History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 28

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146

USA > South Dakota > History of Dakota Territory, volume III > Part 28

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as it had been fully demonstrated that another well would cut the city off from its supply; that therefore the talk of supplying the statehouse with gas was "pure rot;" that many days now the gas was shut off in order to let the receivers fill up; that in winter it was cut off from 1 to 6 P. M. every day; that owing to the high price a family using it constantly would have to pay four times the price of coal; that in Ohio and Pennsylvania were hundreds of dry holes, any one of which spouted more gas in a minute than Pierre ever saw or would see-whole districts that produced it in unlimited quantities that now "would not make a good smell;" that "Pierre doesn't know what good gas looks like, and yet sends out a cock-and-bull story and asks intelligent people to believe it."

In June, 1904, there were strong indications that the Milwaukee railroad would soon be put through from Chamberlain to the Black Hills, and later on to Tacoma and Seattle. The company had out its engineers and was buying land all along the proposed line for stations, etc.

"The Northwestern railroad controls the entire traffic of the Black Hills. Does anyone honestly think the road will build across to the Hills until the Milwaukee forces it to do so? Are the taxpayers willing to pay the mileage of officials nearly 200 miles past Mitchell indefinitely? We don't care a whit about the aspirations of Pierre or Mitchell in this matter, but we want the question settled right."-Wakonda Mail, June, 1904.

Late in June, 1904, the Pierre Capital-Journal observed that several of its people were contemplating trying chances in the drawing of Rosebud lands, and that others would go down there through the boom for a few days to assist in locating work. This remark induced the Mitchell Republican to say that it did not understand why the Pierre people should be willing to pay $4 an acre for Rosebud lands when they could get land "just as good" west of Pierre for 50 cents an acre.

Early in July, 1904, the Redfield Press said that two years before every voter in Redfield was in favor of removing the capital; that a capital committee was selected by the citizens to help secure the passage of a removal bill; that the committee freely discussed and without a dissenting vote wisely decided that a bill could not be passed unless some scheme was agreed upon whereby the three aspiring towns, Redfield, Huron and Mitchell, could be unified in their efforts to pass the bill; that the plan of unification was originated by Redfield, which took the initiative in approaching the other cities, and that all agreed to "stand pat" on the result of a caucus where the choice of a town to be named in the bill should be made by the members of the Legislature. In the conference of the three cities all agreed that either of the towns was preferable to Pierre as the capital. The legislative caucus named Mitchell, the submission bill was passed with only 17 voters against it, and the other two towns were thus bound to support Mitchell.

Accessibility, center of population, lower taxes, free use of building, donation of capitol building site-were the strong points in Mitchell's favor, so it was declared by the supporters of that city. They continued to hold that Pierre's only claim was its geographical location in the center of the state. They further asserted that "there is absolutely no other reason for maintaining the capital at Pierre; that fourteen years had exploded the geographical location claim; that the

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country west of Pierre could take care of itself just as other sections of the state had built themselves up without the aid of a capital, and that if the land was good no capital would be necessary to induce people to settle upon it. If it is not good for agriculture then all the capitals in kingdom come can not induce a settlement."

The Clark Republic asked the question, "Take the great ex-Sioux Reservation west of Pierre and place it in Illinois, New York or Ohio and how long would it remain vacant? Don't everyone speak at once, please. Does not that seem to utterly demolish the question as to ultimate occupancy?" The Mitchell sup- porters answered that no one denied that the great plains between Pierre and the Black Hills will contain many more people than at present, that the state now had but about fifteen thousand population west of the Missouri River outside of the Black Hills and only about fifty-seven thousand all told west of the river; that the great influx of population in Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota was into the eastern sections of all four states; that there was a reason for it; that for a long time to come the same disparity would exist between the population of the western and the eastern sections of all of these states; and that the object of a state capital was to subserve the wants of the majority of the citizens.

In July the Mitchell papers stated that the Pierre papers advertised land for sale in Hughes County at from $2 to $4 per acre-three-quarter sections for $666.66, one for $325, and one for $983.33-and this in spite of the fact that the country had been settled for twenty-three years and Pierre had had the capital for fourteen years.

"It will be in order for the Mitchell papers to explain after the vote in the capital question is canvassed in November, that the arguments they resort to in discussing the capital removal project, especially in reference to the northwestern portion of the state, are for campaign purposes solely and should not be believed. But in the meantime persons outside of South Dakota who are unacquainted with conditions here, may possibly believe the statements of the knockers, to the great disadvantage of the state, and it is also extremely probable that the real estate men of other states will find excellent use for the Mitchell arguments when they undertake to divert the tide of immigration from South Dakota to their own states. The statements of the Mitchell newspapers that the western part of the state is unfit for anything but cattle ranges, and that the population of the state from the Jim River westward is decreasing rather than increasing, as the Howard Spirit said in effect a few weeks ago, is calculated to harm the whole state for many years to come if the people of South Dakota stamp such arguments with their approval by voting in favor of capital removal."-Aberdeen News, July 2, 1904.

"Not one man in a hundred in this state ever has actual business at the state capital and the hundredth man usually goes on a pass. To judge from the state- ments of the Mitchell organs you would think that every man, woman and child in South Dakota made a religious pilgrimage to the state capital every year, that a dollar or two more or less in the expense of getting there would work great hardship upon the people of our commonwealth."-Rapid City Journal, July 6, 1904.

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"In a discussion of the capital question, the Mitchell Gazette in speaking of Pierre says, 'The same old free range country, the same old prairie dog, wolf bounty, brand inspection, round-up, cowboy and gumbo knot of fourteen years ago.' Yet the Mitchell papers become indignant when accused of knocking."- Aberdeen News, July 6, 1904.

"If the South Dakotan is a fair man, he does not believe in deceit, hypocrisy and tall-timber lying. He doesn't want the state settled up, if to do it we must misrepresent and bamboozle poor settlers into squatting upon those alkali hills among those prairie dog towns."-Sioux Critic, July, 1904.

"Whenever you meet a man that favors Pierre for the capital you will know that he has either been seen by the Pierre Boodle Board of Trade or he is from Yankton. If he is from Yankton he is for Pierre because he is sore at Mitchell; and if he is not from Yankton and favors Pierre he has been told that he is a good fellow and has been given a little coin to treat his friends and make votes for Pierre."-Lesterville Ledger, July, 1904.

"Such arguments as the above may cause the people of South Dakota to rush to the polls to endorse them by voting for Mitchell, but they are far more likely to arouse a just resentment against the men who thus villify half of the state for purely selfish purposes."-Aberdeen News, July 16, 1904.

"Most of the lands now being so eagerly taken in the three states (Minne- sota, North Dakota and South Dakota) were formerly considered unfit for agri- culture. Those in the Dakotas were considered too dry, while those in Minnesota were objected to because they were in the timber country. But the large increase in the number of persons going into the cattle business on a small scale has led to the taking up of thousands of homesteads west of the Missouri River. More- over it is by no means so certain as it was once thought to be that the western part of the Dakotas cannot be used for farming. The introduction of new crops and improved methods of cultivating the soil where the rainfall is limited make it possible now to accomplish what would have been impossible a few years ago. In South Dakota the lack of railway facilities has retarded settlement in the western part of the state. Lines now projected will make a great difference."- Aberdeen News, July 13, 1904.

In July the question of capital removal was debated at the Canton Chau- tauqua, C. E. Deland and E. W. Caldwell speaking for Pierre and O. L. Branson and N. P. Bromley, for Mitchell. Although the weather was bad, about three thousand persons heard this debate, the two cities sending special delegations to witness the result and estimate public opinion. Each was accompanied with boomers and bands and the streets were paraded by the delegations bearing banners, mottoes and driving special floats. The decision was left to the voters in November.

In July the Huronite declared that it was the influence of the Milwaukee Company that made Mitchell the candidate for capital removal, that the Legis- lature, uncontaminated by the railroad lobby, was not in favor of removal, that after the vote on the resolution had been taken there was a general desire for a reconsideration, but that the pressure brought to bear by the railroad prevented . such action. The editor of the Huronite (John Longstaff) was a member of the Legislature at the time. He had worked for Huron in 1890 when that city was a capital aspirant, and in January, 1903, at the legislative session had worked for

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Huron in the caucus when Mitchell was selected. Now, in July, 1904, he declared that the war was really waged by the Milwaukee and the Northwestern Railway companies ; that the Milwaukee Company wanted the capital at Mitchell on its line to the Black Hills, that the Northwestern wanted it retained at Pierre, and that the two companies furnished much of the money that was used by both cities to advance their capital ambitions.

"Mitchell has never said a word derogatory to the western part of the state, and the northwestern part has never been brought into the controversy except by the Pierre supporters who wanted to work a continuation of the sympathy racket for the capital city. Mitchell has simply maintained that the western part of the state has been set apart by the very nature of things as a grazing country and all these years it has been the pride of the state as being the most wonderful grazing country in the United States. In the campaign of 1890 John Longstaff of Huron had this same thing to contend with and Pierre called Huron a knocker and that sort of thing, but nevertheless that part of the state continued as a grazing country up to the present time and the indications are that it will con- tinue to be after the capital fight is over. Pierre never talked agricultural features for the grazing country until they saw it was necessary to have some people over there in order to combat Mitchell's idea of the center of population. * * Doubtless people will move out to the reservation to live, but for every family that goes out there five will settle in the country that is contiguous to Mitchell. The reservation will serve the purpose for which it is intended and Pierre and her entire hosts can not change the trend of the times."-Mitchell Republican, July 19, 1904.

In July the Watertown Public Opinion said it was reported that Mitchell had voted $100,000 in bonds with which to conduct the capital fight. "Is the capital worth it to the town? It won't be in the case of Mitchell, for she will have to do as Watertown is now doing-pay the obligation without getting any returns for the investment, excepting some dearly bought experience." In reply the Mitchell Republican said, "We can assure Brer Corey that the bonds were issued for the purpose of extending the water mains and sewers of the city. Has not Mitchell just as good a right and as much need for adding water mains and sewers for its growing population as has the City of Aberdeen, which this spring voted even a larger sum for the same purpose?"

In order to refute the statement that its offer of a site for the capital was not made in good faith, Mitchell circulated the following covenant in July, 1904:

"To the Sioux Falls National Bank, Sioux Falls, S. D.

"Gentlemen : I herewith hand you warranty deed executed by A. E. Hitchcock and Louise L. Hitchcock, husband and wife, containing full covenants of war- ranty running to the State of South Dakota for blocks 36, 37, 48, 49, 50 and 51, located in the addition adjoining Mitchell on the northwest and an abstract of title thereto showing a good and clear title in A. E. Hitchcock free from all incumbrances. There are about eighteen acres in this property and it lies in a very sightly place for state buildings and reasonably near the center of the city. You are to deliver this deed to the proper authorities of the State of South Dakota upon the following conditions, viz .: First, that the vote of the people at the November election in 1904 shall locate the state capital at said City of

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Mitchell; second, that thereafter the State of South Dakota by the Legislature shall adopt a joint resolution locating the site of a permanent building upon said lands and accepting conveyance therefore.

"(Signed) A. E. HITCHCOCK."

The receipt of this deed was acknowledged by the Sioux Falls National Bank through D. L. Mckinney, president.

In July, 1904, the Fort Pierre Fairplay announced that Professor Carpenter had just written that the gumbo shale and clear near there were the finest material in the world for Portland cement and that samples of the finished product would be forwarded within a short time. In reply a Mitchell paper said: "What's the use of those fellows out there making a pretense of having just as rich agri- cultural lands as those on the east side of the river when they will publish such items as the above? They must be a queer kind of agricultural products that will grow in soil which is calculated to make good cement blocks. All that Mitchell has ever said about the lands out there is that it is not capable of produc- ing agricultural products in paying quantities and we don't know of any better authority for support of the proposition than the above item. Now, if there is any knocking in this it can be charged up to that reservation paper."

In July, 1904, the Brookings Register said : "Mitchell wants the capital removed from Pierre to that city because it believes it will enhance the value of the prop- erty of every resident of that city, and of every farmer for miles around and materially assist in further developing the country." The Mitchell Republican replied that it was well understood that property in Pierre was not now worth any more than it was fourteen years before, and in fact not so much; that 107 members of the Legislature, when they considered the question of capital removal, selected Mitchell as the contestant with Pirre for the honor and did not figure in the least how much Mitchell might make or lose in the contest. That was the difference between the Brookings Register and 107 members of the Legislature.

"Taking the capital away from Pierre would leave without a single public insti- tution an area extending from Aberdeen, Redfield and Plankinton on the east to Rapid City on the west-an area including two-thirds of the entire state. Is it to be presumed that such an area would be content to be thus deprived for any great number of years? Would it not be inevitable that crusades would be inaugu- rated before long seeking to capture a due share of these seventeen public institu- tions monopolized by one-third of the state? In case of such efforts at reprisal the matter would be determined by a majority of the Legislature. Who can insure Brookings or any other locality now having a public institution that a com- bination for capturing two or three of these institutions might be made? The strongest possible guaranty against such a combination would be to allow this two- thirds of the state to retain the capitol."-Brookings Press, July, 1904.

"The people of South Dakota believe in the whole state from Sisseton to Belle Fourche and from Elk Point to Deadwood. They believe the whole state will in time be settled with thrifty, prosperous people, and they are not going to let a mere matter of temporary convenience influence them to remove the capital off in one corner of the state to the permanent harm of the commonwealth as a whole."-Aberdeen News, July 23, 1904. This was said in reply to the Dell Rapids Tribune which objected to keeping the capital far off from the center of

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population for 50 to 100 years and thus inconveniencing the bulk of the popula- tion in the eastern part of the state.

In July, 1904, the fact was published that the Milwaukee Railroad Company intended to build at once an extension of its line from Chamberlain to the Black Hills and thence on to Puget Sound. The news was circulated at the same time that the Northwestern intended to extend its line on the west side of the Missouri from Bonesteel to Fort Pierre, but said nothing about the extension of the North- western from Pierre to the Black Hills. Friends of Pierre in the Black Hills denounced the publication of this item, and declared it was merely intended to keep Mitchell in the capital fight. Already the friends of the two railroads-Mil- waukee and Northwestern-were divided on the capital question, those of the former favoring Mitchell and those of the latter, Pierre. Even the newspapers of the Black Hills were similarly divided. It was openly stated by the Mitchell supporters that the Black Hills had never been benefited one dollar by the loca- tion of the capital at Pierre. Just the reverse, because, in all journeys by rail from the Black Hills to Pierre and return members of the Legislature, lawyers and others were compelled to go "round Robinhood's barn" at great expense or take the two day trip by stage across the plains or reservation. During the capital fight of 1890 the Black Hills was promised a speedy construction of a line from Pierre to that part of the state, but by 1904 had done nothing except to com- mence on a line from Bonesteel to Fort Pierre. In 1904 the Black Hills were 914 miles by rail from Pierre and with no outlook by July for any relief except from the Milwaukee through Chamberlain.

At this time (July, 1904) the journey from Deadwood to Pierre by rail was as follows: Leave Deadwood at 6 o'clock P. M .; reach Sioux City, Iowa, at 3.55 P. M. the next day ; remain in Sioux City until 10.19 A. M. the third day, then take train via Alton, Iowa and Hawarden, Iowa, and get to Huron, S. D., in time for supper ; then catch train so as to arrive at Pierre at 2 A. M. the fourth day. To reach Mitchell from Deadwood the route was-leave Deadwood at 6 P. M. and reach Sioux City at 3.30 P. M. the next day ; take Milwaukee train at 4.45 P. M., spend an hour and a half at Yankton and reach Mitchell at 10 P. M. In this connection the Black Hills Blade, at Lead, said: "But when the Milwau- kee shall have completed its line to the Hills you can enter a sleeper at 10 o'clock P. M. in Deadwood and wake up in Mitchell the next morning for early break- fast. These are facts and they cannot be disputed. It is for the Hills people to say which they prefer. The Northwestern road has benefited the Black Hills, but its work has had in it no element of generosity. It has never laid a rail except for its own benefit. Its fare was 5 cents a mile for years, then it reduced to 4. Its freight rates have been increased instead of decreased. The people of the Hills, except the men who ride on passes, have paid for all the accommodations they have received. That they may keep on the pass list they will try to persuade the voters that Pierre is the place for the capital to remain and that the Black Hills may be hostile to the extension of the Milwaukee road. These are facts for the voter to ponder."

In August, 1904, the Chancellor News remarked that fourteen years before Pierre had "stood pat on a bobtail flush"-the D. P. & B. H. R. R. fake-and had "won the pot;" that she had "stood pat" for years and milked the national treasury for a $40,000 appropriation for the "ice harbor" in which to moor the

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wreck of a pontoon bridge where the ice waxed thick enough to drive cattle and horses across; that she "stood pat" and got $100,000 for a "federal building" where the builders could cook their meals with "buffalo chips;" and that pos- sibly with a handful of fraudulent land filings "stand pat" was the best and only way to play the game out.

In August, 1904, the Redfield Press said that it was worse than futile for the Pierre papers to try to smooth over the character of a capital campaign run by Pierre when she won the capital by a small majority ; that Pierre as a city and Hughes County were both involved in a bonded indebtedness from which they could never free themselves; that although Pierre had readjusted some of her bonds on a basis of 50 cents on the dollar, yet no man who knew the situation but would make, if he held any of the bonds, another large discount for cash ; that the Woonsocket Capital Company fake brought a large vote, but the suckers received nothing from it; that deeds of lots were used of which not 10 per cent ever had the taxes paid by those who received the lots; that money in Spink County was openly used at the polls and that it was not the unbiased judgment of the people that ever put the capital at Pierre.

In August, 1904, the Pierpont Signal, among other observations, remarked that somebody had imagined that somebody had said something at some time about the land west of Pierre; that the Pierre papers were now doing their best to air this imaginary saying far and wide and talking about the harm this imaginary statement had done the state; that nobody had said anything detri- mental to the western half of the state and even if they had all the newspaper talk in South Dakota wouldn't change the lands, conditions, climate or soil west of the Missouri River.

Pierre claimed that the United States in early times looked at the whole west- ern country as Mitchell now looked at the land in South Dakota west of the Mis- souri. At first the Northwest Territory was so regarded; then the prairie lands were thought to be unfit for farming ; then the explorers announced the existence of a great American desert west of the Missouri; then Northwestern Iowa and Western Minnesota were condemned; then the same reflections were cast on Dakota Territory-on even the Big Sioux and the James River valleys; and now the region west of the Missouri was condemned by Mitchell and its supporters. Pierre declared that the soil and climatic conditions might be different, but all in the end would be conquered by the husbandman. It called attention to a similar blunder made by General Sibley in 1863, republished in the Aberdeen News of August 6, 1904, as follows :

"The region crossed by my column between the first crossing of the Cheyenne River and the Missouri Coteau is for the most part uninhabitable. If the devil were to be permitted to select a residence upon earth he would probably choose this particular district for an abode. Through this vast desert lakes fair in the eye abound, but generally their waters are strongly alkaline and intensely bitter and brackish. The valleys between them reek with sulphurous and other dis- agreeable vapors. The heat was so intolerable that the earth was like a heated furnace and the breezes that swept along its surface were as scorching and suffo- cating as the famed sirocco."-(From report of Gen. H. Sibley, 1863). "The particular region described is that from Cooperstown to Steel, now one of the richest portions of North Dakota, farming lands ranging in price from $25

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History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 28

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146