History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 35

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

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The scandalous proceedings of the previous campaign as well as in the legislative session of 1872-3 had disgusted the sober and decent better element and they resolved that such conditions should not longer prevail, and early in the spring a movement was undertaken looking to decency in politics and public affairs. A harmonious un- derstanding was brought about between the ter- ritorial central committees representing the Moody and Brookings factions of the Republican party and a single convention was called to meet at Elk Point on July 16th. The committee ac- companied the call for the convention with an address to the Republican voters counseling con- servative and dignified action, and the result was, that when the convention met there was not a single contesting delegation in the body and Judge Kidder was nominated delegate to con- gress without opposition.

The Democratic convention met at Elk Point on the 27th of August. At the same time and place an anti-monopoly convention, growing out of the granger movement, also convened. Dr. Burleigh was the choice of the anti-monopolists

and by skillful management the Democratic con- vention was also won over to him, against Father Turner, who had a majority of its votes at one time, but was defeated under a two-thirds rule. After Turner had failed, Burleigh's friends pro- posed to endorse him and, abrogating the two- thirds rule, nominated Burleigh by a majority. There was strong protest from many old-line Democrats and, though Dr. Burleigh accepted the dual nomination and entered upon the cam- paign, it soon became manifest that he could not have the support of any considerable number of the Democrats, while the Republican grangers adhered to Judge Kidder's support. Burleigh therefore, on September 8th, formally declined to continue in the race and a mass convention was called at Vermillion on September 19th. At this convention Burleigh was again nominated amid great enthusiasm and again accepted, but after a day or two finally withdrew his candidacy and the Democrats adopted Moses K. Armstrong and his name was published as the candidate and printed upon the ticket. As early as June 18th Armstrong, then serving as delegate, had pub- lished a card declining a renomination and when the announcement of his candidacy was made in September he published another card stating that if the party wished to vote for him he had no objections ; that the people knew his record and he would stand upon it, but that he should not attempt to make a campaign. The election natur- ally resulted in a fair majority for Judge Kidder, though, all circumstances considered, Armstrong

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received a surprisingly large vote, carrying several of the most populous counties. The gran- ger movement seems to have cut little figure politically in Dakota that year.

The trial of Wintermute came on at Yank- ton on the IIth of May and resulted in his con- viction for manslaughter. He was sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, but appealed the case and was released on bond.

The railroad had given Yankton a great im- pulse. It at once became the initial depot for the entire upper river steamboat traffic, at this period very extensive and employing more than twenty boats. There was much building. Gov- ernor Pennington, departing from the traditions of his predecessors, except Edmunds, made con- siderable investments of money and erected the large block at the corner of Third and Douglas streets which still bears his name.

On the 14th of June, this year, R. E. Pierce, of Sioux City, shot a large buffalo bull on the headwaters of the Brule, not far from the present town of Alcester ; this was the last of the buffalo in the lower Missouri country.

In August the grasshoppers in countless hordes swept down upon the almost matured crop and in some sections utterly destroyed it. The alarmı was general and Governor Pennington, taking official notice of it, traveled over the entire settled portion of the territory to learn the real condition. The new settlements in the upper Sioux valley seem to have got the worst of it. The governor's report was reassuring. He esti- mated that the territory would produce three million three hundred thousand bushels of wheat, which, after providing for the home consumption, would leave two million bushels for export. Still the crop was not evenly distributed and there was real hardship in some localities. Minnehaha county was especially hard pressed and the citi- zens found it necessary to appeal to the public for relief. Col. Thomas H. Brown went east and secured a sufficient amount of clothing and food and about six hundred dollars in cash, which bridged the people over and but few gave up their homesteads.

During the same month there was one of

those senseless Indian scares which periodically alarmed the frontier, and, as usual, when the ex- citement was over it was difficult to tell what it had all been about. The air seemed to be filled with the terror while it lasted and few settlers, however remote, seemed to escape its influence. All along from Sioux City up to the Minnesota frontier the alarm spread and many homesteaders packed up their effects and started ·for havens of safety. It was said that the farmer Indians at Flandreau had taken to the war path, that the always peaceable Sissetons had become hostile, and that the Missouri river tribes were sweeping down upon the settlements. The fact seems to be that a small band of horse-stealing Uncpapas from the Grand river country did make a raid upon Fort Wadsworth and stampeded and es- caped with a few horses. There was no other ground for the scare and long before the settlers heard of any disturbance whatever the disturbers were safely ensconced in their tepees, west of the Missouri.

The government, anticipating the spread of population along the prairie streams and lakes, established mail routes all over Dakota this sea- son and a preliminary survey of the James river, with a view to its navigation by small steamers, was undertaken. The survey was entrusted to Captain Ainsworth, who did little except to pass up the river to the vicinity of Mitchell in a canoe and upon his return made a report of his ob- servations, in which he declared the navigation of the stream in small flat-bottomed steamers practicable.

Now and again we get a glimpse of the primitive customs still obtaining among the Dakotans of that period and of the devices to which by necessity they were compelled to resort ; for instance, the Methodists at Elk Point, in lieu of a church bell, which they could not afford, had a triangle, made by a blacksmith, with which they called the flock to worship, and at Spring- field a loud-voiced trumpet was used for the same purpose.

Armstrong county was organized in August, with the county seat at Maxwell's Mills on the James.

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As soon as horses could live by grazing, in the spring of 1874 General Custer set out from the new post, Abraham Lincoln, to make a re- connoisance in force in the Black Hills country. In addition to the Seventh Cavalry, he had two companies of infantry and a large force of white and Indian scouts, teamsters, etc., in addition to several scientific men and practical miners. Though ostensibly going to establish a road and locate posts on a line connecting Lincoln with Laramie, it was the real intention of the govern- ment to determine once for all if the long- established belief of gold mines in the Hills had a real foundation in fact. The expedition moved without noteworthy incident across north of the Hills with Inyan Kara as its objective. The first South Dakota description of interest in the re- port is the account of the Belle Fourche valley, contained in General Custer's official report to the assistant adjutant general department of Dakota, at St. Paul, to whom all of his reports of this expedition were made. He says : "Every step of the way (through Belle Fourche valley) was amid flowers of the most exquisite color and perfume and so luxuriant in growth that the men plucked them from the saddle. It was a strange sight to glance back at the advancing columns of cavalry and behold the men with beautiful bo- quets in their hands, while the headgear of the horses was decorated with wreaths of flowers fit to adorn a queen of May. General Forsythe plucked seventeen different varieties of beautiful flowers within an area of twenty feet. That even- ing at mess, some one called attention to the carpet of flowers under our feet and I found I could pluck seven varieties without leaving my seat."

Passing from Inyan Kara down the western side of the Hills, the expedition finally cut across to Harney Peak, where it arrived about the first of August and then moved into Custer park. On the evening of August 2d, William F. McKay (the same Billy Mckay who cut a figure in the previous legislature as a contestant for the legis- lative seat from Buffalo county), who accom- panied the expedition as a gold expert, took a pan and going down to French creek shoveled it full

of gravel from the bed of the stream ; he washed it out and found about two cents worth of dust in the bottom. He took another pan out about twenty feet further down the stream and found three cents worth of dust in it. He carried the results into General Custer and General Forsythe and he says in his journal that they were two as pleased generals as he ever saw in his life.

General Custer at once reported the find to the assistant adjutant general at St. Paul by a special courier by way of Bismarck, and a few days later the world was on fire with the Black Hills gold excitement.

"I have on my table," said General Custer, in his dispatch of the 2d of August, sent from the camp of French creek, "forty or fifty small par- ticles of gold in size averaging a small pin head, and most of it obtained from one pan." Again on the 15th, when the expedition had arrived at Bear Butte and was leaving the hills, he wrote, "In a former dispatch I referred to the discovery of gold. Subsequent examinations at numerous points confirm and strengthen the existence of gold in the Black Hills. On some of the water courses gold was found in almost every panful of earth, in small but paying quantities. The miners report that they found the gold in the grass roots and from the surface to the greatest depthi reached. It has not required an expert to find gold in the Black Hills, as men without for- mer experience have found it." The expedition returned to Bismarck (Lincoln) without collision with the Indians. It has frequently been stated by writers upon the Black Hills that there was nothing in the dispatches of Custer to justify the gold excitement which followed their publication, but it would appear from the foregoing extracts that nothing could have been better calculated to inflame the public mind, for every one reasoned that an official dispatch would take the most con- servative view and the best was not revealed. On August 13th the news of the dispatch of the 2d reached Yankton and that town, which had been the headquarters of at least three abortive at- tempts to send expeditions to the hills, felt that its opportunity had at last come. Two pre- dominating motives for action were conceived.

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Many of the adventurous ones wished to go at once into the Hills and be first on the ground to profit by the gold discoveries, while the substan- tial business men could see the opportunity to make Yankton the gateway to the diggings, which were sure to attract immense immigration at once. A great mass meeting was assembled that evening to discuss the situation and all the leading citizens took part. It was shrewdly ar- gued in response to the objection that the Hills were embraced within the reservation and therefore not accessible to white men, that Uncle Sam would not have sent an expedition to prospect the hills and have of- ficially proclaimed the existence of rich deposits there, if the government did not propose to pro- tect miners who should follow the example of the military and enter the hills to dig gold. It was therefore resolved at this meeting to or- ganize an expedition of from three to five hundred men and get them off for the hills at once, over the "Yankton route," which was to be by way of steamboat to Fort Pierre and thence overland to the hills. Also to immediately ex- tensively advertise to the world the superiority of the Yankton route to the hills over any other which could be taken. In glowing terms the all-rail route to Yankton was pictured, a trip on a palatial steamer up the Missouri river, whence a pleasant little jaunt of three days over the de- lightful Dakota prairies would land the argonaut in the Eldorado of his dreams. Sioux City was also moving in the same line and advocating the Niobrara route, while the irrepressible Charles Collins, who already had a considerable plant on the Missouri river opposite the mouth of White river, was engaged upon his own account, and more successfully than any other agency, in pro- moting Black Hills expeditions by way of Brule City. Everything moved along in the most en- couraging way until August 27th, when General Sheridan, in command of the department of the Northwest, issued his famous order to General Terry, in command of the department of Dakota : "Should companies now organizing at Sioux City and Yankton trespass upon the Sioux reservation, you are hereby directed to use the force at your

command to burn their wagon trains, destroy the outfits and arrest the leaders, confining them at the nearest military post in the Indian country. Should they succeed in reaching the interior you are directed to send such force of cavalry after them as will accomplish the purposes above named."

The receipt of the above order in Yankton precipitated an incipient rebellion. In a moment all of their mighty hopes were dashed ; the dream of gold and of the building of a mighty city at the threshold of the diggings were to be dis- solved ; boomers, promoters and argonauts alike understood this, but it was not to be done without a protest: A mass meeting, that mighty and often invoked instrument of the capital city, was as- sembled and was presided over by A. M. English, who was one of the most active among the pros- pective argonauts, and after relieving the public mind of Yankton by fulminating against the tyranny of the military, the matter was settled by the adoption of the following resolution : "Resolved, That we shall exercise our rights as American citizens, to go and come when and where we please, without asking the consent of General Sheridan or any other military chief- tain."

Then the good people of the law-abiding capi- tal went about their affairs and awaited the course of events. Just as they were becoming reconciled to the inevitable, however, Richard Mathieson, now of Fort Pierre, a Yankton boy who had ac- companied Custer into the Hills, returned home and the tales he brought of the wealth of the diggings again set the boys wild and a small party determined to take all of the chances and undertake to get into the Hills. They slipped quietly away and were making their course up the Niobrara when they found themselves beset by a hostile band of Brules and one of the party, John W. Lowe, was shot and killed and two others wounded. They at once returned to the settlements and this ended all attempt to enter the Hills by South Dakotans in 1874.

Charley Collins, however, could not be re- pressed by so slight an impediment as the military power of the United States. He had opened a

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recruiting office in Chicago, and upon the issuing of the Sheridan order he had closed this and re- turned to Sioux City where he caused a dispatch to be sent out to the associated press papers that. owing to the hostility of the military, the Collins expedition had been abandoned, but in fact he never gave up but continued to recruit and by the 6th of October saw a party consisting of twenty-six men, one woman and a nine-year-old boy prepared to start. They had six canvas- covered wagons, drawn by two pair of oxen to the wagon, and five saddle horses. They were ostensibly bound for O'Niell, where they repre- sented they were going to homestead lands. They were well supplied with provisions. Col- lins, who was the publisher of the Sioux City Times, did not accompany the party. Those who did go were Captain Tom Russell, Lyman Lamb, Eaf Whitcher, Angus McDonald, (Red) Dan McDonald and (Black) Dan McDonald. James Dempster, James Powers, J. J. Williams, Thomas Quiner, John Gordon, J. W. Brockett, Newton Warren, H. Bishop. Charles Long, Charles Cordeiro, Moses Aarons. R. Whitney. Harry Cooper, David Aken, John Boyle, Charles Blackwell. Thomas McLaren, Henry Thomas, David G. Tallent and Mrs. Annie D. Tallent and Robert E. Tallent, wife and son of David. Mrs. Tallent afterward became the historian of the en- terprise and of the Black Hills.

The expedition was under the direction of Captain Russell, the business partner of Charley Collins, and was guided by John Gordon, who had some previous knowledge of the country, and it is generally spoken of as the Gordon expedi- tion.

It is now a little difficult to determine the exact line of travel. They appear to have passed up the valley of the Keya Paha to its head and, crossing the White through the Bad Lands, passed the headwaters of the Bad, or Teton, and reached the Cheyenne at the mouth of Elk creek. When at the headwaters of the Teton, Moses Aarons died and was buried in a coffin made of hewed timbers fastened together with wooden pins. His death occurred on the 27th day of

November, 1874. He was a well liked young man of thirty-two years.

On the 3d of December, at the crossing of the Cheyenne, they were visited by five Cheyenne Indians who were friendly and made no effort to detain them. They did not see a Sioux Indian upon the entire trip. On the 9th of December they reached the Hills at a point four miles south of Sturgis. They had followed up Elk creek, which had carried them much farther north than they desired to go. Here they struck the trail left by the Custer expedition of the previous August which they followed back through the magnificent scenery of the hills to a point on French creek, two and a half miles below the present village of Custer, where they arrived on December 23d and set about to get ready for Christmas.

They at once began to construct a stockade which would protect them from the wild beasts and possibly prowling Indians. Pine timber was plentiful and in a few days they were comfortably located. The stockade was eighty feet square and the posts were ten feet out of the ground. Bastions were built at each corner and within seven comfortable cabins were erected. By the first of the year the enterprising miners were prepared to begin prospecting for the shining metal which had tempted them to defy the mili- tary, and with great hardship enter upon the lands of the savage Sioux who unquestionably would resent the trespass at the first information of it.

At the election in October A. S. Jones, of Olivet, was chosen territorial auditor. Jolin- Clementson, of Union county, treasurer, Rev. J. J. McIntyre, of Turner county, superintendent- of public instruction, and Fred J. Cross, of Sioux Falls, immigration commissioner.

Oscar Whitney, who had been appointed to fill out the unexpired term of his son-in-law, Edward S. McCook, was an elderly gentleman, lacking in executive ability and as the position of acting governor frequently devolved upon him it was felt by citizens and the government as well that it was unwise to continue him in the position.

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Nevertheless it was not desired to humiliate him with a dismissal. Finally a happy solution of the difficulty was thought out. George H. Hand was then register of the land office. Wheeler S. Bowen thus describes the arrangement : "Because of the bitter factional feeling following the sanguinary death of Colonel McCook it soon be- came evident that the appointment of Colonel Whitney as his successor was a serious mistake. He was a man of advanced years, of a nervous temperament, affectionately devoted to the cause which had brought death and suffering to his family and he was unable to separate himself in his official capacity from the prejudices en- gendered by the anguish of his loved ones. Out of this condition came the conclusion of the general government to transfer Mr. Hand from the land office to the position of territorial sec- retary and to bestow upon Colonel Whitney the place occupied by Mr. Hand, that of register of the Yankton land office."

The legislature was almost wholly Republi- can. John L. Jolley was chosen president of the council and Gideon C. Moody speaker of the house. Governor Pennington's message to this legislature was the most practical yet produced by any of the territorial governors, being notice- ably free from the platitudes and generalities which had characterized those of his predecessors and, while more lengthy than any which had gone before, it was replete with practical suggestions and definite recommendations for the considera- tion of the legislature.

In this session Gen. Mark W. Sheafe, now of Watertown but then a resident of Elk Point, made his first appearance in Dakota politics.

Our friend Billy McKay (William T. Mc- Kay), who, the previous August, had won world- wide fame as the discoverer of gold in the Black Hills, again appeared in this session with a con- test on his hands. He claimed the election to the house from the fifth district, popularly spoken of as the Bismarck precinct, which extended from Charles Mix county to Fort Buford, and his right to the seat was contested by Edmund Hackett. The record does not reveal that there was anything particularly corrupt in the election

but there was much irregularity. Wherever there was a considerable body of voters assembled there was an election held and returns made, some times without complying with the formalities of law, and it was a difficult proposition to determine the exact merits of the case. It will be recalled that Billy, along with Jim Somers and other up-river characters, had been indicted for the hanging of Hartert in Charles Mix county several years before. His political enemies deemed their case safer with Billy under lock and key than with him running at large, so they again secured his arrest for his complicity in the Hartert murder and he was committed to the Yankton jail. The house, though there was daily a motion for that purpose, steadily refused to excuse him from attendance upon that meeting, and Speaker Moody ordered him brought in daily in custody of the sheriff. The case dragged along until when the end of the session drew near it was finally decided in his favor. On the 7th of January, the day upon which he was finally seated, Billy was turned over to the custody of the sheriff of Bon Homme county, who immediately released him. He was active in the Black Hills movement during the succeeding summer and then dropped out of sight.

President Jolley of the council tendered his resignation on the 28th day of December, but the council refused to accept it and he continued to preside.

On the 13th day of January Hon. Ole Bot- tolfson died at his home at Meckling. Mr. Bot- tolfson had served in the legislature, as judge of probate and as treasurer of Clay county and was one of the most active of the Scandinavian pio- neers. He came into the territory on the 10th clay of August, 1859. He was a man of great in- telligence, sound judgment and rugged honesty and had strongly impressed himself upon the people of the territory.

On February 27th Norman Bruce Campbell, the only son of General Charles T. Campbell, of Scotland, a young man in his twenty-second year, died at the family home at Scotland. He had been a member of the previous legislature and Campbell county was named in his honor.

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He was a young man of strong character, pos- sessing many of the rugged virtues which had distinguished his father and had won a large measure of public esteem.

During the spring of this year sixty families, known as the Army and Navy Colony, settled at Rockport in Hanson county. They came from the vicinity of Chicago and among them were many families who have been distinguished in the history of Dakota.

The Dakota Freie Presse was established in March, 1874, the first German newspaper in Dakota. At that time there were thirteen news- papers in the territory among which were the Press and Dakotaian and Dakota Herald at Yankton, the Courier at Elk Point, the Register and Dakota Republican at Vermillion, the Sioux Falls Independent and Sioux Falls Pantagraph at Sioux Falls, and the Sioux Valley News at Canton.

CHAPTER XLVII

1875-A YEAR OF SENSATIONS.

The legislature continued in session until the 14th day of January and accomplished some startling legislation. A bill was passed, intro- duced by Hon. A. L. Van Osdel, repudiating the payment of the two hundred thousand dollars in bonds issued by Yankton county in behalf of the Southern Dakota Railroad. This bill was vetoed by Governor Pennington, who accompanied his veto with a message which severely rebuked the legislature for its attempt at repudiation. An attempt to pass the bill over the Governor's veto failed by one vote, though it was ably cham- pioned by Colonel Moody, Mr. Van Osdel and the entire Yankton county delegation. In this action the Yankton county delegation had the cordial support of practically the entire popula- tion of the county who felt that the railroad company had failed to meet its obligations and to carry out the provisions of the contract upon which the bonds were based. This may be called the first sensation of the sensational year.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 35

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998