History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 148

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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Resolved. That Mark M. Parmer, A. J. Sweetser, and Chas. E. Sanborn le appointed a finance committee for the purpose of obtaining contributions to insure the success of the fair; M. M. Parmer to be chairman and act as treasurer, and pay out moneys as ordered by the executive committee.

Resolved, That Hon. George 11. Hand. of Yankton; Hon John L. Jolley, of Chs Hon. George Stickney, of Union: Hon. C B Valentine, of Turner ; Mark W. R.aly Lincoln; L. D. F. Poore, of Bon Homme; J. R. Brink, of Armstrong; Poster T Wheels of Charles Mix: A. S. Jones, of Hutchinson; Melvin Grigsby, of Minnehaha, F. I Poster of Ilanson; S. G. Roberts, of Cass: Col. C. W. Lounsherry, of Burleigh; 1 ( Gr ) of Davidson; C. W. Wright, of Lake: M. D L .. Pettigrew, of Moody ; and Re: Os Codington, of Brookings, be hereby chosen a committee to prepare articles of for the permanent organization of a territorial fair association and agricukur I to present the same at a meeting to be held at 2 o'clock I. M. of the first da for final action thereon.

Resolved, That all moneys and profits that may be left after giving the 1

. premiums at said fair, be placed in the hands of a committee onsist ig

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Spink, of Yankton; Hon. F. J. Cross, of Minnehaha ; and Hon. J. W. Hoffman, of Union counties, and be used for the purpose of aiding and securing a proper representation of Dakota at the United States Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1870.

The amount of $360 was subscribed at this meeting, which then adjourned, and the active work of preparing for the exhibition was taken up. J. W. C. Morrison was elected chairman of the executive committee. This committee fixed the dates for the fair to be held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, September 29th, 30th, and October Ist. The railroads of Iowa and Minnesota pledged low rates for the occasion.

The fair grounds were selected on a 40-acre tract of Picotte's, where a race track was laid out and temporary struetures erected and tents provided for the exhibition and to accommodate the people.

Fine weather greeted the people on the opening day of the important event. and Yankton was filled with visitors who had come in from every quarter. A meeting of the fair society was held and the following imposing array of officers elected and appointed :

President-Hon. John W. Turner, Turner County. Vice Presidents-E. B. Crew, Clay County : Byerk Peterson, Yankton County : George Stickney, Union County ; Hugh Fraley, Bon flomme County; Henry Maxwell, Hutchinson County; Daniel Shearer, Armstrong County; Samuel Bloom, Hanson County ; John Head, Davison County; A. B. Wheelock, Lincoln County ; Artemas Gale, Minnehaha County ; C. W. Lounsberry, Burleigh County; A. MeHlench, Cass County ; Geo. Winship, Grand Forks County, and D. M. Kelleher, Stutsman County. Marshal-W. H. H. Beadle, Yankton. Secretary-Nathan Ford. Yankton. Treasurer-Mark M. Parmer, Yankton.

Superintendents and Awarding Committees: Class A, Cattle-G. P. Bennett, Union. Awarding Committee : F. B. Foster, Rockport ; L. Bothun, Sioux Falls ; G. W. Kellogg, MeCook, Union County. Class B. Horses-A. C. Van Meter, Clay County. Awarding Committee: Col. C. T. Campbell, Scotland: C. K. Howard, Sioux Falls; I. N. Martin, Canton County. Class C, Sheep-Jerry Gehon, Lincoln County. Awarding Committee: Knud Larson, Vermillion ; Bligh E. Wood, Springfield : Jacob Max, Yankton. Class D, Swine-G. L. Whitmarsh, Turner County. Awarding Committee: C. F. Mallahan, Elk Point: C. H. McDonald, Sioux Falls ; Newton Edmunds, Yankton. Class E, Poultry-Dr. J. L. Phillips, Minnehaha County. Awarding Committee: Daniel Shearer, Mill- town ; N. J. Wallace, Elk Point; W. W. Aurner, Swan Lake. Class F. Fruits and Flowers-Mrs. Newton Edmunds, Yankton County. Awarding Committee : Mrs. M. W. Sheafe, Elk Point ; Mrs. Charles Presho, Milltown ; Mrs. A. J. Faulk. Yankton. Class G, Farm Products-Alfred Brown, Scotland, Bon Homme County. Awarding Committee: A. S. Jones, Olivet : Peter Jordan, Vermillion ; Daniel Unruh, Childstown, Turner County. Class I, Agricultural Implements- Jacob Brauch, Yankton. Awarding Committee: 11. H. Rudd, Lodi; John E. Maxwell, Olivet ; Jerry Gehon, Canton. Class K, Manufactures-D. B. Cooley, Yankton. Awarding Committee : 1I. E. Bonesteel, Springfield: A. F. Shaw,

Sioux Falls; E. W. Miller, Elk Point. Class 1., Domestic Arts and Manufac- tures-Mrs. H. C. Davidson, Springfield. Awarding Committee: Mrs. Geo. A. Keeler and Mrs. J. M. Wahl, Canton; Mrs. Clark Tarbox, Lakeport. Class M. Sewing Machine Work-Mrs. H. M. Fisher. Yankton. Awarding Committee : Mrs. J. L. Phillips and Mrs. A. Gale, Sioux Falls; Mrs. George P. Waldron, Yankton. Class N. Fancy Work-Mrs. N. J. Cramer, Yankton. Awarding Committee: Mrs. M. Grigsby, Sioux Falls ; Mrs. W. S. Bowen, Yankton; Mrs. G. W. Kellogg, McCook. Class O, Fine Arts-Mrs. W. M. Bristoll, Yankton. Awarding Committee: Mrs. L. D. F. Poore. Springfield ; Mrs. Win. VanEps. Sioux Falls; W. S. Bowen, Yankton. Class P. Miscellaneous-Rev. Stewart Sheldon. Elk Point. Awarding Committee: Rev. J. H. Magoffin, Yankton ; Mrs. J. P. Kountz, Bon Homme ; H. H. Blair, Elk Point ; Mrs. II. H. Blair, Elk Point : Mrs. D. M. Inman, Vermillion. Class Q, Baby Show-Mrs. Oliver Shan-

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11011. Awarding Committee-J. W. Turner, F. J. Dewitt, J. A. Kent, Joel .1. Potter. J. Shaw Gregory, W. A. Burleigh, J. P. Kidder, Mrs. B. E. Wood, Mrs. B. C. Cogan; Mrs. Geo. W. Rounds, Bon Homme. Class R. Driving and Trotting-T. W. Brisbine, Yankton. Class S. Flour and Meal R. B. Hunt, Yankton. Awarding Committee: (. W. Beggs, Elk Point; 1. Il. Turner, Springfield : Chas. E. Prentice, Vermillion. Admission, single ticket, 25 cents ; family ticket, good for the season, St.

There were 250 persons who made entries for articles for exhibition and as contestants for premiums, the latter largely paid in ribbons and cards and certificates. There were about twenty-five hundred articles exhibited in the various departments. The weather was favorable, and the exhibition provoked so much favorable feeling and comment that it was resolved to make it a permanent event, to be held annually. The laws of the territory made no provision for the organization of an agricultural society, such as was thought expedient ; but a society was duly organized at the close of the fair and the following officers elected: John W. Turner, president; Judge Granville G. Bennett, of Clay County, vice president ; Miles T. Woolley, Yankton, secretary ; L. D. F. Poore, Bon Homme County, treasurer. The directors were Alfred Brown, Hutchinson County ; J. L. Fisher, Clay ; D. P. Bradford, Bon Homme : Win. K. Hollenbeck, Turner ; F. B. Foster, Hanson ; P. H. Risling, Yankton ; G. W. Kellogg, Union ; S. L. Spink, Yankton : H. H. Rudd, Clay.

The officers of the society were authorized to name the time and place for holding the fair thereafter, but no change was made in the place for a number of years, and an annual exhibition was quite regularly held at Yankton.

The actual expenses consumed most of the receipts and contributions, and the remainder was turned over to the board of centennial commissioners, and selections were made of a number of articles with a view of adding them to the collection of mineral and forest exhibits of the territory to be made at the centennial exhibition.

VERMILLION SCOURGED BY FIRE

While the people of Dakota generally were devoting themselves to the relici of a large number of farmer settlers who had lost their crops by the grasshopper raid of the year previous, a most disastrous fire occurred in the City of Vermillion, practically destroying the business portion of the town. Above thirty business buildings were burned on the 13th of January, 1875, leaving but three standing. The county officers were kept in rented buildings, and the county treasurer list $3,000 in cash and all the books and records. The city had no adequate water supply or fire organization, and a stiff northwest wind prevailing, placed the town at the mercy of the flames. The principal losers were the Doctor Lyons' estate : J. W. Grange & Bros. ; Hayward & Son; Hodgins Bros. ; J. Becket : Findlay & Morrison ; Hornick & Walls; C. C. Russell ; Prentiss & Newton; Geo. Il. Pratt ; R. D. Tyler; Samuel Jones; Thompson & Lewis; Pratt & Devay : W. 11. 1. Owens; Geo. Ashard : Hans Gunderson : J. N. Ward ; D. Stephens, N. Hanson ; J. N. MeComer: W. P. Carr; C. 11. True; Wm. Deming; F. C. Tubbs, Cal. Shaw; John L. Jolley; W. K. Hollenbeck; C. N. Cliff; Doctor Burdick ; E. B Crawford. Insurance rates had been so high, owing to the exposed situation of the town, that the property owners and business men had carried only a small amount of indemnity.

MINNEAPOLIS VISITORS

AAn excursion party made up of Minneapolis professional and commercial 1 .0. and others engaged in manufacturing, made Dakota Territory a Visit in HIS. 1875, stopping at Yankton on the 22d of the month The object in visit excursionists, who were not only the representatives of business micijus lin

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included those occupying official stations, was to see this country of the Dakotas during the growing season, having in mind future commercial intercourse with Dakota, which was regarded as the most important grain producing region tributary to the young grain metropolis and flour manufacturing center of the United States.

This was the budding period of great enterprises, when the foundations were being laid for stupendous commercial associations and its kindred industries : when men were building better than they knew; when the most sagacious, and far-seeing, and optimistic, failed to grasp the wonderful development which the future had in store for the Northwest.

Minneapolis was just beginning its remarkable career, and its destiny was in the hands of men singularly well-equipped to make the most of the natural resources of the grain gardens of the world.

An address of welcome was presented to the city's guests upon their arrival, by Governor Pennington, after which they were taken in carriages and given a view of the town and its surroundings, and were also treated to an exhibit of the agricultural products of the territory, a fine variety having been collected for the occasion which were donated to the visitors and taken by them back for exhibition in the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce. At the conclusion of the carriage ride, a frontier luncheon was provided at the Merchants Hotel, which was greatly enjoyed by the guests and the host; after which the party was escorted to the depot, where an address, in acknowledgment of the courtesies shown the visitors, was made by the Hon. W. D. Washburn, the eminent Minnesota statesman and head of the leading flour manufactory in the United States. With this address, the ceremonies ended and the visitors departed.

Dakotans were, at this time, seeking the aid of their more influential neighbors on the east, in the construction of railroads and in the promotion of routes to the Black Hills, and this visit of representative Minnesotians was viewed as the beginning of an intercourse that would be mutually advantageous. While the benefits of this intercourse were not immediate, and were never of great impor- tance to the extreme southern portion of the territory, the development of Dakota generally was promoted and a bond of mutual interest established that has con- tinued to be an important factor in all the great enterprises that have marked the progress of the Dakota commonwealth.

THE BLACK HILLS

CHAPTER LXVII

EARLY EFFORTS TO OPEN THE BLACK HILLS

SIOUX INDIANS EARLIEST DISCOVERERS OF GOLD -FATHER DESMET PRESERVED THE SECRET-DEATH PENALTY TO ANY WHO SHOULD REVEAL THE FACT TO THE WHITES-DESMET CORRESPONDENCE-THIE SIOUX INDIAN NATION WERE ACKNOWLEDGED THE OWNERS OF THE COUNTRY-BYRON SMITH'S EXPEDITION OF 1866-MILITARY CHIEFS PROHIBIT IT -WAAR DEPARTMENT DIVIDED IN OPIN- ION-GENERAL POPE WOULD BUILD A FORT AND OPEN THE HILLS-PROFESSOR HAYDEN'S VISIT IN 1864-HAYDEN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE BAD LANDS AND HILLS -DAVY'S BLACK HILLS EXPEDITION-AN INDIAN CAUGHT WITH NUGGETS- MILITARY AUTHORITIES ISSUE PROHIBITION ORDER-GOVERNOR OF DAKOTAS OFFICIALLY NOTIFIED-GOVERNMENT EXPLORERS WHO KNEW OF THE GOLD DEPOSITS-LIEUTENANTS MULLEN AND WARREN IN THE HILLS YANKTON THE. NEAREST POINT TO THE EL DORADO-GENERAL HANCOCK ISSUES A COMPRE HEN- SIVE STATEMENT-THE GOVERNOR OF DAKOTA PROCLAIMS AGAINST BLACK HILLS IMMIGRATION-DAKOTANS, AS A RULE, RESPECT THE EDICTS OF THE RULING POWERS.

That the Sioux Indians were the discoverers of gold in the Black Hills region seems reasonably certain, but at what time there is no definite information. They knew the value of the metal but did not know any method of mining it. They were known to have nuggets of gold in their possession, and exchanged it for merchandise, during the first half of the last century, at Fort Laramie, and also at some of the trading posts on the Missouri River. These nuggets they had found in the numerous streams issuing out of the hills, and while they could detect the metal in the beds of the creeks, they had no knowledge of its existence in placers or in quartz veins. Father DeSmet, the renowned Jesuit missionary devoted his life work from 1840 to near 1870 to Christianizing the Indians Like Paul of old, he was never a charge upon his people but contributed generously to their relief in times when disease and starvation assailed them. The reverend father knew of the existence of gokt in the Black Hills but he was prone to avoid any allusion to the value of the country, concerned as he was with the religious and moral welfare of the people who claimed it and had a possessory title to the soil. The secret was revealed to him by the Indians, and he preserved it as to the locality of the gold fields, until the time came when it could be revealed without detriment to the red man, though he had for prudential reasons, let it be known to a few intimate friends, that a valuable gold field existed in the Northwest ; that it was upon Indian territory, and was not known to the white people. He was not, however, the least tempted to get gain from his knowledge nor would he willingly permit others to disturb the peace of his Indian charge by going to the Black Hills in quest of it. It is contended that he was clues instrumental in inducing the Indians to a policy of absolute secrecy reg. rdlp the existence of gold in their territory, and cautioned them against carrying the

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gold they found in the streams out of the country. He told them that if the white people learned of it they would come in and possess the country.

It was claimed by the early pioneers of Dakota that the Indians were under a solemn obligation not to reveal the existence of gold there under penalty of death. The obligation was religiously observed. In confirmation of this it is related that in the year 1857. in June, at the great Sioux camp at Lake Traverse and the Big Stone Lake, at the council which elected Sitting Bull war chief of the Tetons, a law was enacted by the tribes of the Sioux there represented, subject to the rule of the supreme chief of the nation, Black Moon, as follows :

That any Indian who should show the gold fields in the Black Hills to white men, should die, and the whites thus made aware of the presence of gold there should also die, for fear that the country would be taken from them.

After the death of Father DeSmet, which occurred in 1870, and after the agitation for the opening of the hills had become nation wide there appeared in a Washington paper a letter from Colonel VanVliet to Thurlow Weed, one of the famous New York statesmen who flourished with Seward and Greeley before the Civil war, giving the substance of a conversation had with Father DeSmet some twenty years prior to the date of VanVliet's letter, in which the reverend father had. in confidence, acquainted Van Vliet with the existence of a platinum deposit in the Sioux country, between the Yellowstone and the Cheyenne River, which DeSmet had visited. This letter brought out a confirmatory letter from John B. Stolley, of Washington, a life-long friend of DeSmet. Stolley's letter bears a Washington date, April 26, 1875, and was as follows:

Sir: Colonel Van Vliet's letter to Thurlow Weed, published in the Republican of the 24th of April, reminds me of a similar interview I had in this city with Father DeSmet, in 1864. I had been honored from my boyhood with the confidence and friend- ship of the reverend father, and in this interview, while speaking of my business prospects, he said if he were at liberty he could tell me where I could realize quickly a large fortune; that in one of the Indian reservations there existed very rich gold deposits of which the whites were ignorant; that the Indians had shown him large nuggets of the ore they had picked up in the beds of streams, and he believed that this place would some day prove to be the richest gold field in the world. He told me this in confidence, and said that he had cautioned his children, as he called the Indians, not to show these nuggets to white traders, who would thereby be tempted to overrun the reservation and drive out the Indians. Father DeSmet had but a short time previous to this interview been in the Black Hills country, and it was to that locality, I have no doubt, that he referred. As the existence of gold in the Black Hills is now a matter of notoriety, I feel absolved from any obliga- tion of secrecy to my deceased friend in making public the above statement.

JOHN B. STOLLEY.

The communities that had settled at three or four points along the Missouri Valley in the earliest days of Dakota's occupation by the whites under the Yankton treaty, were the first to become informed in a general way of the mineral and timber resources of the Black Hills ; and the first who made efforts and expended time and money, memorialized Congress, and organized expeditions to explore the country. Yankton people led in these organizations and efforts. A number of persons, more or less familiar with the Black Hills country, and also on friendly terms with Indians, who had been in and out from that region, resided at Yankton or made Yankton their abiding place when they were not absent in the Indian country.

In 1864 came the first authentic report to the pioneers of the Missouri Valley in Dakota. regarding the gold bearing character of the Black Hills country. The "squaw men"-those whites who had Indian wives. had learned of the existence of gold there, and claimed to have seen specimens of the valuable metal in the possession of Indians who had obtained them in the hills. Some of the older traders along the Upper River were also in possession of information regarding the mineral deposits in that section, but made no effort to acquaint the people with the facts, probably influenced by their own interests, which would have been

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jeopardized by the incoming of a large body of white people. While the auriferous character of the country had been mentioned by an occasional exploring party sent out under the patronage of the Federal Government, the subject had not attracted much attention until the Indian campaign under General Sully in 1804 had directed attention to that quarter and unsealed the lips of those who had reliable information regarding the valuable resources of that section.

Among the possessors of this "open secret" may be mentioned Charles F. Picotte, Colonel Galpin, Colonel Culberson, and Maj. William P. Lyman, all of whom had their information from first hands, and to their discreet friends spoke of it with unqualified confidence. Picotte was a Sioux half-breed and was born at Fort Pierre, well educated, grew up in the Cheyenne country, and traded with the Black Hills Indians for ten or twelve years prior to 1870; Galpin was the second husband of Mrs. Picotte and one of the confidential councillors of the Sioux chiefs; Culberson was a trader with a Sioux wife; and Lyman was the son-in-law of the famous Strike-the-Rec. M. K. Armstrong, who published the carly history of Dakota in 1806, became the confidential agent of Picotte at Yankton, and it was undoubtedly from Picotte that he derived much of his most valuable information concerning Western Dakota including the mineral and other resources of the Black Hills; and the same authority contributed much valuable information respecting the western part of the territory which was given in the first message of Governor Jayne to the first Legislature. The parties named were all pioneers of Yankton except Galpin and Culberson who were frequent visitors. It is to be expected, therefore, that Yankton people, from the earliest years of the settlement of the territory would manifest a lively interest in the Black Hills country and did not relax their efforts to secure their exploration.

The Black Hills Exploring and Mining AAssociation was the name given to an organization at Yankton, in January, 1861, headed by Byron M. Smith, Maj. W. P. Lyman, M. K. Armstrong. W. W. Brookings, Newton Edmunds, William Miner, J. Shaw Gregory and others. It was the first citizens organization in the United States having the exploring of the Black Hills country as its purpose. A number of public meetings were held during the winter, and a membership enrolled that included half the adult male population of the village. Its object was well explained in its title, and those who made up its active membership were deeply in earnest, and were such men as an initial movement of this kind could be confidently entrusted to. They were not all practical miners, but they were practical frontiersmen, and whenever the time arrived to move forward they would be accompanied by a number of experienced Californians who had panned out gold in the gulches of that country. The hills and adjacent country extending to the Missouri River was regarded as Sioux Indian country, though at the time of which we write there had been no treaty stipulation affecting it, or declaring it to be an Indian reservation; but it was known as Indian land and that the Indians professed to regard it with peculiar veneration, and above all price, and would listen to no proposal for disposing of it.

No movement appears to have been made toward starting the expedition formed by this association during the year 1800. General Sully's second campaign ( in 1864) had been successful, the hostile Sioux Indians were in a subdued if not peaceful condition ; and the Government had undertaken to make peace treaties with the Sioux during the years 1805-1860; wagon road expeditions were at work under the patronage of the Government to open roads from the Missouri to Montana by way of the Niobrara route and also from the mouth of the Big Cheyenne River to its forks near the base of the Black Hills, thence westwardhy to a connection with the Niobrara road, and many of the members of the associa tion were engaged in that work. It was not known at this time thit the Government would interpose the slightest opposition to the expedition, and played no part in postponing a forward movement.

During the following winter, 1800-07, the association was revived under Mr Smith's leadership, and widely advertised. Preparations were made on a sub

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stantial basis for carrying out the project, and during the spring of 1867, there had assembled at the rendezvous at Yankton, about one hundred men, well armed, equipped and provisioned. Nearly all were ex-soldiers of the Civil war, and their white tents composed an orderly laid out village on the bank of the Missouri. The spring season was late and the grass tardy in starting, which delayed the forward movement. A portion of the new membership of the association had come from the Southern States, and from Pennsylvania and Indiana. The larger portion were Dakotans and Nebraskans, from the various settlements along the river, and all were impatient to be on their way.

During the spring, it had been given out and was generally known that Mr. Smith had been promised a military escort for his party, and the delay in starting was presumed to be partly due to the non-arrival of the troops; but there must have been some misunderstanding regarding this escort feature, for early in June, when the departure of the expedition was daily expected, the camp of the enterprise was thrown into the greatest consternation by the announcement that General Sherman had issued a letter virtually forbidding the invasion of the Sioux country. The correspondence relating to this unfortunate turn to his plans was furnished to the members of the expedition by Governor Faulk, to whom the official letters of the military authorities had been addressed. The first com- munication is from Sherman to General Terry, as follows :

Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri, St. Louis, Mo., May 27th, 1867.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 148

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