge its workmen and close its doors. At that time the attention of the whole civilized world was directed to the great fertile plains of the Missouri valley. The discharged workmen and their foreman caught the fever and a hundred of them came west. One evening a man driving a span of horses hitched to a spring wagon stopped in front of the hotel at Waterbury and asked the first man he saw if there was any government land vacant in that vicinity. The citizen who chanced to be Mr. E. S. Waterbury, replied that there was lots of it. Without asking any more questions the stranger drove on out upon the surrounding prairie. He wandered about over several miles and at length returned. "I can't see any difference between vacant land and that that's occupied," he remarked as he again stopped at the hotel. "There isn't any difference," was the answer. "You must get some one who is familiar with it to point it out to you." The stranger decided to wait until morning before searching further, and drove around to the livery barn, then kept by Geo. N. Price. He jumped out of the
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wagon and began to unhitch the team. "I don't know that I understand how to undo this gearing," he remarked as the man in charge of the barn came out to help take care of the horses. He had commenced by pulling out the lines, taking off the crupper, unbuckling the tugs and was trying to take out the back piece when the hostler came to his assistance. The next morning in company with a locator he renewed his search for vacant land. He finally succeeded in finding some land that suited him, and put a filing on the SW of 30 in Marlar township, taking some more across the line in Buffalo county. He went to work with a vigor that under other conditions would have insured success. For a time he did well. He opened a small store, established a creamery and secured a post- office, which was supplied by the Waterbury-Miller route, and to it his own name was given. He became very popular because of his sterling integrity and general good nature. He was active in all public enterprises and fond of all kinds of field sports. The old Waterbury ball nine that lost but one game in seven years, owed much of its success to his encour- agement. He was a man who had never been in school a day in his life, yet probably no man in the county had wider general information than he. Especially was he good authority on all matters concerning the Amer- ican tariff. The hard times compelled him to close his store and the post- office was abandoned for want of patrons. He moved to Wessington Springs, then to Artesian and finally to Rome, N. Y., where he still re- sides. Jerauld county never had a better citizen than J. C. Longland, the old-time rolling mill foreman.
Another among the sterling men who settled Marlar township was Ambrose Baker. He placed his homestead filing on the S half of the NW and the N half of the SW of 20, adjoining Geo. Groub on the north. His son, Herbert, took the 160 acres directly east of him, and together they had one of the finest half sections in the county. This farm of Am- brose Baker is now owned by Walter Hyde, who has recently purchased the Templeton store.
The southeast 80 of section 20 was taken as a homestead by S. T. Leeds, now of Wessington Springs and as such he made proof for it. Sam was among the first comers to the western part of Jerauld county and I shall have more to say of him before I am done with these western townships. His hearty good nature has helped many a poor discouraged fellow to throw off the blues.
Then a long jump, ten miles and a half to the Waterbury postoffice, for it has been moved from where it was when John Groub wanted to buy a stamp and an envelope. On April 1, 1902, it was moved three miles east and three quarters of a mile south to the residence of Clark Weth- erell, on the NW of 25. It is housed in a building 10 by 12 feet in size
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that is an "old timer." In 1883 a young lady named Annie Salter came out from Germania, Iowa, and put a homestead entry on the NW of 30 in Pleasant township, adjoining Clark Wetherell's farm on the east. She was of firmer character than most girls and went at work to make a home and a farm on her quarter section. She had her shanty made IOXI2 and so strong that it could be rolled about over the prairie and not fall to pieces. The next thing needed was breaking and she had about 20 acres of that done. Thereafter she plowed and cultivated it herself. A well was needed and at it she went. A young lady named Inghram, a niece of Mrs. Wetherell, assisted by lifting the dirt out of the hole while Miss Salter dug and filled the bucket. Twenty-eight feet down into the ground a vein of water was found. She then placed kerosene barrels, one above the other, for curbing, making them solid with dirt packed about them. The well is still there and is pointed to by the old settlers as the work of two slender girls but little more than twenty-one years of age. Miss Salter afterward sold her farm and went back to Germania, where she married a druggist and still resides. The shanty she sold to Mr. Weth- erell, who uses it as before stated. After the disastrous prairie fire of April 2, 1889, two families, Frank Smith's and another whose name I have not learned, found shelter for a time in this little building. Four postal routes now go out from this country office-one to Gann Valley, one to Hyde, one to Wessington Springs and one to Crow Lake. It has 40 boxes and about 75 patrons.
Again I mounted the wheel and started for the west side of the county, determined that this time I would avoid telephones and so escape being called in to help a "day or two" in the home office. It was in the middle of September and the hottest week of the year. I was again strongly reminded of the wisdom of the old toper at the temperance meet- ing. When the lecturer asked "someone" to tell him "what caused more misery in the world than drink" the toper yelled out "thirst." I had taken the road to Templeton and the first well I found after leaving the Springs was on section four of Media township. Harry Holmes stood by the pump sending a beautiful stream of clear, sparkling water-it cer- tainly did look beautiful that hot day-into a water trough, from which a span of splendid horses were leisurely drinking their fill. I followed their example-drinking from a cup instead of the trough-while Harry worked the pump. Nothing ever tasted better, for the water in that well is good. He took me about the place, showing me the buildings, the sheep, the hogs-fine Durocs-and among other things the alfalfa pas- ture where his hogs can almost reach maturity without grain of any kind. The farm contains 577 acres, all inclosed with a woven wire fence. 45 inches high and all in section 4. The sheep-barn is made of galvanized
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iron with 16 foot posts and arranged for a hay stack in the center. The other buildings are in good repair, some of them new and all newly painted. The farm is owned by Frank McGuire of Defiance, Iowa.
Two miles west of the farm upon which Harry Holmes resides the four townships, Media, Pleasant, Harmony and Chery corner. When I reached this point I stopped and made a few notes of 25 years ago. At that time the government surveyor had filed his plats of Media and Chery townships and they had been published in the U. S. land office at . Mitchell, but Harmony and Pleasant were then known as unsurveyed lands, though the engineers were busily at work running the lines. The townships were then only known by their numbers, Media being 107-65, Chery 107-65, while Pleasant and Harmony were not even numbered. The settlers on these unsurveyed lands were simply "squatters," ready to move at a moment's notice when the surveyor's lines should be run, if they found they had made their "improvements" on the wrong quarters.
On section 6 of Media, all four quarters had been taken. The south- east quarter had a very substantial farm house, where Mrs. Lydia G. Swatman lived, so as to be near her daughter, Mrs. J. N. Cross, who lived in the big two-story grout house on the NE of 7 across the section line south. On the NE of 6 Lydia Swatman's son, Ben, had a sod house and stable, but lived with his mother most of the time. Once a month he went to his sod house and "lived there over night." This was what was called "holding down" a claim and was the "custom of the country." Every old settler can recall instances of this kind. The sod or frame shanty, with a single one-sash window, through which the stove and table could be plainly seen. On the stove could be placed the pancake griddle, and on it. always, a halfbaked cake, which with the dishes on the table would indicate that the owner had been suddenly called away and was liable to return at any moment. I have known instances where the half- baked cake would rest upon the griddle until it was removed by the mice. Many a settler proved up on his claim on a five-year residence who had not spent a month on his land in the whole time. That practice was not peculiar to that time nor to this country. It is done today wherever there is public land open to settlement and will be continued until the domain of Uncle Sam is all deeded to private individuals.
But my pencil has been running off by itself again and it's time I brought it back to section 6-107-65. On the SW of this section R. S. Vessey filed his tree claim right, then little dreaming that a quarter of a century later he would be the candidate of the majority party for gov- ernor of one of the great states of the Union. He was then mighty busy getting himself established as a settler on what was afterward marked
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on the chart as the SE of 12-107-66 .. On the NW of this section, 6-107-65, F. S. Coggshall had placed a pre-emption filing.
To the northeast of me lay section 31 of 108-65, the southwest sec- tion of that township. On this section was settled David Paxton, Wm. Taubman, Geo. Homewood and J. F. Bolton, while G. S. Eddy had a timber culture right on the NW quarter.
To the northwest of where I stood lies one of the sections that the wisdom of the U. S. congress had ordered set apart for the education of the future generations of children that should dwell upon these great plains.
Upon the section lying to the southwest the northeast section of Pleasant township, two brothers and their brother-in-law squatted in the early spring of 1883, S. O. McElwain was on the SE quarter, Henry Mc- Elwain on the SW quarter and D. C. Hewitt on the NE quarter. These three made the beginning of the settlement on that portion of the un- surveyed land afterward known as 107-66 and later as Pleasant town- ship. On the NW quarter of this section Frank Coggshall, once county treasurer of Jerauld county, placed his soldiers' homestead right and there he lived for a number of years. When the surveyor had completed his work and 107-66 came upon the market, Henry McElwain put his filing on the NE of 3 and Robt. M. Hiatt took the SW of I as a homestead.
Nearly all of section 2 was taken by squatters before it was open for filings. J. D. Powell got the SE quarter, A. R. Powell the SW and An- drew Faust, for whom Fauston was subsequently named, settled on the NW quarter. When the land became subject to filing F. S. Coggshall made a timber culture entry for the NE quarter. . A few years later, in the stress of hard times, F. S. Coggshall was one day sitting in the door of his barn, talking with some of his neighbors, among whom was J. D. Powell, afterward auditor for two terms, when Coggshall remarked, "I tell you boys, I am broke, busted. The $7000 I brought to this county is gone and I haven't a cent. J. D. buy that tree claim over there." "Good Lord, Frank !" remarked Powell, "I could not raise a cent, if it would buy the township." "Yes you can," said Coggshall. "Give me four hundred dollars for it, it's the best quarter in the township. Get me $100 down and pay the balance when you can." J. D. borrowed the $100 and soon after paid the remainder. Coggshall moved away and Powell stayed. Today Powell owns the S half and the NE quarter of 2, every acre of which is cheap at $35. The Coggshall homestead, where the above con- versation occurred, is now owned by Harry Thompson, who came here last March from Merrill, Iowa. In these later days things are different. Prices are better, and crops are better. It almost seems as though good prices make better crops.
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The early settlers on section 3 were Henry McElwain, as before men- tioned, on the NE quarter, A. G. Swanson on the SE, Perry Eddy on the SW and S. F. Huntley on the NW. The latter was a squatter, building his sod house and stable and establishing his residence there before the land was subject to filing. After living the required length of time on this quarter he moved across the township line to his soldiers' homestead on the SE of 33-108-66. There the caller will find him today the same true, cultured gentleman that lived in the sod shanty on the "unserveyed."
Henry McElwain lives in Wessington Springs, doing as much for the convenience of the people as any man in the town. Perry Eddy has gone back to Illinois, but Andrew Swanson yet remains on the SE of 3. He has prospered well with the passing years and is contented.
After passing the NW of 3, I turned southwest across Geo. Strong's pre-emption, the NE of 4, and trundled along until I reached the resi- dence of Samuel Marlenee, on the SW of 4, tired and thirsty. My! but Sam has a good well.
Probably no one man in Jerauld county has been more essential to its improvement, or development, than Sam Marlenee. I venture to say that the only court house in the state that had not one penny of graft to any- body, in its construction, was built by him, by contract, on the hill in Wes- sington Springs. A more capable or honest carpenter never swung a hammer or shoved a jack plane. Possessed of a high degree of mechanical skill his interest in his work has often led him to do the work so well that the profits of the job were absorbed in the extra work that he did. In one instance, the building of C. W. Lane's house in Wessington Springs, Mr. Lane voluntarily added $100 so that Mr. Marlanee should not really lose money on the work. One would think that the old verse had been his motto:
"In the ancient days of art The builders wrought with extreme care,
Each minute and unseen part For the gods see everywhere."
He has put up more buildings in the county than any other two car- penters in it, yet today he is comparatively a poor man. His indepen- dence of spirit and speech has made life on the farm peculiar fascinating to him. He lives today among the hills on the SW of 4-107-66, where he homesteaded in 1884. In the civil war he was twice a soldier and twice honorably discharged. Quiet and unassuming, yet the Rock of Gibraltar is not more firmly set in its place than he in his opinion, where he thinks he is right. He has represented the republicans of Pleasant township and been a member of more conventions than any other man in the county.
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On section five of Pleasant township which I passed on the south line the early settlers were George Knieriem, on the NW quarter, a brother of Henry Knieriem of Franklin. George came fom Germany after he became of age, but had learned to speak English so perfectly that only his name would cause one to suspect that he was of foreign birth. He was in the artillery with Sherman and delighted in telling of a duel be- tween one gun of his battery and a Confederate field piece on Kenesaw mountain. He is now somewhere on the Pacific coast.
The NE of 5 was taken by Kate J. Knieriem, a sister of George and the SW by Sam Marlenee as a tree claim.
The SE quarter of five was taken by J. J. Snyder, who married a daughter of Hiram Blowers, of Wessington Springs. He stammered badly in his speech. At one time he entered the office of the True Re- publican in the county seat and after many gutteral sounds and facial contortions said something to George Havens, one of the printers. Havens was afflicted with stammering as badly as Snyder and when ex- cited could scarcely speak a word. His first thought was that Snyder was making fun of his impediment and instantly became very angry. In his attempt to reply he "went Snyder one better." Snyder thought he was being mimicked and was furious with rage before Havens had said a word. Blosser, the editor, became so convulsed with laughter at the ludicrous scene that he was hardly able to interfere. Both Havens and Snyder were large men and an encounter between them would not only have made "pi," but would have turned the whole office into a "hell-box."
The NE of 6 is where Herman Hinners took a quarter section of land on the public domain. He now lives on a farm near Humbolt, Iowa.
South of Hinners, on the SE of 6, lived Wm. Toaz, another early set- tler who succumbed to the hard times and left the state. He now lives at Grand Ledge, Mich.
. Down in the valley west of the Toaz quarter I found the residence of John Youtcey. The beginning of this farm was made by a man named McConnell, who was told about a deep water hole, now dry, near where the buildings are located, by the old stage driver, who in those days car- ried the mail from Mitchell to Ft. Thompson. The trail led through this valley and McConnell rode up from Mitchell to look at the place. It looked like an ideal place for a ranch. Plenty of water, unlimited range for then there was no one west of the hills, and the high knolls to the north and west to keep off the severe winds of winter. McConnell squatted there in the spring of 1882 and began his preparations for ranching, laying claim to a strip a mile in length. When the surveyors stalked off the country this claim proved to be the east half of the west of section 6. For some reason McConnell seems to have grown tired of
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his project and sold what right he had to a young carpenter named John Murphy, who placed his homestead filing there when the land became sub- ject to entry. Afterwards James Foster purchased this land of Murphy. added more to it, put up good ranch buildings and for several years made money out of it as a cattle ranch. He now lives at Ridgeway, Mich.
When I had crossed the west line of section 6, of Pleasant, I was on the south side of I in Crow. David King on the NE quarter and W. W. King on the SE quarter, obtained the east half of this section from the government. The SW was a timber culture entry held by Jas. Fogen.
The NW of I in Crow township was held as a homestead by Miss Minnie Stanley, now Mrs. S. W. Boyd, of Pleasant. She is one of the many women who have done their full share in the upbuilding and devel- opment of Jerauld county. The claims were held, the schools were taught. churches and Sunday schools kept going, mainly by their unceasing and untiring efforts. Many a man who came through the hard times tired, but successful, would have failed utterly in the effort but for the help he received from his brave and steadfast wife.
One of my objective points in this trip was the Burger homestead in section 12. This farm includes the W half of the NE quarter and the E half of the NW quarter, and also the SE quarter which was taken as a tree claim. Mr. Burger has been one of the long-time residents of the county. This place was at one time used for school purposes, most of the school children being residents of this corner of the township and a long ways from the school house. Mr. Burger now lives in Wessington Springs and the farm is occupied by Mr. Traylor, the school clerk of the township. The examinations of the records of his office was my purpose in coming here. The first school census of this township has not been preserved among the records.
The east half of the NE of 12 was taken by Wm. Hern as a pre-emp- tion. The balance of the section, the SW quarter and the W half of the NW quarter was taken by E. D. and S. E. Herman.
A postoffice is generally a good place to look for news so I again directed my course toward the Waterbury P. O. on Clark Wetherell's farm in 25. Clark isn't much of a gossip, but he's a jolly good fellow and a good deal interested in the job I have undertaken. He and his resolute wife are among those who can tell you from their personal ex- perience what was summed up in the expression "hard times in Dakota." But never a whine or a whimper from either, and I imagine that her up- per lip was a little the firmest. When the crop was short and the prices low Clark joined several of his neighbors in an expedition to some north- ern counties where crops were better and help needed. The women folks stayed at home and kept things in order until the men came back.
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Down in Fairchild, Wis., in 1887 there lived a man whose hobby was growing mangel wertzels. No one in that vicinity could raise beets as large as those that grew in his lot, and he was very proud of the fact. In that town the meat market was the place where people displayed any unusual production, and this man would, every fall, put in a conspicuous place in the market the largest mangel he had grown. That year Clark Wetherell came out to the territory to look at the NW of 25 in Crow township, which, without seeing he had bought of James Fogarty for $1000 in 1884. In a garden on the SE of 23 Capt. Vrooman had a large number of very large mangel wertzels-larger than was even grown by the man at Fairchild. Wetherell immediately formed a plan to discomfit his old neighbor. He took one of Vrooman's largest beets and when he got back to his home town he place the vegetable in the meat market. Shortly afterward his neighbor came around where Wetherell was telling of the wonders of Dakota and said, "Clark, where did you get that mangel?" "Mangel !" exclaimed Wetherell, "that's not a mangel, that's a breakfast radish, I'd have brought you a mangel, but I couldn't get one in the door of the car." That year Wetherell homesteaded the NE of 25, buying a reliquishment from Wm. Austin. The N half of 25 has been his home ever since.
One day in the summer of 1883, E. S. Waterbury, his son, Will, and a party of land seekers from one of the eastern states, were driving about the country in the vicinity of what was then the thriving town of Water- bury. About the center of section 18-107-67 they saw a claim shanty and went to it. It was located on the W half of the E half of the section. Near by was a prosperous prairie dog "town," the inhabitants of which barked and chattered at the intruders as they drew near. Close about the door of the shack, picketed with strings tied to pegs driven in the ground were numerous rattlesnakes. The settler, Abel Scyoc assured the visitors that the reptiles were harmless, but the sight was too much. The land seekers went back to Waterbury and the next morning started for home. They never came back. Mr. Scyoc was probably the first white resident of the township, although H. B. Farren, now of Gann Malley, established himself in bachelor quarters on the same section Sept. 16, 1882. Scyoc was from the south and an ex-confederate soldier. He proved up on his claim, sold it to Chas. Platner and went "back to Dixie" where he mar- ried and died.
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