USA > South Dakota > History of Dakota Territory, volume III > Part 27
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137
Just before this time the Pierre State Register had said that all those who were instrumental in any way of submitting to a vote of the people the capital removal question were "plundering pirates and that the plot was conceived in iniquity and partially carried out by perfidy in the resolution, *
* the game being to hinder the development of the state and thereby plunder the people."
In order to answer the geographical center argument of Pierre, the Miller Gazette showed that nearly thirty states of the Union did not have their capi- tals very close to the geographical center, and that Maine, New York, Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, Nevada,
-
188
SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE
Utah, Montana and Colorado and others had capitals. far from the center. That paper argued that the center of population and not the geographical center as such was the paramount issue. None of the above states had suffered, because their capitals were easily and quickly accessible. The Gazette then said: "Now, what about our state? The capital has been located at Pierre for about fourteen years. Has it grown? Have any institutions of learning been established there to assist the town? Have good people been there to make homes? We would answer, 'Yes,' but are they there now? The Presbyterian college has been removed to Huron, and many good people have removed from the capital city.
* * It is a matter of fact that there is a less number of people in and around Pierre today than there was years ago. We therefore say that the geographical question is one of minor importance. What will be best for the greatest number of people, is the question."
In March, 1904, the Yankton Press and Dakotan took the position that the Huron Huronite and the Aberdeen News were trying to defeat Mitchell's aspi- rations for the capital on the ground that if the capital contest could be reopened generally, Huron and Aberdeen would then have another chance to secure the prize.
"No one will deny that people have always been satisfied with Pierre for a permanent capital since the first meeting of the Legislature here in 1889. No one will deny the fact that it will cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars to move the capital and thousands upon thousands more for suitable buildings if it should go to Mitchell."-Pierre Dakotan, March, 1904.
"The Dakotan will not deny that at every session of the Legislature during the past fourteen years an effort has been made to secure the removal of the capital from Pierre. These sessions have always caused Pierre citizens sleepless nights and days of torture until adjournment, for fear that in some way a removal resolution would be passed. The nightmare had an awakening in the last session. Think of the people who have attended the sessions at Pierre during the fourteen years, and the cussing that the state capital has got because of its inaccessibility. Despite what the Dakotan says with reference to the expense of moving the capital to Mitchell, it will not cost the state one dollar to move its headquarters. All that will have to be done will be to box the records and ship them to Mitchell, and the expense will readily be lifted from the state's shoulders by this city." -- Mitchell Republican, April 2, 1904.
"This is a live stock country, and a good one, too. In time to come it may prove to be suited to other industries, but nothing has been brought forward yet that seems at all likely to supersede stock raising as the chief industry. Our advice to the producers of this great range is to raise live stock."-Fort Pierre Stock Journal, April, 1904.
"The above appearing in a paper published in the great range country, just across the river from Pierre, seems somewhat significant and can be no harder 'knock' on the country than has been falsely charged up to Mitchell. Can Mitchell be charged with casting any reflections on that part of the state where the official organ of the stock growers makes such a statement? The only issue that Pierre has in setting forth the agricultural possibilities of that section is to endeavor to make a showing of a population over there for capital pur- poses."-Mitchell Republican, April 7, 1904.
189
SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE
"In order to make her bluff stronger, Mitchell offers to give the use of half a dozen imaginary buildings located in various parts of the village for capital purposes. She would have the Senate in one end of the town, the House in the other, and the state offices and committee rooms scattered hither and yon in the numerous old shacks about the burg-a regular merry-go-round. Pierre will relieve her of this annoyance and humiliation."-Pierre Dakotan, April, 1904.
"The capitol building that Mitchell will present for the state's use is one that will accommodate every officer of the state, with fireproof vaults and suffi- cient rooms for the Senate, House and committee rooms. This building is under construction now."-Mitchell Republican, April 9, 1904.
"The Mitchell newspapers are now arguing that God in His infinite wisdom created the country west of the river as a stock country, and not as a farming country. The southerners used to contend during Civil war times that the Lord had created the negro especially for slavery. There is reason for the belief that the Mitchell boomers know no more about the Lord's designs than did the southerners in the '6os."-Aberdeen News, April 22, 1904.
"South Dakota will be the center of attraction for homeseekers from now on until after the drawing for the Rosebud lands takes place. The people from older states who contemplate trying their chances on the Rosebud will do them- selves a favor if they take time enough to look over the state pretty well while they are here for the drawing. If they are among the lucky ones and secure a quarter section of Rosebud land, well and good. If they should not draw a lucky number they should remember that there are thousands of acres of cheap land in other sections of South Dakota which are as good as any farming land on earth and can be bought for but little more than what the rent on farm lands in the older states amounts to. South Dakota offers such abundant openings to the homeseekers that no one should become discouraged should he fail to win in the Rosebud drawing."-Aberdeen News, April 25, 1904.
The Aberdeen News on May 11, 1904, declared that the Mitchell news- papers continued to publish heated arguments to prove that the western half of the state was unfit for farming purposes, that the settlers continued to pour into that section as well as into the northern part of the state, and that those who had been there long enough to raise a crop had no reason to be dissatisfied with the results. There can be no doubt that the News misrepresented the western part of the state, certainly by implication and perhaps by direct statement.
"The center of population is traveling toward the Northwest at a rapid rate, as anyone who has kept posted upon the influx of new settlers into South Dakota can testify. When the census of 1910 is taken it will without doubt be found that the center of population is much nearer Pierre than Mitchell."- Aberdeen News, May 20, 1904.
Pierre maintained that Mitchell ignored that nearly all the state institutions were located in the section of the state occupied by Mitchell and that to ask for the state capital was an imposition upon the rest of South Dakota.
"The range country west of the Missouri River has been visited with copious rains this spring," said the Aberdeen News of May 23, 1904. "As a consequence the new settlers who persist in farming that country despite the protests of Mitchell are practically assured of good crops. The Lord seems to
190
SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE
have overlooked Mitchell's pointer that He made that part of the state west of the river for grazing purposes solely."
The Pierre Weekly Dakotan of May 26, 1904, said that the Cheyenne River round-up, which was slated to leave Fort Pierre on a certain day, had been detained on account of a recent rain and that it was impossible for the wagons to move in the gumbo, so that the date was postponed until the mud should dry up. This led the Mitchell Republican of June IIth to remark that the country west of Pierre must be fine for agricultural purposes, when a small rain would render the gumbo soil so muddy and thick that a wagon could not pass through it.
"Thirteen thousand homestead filings within the past two years in the Pierre, Chamberlain and Rapid City land offices and the western part of the Aberdeen land office is a splendid showing of the growth the state has made in the period named in the country along the Missouri River. Thirteen thousand filings mean a vast increase in the population of the state and they also mean that the center of population has moved to the northward and westward to quite an appreciable extent within that time. The filings show that the people of other states are taking advantage of the free homes and of the cheap lands offered in South Dakota at a rapid rate. When in addition to the number of filings are added the many thousands of people who have purchased lands out- right and come to make their homes in South Dakota, the story the next census will tell is certain to be one that will attract general and favorable attention to the state."-Aberdeen News, May 26, 1904.
"The Pierre capital committee is studiously endeavoring to make it appear that the cattle industry on the great range of the reservation has been smashed to smithereens by the 'immense' number of settlers who are even wading the Missouri River to get to the rich agricultural lands across from the waning capital city."-Aberdeen American, May, 1904.
"The capital of the state is not located to boom or to hold up the price of real estate; neither is it with justification to be held at the wrong place simply because, under the stress of excitement or misunderstanding, the people at the beginning voted it to the wrong place. The capital ought never to have gone out of the Jim River valley, and the argument between Huron, Redfield and Mitchell, which brought about the passage of the resubmission bill, was to enable the people to correct the mistake. The mere fact that Pierre approaches the geographical center is of no force. The center of population would be of some importance, but accessibility is of more consequence. The time will not come in the next 100 years when Pierre will be as near the center of population as Redfield, Huron or Mitchell. The reason of this is that the vast stretch of country west of the Missouri River in our state cannot until present conditions are changed main- tain but a comparatively small population. The reverse is true of the eastern part of the state." -- Mitchell Republican, May 19, 1904.
"The Mitchell people have sent out a circular in which the claim is made that the cost to the people should removal occur would be nothing. But little investigation is needed to prove the falsity of this claim, as well as the com- panion claim made by Mitchell that the business offices of the state should be near the center of population. South Dakota has a half million people. It is safe to say that not one South Dakotan in a hundred ever has occasion to go to
191
SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE
the state capital. The expense in the land department would be vastly in- creased by the removal, as that department is growing more rapidly than the offices of governor, secretary, auditor and treasurer combined. When this increased cost is taken into consideration, with the difference in cost in fuel and light at Mitchell, compared with Pierre's natural gas facilities, it will be perceived that the question of cost is all in favor of the present capital. It should also be remembered that this cost will not be temporary, but will continue as the years roll by."-Aberdeen News, June 3, 1904.
In May, 1904, Pierre supporters announced that with an unfailing supply of natural gas at that city for lighting and heating purposes those two problems for the state were easily solved.
"The people of South Dakota are not going to soil their reputations to benefit a few real estate speculators who want to make a quarter million dollars out of the taxpayers by unloading a capital site on the state at so much per. The great majority of the people are honest, and with honest people the inter- ests of the state and Pierre are perfectly safe."-Egan Express, June, 1904.
"In a temporary aberration of mind the editor of a Mitchell newspaper last week advocated the opening of the Cheyenne River reservation, describing the lands as being as fertile and productive as those of any other section of the state, and this in spite of the fact that the main argument of the Mitchell organs has been that the country west of the Missouri River is totally unfit for any- thing but grazing purposes. The Mitchell newspapers are naturally inclined to boost instead of knock, and even the exigencies of a capital removal campaign cannot prevent them from occasionally reverting to old-time habit and saying a good word for the state-even that portion of it lying outside of that magic circle drawn around Mitchell at a distance of a hundred miles."-Aberdeen News, June 7, 1904.
"Only the most pitiable selfishness, the most inexcusable greed and the disregard of the rights of the people in other portions of the state can prompt any one to vote to change the capital from where it was permanently located fourteen years ago. We hope every taxpayer will take a map of our state, look up locations of our various state institutions and verify our statements, and then ask themselves the questions: Is the proposed removal in the interest of the people who pay the taxes? Or is it in the interest of real estate speculators who want the people to throw away the best location in the state and pay them a quarter million of dollars for a location not nearly as good? The taxpayers who can figure out in favor of a removal will be few and far between if they give due consideration to all the facts."-Canton News, June, 1904.
"Pierre is getting mad and calling hard names, which in our opinion is no argument. Pierre sees the handwriting on the wall. The people of South Dakota are after the truth and Mitchell is dealing in that very article, to the discomfiture of Pierre."-Wakanda Mail, June, 1904.
"No thoughtful person will be misled by Pierre's wild cry of 'Expense, Expense!' in connection with capital removal. It will not cost the state one cent to remove the records to Mitchell, and it will save thousands of dollars every year in mileage and transportation charges by having the capital accessible to the people of the state. * * * In the matter of expense to the state and to the individuals who have business at the capital, everything is in Mitchell's favor."-Fulton Advocate, June, 1904.
192
SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE
"What interest has the state in Pierre more than in any other town? The location of the capital is a purely business proposition and it should be deter- mined by the convenience to the general public. So far as devedopment of country west of Pierre is concerned the removal would make no difference whatever. That development will depend entirely upon the productiveness of that country. The country west of Chamberlain has been developing more rapidly than that west of Pierre, and that is certainly not due to any capital location. So far as the property interests of the state are concerned, the state would be the gainer by the removal, as the grants offered by Mitchell are more valuable than those that have been given by Pierre."-Scotland Citizen, June, 1904.
"Just how the Pierre capital promoters are going to make the people think it will raise the taxes to remove the capital from Pierre to Mitchell is a purely vegetable pill that is hard to swallow. The City of Mitchell offers the use of a beautiful structure absolutely free of charge as long as the state wishes, while the Pierre people will endeavor to have the state build a $1,000,000 building. Why not make a business proposition of it and place the capital nearer to the people? They are the ones who have to pay the bills."-White Rock Journal, June, 1904.
"Pierre is not and never will be the center of wealth nor the center of population in this state. During the rapid advancement of the last few years in this state none of it has been in the vicinity of Pierre."-Geddes Record, June, 1904.
"A few years ago the Presbyterians moved their college from Pierre to Huron. When a town gets so all-fired sleepy that it cannot hold a Presbyterian college it's a pretty solemn place for a state capital."-Vermillion Republican, June, 1904.
"It won't cost the state or the taxpayers a dollar to move the capital from Pierre to Mitchell. All such talk by Pierre and her workers is pure nonsense. Instead of costing nothing, the state will save thousands of dollars. Look at the extra mileage. There is but one question in this capital matter-the greatest good to the greatest number."-Sioux Falls Soo Critic, June, 1904.
"The Pierre champions are very persistent in their assertion that every Mitchell supporter is knocking against the country around Pierre. There is a highly amusing side to this assertion. In almost the same breath they tell about the knocking against the country around Pierre they tell of the wonderful immigration into that very section. If the Pierre 'special' writers tell the truth about the influx of settlers Pierre ought to be grateful rather than angry. It is always amusing to hear them object to knocking, then tell how the country around Pierre will be ruined if the capital is removed. Could Mitchell supporters say anything worse about that section? What a strange country that must be and what queer people live in it."-Garretson News, June, 1904.
"For the convenience of a large majority of people in all parts of the state Mitchell is the logical location for the capital for the next fifty years, and in all probability for all time."-Wagner New Era, June, 1904.
"Talk about capital removal being a land booming scheme! Capital removal is not asked for to benefit the land in the eastern part of the state, but to accommodate the people of the state and facilitate the public business. The
193
SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE
retention of the capital at Pierre is a land booming scheme-as its advocates openly proclaim. 'Remove the capital,' they cry, 'and you knock the value of the country west of the river.' What utter nonsense to claim that the capital can make or unmake the western part of the state."-Fulton Advocate, June, 1904.
"You can purchase land in the suburbs of Pierre for $10 per acre. Land in the suburbs of Sisseton sold three years ago at $40 per acre. Yet Pierre has been the capital for about fourteen years, which goes to show that there is nothing in the cry of the Pierre boomers that if the capital is removed the state lands will depreciate in value. Even if it were not a stock country the fact that the land can be had for the filing and is then not taken is assurance enough that if the capital remained there for all time or was removed to Mitchell tomorrow the land on the range would be worth no more or less."-Sisseton Courant, June, 1904.
"The Pierre Capital-Journal, in speaking of the arrival of a party of home- steaders, says: 'Dozens of them are filing on at the land office without going out to see the land, as they were met by friends who had been out and made the selections for them.' This indicates very clearly the character of the people who are filing on land west of Pierre. Actual homesteaders do not depend on having 'friends' select land for them."-Kimball Graphic, June, 1904.
"Five different conventions met at Mitchell last week. Will somebody tell us how many conventions have ever met at the 'Geographical Center'?"-Gar- retson News, June, 1904.
"The Mitchell city council has made a tender to the state for the use of the new city hall building for capital purposes just as long as it desires free of charge, and in fact will make a deed to the state to make its ground sure of retaining the building as long as it is wanted for state purposes. The city council has a right to do this and will do it. The state can use this building for a period of twenty years, if need be, and all this time the lands that have been set aside for the erection of a capitol building will increase in value, so that the real estate will not have to be sacrificed in order to erect a capitol building. The Pierre people can talk all they want to about the present state- house being adequate for years to come, but the people can rest assured that if Pierre wins in the fall election the Legislature will not be in session twenty-four hours until a bill is introduced for the purpose of making an appropriation for the erection of a capitol building, which will be done in order to set at rest the possibility of another removal resolution being brought forth."-Mitchell Republican, June 11, 1904.
In June, 1904, a Chamberlain correspondent of the Kimball Graphic said, in reference to the reservoir filings that Pierre claimed were being taken out west of the Missouri, that if the filings made at the Pierre land office produced no greater results than those made at the Chamberlain land office it would be some time before a second Noah's ark would be needed west of the state capital. It further declared that the reservoir filings were pure shams, like many other fakes in the land business; that the bill providing for water rights was originally intended to protect from interference the reservoirs constructed by the Mil- waukee road for stockmen who drove their cattle through to Chamberlain for shipment; that a large number of these reservoir claims had never been seen Vol. III-13
194
SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE
by the parties filing; that most of them were made by persons who thought they would be able 'to cover up' some of the public lands and hold up for a good sum any person making a homestead entry on them; that the Interior Depart- ment, seeing into the matter, issued an order permitting any person to file a homestead over these water filings, such entry to be subject to the right of the reservoir declarent; that under the law the one who filed the declaratory state- ment must build a dam within two years; that though the time had now elapsed on many of the filings only one such filing out of 924 had been completed; that there were only ten or twelve more that had submitted proof showing any attempt whatever to comply with the law; that therefore not over one in fifty of the filings had been made in good faith; and that many of such filings on water rights had been cancelled by the Interior Department in cases where the home- steads had been filed on the same tract and the time limit had elapsed and noth- ing had been done.
The Pierre capital committee, in June, 1904, sent for publication to its news- paper supporters through the state this announcement: "When the permanent capitol building is built it will cost at least $15,000 a year tax for fuel and light and elevator power, if it should be at Mitchell where fuel will have to be pur- chased. With natural gas at Pierre the state can put down an artesian well, and, with its own natural gas, furnish fuel, lights and elevator power free, as well as furnish water for sewerage. The state appropriated as much as $12,000 a year ten years ago for fuel and light at the Yankton hospital. Now the appro- priation is included in the $76,000 a year appropriation and amounts to $15,000 a year. The permanent capital at Pierre means a saving of $15,000 to $25,000 for fuel and water alone. The state will spend $1,000,000 tax between- 1901 and 1960 for fuel, light and water for the statehouse and grounds if the capital goes to Mitchell. The state can get an artesian well on its own ground at Pierre for $30,000 that will save this million-dollar fuel bill. If you favor the coal trust and $20 coal, like one year ago, vote for Mitchell."
In reply to this the Mitchell Republican said that when Pierre was spending $20 per ton for coal during the winter of 1903-04 there was an abundance at Mitchell for $11 per ton, owing to the cheaper transportation; that the total appropriation for the maintenance of the capitol building at Pierre amounted to but $3,600 a year, and "this in face of the fact that you can throw a cat through the shack and not hurt the cat-a building that has by its draughts of cold air caused the death of several members of the Legislature and laid a score or more on sick beds at every session ;" that Pierre would have to demonstrate that the gas claimed to be there could be had; that at the present time there was no more than enough to supply the capital committee and that would all be utilized before the campaign was over; that the business concerns of Pierre used kero- sene, benzine and acetylene gas in preference to the natural gas; that natural gas everywhere there was a rank failure or fraud for lighting purposes; that in about six years Pierre had drilled five wells at a cost of about $150,000, and had no more gas than when the first well was completed; that recently when the last "great gusher" was completed the well bored just preceding it stopped flowing and the town was out of gas completely until connection was made with the new well; that if any other than Pierre (whether the State of South Dakota or not) should attempt to put down a well he or they would be enjoined,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.