History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 103

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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He removed to Dakota Territory from Michigan in 1863, and settled in Clay County. He was an old-line Jackson democrat and a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. During Mr. Turner's active years the democratic party was the ruling political force in the United States. In Dakota he was a democratic leader, and was sent as a delegate to the National Peace Convention held at Philadelphia in 1866. He was for several termis a member of the Ter- ritorial Legislature from Clay County ; and was elected superintendent of public instruction for the territory in 1866 on the Johnson republican ticket, and again in 1870, and in the latter year was appointed by Governor Burbank a delegate to the National Immigration Convention at Indianapolis.

Nearly all the old hamlets and villages that possessed titles in the pioneer age of Turner County have been abandoned as centers of commerce and municipal industries, and surrendered to the more needful pursuits of agriculture, since the railroad came that way with the townsite agent. Within a year after its organization, and in some instances prior to that important event, there were business centers at Swan Lake, on Turkey Ridge Creek, and about four and a half miles southeast of the center of the county : Turner City, six miles east of Swan Lake, on the Vermillion, where a flour mill had been erected by J. W. Turner and Peter Turner: Marion, in the northwestern part, on the west fork of the Vermillion: Ohio, near Centreville, in the southeast, where Laird Bros. operated a cheese factory ; Mattoon, in the same section, where Baker & Douglass built a flour mill : Childstown, founded by James A. Chills, in the western por- tion, on Turkey Ridge Creek : and Finlay, founded by Rev. James J. McIntire. of Wisconsin, who with a colony of farming people from the Badger State took up their abodes surrounding. Swan Lake was the first settlement in the county. and this fact was probably due to its having been the principal station on the Yankton and Sioux Falls or Fort Dakota Military Road, and also the station of the stage line when a mail route was established between Sioux Falls and Yankton in 1865. Turner was the second in point of antiquity ; and stood on the Vol. 1 38

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banks of the Vermillion River ; there was not much of a town, but the view of the Vermillion Valley from Turner was a picture of grandeur and beauty. Two or three years later a large colony of Mennonites took up land near Childstown. Finlay contained a store, two hotels, and a blacksmith shop. Vale P. Thielman was the leading spirit in all enterprises. Nearly all these old towns, like the pioneer people who founded them, have passed away.

The Swan Lake townsite was surveyed and platted in February. 1871, by B. S. Gillespie, county surveyor of Lincoln County. The original owners of the town were W. W. Aurner, Vale P. Thielman, William Cuppett and James S. Foster. Bartlett Tripp, of Yankton, was the owner of a half block in the embryo city. Being the county seat, Swan Lake was the political head center of the county, and a newspaper, called the Swan Lake Era (now the Parker New Era ), was established October, 1875, by H. B. Chaffee, of Vermillion. It was republican in politics, and was published regularly once a week. Charles F. llackett, a practical printer, of Yankton, purchased the plant three years later, and continued the publication in Swan Lake until the following December, 1879, when he removed to Parker, the new railroad town, and changed the title of his paper to the "New Era." It has since been one of the flourishing and influential institutions of Turner County and the territory. A school was opened at Swan Lake in 1872. Rev. W. H. H. Ross, of the Episcopal Parish of Sioux Falls, preached to the people once a month ; Dr. J. S. Hughes, of Lodi, Methodist, sermonized once in three weeks; and Reverend McIntire, of Finlay, supplied the pulpit once a fortnight. Concerning the first settlements in the county, Mr. Thiel- man places the date in July, 1869, when claims were taken at and surrounding Swan Lake by Mr. Aurner, Col. Gideon C. Moody, Lewis H. Elliott and F. C. Hills, of Yankton, and George W. Ripley. The Mr. Hills mentioned became a prominent railroad official at Sioux City later. None of these parties made set- tlement. The first improvement at Swan Lake was a sod house built by Mr. Aur- ner, finished inside with cottonwood boards unplaned. It became the principal hotel in the village.

The county had been surveyed, and a few trappers found employment along the Vermillion and Turkey Ridge waters prior to 1869. From 1865 to 1869. a weekly mail was transmitted from Fort Randall via Fort James to Fort Dakota at Sioux Falls. Soldiers carried the mail pouch and their route lay across the northern part of Turner County.

Settlements were made as early as 1860 in the southeastern corner of the county while that portion was a part of Lincoln. William Lowrie was one of the first. H. H. Hammond and family, Mrs. C. J. Emery and family and William Robinson. M. G. Laird, A. Laird and Jud Pierce, Fred Smith and Andrew Baker took claims and in 1871 the Town of Centerville was located on Doctor Smith's claim. Turner City, a few miles north of Centerville, was established by Hon. J. W. Turner and two brothers, D. C. and P. H. Turner, in the winter of 1870-71, where quite a settlement was made in the spring by the coming in of C. B. Valentine, destined to take a leading part in politics, Cyrus and David Morris. Jackson Davis and son John. Centerville, on the Vermillion River, at this early day exhibited indications of becoming an important business center owing to its favorable location and to its manufacturing advantages due to a good reliable water power. Lovejoy and Haynes brought in the first thrashing machine in 1872, which was expected to do the thrashing for the whole county at that time. The Town of Ohio was directly across the river from Centerville where the Laird Brothers manufactured cheese and operated a good farm.

The first white women to settle in the county were two sisters, daughters of Rev. C. W. Batchelder, of Yankton. These were unmarried ladies, young women. Helen and Annie. Aurner was their brother-in-law. Thielman and Charles S. Scott also took claims near Swan Lake in 1869, and in 1870, Conrad F. Lange, Henry Clay Ash and Fayette Place took up land in that vicinity with James A. Child, a near neighbor. J. H. Shurtleff and W. K. Hollenbeck settled near Fin-

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lay in 1871 and Robert Chipperfield soon after. In the extreme northern part of the county James T. Allen and Andrew Ellstrom were the earliest settlers.

Mr. Aurner had an experience in July, 1871, that testified to the remarkable quality of his nerve while in the peril of great misfortune. He was accustomed to visit Yankton once a week and drove a span of white mules hitched to a light lumber wagon. The distance was twenty miles, and it was generally believed that the mules galloped nineteen-twentieths of the distance with Mr. Aurner standing upright in the wagon box. He was a temperance man, and though unusually energetic and at times eccentric, he was at all times clear-headed and was highly respected. On one occasion, in July, 1871, in company with Vale P. Thielman, he was making one of his trips to the territorial capital, the mules traveling at their customary "twelve-mile gait," and when near Clay Creek, in crossing a gul- ley made by a recent rain, the braces connecting the wagon tongue with the front axle gave way. Mr. Aurner was thrown from the wagon striking upon his right hand, and Mr. Thielman was somewhat shaken up. The mules, however, haul- ing the tongue of the wagon kept on toward their destination as though nothing serious had occurred. Aurner and Thielman started on after the mules afoot and caught them some two miles away, borrowed a wagon from a farmer and resumed their journey. At this point Mr. Aurner became conscious that his right arm was injured. It was bent backward just above the wrist and gave him the most intense pain. Reaching town he was driven immediately to a surgeon who discovered that the wrist bone of the right wrist was broken. The surgeon pre- pared to give his patient chloroform to alleviate the pain during the operation of "setting the bone," but Aurner declined to take it, saying that he wanted to "see how it was done." And he looked on very coolly and not much concerned while the operation was being performed. Such was the fortitude of the landlord of the Swan Lake Hotel and the pioneer of the Turkey Creek Valley.

J. W. Turner, Henry Davis, Cyrus Morris, Calvin HIill, West Negus, C. P. Ilankins, Jacob Shaulter, Richard Williams, O. B. Gray, and a Mrs. Clem, and O. C. Baldy, of Yankton, with his wife, settled in the vicinity of Turner City late in 1871 or 1872. Baldy opened a store. Rev. L. Bridgmen was an early missionary at Turner. An elderly man named Putterbaugh lost his life in a prai- rie fire in the fall of 1872. He went some distance away from his house to fight the flames and was suffocated by the smoke, fell unconscious and was roasted to death.

A County Agricultural Society was organized at the courthouse in Swan Lake on March 1, 1873. There had been such uniform success attending farm- ing operations that the citizens felt ambitious to acquaint the outside world with the advantages of the county, and selected this society as a proper and the best medium through which to make known the resources of the soil. G. W. Shelley called the meeting to order, and Thomas Buchanan was elected chairman, and D. B. Conway, secretary. A committee consisting of E. Bowditch, Vale P. Thielman and G. W. Shelley, reported the names following for officers of the society : J. J. Mclntire, Finlay, president ; J. W. Turner, Turner, vice president ; D. B. Conway, Spring Valley, secretary ; 11. J. Hammond, Centerville, treasurer. Directors, 11. B. Cooley, Turner; J. II. Shurtleff, Finlay; J. A. Childs, Childs- town; Thos. Buchanan, Spring Valley; M. C. Laird. Ohio; Dr. F. Smith, Cen- terville: Peter Nelson, Swan Lake. Committee on Constitution and By-Laws, P. H. Turner, Turner ; V. P. Thielman, Swan Lake : S. F. Andrews. Spring Val- ley ; 11. H. Deyo, Ashville : Jud Pierce, Ohio.

An adjourned meeting was held on the 5th of July following when the con- stitution was adopted. and the society named the "Turner County Agricultural Society." AA proposition to hold a county fair was discussed, but was put over until a month later to give the crops more time to guarantee a creditable exhibi- tion. It was later decided to postpone the exhibition to the next year, and in the meantime to make preparations for it. Next year the grasshoppers came.

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Immigration to the county was quite encouraging, considering the competition all over the Northwest to secure it.

Prominent among the settlers of 1872 who largely located in the Vermillion Valley were A. J. Dennison, Horace Warner, Eugene Burgess, T. F. Collins, Henry Day Manger and family, O. K. Stanford, Lucius Thompson, James and Sarah Sheldon, Ira Barnes, D. C. Smith, and G. Phillips. The Dakota Southern Railroad was being built in 1872, which was a convenience to the pioneers of Turner County, and proved an economy, as they were now permitted to supply themselves .with good hard coal from Elk Point and Vermillion at a cost of $17 a ton. In 1873 the new arrivals included T. B. Costain, with a family, also C. M. Mansfield, Wm. Roantree, Albert Newby, Geo. Whitmarsh, John Boynton, J. E. Sargent, James Williamson, Elisha Shaw, Miss Vina Alexander, Thomas and Oscar Elce, Charles Thompson, Louis Richards, Orange Still, John Shepperd- son and others.

The year 1874 will be regretfully remembered as the year of the seventeen- year locust scourge which devastated the larger portion of the farming settle- ments of Turner and every other county in the territory, extending its ravages into Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. The losses of many of the farmers were complete, the insects devouring every blade of corn and the growing grain. Tur- ner County was in the path of the scourge and suffered heavily.

The Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad entered the county from Canton in 1879, and established the new Town of Parker, which was made the county seat. The other railway town was Marion, an old trading point which now became the junction of the running water branch of the Milwaukee Railroad.

THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS

CHAPTER XLIX RAILROADS NEEDED TO SETTLE THE TERRITORY 1870

TIIE RAILWAY SITUATION IN 1856 AND LATER-DAKOTA'S EARLY EFFORTS FOR RAIL- WAY LINES-THE UNION PACIFIC AND THE NORTHERN BRANCH-THE MISSOURI & NIOBRARA VALLEY RAILROAD FRANCHISE-TIIE COMPANY PERFECTS ITS ORGANIZATION-NEWTON EDMUNDS, PRESIDENT, INTENDED TO BUILD THE NORTIIERN BRANCH OF THE UNION PACIFIC-JOIIN I. BLAIR GETS THE COVETED FRANCHISE AND BUILDS FROM MISSOURI VALLEY TO SIOUX CITY- URGENT AND INCREASING DEMAND FOR RAILROADS-LEGISLATURE GRANTS A VALUABLE FRAN- CHISE TO THE DAKOTA AND NORTIIWESTERN-COMPANY PERFECTS ITS ORGANI- ZATION AND PROCURES A PRELIMINARY SURVEY-REPORTS OF CHIEF ENGINEER -OTIIER RAILROADS BUILDING TOWARD DAKOT.1-RAILROAD COMPANIES REPORT TO THE LEGISLATURE-1869 GOOD CROP YEAR-ABUNDANCE OF PRODUCE AND NO MARKET-NEW AND NUMEROUS RAILWAY ORGANIZATIONS-THE DAKOTA CEN- TRAL AND THE GRAND TRUNK-FAILURE TO OBTAIN LAND GRANTS DEFEATED THIE BUILDING OF MANY LINES.

In the year 1858 the railroad nearest to the southern portion of Dakota was the Dubuque & Pacific which had been built as far west as Cedar Falls. lowa. It is now a part of the Illinois Central system. The building of this line under the title of Dubuque & Pacific was the first public intimation of the sentiment then forming for a railroad across the continent which eight years later crys- tallized, and the construction of the Union Pacific from Omaha was begun. The Dubuque & Pacific encountered the difficulties which beset all railroad enter- prises of that day. Its projectors had enterprise abundant, but very little money and depended upon local aid from towns and counties as the work progressed. The state gave the company 3,200 acres of land per mile, and this grant was available whenever a section of twenty miles was completed and operated. but the sale of the lands was slow and the towns were suspicions, and taken altogether these pioneer railroad builders are not to be envied. There were at least a half dozen other railway lines putting out from the Mississippi in Iowa and Minne- sota at this time, and all seem to have been hampered in their work by lack of funds.

The Legislature at its first session granted a charter to the Missouri & Niob- rara Valley Railway Company naming as incorporators Bligh E. Wood. A. W. Puett. J. W. Boyle, J. A. Jacobson, Lyman Burgess, Reuben Wallace. J. Shaw Gregory. D. T. Bramble. Enos Stutsman, Geo. M. Pinney. W. W. Brookings. Jacob Denel. M. K. Armstrong, Austin Cole. John McBride, Christopher Maloney. John Stanage. H. Donaldson. H. D. Betts. N. Edmunds. J. Jagley, George Jerome, A. W. Hubbard. John H. Charles, W. P. Lyman, Erastus Corn- ing. R. N. Rice. Elihu Washburn, L. R. Kimball. R. B. Mason. W. F. Shaeffer. and Lyman W. Gilbert.

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Railroads had but recently begun to reach out from the Mississippi River into lowa, at this time, so that this carly action of the Dakota Legislature might seem quite premature without an explanation connecting it with a much more important national enterprise.

The Union Pacific Railroad bill passed Congress on the 24th of June, 1862. It provided for a main line commencing on the 100th degree of longitude west from Greenwich, and also for two branches, one to start from Kansas City and unite with the main line at the 100th meridian, and a more northern branch start- ing from the east bank of the Missouri River in the State of Iowa, and to con- nect with the main line on the 100th meridian.

This last was the Council Bluffs or Omaha Line, and it was also provided that whenever a railroad should be constructed to Sioux City, Iowa, a third branch should be built from that point to the 100th meridian starting point. The President of the United States was authorized to designate the company that should build this branch, and this was the branch the Missouri River and Niobrara Valley Company was organized for the purpose of constructing. The Union Pacific Railroad was regarded as a war measure, the Civil war then raging having developed conditions that menaced the security of California, and the existing routes from the Atlantic seaboard around Cape Horn or across the Isthmus of Panama. Every state in the Union that was represented in the United States Congress, furnished the commissioners who had charge of organiz- ing the Union Pacific, and these commissioners were named in the law. The Government took upon itself the whole financial burden of the enterprise by making a magnificent land grant to the company and by practically guarantee- ing its bonds sufficient in amount to build and equip the road. A provision of the law authorized the construction of the northern branch to start from Sioux City, whenever any railroad had reached Sioux City from the east.

THE MISSOURI & NIOBRARA VALLEY RAILROAD

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Anticipating the coming of such a road to Sioux City at an early day (the McGregor and Western and the Dubuque & Pacific or Dubuque & Sioux City, being then under construction), the Dakota Legislature passed the Missouri & Niobrara Valley Railroad bill, which was a very liberal grant of privileges and powers. The road had its eastern terminus on the west bank of the Big Sioux River in the County of Cole (now Union). From the Big Sioux the road was to run westerly through the counties of Cole, Clay, Yankton, Bon Homme and Todd to a point on the Missouri River within seven miles of the mouth of the Niobrara River, or some point where a practicable crossing could be found, then up the Niobrara Valley to the western boundary of Dakota at any point most suitable for leaving said territory in order to reach by a practicable route the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains.

A little study of the list of incorporators will reveal to the reader the names of several of the most prominent railway men at that time in the United States, some of whom were named in the law of Congress authorizing the Union Pacific to be built. There are Wm. B. Ogden, Elihu Washburn, Erastus Corning, men of national fame and at that time at the head of the country's great transporta- tion enterprises. Every member of the Legislature that passed the bill is included in the list of incorporators suggesting that they knew a good thing when they saw it in the form of a railroad charter that had such substantial backing.

The company held a meeting at the Ash Hotel, Yankton, November 8, 1862, at which were present a large number of the resident incorporators; organiza- tion was had by the election of W. W. Brookings, chairman, and James Tufts, secretary. On motion of Mr. Bramble the places of all incorporators who had become non-residents of the territory by removal were declared vacant. The board then proceeded to the election of officers of the company. Newton

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Edmunds was elected president ; James Tufts, secretary; John H. Charles, of Sioux City, treasurer. J. Shaw Gregory, James Tufts, Newton Edmunds, Geo. P. Waldron and M. K. Armstrong were appointed a committee to collect, prepare and furnish information in regard to the route from Sioux City to the South Pass, and lay such information before the incorporators of the Union Pacific Railway Company, and also before any committee of Congress that might call for it. Surveyor General Hill was appointed a special agent of the company to represent its interests before the Committee of Congress, and also to urge that the Pacific Railroad charter be so amended as to extend its grants and privi- leges to the Missouri & Niobrara Valley Company. A committee to draft by-laws was appointed, and the meeting then adjourned to reconvene December 20, 1862, at the Council Chamber. The entire tenor of the proceedings at this meeting, the earnestness manifested by the leading spirits of the occasion, the serupulous care taken that every requirement of the charter should be faithfully complied with, and a complete record made in durable form of its proceedings were evidence that those who were engineering the project felt that it was something more than a paper railroad, while the names of many of the incorporators were an evidence that the organization was strongly backed and no doubt had the sup- port of a number of the most influential railroad men in the country.

In accordance with legal notice, the directors of the company held a meeting at the office of Surveyor General Hill, on the 17th of November, 1864, for the purpose of opening the books for subscription to the capital stock of the company.

President Newton Edmunds presided, and James Tufts, the secretary being absent, J. R. Hanson was elected secretary pro tem. Addresses were made by General Hill, Hon. W. A. Burleigh and Mr. Brookings. Hon. Geo. M. Pinney presented the following resolution, which was adopted :

Resolved, That books of subscription to the capital stock of the Missouri & Niobrara Valley Railway Company be opened as follows: At Yankton, Dakota Territory, on the Ist day of December, 1864, at the office of Gov. Newton Edmunds and under his supervision ; at the City of Detroit, Michigan, on the 23d of said December, at the office of Jerome & Swift: at the City of New York on the ist day of February, 1865, at the office of A. G. Jerome: and in the City of Washington, at the office of B. B. French, on the 15th day of said February, and that the agents having charge of opening said books be authorized to collect upon all subscriptions one-fourth of i per cent upon the amount subscribed. for immediate expenses, and account to the business treasurer of the company for the same; and that Gen. George D. Hill be appointed the agent to open the books at Chicago, Detroit, New York and Washington. The meeting then adjourned.

Following this a call was made for a publie meeting of the directors of the company and the citizens of the territory, and in accordance therewith a citizens railroad meeting was held at Picotte's Capitol Building in Yankton, on the 7th of November, 1864, to consider the railroad interests of Dakota. W. W. Brook- ings called the meeting to order and Governor Edmunds was elected president. Vice presidents were elected, also, as follows: Rev. Dr. M. Hoyt, Lt. T. Elwood Clark. Rev. L. P. Judson, Albert F. Hayward and S. C. Fargo. As it was deter- mined to make this meeting the nucleus of a permanent organization for the development of the railway interests of the territory, and there would be neces- sity for a permanent officer to attend to its correspondence, Hon. W. W. Brook- ings was elected corresponding secretary.

Congress had amended the Union Pacific Railroad Jaw at the last session, by giving the President of the United States discretionary authority to designate the company which was to build the north branch of the Pacific Railroad from Sioux City westward to a junetion with the main line at Fort Laramie, Wyoming. This branch company would receive the same land donations and Government aid that was granted to the Union Pacific Company, which comprised a grant of every alternate section of land for ten miles on each side of the road: and on the completion of each twenty miles the Government gave the company $16,000 of United States Bonds, for each mile so completed, taking a subordinate lien

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on the lands as security, and the company was further authorized to issue a first mortgage bond on the lands for a sum not exceeding sixteen thousand dollars a mile, thus enabling the company to raise $32,000 a mile to pay for the expense of construction. Although railroad building material was very high in price owing to the Civil war, this sum afforded a tempting margin to capitalists, and the leaders of the nation in great transportation enterprise were eager to secure the benefits of the law. Surveyor General Hill made the important address at this meeting and explained the situation so clearly as to arouse the keenest interest and enlist the most cordial support of the meeting.

A resolution was then adopted requesting the president of the Missouri & Niobrara Valley Railroad Company, Gov. Newton Edmunds, to advise the President of the United States that the said company will apply to him to be designated as the company to construct the north branch of the Pacific Railway westward from Sioux City according to the intention of the act of Congress. On the motion of Mr. Brookings, the chairman appointed the following named citizens a committee to draw up a report on the most feasible route for the north- ern branch, and present it to the Legislative Assembly which convened about two weeks later. The chair appointed W. W. Brookings, John W. Boyles, J. Shaw Gregory, Geo. W. Kingsbury, and Jas. S. Foster. On motion of General Hill, Governor Edmunds and T. Elwood Clark were added to the committee, and the meeting then adjourned.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 103

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198