History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 169

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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Approved, February 10, 1877.

Mr. Seth Bullock, who had visited Yankton in the interest of the county organization of Lawrence County, was made the bearer by the governor of the papers appointing the following officers: County commissioners of Lawrence County, Fred. T. Evans, R. D. Jennings, John Wolzworth : register of deeds, James .A. Hand ; sheriff, Seth Bullock.

Pennington County-Commissioners. P. H. Vosburg. Manville M. Fuller. Edwin Loveland: register of deeds, Joseph R. Ilanson. The governor recom- mended to the commissioners for appointment as county surveyor Thomas F. Marshall for Lawrence County and Charles Il. Bates for Pennington County,

During the summer of 1877 the Indians began to be so dangerous in the vicinity of the ranches and mining camps in the northern portion of the hills as to create in the exposed mining camps a reign of terror. Their attacks on emi- grant trains were of the most ferocious and revolting description, and a number of stich parties were waylaid and actually butchered and their property carried away. So serious the situation became that the sheriff of the county, himself an experienced frontiersman with much experience in Indian warfare, felt impelled to appeal to the governor for assistance and more authority, and telegraphed under date of July 20th to Governor Pennington as follows :

The agency Indians are murdering citizens and destroying property in all parts of the country. Twenty ranchmen already dead. 1 shall call out the force of the county. We lack arms and ammunition. Can you aid us in any way ?

Vol. 1-62

SETH BULLOCK, Sheriff.

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

The governor telegraphed Bullock's dispatch to the secretary of war, and also sent a similar telegram to General Crook. In reply to Bullock he was compelled to inform him that he had no arms or ammunition under his control, but instructed the sheriff to raise two companies of militia.

Under the authority of the governor Sheriff Bullock organized six companies of militia cavalry numbering thirty men cach. The companies armed themselves and furnished their own horses. The officers of these companies were commis- sioned by the governor; and while the county commissioners provided for the necessary expenses while on duty, the territorial government would be required to make good all sums expended in maintaining the troops, though in the end the national Government was looked to to defray these expenses, as it did in an earlier trouble for the expenses of the militia employed in the Little Crow war of 1862.

At this time, and in response to Bullock's telegram, which had been forwarded from Washington to the commander of the Department of the Platte, with the result that a force of troops were immediately dispatched from Fort Robinson, Neb., and another from Fort Laramie. The commissioners of Lawrence County offered a reward of $250 for the "body of any Indian found in the county dead or alive."

The commissioned officers of Company A, Lawrence County Militia, were : W. H. Parker, captain; John Manning, first lieutenant; Noah Siever, second lieutenant ; Doctor McKoven, surgeon.

Captain Parker, many years later, was elected a representative in Congress from the State of South Dakota formed from the south half of the parent terri- tory. Lieutenant Manning became one of the influential men of the hills and for a number of years held the office of sheriff of Lawrence County.

The subsequent life and career of Sheriff Seth Bullock has been identified with the promotion of the material and moral interests of the hills country, and has fully justified the expectations formed then of his future career. His timely and masterly handling of the perilous situation in which the people of that entire region were placed at the period following the cession of the hills country and its settlement, prevented what in all probability would have resulted in a frontier war that would have cost many valuable lives with its attendant cost and destruc- tion of property. The Indians, or many of them, though tacitly consenting to the sale of the hills, felt that the transfer was forced from them, and their sanguinary operations during the latter part of 1876 and 1877 were but the expression of their bitterly revengeful spirit. These hostiles were not recognized as northern or Sitting Bull's people, but, as described by Sheriff Bullock, were from the agen- cies comparatively near, and were known prior to these hostilities as peaceable and friendly.

In organizing the Black Hills counties in 1877 a lawful course, though not the usual one, was pursued. The anomalons condition of the hills people as to the residence and citizenship-nine-tenths probably not being legal citi- zens and voters-the Legislature of 1877, in order to accommodate these unusual conditions, enacted a law to cover the situation, which was the best that could be done under the circumstances existing. This law will be found in section 6 in the act providing for the organization of the Black Hills counties, passed in February, 1877, and reads as follows :

Section 6. The governor is hereby authorized and it is made his duty, when the country embraced within the said counties herein described comes under the jurisdiction of the territory, or as soon as practicable and he can obtain the necessary information after the passage and approval of this act, and without the petition of voters otherwise required, to appoint for each county three county commissioners, who shall constitute the board of county commissioners, one register of deeds, one sheriff, one treasurer, one judge of the Probate Court, one district attorney, one coroner, one superintendent of public schools, and one assessor; and said officers so appointed shall hold their offices respectively until their successors shall be elected and qualified according to law.

EAF WITCHER

SETH BULLOCK

SOLOMON SIVE

ELLIS T. PIERCE

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

The governor in March, made the following appointments :

Lawrence County .- County commissioners, Fred T. Evans, R. D. Jennings, John Wolzmuth, A. W. Lavender, E. C. Brearly. Register of Deeds, James .A. Hand. Sheriff, Seth Bullock. Surveyor, Thomas F. Marshall. Assessor, Wm. J. James. Superintendent of schools, C. H. McKinness. Probate Judge, Charles E. Hanrahan.

Pennington County .- County commissioners, P. H. Vosburg, Manville M. Ful- ler, Edwin Loveland. Register of Deeds, Joseph R. Hanson. Surveyor, Charles H. Bates. Sheriff, Frank P. Moulton. Probate Judge, E. C. Peters.

Custer County .- County commissioners, Athbert Arnold, M. P. Thomp-on. Sheriff, D. N. Ely. Register of Deeds, Fred J. Cross. Probate, Judge, J. W. C White.

The purpose of the governor, in making these appointments was to select men whom he knew to be responsible, who would act fairly and honorably in setting up and starting the machinery of government in the new counties, and he therefore selected his appointees without regard to their Black Hills residence, solely on the ground of fitness, character and ability. The feeling in the hills, however, was one of animosity toward many of the appointments, who were termed "carpet baggers" by many of those who were themselves merely transient sojourners. The judge of the district was prevailed upon a few months later to call an election for county officers.

In October, Judge Bennett, the federal judge of that district, granted a writ of peremptory mandamus, ordering the county clerk to call a general election. The county clerk had refused to issue the call hokling that the appointive officers held their positions until the general election of 1878, when the law provided for the election of county officers in all counties of the territory. The judge held. however, that the Black Hills appointments were by analogy similar vacancies to those specified by law, and should be filled in like manner.

The appointment of officers by the governor to hold office until 1878 makes no difference. The law says that such and such officers shall be elected and shall hold office until the next general election, and until their successors shall have been elected and qualified. There can be no question about the legality of an election this year to fill the vacancies from the short or unexpired term, or until next year, and the clerk should issue the call as tlie statutes require. He cannot come into court and plead ignorance of the law. lle should! know what vacancies occur, and his oath should compel him to issue the call.

At the special election authorized by the District Court of the First Judicial District, Judge Bennett presiding, held November 15, 1877. the following persons were candidates on the democratic ticket of Lawrence County, for the various county offices :

County commissioners, James Ryan (Spearfish ), J. B. Whitson (Crook City). W. G. Gates ( Central) : sheriff. John Manning ; register of deeds, C H. McKm- ness ; treasurer, Charles Brigham ; probate judge, John R. Frazer ; county attor- ney, Joseph Miller; assessor, A. M. Cox; superintendent of schools, Doctor Wood; coroner, Doctor Owings: surveyor, F. W. Von Badungen; justices of the peace. Charles E. Barker ( Deadwood), Robert Gieddings & Bear Bitter. F. C. Graham ( Garden City), James Fisher ( Bear Gulch) ; constables, Thomas Hagen ( Gayville ), A. Van Valkenberg ( Bear Gulch ), Edward Donahue ( Croo City) ; county central committee. Dr. Charles W. Mever ( Deadwood). P 1I Early ( South Deadwood), S. Hogan (Central). | Dermott tolken Gaten W. H. Enfield (Anchor ), C. F. Thompson ( Lead City), Ed Murphy i Ment mes City), F. C. Graham ( Garden City). F. I Ames (Pennington), Judge link (Spearfish ), A. Van Valkenberg ( Bear Gulch). | | Gallagher ( KG) W. D. Knight (Crook City), Robert Giddings (Vialena), Joe Volm & Flinte ] town ).

It was generally conceded that the democrats outnumbered the repeleans largely in the county, therefore the opposition ticket was healed ticket, and was made up as follows :

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

room, as a criminal case was brought on for trial, filled with spectators, when the floor was felt to be sinking : a partition, dividing off one corner as a jury room, parted from the rafters and fell in upon the crowd. The court ordered the sheriff to clear the room; but his services were not needed as the crowd instinctively rushed out. The entire session was consumed with criminal buisiness, and the log cabin used as a jail was not then entirely uninhabited. Into this cabin, about fourteen feet square, there were nearly twenty prisoners presumed to be of the desperate class. Among them were placed two resolute gttards, and another guard outside at all times ; this force was doubled at night. The opening of the court appeared to favorably influence the social and moral conditions of the six or seven thousand people of the place, and they seemed to feel like congratulating their neighbor, and slyly admonishing him that thereafter he would be expected to behave himself.

Years later, when the hills had been occupied with cities and villages and mining industries, and thousands of prosperous homes of the white race, and a new generation of red men had grown up somewhat more enlightened than their predecessors, an occasional discovery was made possibly in some out-of-the-way corner of the hills, revealing the presence there of some bold band of adventurers in a quest for gold, who left a record of their adventure scrawled upon the imper- ishable rock, telling of their trials and of their final probable extermination at the hands of the ancestors of the present Sioux generation in their futile attempts to stay the aggressive advance of civilization, and thus save their precious coun- try from the possession of the pale-faced invader.

PRE-HISTORIC MINING IN THE HILLS

That the Black Hills country was prospected for gold by at least one genera- tion in advance of its lawful settlement in 1876-77 has been well authenticated by the discovery there of abandoned "diggings" of white men's huts in partial ruins and by implements of various kinds. As an abundant confirmation of pre-historic occupation, the Black Hills Telegraphic-Herald, an early newspaper established at Deadwood or Whitewood, in May, 1878, gave out the following :

Every few months the miner or the adventurous prospector brings to light some fresh evidences of early mining operations in the hills. These operations must have been carried on by quite a number of men, but their names and where they came from, are matters of conjecture, and will probably remain so until the end of time.

Mining implements have been unearthed, buried many feet below the surface of some of our mining claims. A chain was found partially imbedded in a large pine tree, where it had probably hung for many years The old tunnels and shafts found last winter are also another evidence of the early visits of miners to this country We have now dis- covered still another link in this unwritten history. Last Friday there arrived in Lead City two hunters, Frenchmen, by the name of LeFevre, who will be remembered by old resi- dents of Battle Creek as being there the winter of '76 These men have been hunting and trapping the past winter in the vicinity of Bear Lodge Mountains. They report that one day last January while tracking a wounded decr, they came across the skeletons of two men. They were found on top of a rather elevated knoll, and rocks, earth, and pieces of trees formed a sort of rough breastwork, behind which the remains were lying. The skulls of both men were in a fair state of preservation, and through the center of one of the skulls there was a large hole, evidently made by a bullet. The second skeleton lay some ten feet distant, and the iron head of an arrow was firmly imbedded in the thigh bone; the wooden part had evidently been broken off, and only a short stump remained, which was wrapped with rawhide. The wood of the arrow was considerably warped. and showed signs of having been exposed to the weather for many years. They also found part of an old iron camp kettle, the broken stock of an old rifle, made of fancy knotted wood, such as the old Kentucky rifles used to have. The logs that formed part of this breastwork were literally filled with bullets, showing that the fight for life must have been long and bitter. No clothing of any kind could be found in the vicinity. except the hecl and counter of an old boot ; the savages evidently stripped the bodies entirely naked.

The hunters in their search for something that would lead to the identity of these bodies, tore down part of the breastwork, and were rewarded by the discovery of what was evi- dently the cover of a leather-covered memorandum book. The action of the weather, and the decayed vegetation, which had sprung up and nearly hidden the breastwork from view,

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

had the effect of nearly destroying this evidence that the skeletons were these ni white men. There had evidently been considerable writing on this cover, but all that remained legible were the figures, "1-52," which was evidently 1852. The bones were very much scattered, as though wild animals had caten the bodies after they were killed. The hunters collected what they could find and buried them under the shadow of the breastw r they had so gallantly defended. The inscription on this book and the mscription on the walls of the old tunnel discovered last winter, are the same. This coincidence would lead the writer to believe they belong to one and the same party.

All evidence so far discovered goes to show that these early pioneers of the hills had many fights with the Indians, who at that time occupiedl this country. And it may sible that if these men belonged to the party who run the old tunnel near Ruta asa cabo that the party escaped from the tunnel and were fighting their way . ut ty Montara rte old overland trail through that country. One by one the merciless savages toc either it until only two remained, and these two, seeing escape was impossible. sele ted the sent where the hunters found their bones, and fought their savage foes, until ly stary.wir the entire consumption of their ammunition, they became an easy prey for their wireles . ing foes. The theory that their surrender was caused by their ammunition gyin' It, seems to be confirmed by the finding of the broken gun-stock, which had prik used as a last weapon of defense.

FIRST RAILROAD IN THE BLACK HILLS

The first railroad in the Black Hills was built by the Home-take Mining Com- pany, during the year 1881, and reached from Head City to Elk Creek, and a point called Woodville, a distance of twelve miles, Its construction was umler the superintendency of Samuel MeMasters, manager of the Homestake. it was a first-class road. It was opened with all the formalities observed by other enter- prises of like character. An excursion was run from Lead to Woodville, curry ing a large party, where a banquet was given, and a cordial welcoming speech delivered by Mayor Wright, head of the Woodville municipality. Conductor Millett had charge of this first train. Addresses were made by President Me Masters, of the road, and also by Col. Alf Thomas, of Deadwood. \ J. Flownet. James Van Dyke, and others. At the conclusion of these exercises the news declared open for business, and the excursion party returned.

BLACK HILLS AND THE INDIAN PEACE PO1.1CY

We have sketched the history of the peace policy of the Government in a separate chapter, but find that in large part it is closely interwoven with the pro ceedings for the opening and the purchase of the Black Hills-in fact it appears that it was the necessity the Government was placed under to secure the relinquish ment of that country by the Sioux that led to the final determination to withhold further supplies of food and clothing unless the Indians consented to a por cable relinquishment of the country, and agreed to enter upon a civilized life an lac qure habits of industry and the customs of a civilized people. It was that step, er alter- native offered by the Great Father, that turned the Indian's mind away from the htint and idleness to the plowshare and an industrial life.

The securing of the Black Hills by the Government and opening that coun try to white settlement, was unquestionably the most important, if not the al important achievement that assured the success of the peace policy as applied to the nation of Sioux Indians, the most formidable and warlike tribe in the Umtel States, and marked, all things considered, the beginning of the most not 1 favorable era in the history of Dakota Territory and of the Northwest po ally; and although, at the time, the intervening firent Sions Reservatt m which separated the eastern and settled portions of Dakota from the hills ered a serious obstacle to the progress of the territory ( which may I tried ve when it is considered that this obstacle to the progress of white ( upam wal the prime factor in the emancipation of the Stoux from bart. nou ad ple we can well afford to be sincerely thankful to Divine Providein Die obstacle in the path of Anglo-Saxon enterprise for a tim

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 169

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