History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 36

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

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 36

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The legal rate of interest, which up to this time had been eighteen per cent., was reduced to twelve per cent.

An effort was made in this legislature to se- cure an appropriation for the establishment and maintenance of the territorial university at Ver- million, but it failed.

An attempt was made to repeal the herd law, and it excites a smile to-day to observe that forty- five of the thrifty farmers of Union county joined in a protest against its repeal, declaring

pathetically, "If this law is repealed we cannot sow any grain."

Despite the loss of crops by grasshoppers the previous year, there was an excellent immigra- tion and the legislature was fully alive to the necessity for active promotion of immigration to Dakota's fertile lands. A comprehensive immi- gration law was passed and, in addition to Com- inissioner Cross, three district commissioners were appointed and ample provision made for an active campaign to secure settlement. These three commissioners elected by the legislature were J. M. Wall, Vale P. Thielman and S. G. Roberts.

A bill, introduced by Mark W. Sheafe, pro- viding that the conveyance of a homestead should be absolutely invalid unless the wife joined in the conveyance, was passed with a considerable modification in the house. Shortly after the close of the session Hon. S. L. Spink was checking up his volume of the statutes by the enactments of the recent legislature when he discovered that one section of the new homestead law repealed the personal property exemption law of 1862, and as he interpreted it, left the settlers without any personal property exemption whatever. He at once called public attention to this repeal and it is probable that no other event in the history of Dakota territory created such a sensation as did this. Everybody was in debt and the repeal of the exemption law exposed all of their prop- erty to execution sale. An indignation meeting

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assembled and was addressed by many of the leading citizens of the territory. Spink, Brook- ings, Bartlett Tripp, Beadle, Hand, Burleigh and others made exciting talks upon the subject. Dr. Burleigh expressed the sense of the meeting when he said, "To get up some morning and find that several of Dakota's counties had been suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake would be of but passing consequence to me when com- pared to the surprise and indignation occasioned by the discovery of the passage of this bill repeal- ing the personal property exemptions." An ex- amination of the subject developed the fact that Mr. Sheafe's bill, as originally introduced, con- tained but three short sections providing specific- ally that the wife must join in the conveyance of the homestead. That in its passage through the house the bill was amended and re-drafted by Colonel Moody, who extended it into nineteen sections, defining a homestead and prescribing the method by which it could be claimed and ex- empted from execution. One of the last of these sections provided that a section of the exemption law of 1862 should be repealed. The public at once jumped to the conclusion that there was a conspiracy between Moody, Sheafe, Jolley and others to deprive the people of their exemption rights in the interest of the money sharks, and after the public meeting had abused them to their heart's content the excited crowd went out and hung Moody, Sheafe and Jolley in effigy.

Colonel Moody, in an extended argument, which was published in the Press and Dakotaian, held that the law of 1862 had been enlarged upon by a law in 1866, which was whole and complete in itself, and therefore the exemption law was not repealed nor in any wise affected, but no one of the other lawyers agreed with him.

The meeting above referred to sent Governor Pennington posthaste to Washington to secure a revocation of the act of the legislature by con- gress. He left Yankton on the morning of the 16th of February and on the 26th day of Febru- ary was able to telegraph from the national capi- tal that the revocation had passed both houses of congress. The incident, however, had spread concern and perturbation throughout the territory

and indignation meetings were held in almost every precinct. Even for weeks after congress had revoked the bungling clause reports came in from outlying precincts of violent demon- strations against the so-called perpetrators of the outrage.

At this distance it appears that no one was wilfully blameworthy in the matter, though doubtless the repeal of the law of 1862 did carry with it the repeal of the amendments made in 1866. On this proposition, however, lawyers still differ. It is hard now to comprehend fully how vital the exemption law was to the debt- ridden settlers of thirty years ago. In fact the very existence of many of them depended upon it, and it would have been a courageous man in- deed who should knowingly have voted for this abrogation. But with the political bitterness which existed at that time it is not surprising that the action of Colonel Moody in the matter, for upon him finally all of the blame centered, should have been regarded with great suspicion.

Notwithstanding the proud boast which had been made throughout the previous season that Dakota was but little hurt by the grasshoppers and that the people could take care of themselves and still have a million bushels of grain to export by the beginning of the new year, it became ap- parent that thousands of the scattered settlers were in dire destitution. The first public recog- nition of this condition came in the organiza- tion of the Southern Dakota Relief Society, who cmphatically declared that territorial pride and moral heroism had thus far kept the people from making their necessities known, but that actual starvation was staring many in the face and that only through the generosity of the public could they subsist themselves until another harvest. By the 22d of January the necessity had become so apparent that Governor Pennington was com- . pelled to make an urgent appeal to the general public for aid. A territorial relief association was formed of which ex-Governor Edmunds was made chairman, and a systematic canvass for assistance and a careful and systematic dis- tribution of the contributions to the needy was insured. General Beadle was commissioned to

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go east and collect such amounts as he could. He made a trip through the eastern country and secured three thousand six hundred dollars in cash. The National Grange sent nine hundred dollars to the Dakota Grange, and Colonel Thomas H. Brown, of Sioux Falls, secured something more than five hundred dollars. In addition to this, large donations of clothing and food supplies were sent in and distributed among the needy, so that no one was reduced to starva- tion. Lincoln county voted five hundred dollars out of the public treasury for the needy of that county and the general government issued much clothing and military rations to the people. No locality was able to maintain itself independent of these benefactions. Bon Homme, Yankton, Clay, Union, Turner, Hanson, Lincoln, Minne- haha, all of the great wealthy communities, were dependent upon public charity in this awful crisis.

On the 13th of January, 1874. Vermilion, then largely located on the bottom under the hill, suffered a seventy-thousand-dollar fire, destroy- ing the ten principal business buildings of the town. Among the sufferers were Prentis & Newton, bankers; Thompson & Lewis, John L. Jolley's law office, Robinson's abstract office, Hanson's furniture store, the Dakota Republican and the Clay County Register, Gunderson's store, Dr. Burdick's office and other minor insti- tutions. The office of the county treasurer and judge of probate was burned, destroying the records, and two thousand seven hundred dol- lars of school money was burned up. In conse- quence there were no schools in Clay county the succeeding year.

C. H. True, editor of the Dakota Republican, had for several months been a sufferer from con- sumption and the excitement and exertion occa- sioned by the fire resulted in his death thrce days later. Mr True was one of the ablest of the pio- neer Dakotans. He was a graduate of Bowdoin College, 1858, was afterward professor of lan- guages in Westbrook Seminary, later editor of the New York Times. He was private secretary to Governor Coburn, the war governor of Maine, after which he purchased and was editor and

publisher of the Portland Advertiser, which property he lost through a fire, and this loss in- duced him to immigrate to Dakota in 1868, when he became the editor of the Dakota Republican. He was a genial, benevolent gentleman, true as steel to his friends, forgiving to his enemies and an ornament to his profession, and his death occasioned a loss long felt in the Missouri val- ley. He was succeeded as editor of the Dakota Republican by Dr. F. W. Burdick.

On the 4th day of February, 1874, the sut- preme court granted to Peter P. Wintermute. convicted of the murder of the territorial secre- tary, General Edward S. McCook, a new trial on the ground of an error of the trial court in not allowing Wintermute's challenge to a grand juror. To this Judge Shannon dissented, the opin- ion in the case being written by Judge Jefferson P. Kidder and concurred in by Judge Barnes. This action of the supreme court, clearly founded on good law, created a ferment in Yankton, par- ticularly among those who were known as the Capitol street faction, and, true to the tradition of the town, an indignation meeting was imme- diately assembled for the purpose of "express- ing our indignation and contempt for Judges Kidder and Barnes." L. D. Parmer was chair- man of the meeting and Joseph R. Hanson sec- retary. Dr. Burleigh, Dr. Moon and Judge Brookings were the principal speakers, and they were not sparing in their denunciations of the as- sociate justices. Chief Justice Shannon wrote an extended dissenting opinion, which led Justice Barnes to also file a separate opinion, which fully concurred in the opinion of the court, as deliv- ered by Justice Kidder, and was really written in refutation of the points made by the Chief Justice in his opinion.

Wintermute was arraigned at the spring term before Judge Shannon, who upon proper showing gave him a change of venue to the Clay county term. Judge Kidder having resigned his position on the bench to take his seat in congress. on the Ist of March, Judge Granville G. Ben- nett was appointed his successor and assigned to the Vermillion district, and Wintermute's second trial was heard by Judge Bennett. It began on

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the 19th day'of August and occupied about two weeks' time. In this trial Colonel Moody chiefly conducted the defense, and he secured an ac- quital from the jury. The verdict of the jury was severely condemned by the people both at home and abroad. The case had attracted na- tional attention, owing to the prominence of the McCook family, and all of the eastern papers took occasion to comment upon it and to deplore the action of the jury.

Many events of noteworthy interest occurred during the year. The legislative session of 1872-3 had authorized C. J. B. Harris to codify the laws and to present to the legislature of 1874-5 his draft of the new code, but this legisla- ture had other plans and refused to adopt the Harris code, and authorized the governor to ap- point a commission to revise and codify the laws of the territory. Governor Pennington therefore appointed Chief Justice P. C. Shannon, Gran- ville G. Bennett and Bartlett Tripp as such con- mission.

On the Ist of January, 1875, Hon. John R. Gamble made his first appearance in Dakota politics as county attorney for Yankton county.

Immigration Commissioner Foster in his re- port, as of January Ist, stated that there were five thousand German-Russian immigrants in Dakota.

In March 2d congress passed a bill to pay the .Dakota war claims as awarded by James A. Hardie, so that at the end of thirteen years the people who had sprang to arms in defense of their homes and had spent their money for sup- plies and ammunition and for the building of defenses, secured a partial remuneration for their outlay of time, property and money.

This spring the spelling-school epidemic swept Dakota in a peculiarly virulent form, and everyone from the governor down to the hum- blest homesteader engaged in the national game of spelling-down.

In May a new sensation was sprung. It was of those things which brought disgrace to the administration of Secretary Belknap and which, rightly or wrongly, he was believed to be impli-

cated in for his personal profit. A syndicate, of which Orvil D. Grant, a brother of the President, was a member, had practically secured a monop- oly of the Indian trade. They secured all of the post traders' stores at the agencies and very many of the citizens of the territory who had found profitable occupation in this trading were compelled to retire from business. Many of these forthwith crossed the river and opened new stores upon the ceded lands, thus dividing the trade which the syndicate monopoly claimed for their own. It was therefore necessary that some hurried action should be taken to drive them out of the country. To accomplish this the Presi- dent was induced to believe that the protection of the Indians from the liquor traffic rendered it necessary that the lands on the eastern side of the river should be receded to the Indians that the government might exercise jurisdiction over them. Therefore an executive order, is- sued on the 16th day of March, 1875, proclaimed that all that land lying on the east bank of the Missouri river, now comprised in McPherson, Campbell, Walworth, Edmunds, Potter, Faulk, Sully, Hughes, Hand, Hyde, Buffalo and Brule counties, should be withdrawn from settlement and again become Indian lands. This left a lit- tle patch at the north end of the Yankton reser- vation, thrown on the east side of the Missouri, still open to settlement and upon the discovery of this fact the syndicate, through the secretary, Belknap, for the same ostensible reason, secured a further order from President Grant withdraw- ing this portion from settlement, so that the trad- ing syndicate had absolute control of the trading posts on both sides of the Missouri river, from Chauteau creek to Standing Rock agency. This action was a great hardship to many Dakota men and subjected General Grant to a great deal of possibly unjust criticism, for no one at this time believes that he was wilfully a party to the cor- rupt action of the secretary and the St. Louis syndicate.

The winter of 1874-5 was an extraordinarily severe one, with deep snows, and was naturally followed by great floods on the James, Sioux

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and Missouri in the spring. The people antici- pating the high water, however, were well pre- pared and suffered no very material damage.

On the 22d of June the Masonic grand lodge of Dakota territory was organized at Elk Point.

In June the grasshoppers passed over Dakota in immense swarms, which for days at a time darkened the sun, but fortunately they did not alight to do any damage in the farming section, and the crops of this year were superb, much the most extensive and prolific of any yet produced in the history of the teritory. This year the new Russian settlers introduced the cultivation of flax in Dakota and they produced for export more than three car loads, besides providing seed for the succeeding season.

In July a large excursion train, loaded with hundreds of visitors from Chicago and other eastern points, visited Lake Kampeska. They came over the then recently completed Winona & St. Peter Railway. This is probably one of the exceptional instances where a town has not sprung up at the terminal of the railway as soon as completed, but there was a dispute between the government and the railway company as to where the limit of the land grant was. The gov- ernment claimed that the land grant had expired at the state line, while the railway company claimed it to the Sioux river. While the ques- tion was in dispute the government withdrew all of the lands from settlement between the state line and the Sioux river, and consequently there was no room for the development of a town there and this condition continued for a long time.

At Sioux Falls heroic efforts were put forth to secure the construction of a railroad to that point, which was rapidly growing in impor- tance. Their nearest railroad point was at this time at Sibley, Iowa, and C. K. Howard had upon the line between Sibley and Sioux Falls a train of twenty-two wagons constantly employed in bringing in freight and carrying out produce.

At this time Mr. Howard was the most prom- inent and the most progressive and active citi- zen of the Sioux valley. At Sioux Falls he was pre-eminent and practically the "whole thing." He owned the freight line, the stage and express

line, the brewery, the store and a large furniture and supply establishment. He trusted everybody and everybody trusted him, and it is said that during the period of destitution following the grasshopper raid of 1874 he kept starvation away from many a home, and that no worthy man ever was refused credit for necessities at his store during that time.

The first territorial fair was held at Yank- ton on September 29th and 30th and in every way was a success.

Up to this time Yankton was supplied with water from the Missouri river, but an agitation began for a system of water works. Pursuant to a suggestion made several years before by Mr. Kingsbury, it was determined to try to secure water by sinking an artisian well, and in Decem- ber, 1875, the services of I. T. Farrand, of Chi- cago, were secured to come to Yankton and sink an artesian well. Ferrand came out, examined the country and declared it as his belief that both coal and water might be secured under the Yankton formation. A contract was made with him to sink a well at least one thousand feet and to put in the necessary tubing at the rate of three dollars per foot. Difficulty, however, was found in securing the money for the enterprise and it was dropped for the present and not taken up again for several years.

It will be recalled that in the last chapter we left the Gordon-Russell party at the new stock- ade which they had erected at Christmas time at French Creek, a few miles below the present village of Custer. As soon as the prospectors had become comfortably situated in their new stockade, although the weather was very severe, they started out to prospect the creek for gold, for they were well aware that they could not long maintain themselves in their isolated situation without recruits and supplies from outside, and it was necessary for them to demonstrate that gold dust really existed and then by some kind of communication with the outside world let the good news be known. A few weeks of prospect- ing had produced quite an accumulation of dust and with this as an evidence of good faith, John Gordon and Eph. Witcher mounted their horses

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and started east on an extraordinarily cold morn- ing, the 6th day of February. It was a most hazardous undertaking to ride from the Black Hills to the settlements through the deep snows of that winter and through a hostile Indian coun- try, and the little band whom they left behind had many misgivings lest they should not reach the settlements.

Only a suspicion existed in the minds of the people of Dakota that any prospectors were in the Hills, though reports had come in from the Indians that now and again parties of miners had been seen making their way westward. Therefore, when Witcher and Gordon dropped into Yankton on the evening of the Ist day of March, 1875, and actually exhibited a consider- able quantity of gold taken from the prospect holes of French creek, the town was thrown into indescribable excitement. The returned miners were the heroes of the hour.

Charley Collins came hot-foot from Sioux City to meet them and to escort them from Yank- ton to Sioux City upon a train over the South- ern Dakota Railroad, decorated with flags and with Collins sitting upon the pilot waving his arms and howling like a maniac.

With the return of these miners immediate preparations were made for sending an expedi- tion into the Hills and to establish a thorough- fare by way of Yankton. Immediately the most intense jealousy sprang up between Yankton and Sioux City over the more feasible route. Yank- ton could make the best showing in speed, dis- tance and convenience in travel, but Sioux City, undaunted, hustled together a new expedition and, placing them under the leadership of John Gordon, started them back over the Nebraska and Niobrara route.

Early in February Walter, William and George Owens, George McDaniels and William Newton, a party of young men from Springfield, had started out ostensibly for a hunting trip, but meeting Witcher and Gordon they determined to go on to the Hills, which they did, making a speedy and successful trip, found good prospects and sent Walter and William Owens back to carry the news to their friends in Springfield.

They arrived at home on April 2d, being the second messengers to bring news from the Hills. Their success in making the trip over the so- called Yankton route in so short a period did much to encourage the promoters of the enter- prise above mentioned, and transportation com- panies were organized at Springfield, Yankton, Vermilion and Elk Point.

On Monday, March 22d, William Tillotson and Seth Huggins, of Union county, and John Woodruth, of Clay county, left for the Hills in a covered wagon expecting to go in by the White river route. This was the first Dakota expedi- tion into the Black Hills organized and equipped for that purpose.

Gordon and his party, after a good deal of hardships in getting through the sandhills of Nebraska, reached the Niobrara, where they were taken.in by a detachment of United States troops, their outfits destroyed and the party taken into custody and lodged in the military prison at Fort Laramie. After being kept in duress for several months they were taken to Omaha for trial, where Gordon was finally discharged upon the order of Judge Dundy of the United States court. The fate of the Gordon party rather dampened the ardor of the Dakota gold hunters and no further expeditions were fitted out from Yankton or Sioux City or any other Dakota points that season. The military was particularly active in cutting off any one that came in from the Dakota way, while there was a suspicion that they were discriminating against the Dakota routes and in favor of the Union Pacific Rail- road.

In April the government sent Prof. W. P. Jenny, a United States geologist, to the Hills under the escort of Gen. R. I. Dodge, with three companies of cavalry. Jenny remained in the Hills until late in the season, making a careful prospect of many of the gold bearing creeks, and his reports were not at all encouraging.

Nevertheless enterprising prospectors work- ing on their own account, slipping through the lines and returning with considerable quantities of dust, were much more convincing to the pub- lic that gold existed there in paying quantities

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than any report, however discouraging, from the government officers; for there was a deep- seated conviction in the public mind that the government was conspiring to keep the people out of the gold mines.

General Crook reported in August that in his judgment there were from eight hundred to one thousand five hundred miners in the Black Hills mines who had surreptitiously found their way there, and the Black Hills excitement pos- sessed the people throughout the entire country.

The pressure was so great upon the govern- ment to open up the Hills to settlement as to be irresistible, and early in the year, a commission consisting of Senator Allison, of Iowa; Bishop E. R. Ames, of Baltimore, Maryland ; Judge F. W. Palmer, of Chicago, Illinois; Gen. A. H. Terry, of St. Paul, Minnesota; Hon. A. Co- mingo, of Independence, Missouri; Rev. S. D. Hinman, of Santee agency, Nebraska; G. P. Beauvais, of St. Louis, Missouri; W. H. Ashby, of Beatrice, Nebraska, and A. G. Lawrence, of Rhode Island, were appointed by the President to treat with the Sioux for the relinquishment of the Black Hills country. The place selected for the council was eight miles north of the Red Cloud agency on White river, directly north of Crow Butte, and fully twenty thousand Sioux were assembled there for council on the 17th day of September, when the council opened. Brules, Oglalas, Minneconjous, Uncpapas, Black- fcet, Two Kettles, Sans Arcs, Lower Brules, Yanktons, Santees, Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, all claiming an interest in the Black Hills, were represented in the council .. The council remained in session twelve days and listened to the propositions of the Sioux, which became more and more exacting as time passed. At first they were willing to accept a price "to be agreed upon" for the Hills, but daily their idea of what the Hills were worth to them ad- vanced until they were claiming as much as sev- enty million dollars as a reasonable price. They also wanted provision made to provide protec- tion and maintenance to at least seven genera- tions yet unborn. Finally, on the 29th day of September, arriving at the conclusion that it was

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 36

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