USA > South Dakota > Jerauld County > A history of Jerauld county, South Dakota > Part 7
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In the division of the county of Aurora the old organization retained all the property and assumed all the debts. Jerauld county started with- out debt and without money.
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There is no record showing when the commissioners of the new county took the oath of office, or that they ever qualified in the legal sense of the word as officials. But, be. that as it may, they met at the residence of A. B. Smart near Wessington Springs and organized on the 9th day of November, 1883, by electing Mr. Smart chairman of the board. Mr. Smart was made chairman because of his experience as a member of the board that organized Aurora county.
The first motion made and carried after organization was to the effect that at the close of this first session, the board adjourn until the first Monday in January; 1884, which would come on the 7th of that month.
Some time prior to the organization of the board, Mr. Charles W. McDonald had been appointed by Judge A. J. Egerton to be clerk of the district court for Jerauld county. Mr. McDonald now appeared before the board and filed his bond, upon which appeared the names of Peter R. Barrett and Robert S. Bateman as sureties. The bond was approved November 9th, 1883. Mr. McDonald continued to hold this position until the admission of South Dakota as a state in 1889.
On this 9th day of November, 1883, at the evening session, R. Y. Hazard, of 106-66, was appointed to be the first school superintendent of Jeranld county. This appointment was made at the instance of Com. Melcher. A candidate in opposition to Mr. Hazard was a man named J. T. Johnston, of township 108-66, who was elected to succeed Mr. Hazard at the first regular election for county officers held in Novem- ber, 1884.
A number of private or subscription schools, had been held in vari- ous parts of the county in the two previous years, but upon Mr. Hazard devolved the responsibility of organizing the public school system for the county. It is to be regretted that full records were not kept and preserved.
Aside from organizing and approving Mr. McDonald's bond as clerk of the district court, but little was done during the first day, of an official character. the members of the board putting in most of the time in talk- ing over the work before them in a commendable desire to get a full understanding of their duties.
Now that we have reached the point, after which these three com- missioners must always hold an important place in the history of the county, it is proper that they, individually, be given a more extended notice than it is our intention to give to persons, in the preparation of this chronicle. We shall hereafter write of persons only in connection with events. ....
Samuel Henry Melcher was born at Gilmantown, New Hampshire, October 30th, 1828. He was a student in the medical department of
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T. L. Blank.
J. E. McNamara.
R. Y. Hasard.
A. B. Smart.
Dr. S. H. Melcher.
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Bowdoin College, Maine; and also in the Vermont Medical College. He graduated M. D. at Dartmouth College, November 6th, 1850, and began practice of his profession as house surgeon of the City Hospital in South Boston, remaining there during the winter of 1850-51. May 7th, 1861, he was made assistant surgeon of the Fifth Missouri Volunteers and served with that regiment at the battles of Carthage, Mo., Dug Springs and Wilson Creek. Surgeon Melcher remained on the battlefield of Wil- son Creek until all the other Federal officers had left, and obtained from the Confederate General Price the body of General Lyon, commander of the Union forces in that engagement, who was killed there, and brought it to Springfield, Mo., accompanied by a Confederate escort, furnished by the rebel General Rains. The term of service of the regiment, which had enlisted for three months, had now expired and Mr. Melcher volunteered to remain in Springfield as a prisoner to care for the wounded Union soldiers, numbering over 500, who had been brought there from the Wilson Creek battlefield. The people of Springfield generously fur- nished provisions and supplies to the wounded of both armies until Sur- geon Melcher obtained the things needed from the headquarters of the Union forces at Rolla. He was at his post in the hospital on the 25th of October, 1861, when Fremont's bodyguard, under the gallant Major Zagonyi, made its memorable charge into the city of Springfield and drove out the confederate forces. The wounded survivors of that battle were gathered at the court house, made as a hospital, and on the morn- ing after the fight Mr. Melcher, assisted by a soldier from the Ist Iowa V. I. and another from Ist Missouri V. I., raised the stars and stripes over the old court house, which still stands in the center of the square.
In November, 1861, Surgeon Melcher removed all the Wilson Creek wounded to St. Louis and on Dec. 4th, 1861, he was made brigade sur- geon of the First Brigade Mo. S. M. Vol. He was now assigned to hos- pital duty in St. Louis on the staff of Gen. Schofield, and in the spring of 1862 he at one time had charge of the three most important hospitals in the city. For his efficient services in the supervision of these hospitals he was made the recipient of a testimonial from the Western Sanitary Commission and honorable mention by the Surgeon General of the United States. He was then made a member of the commission to examine candidates for appointment as surgeon of state troops. Mr. Melchor was commissioned Colonel and organized and equipped the 32nd E. M. M. In October, 1862, he was stationed at Springfield and organized the medical department there. On the night of January 7, 1863, Col. Melcher organized a force of the convalescents under his care, chained three old iron cannon on wagon wheels and during the 8th rendered great assistance to Gen. Brown in driving back the rebels under Marma-
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duke. Vol. 2, part 2 of the Medical History of the War of the Rebellion contains an account of an operation performed by Surgeon Melcher upon Gen. Brown, who was wounded in the defense of Springfield, January 8th, 1863. He was made lieutenant colonel of the 6th cavalry Mo. S. M. Vols. in 1863, and in 1864 he was aide de camp on the staff of Gen. Pleasanton during the Price raid in Missouri. His last service in the army was as post commander at Jefferson City, Mo. He was com- pelled to resign because of injury to his sight caused by a bursting shell at the battle of Springfield, Jan. 8th, 1863, and which has since resulted in total blindness.
Mr. Melcher has been a member of the I. O. O. F. since February 10, 1892, and now has a fifty-year veteran jewel of the order. He is a member of the G. A. R., of the Society of the Army of the Frontier and a Companion of the Military Order Loyal Legion of the United States.
Hiram D. Fisher was born in Hermon, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1847. Later in life he became a resident of Rockford, Iowa, and in 1883 moved to Jerauld county, D. T. His education was ob- tained in the common schools. Sept. 12, 1885, he married Mrs. Wilma Pinkman. Mr. Fisher moved back to Rockford, Iowa, in 1889, where he resided until his death, June 26, 1906.
Almona B. Smart, chairman of the board, was a Methodist minister, who had graduated from Boston University. He had been a sailor be- fore the mast and as such visited many parts of the world. From edu- cation and observation he had become a bitter opponent of the liquor traffic in all its forms as well as of all other kinds of vice. As a member of the board of commissioners of Aurora county he had kept that county free from saloons and been at all times a tireless and vehement worker in the cause of temperance. In his work as a minister he seemed to feel no fatigue, but filled appointments at Plankinton, Mitchell, Huron, Miller and intermediate points, as well as at numerous dwelling houses in his home county.
These were the men upon whom was placed the burden of creating a county out of the raw material at hand. They represented three ut- terly distinct types of men.
Smart was a man of much learning, possessed of great tenacity of opinion and a disregard of public clamor that has at times made him unpopular with the people. Yet, probably no other man has done so much for the general welfare of the county, intellectually and morally, as he.
Melcher was a man of pleasing manners, wide experience, cultured and possessed of great creative and executive ability. He, more than
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any other member of the board, shaped the policy that has been pursued by the county as an organization ever since.
Fisher was a man who typified the spirit of the masses.
Looking back at their work, across the vista of twenty-five years, though it shows crudeness in places, yet, in view of the many perplexing and annoying occurrences that beset them, the political edifice they reared -- temperate, moral, out of debt and never bonded-looks well beside its fellows.
Chapter 3.
On the second day of the session at the instance of Mr. Fisher, J. F. Ford was appointed clerk of the board to serve until such time as a register of deeds should be appointed, the law at that time making that officer ex-officio clerk for the county commissioners.
On the same day the commissioners gave the first order for county supplies. It was an order to Perkins Bros., of Sioux City, for blank books to the amount of $282.00, or at such sum as any other "legitimate house would furnish them," and for four seals at $4.00 each ; all to be paid for with county warrants, payable when there should be a sufficient surplus of money in the county treasury. The warrants were taken at par.
During this second day's session a letter from E. S. Waterbury was read and placed on file, expressing concurrence and asking that the por- tion of Buffalo county annexed to Jerauld by the last legislature be recognized in the organization of Jerauld county.
November 10, 1883, F. T. Tofflemier, J. O. Gray and Henry Herring were appointed justices of the peace and James Paddock, L. W. Castle- man and B. F. Wiley were appointed constables.
The board finshed the appointment of judicial officers for the new county, except probate judge, on the 10th day of November, 1883. by giving J. M. Spears the office of sheriff.
The board took up the subject of bridges on the 2nd day of the ses- sion, and authorized Commissioner Fisher to construct a bridge on the line between sections 14 and 23 in 107-64, at a cost to the county not to exceed $100.
The board closed its first session by dividing the county into three commissioner districts as follows :
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District No. I-All that part of the county lying east of the Fire- stėel Creek.
District No. 2-All that part of the county lying between the Fire- steel Creek and the town line between 108-65 and 108-66.
District No. 3-The balance of the county.
Board adjourned to meet January 7th, 1884.
The second meeting of the board was held on the evening of the 17th of November, 1883, when Mr. Melcher and Mr. Smart chanced to meet in the office of Dunham & Ingham, publishers of the Jerauld County News, in what was then known as the Applegate building, later as the Woodburn Hotel, but now as the old Carlton House. Mr. Smart acted as both chairman and clerk at that meeting.
Nothing of importance was done that evening but the next day Mr. Fisher being present a meeting was held in the office of McDonald & Bateman with Mr. Ford as clerk. At this meeting Mr. Smart was authorized to construct a bridge to cost not to exceed $75 across the gulch on the line between sections 17 and 18-107-64. The board numbered the bridges to be built as follows :
No. I-Across the Firesteel between sections 14 and 23-107-64. No. 2-Across the gulch between 17 and 18-107-64. No. 3-On line between sections 20 and 21-107-64. No. 4-On line between sections 28 and 29-107-67. No. 5-On line between sections 32 and 33-107-67.
Commissioner Melcher was authorized to construct bridges No. 3. 4 and 5 at a cost of not to exceed $400 to the county.
A petition was read from the people of Buffalo county and the western part of Jerauld county asking for the appointment of a probate judge from the western part of the county.
At the meeting on the 8th. of January, 1884, the first bill against the county was presented by W. J. Williams. It was $15.00 for hauling the lumber and making approaches for the bridge, authorized on the 10th of November to be built across the Firesteel Creek. Warrant No. 3 was afterward issued for this account.
At the adjourned meeting on the 7th day of January, 1884, the board adopted the proceeding of the meeting held on the 17th of November and made the minutes of that meeting a part of the record.
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Chapter 4.
With organization came a multiplicity of matters, great and small, to vex the minds of the county commissioners, and arouse the good, or ill will of people interested, according to the success or failure of their wishes. The offices were to be filled and for each of several positions there were numerous applicants. The county seat must be located tem- porarily, and for this there were two candidates, Wessington Spring and Templeton. Then in the former place there were several parties, each wanting the county building located on their particular piece of property.
The Wessington Springs Townsite company, through one of their number, Mr. D. A. Scott, now of Sioux Falls, went before the board and offered office rooms for county officers free of rent for one year, if the commissioners would locate the county seat temporarily at Wessing- ton Springs, and making the further offer that if that place should be made the permanent location they would then give a block of lots for county buildings and supply the buildings with water.
J. N. Cross of Templeton, sent in an offer of "the use of two spacious rooms, provided with stoves, for six years, and two blocks of lots to be selected by the county commissioners," if the county capital should be located on his farm, the NE quarter of section 7-107-65 (Media). In the spring and summer of 1883 Mr. Cross had erected a large two story grout building, and it was in this structure that he offered the rooms. On January IIth Mr. Cross increased his offer to "every third block to be platted on the N half of the NE quarter of section 7-107-65, one- half to be delivered for immediate use and the balance when the county seat should be permanently located on that tract. The offer was never accepted, and inasmuch as the large grout building tumbled to a heap of ruins three years later it was probably wise to reject it.
The matter was made more complicated, and the inducements of the various offers somewhat lessened, by various propositions from other parties, some with objects to be gained and some without. Among the latter was one from McDonald & Bateman, publishers of the Wessington Springs Herald and proprietors of the Jerauld County Bank, offering "the use of their printing office and banking rooms" in the building later used by C. W. England for a confectionary and tobacco store and now by Earl Howthorne as living rooms in connection with his restaurant, for use of the clerk of the district court and the county commissioners free of rent, and furnish lights and fuel for one year. As Mr. McDonald had secured the office he desired, and Mr. Bateman was not a candidate for anything, it is difficult to see any private gain for them in the ac- ceptance of their offer.
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. J. F. Ford, a candidate for register of deeds, "offered the county commissioners the use of his office, rent free, for one year." His office was about one-half of the building in which Hermson's barber shop is now located. The commissioners availed themselves of this offer for a few days and held their meetings in Mr. Ford's office until February 19th, 1884, but without indicating at the time of acceptance who would be their choice for register of deeds.
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O. V. Harris, another candidate for that office, offered to perform the duties of register of deeds for the year 1884, for no other compensa- tion than that for recording instruments and furnish rent, lights, fuel and stationery for the county.
Commissioner Smart now submitted a proposition on the location of the county seat, which was "to furnish land and material for court house to be built of granite, sandstone and limestone, if court house was located on the SE quarter of SE quarter of section 12-107-65.
On the 3rd day of this session the board fixed the amount of the official bonds of county officers as follows :
Register of Deeds, $1,000.
Probate Judge, $1,000.
Treasurer, $4,000.
Sheriff, $2,000.
County Superintendent, $1,000.
Coroner, $1,000.
Justices, $500.
On January 10th the board took up the subject of school townships. numbering them and defining their boundaries. This duty seems to have perplexed and bothered the commissioners as much as any other matter that occupied their attention. The territorial law required school town- ships to correspond with congressional townships except in case where natural obstacles rendered such a course impracticable. The Firesteel Creek was looked upon by the board as such an obstable. Yet this does not account for all of the actions of the board in creating school town- ships.
School township No. I was made to comprise congressional township No. 108, N range 63 W., 5th P. M.
No. 2-Township 108-64 and the east half of 108-65.
No. 3-The west half of 108-65 and all of 108-66.
No. 4-All of 108-67 and all of 107-67.
No. 5-All of 107-66.
No. 6-All of 107-65 and five tiers of sections off the west side of 107-64.
No. 7-One tier of sections off the east side of 107-64 and all of 107-63.
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No. 8-All of 106-63 and one tier of sections off the east side .of 106 -- 64.
No. 9-All of 106-65 and all of 106-64 lying west of No. 8. No. 10-All of 106-66.
No. 11-All of 106-67.
The next day, January 1Ith, the county seat matter again came up. George R. Bateman and Hiram Blowers, who owned a tract of land north and east of the town, offered the county forty acres, if the court house should be located on the property, and all the stone needed to be de- livered within one mile of the building. This offer was filed with the others and entered in the minutes of the meeting.
At the meeting on January 12th the subject of appointing an official. county paper came up. There were then five newspapers in the county : The Buffalo County Herald, published at Sulphur Spring; The News, published at Waterbury ; the Wessington Springs Herald, and the Jerauld · County News, published at Wessington Springs and the Journal, pub- lished at Alpena.
McDonald & Bateman, publishers of the Herald, at Wessington Springs, offered to publish the minutes of the board meetings without cost to the county, if their paper should be made the official paper. The offer was accepted.
Saturday afternoon, January 12th, the county seat problem was again brought forward, this time in a definite proposition. Commissioner Fisher voted for Wessington Springs and Commissioner Melcher for Templeton, the name given to the postoffice located on Mr. Cross' farm, before mentioned. The vote being a tie the chairman declined to vote on the question until Monday, that course being in accordance with the law of the territory and now, also, of the state. There was no doubt as to how Mr. Smart would vote, so when in Monday's session he voted with Mr .Fisher for Wessington Springs, no one was surprised or dis- appointed.
January 14th, 1884, was a day that has never been surpassed in the history of the county in political interest. The board had announced that on that day they would listen to representations, from the different candidates for the various positions to be filled by appointment. The candidates were on hand-all in person and some with attorney, also -and the day was given up to speech making, or essay readings as the reasons why this one or that one should be appointed were laid before the board. No one but the commissioners then knew that the members of the board had held a secret meeting a few evenings previously in the northwest corner room on the second floor of Tarbell's hotel, in which they had agreed upon the candidates that should be appointed.
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Chapter 5.
Among the candidates who appeared before the board that day were several who subsequently became prominent in the affairs of the county and state.
For the position of register of deeds were J. F. Ford, now of Los Angeles, California; T. L. Blank, now a civil engineer of Des Moines, Iowa; O. V. Harris, B. F. Swatman, J. R. Francis, afterward justice of the peace, and for many years district attorney and probate judge; T. H. Null, for some time attorney for the state board of railroad commis- sioners, and now practicing attorney at Huron, and A. N. Louder, now a merchant at Presho, S. D.
For probate judge the candidates were R. M. Magee, M. C. Ayers, afterward state's attorney for the county, and H. M. Rice.
For assessor the candidates were L. G. Wilson, afterward county commissioner, Geo. Whealen, and M. D. Crow.
For treasurer the candidates were E. V. Miles, elected state senator in the statehood movement in 1885, P. R. Barrett, postmaster at Wessing- ton Springs and W. J. Williams.
The candidates for county surveyor were H. J. Wallace, afterward county surveyor, county treasurer and state surveyor, and J. M. Corbin, for many years a popular instructor among the Indians at Pine Ridge and Rosebud agencies.
This performance was for some time referred to as "the county's literary entertainment." At its close the board adjourned without an- nouncing any appointments.
The next morning, Jan. 16th, the board announced the appoinment of R. M. Magee, of the firm of Drake & Magee, attorney for Jerauld county without salary. The only compensation Mr. Magee ever received from this appointment was $6.00 on February 6th and $10 on May 2, 1884, as fees for consultations.
On the same day a petition signed by 26 electors of townships 108- 66 and 107-66 was presented to the board by I. N. Rich, asking that those two townships be made into one school organization. Another petition was presented that day by Mr. Dean of 107-66, asking that that township be made a school township by itself. This petition was signed by 42 electors. The petitions were filed and action on them deferred.
E. S. Waterbury and C. V. Martin of Crow township, appeared before the board on the 17th and protested against the plan adopted by the com- missioners in fixing the boundaries of the school townships. They asked that for the west side of the county, at least, the school and congressional townships should embrace the same territory. The board then took mp
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the subject of school elections and commencing with 108-67 the north- west corner township, they changed the school township lines. The fol- lowing is the substance of the order made January 17th.
The election was called for Feb. 23, the names of the judges and the polling places being stated in the order.
No. 1 (108-67)-Judges, J. M. Corbin, J. J. Groub and John Cal- vert, at the residence of J. J. Groub.
No. 2 (107-67)-Judges, E. A. Herman, W. M. Cross and M. E. Merwin, at the store of Rice & Herring in the town of Waterbury.
No. 3 (106-67)-Judges, W. S. Combs, Wm. Niemeyer and Z. P. De Forest, at Wm. Niemeyer's residence.
No. 4 (108-66)-Judges, Chas. Smith, Moses Rich and Daniel Mitchell, at the residence of Moses Rich.
No. 5 (107-66)-Judges, G. W. Stetson, S. Sourwine and J. W. Todd, the house of S. Sourwine.
No. 6 (106-66)-Judges, David Moulton, Frank Spinler and E. H. Crossman, at residence of Joseph O'Brien.
No. 7 (108-65 and 41% tiers of sections on the west side of 108- 64)-Judges, E. V. Miles, Wm. Hawthorne and Jorgen Hansen. Poll- ing place the office of Ford & Rich in Wessington Springs.
No. 9 (106-65 and 41/2 tiers of sections off the west side of 106- 64)-Judges, Chas. Walters, A. D. Cady, and Wm. Dixon, at house of S. S. Moore.
No. 10 (108-63 and 11% tiers of sections off the east side of 108- - 64-Judges, Chas. Eastman, Jos. Moore and Wm. Arne, at the office of L. N. Loomis in the town of Alpena.
No. II (107-63 and 11% tiers of sections off the east side of 107- 64)-Judges, Owen Williams, W. P. Pierce and Henry Kineriem, at residence of Wm. Houmes.
No. 12 (106-63 and 112 tiers of sections off the east side of 106- 64)-Judges, Henry Walters, Thos. Biggar and Jos. Steichen.
The commissioners also named the election clerks for each township. but their names were not entered in the book containing the records of the commissioners' proceedings. The clerks named by the board were as follows:
No. 1-O. G. Emery, James Talbert.
No. 2-W. A. Rex, H. W. Austin.
No. 3-Jacob Norin, Amos Gotwals.
No. 4-Wm. Bremner, Jeff Sickler.
No. 5-S. F. Huntley, Mark Williams.
No. 6-E. L. Sawyer, Joseph O'Brien.
No. 7-M. A. Schaefer, A. T. Kerkman.
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No. 8-M. C. Ayers, M. D. Crow.
No. 9-Fred Burrows, Wmn. Paganhart.
No. 10-Wesley Davis, Joel Harding.
No. 11-K. S. Starkey, Andrew Olsen.
No. 12-Henry Koonse, Wm. Daniels.
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