History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 47

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

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others of Big Foot's warriors were out on a scout attempting to locate the camp of Short Bull. After the arrest they moved over on to Wounded Knee creek and went into camp. At this camp Major Whiteside was joined by Colonel Forsythe and Lieutenant Taylor with details of troops, so that in the aggregate they had four hundred and seventy fighting men. The next morning the scouting party of hostiles returned to camp and immediately the Indians opened fire upon the troops from short guns, which they had cached under their blankets, and a fight ensued in which in a few minutes' time thirty soldiers

were killed and two hundred Indians, more than half of them women and children. This most deplorable affair, while directly the result of the treachery of the Indian prisoners, was in its aw- ful fatalities attributable to the fact that the sol- diers lost their heads and seeing their compan- ions falling about them spared nothing that wore a blanket.

When Short Bull and his band of three thou- sand Indians, who were about to resume peacea- ble relations at the agency, heard from Wounded Knee, they at once turned back toward the Bad Lands, where they were joined by about as many more of the Indians who hitherto had been peace- able, so that there were from five to six thousand in his camp, which he established seventeen miles from the agency. On the next day a party of seventy of the young warriors made a sally in the direction of the agency and at the Catholic mis- sion, about six miles west of Pine Ridge, set fire to one of the out-buildings. They were here at- tacked by Colonel Forsythe, who was sent out with eight troops of cavalry to drive them away. He soon found himself surrounded by the In- dians and in a perilous situation, but was re- lieved by Major Henry, who with four troops of cavalry and a Hotchkiss gun soon had them flying. Lieutenant Mann and one private of Col- onel Forsythe's force were killed. On the 3d of January, 1891, an attack was made on Colonel Carr's troops of the Sixth Cavalry, but . was handsomely repulsed. At this juncture General Miles took personal command in the field and, securing communication with the leaders, estab- lished terms of peace with them, and on January 16th they came in and camped about the agency and the trouble was at an end.

During all of this time the state militia from the Black Hills rendered effective service, under Col. Merritt H. Day, scouting along the upper Cheyenne and White rivers.

CHAPTER LXIII

THE ELECTION OF SENATOR KYLE.

With the first of January, 1901, with the Sioux uprising still in progress, the legislature convened to divide the attention of the people and divert their thoughts from the possibility of a general massacre. A unique situation pre- vailed. In the senate, consisting of forty-five senators, the Republicans had a majority of one over the combined vote of the Democrats and In- dependents. The house consisted of one hun- dred and twenty-four members. There were sixty-one Republicans, nineteen Democrats, forty-three Independents and Mr. Charles X. Seward, of Watertown, a Republican, but elected upon a ticket which bolted the regular nomina- tion and was not therefore bound by party action. On the day of the organization of the house, Mr. Beach, an Independent, from Clark county, was absent, and the Democrats and Independents having agreed to fuse upon the organization, Mr. Seward held the balance of power upon the or- ganization and when all of the members of both houses were present upon the joint ballot as well. Both parties were quick to see the im- portance of Mr. Seward's position and made overtures to him for support, but some hostili- ties had been engendered in the campaign, which set his sympathies more to the support of the fusion and he accepted from the Democrats and Independents the nomination for speaker and was elected by a vote of sixty-two to sixty-one. The capital campaign, co-incident with the legis- lative election, had led to a good many irregu-

larities at the polls, upon which it was easy to base contests and party supremacy demanded that the majority of the prevailing party should be increased sufficiently to give the fusion a working number, and accordingly about ten Re- publicans were unseated and their places filled with Independents. Naturally intense feeling was engendered and the proceedings were tense and exciting. Gideon C. Moody was chosen as the candidate of the Republicans for re-election ; the Democrats nominated Bartlett Tripp and at the beginning the Independents did not make a caucus nomination, the very many states- men of that party preferring to take their chances in an open contest upon the floor. The first joint ballot was taken on Wednesday, January 21st, and resulted in giving Mr. Moody seventy-six votes ; Bartlett Tripp, twenty-four; J. W. Harden, twenty; George G. Crose, fifteen; Al- onzo Wardall, ten; S. W. Cosand, nine; Hugh J. Campbell, five; Z. D. Scott, two; Eugene A. Dye, one; the speaker cast his vote for J. F. Nor- ton, a Republican, and six other Republicans voted for other than the caucus candidate, as follows: H. C. Preston, three; A. B. Melville, one ; John A. Pickler, one ; G. C. Lake, one ; mak- ing the vote on that day eighty-six fusion to eighty-two Republican, only one being absent. With all votes present, eighty-five were required to elect. On no succeeding day were there so many members present. The next day J. H. Kyle appeared with seven votes; E. W. Martin, F. M.

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Hopkins and B. F. McCormick with one each. In the earlier days of the session the speaker con- stantly cast his vote for some unaspiring Repub- lican and after a day or two the Republicans at- tempted to create a diversion by scattering their votes among prominent party leaders, but return- ing to Mr. Moody whenever the tide appeared to turn that way. On the 4th of February Mr. Moody released the Republican caucus from fur- ther support and it was deemed wise to endeavor to give another candidate an opportunity to draw strength enough from the opposition to land an election. The friends of Senator Americus B. Melville, of Beadle county, thought he could ac- complish this and he was given the party nomi- nation. On the next day Mr. Melville received thirty-five votes, without making any inroads upon the fusion strength. The entire Republican strength was at his command had it been possi- ble to elect him. On the 6th Mr. Melville had fifty-one votes, all Republican, and on that day the Independents largely united upon Hugh J. Campbell, giving him fifty-three votes.

Mr. Melville touched his high water mark upon this day and having secured no assistance from the fusion ranks the Republicans gave him up and on the 9th scattered the vote so that the highest number received by any one Republican was thirteen for Mr. Moody. On the 11th the Republicans, having failed to make gains through any of the other aspirants, swung back to Mr. Moody and on that day the Independents concentrated upon Mr. Kyle with fifty-nine votes. On the 12th the entire vote present were for the first time concentrated upon candidates representing the three parties, Mr. Moody re- ceiving sixty-nine. Mr. Tripp twenty-five and Mr. Kyle fifty-eight. That night the Republi- cans concluded to try an entirely new man who had not yet been at all considered. Thomas Sterling, of Redfield, it was though might bring out a few Independent votes and he was given the party nomination and on Friday, the 13th, received the entire vote of the party present, sixty-nine in all.

On this day a few of the Democrats for the

first time left Mr. Tripp to vote for Mr. Kyle, giving the latter sixty-three votes out of a total of one hundred and forty-eight cast. A change of six votes would have been required that day to have given Mr. Sterling the election, he being nearer the prize than any other Republican dur- ing the session, but he had failed to secure any opposition strength. The next day, Sunday, was a busy one. Up to this date the fusion organiza- tion had been held intact, but that day certain members of the Brookings county delegation de- clared that in the event of the failure to elect upon the next ballot they should vote for Gov- ernor Mellette and the Republicans secured other pledges of support for Governor Mellette, which made it appear possible to elect him. This sit- uation frightened the Democrats into action and upon the first ballot all but eight of the Demo- crats abandoned Mr. Tripp and voting for Mr. Kyle, gave him the election.

Aside from the senatorial election, which at- tracted widespread interest, the legislature's most important action was the adoption of the Australian ballot law and a stringent corrupt practices act. The abuses and corrupt practices incident to the capital election of the previous autumn had awakened the people to the neces- sity for strong legislation to secure clean elec- tions and the bills upon this subject were care- fully drawn and introduced in the senate by Senator Preston, Republican, and Senator Sheafe, Democrat, and the two bills combined in committee and passed with but one dissent- ing vote. Complete codes of law relating to rev- enue, education and irrigation were passed at this session ; by the latter the water in the irriga- tion basin underlying the state being declared to be public property.

Near the close of the session four deaths occurred, which threw a gloom over the legis- lature and made the hotels and capital appear more like a house of mourning than the rendez- vous of legislators and lobbyists. Hon. David Clark, a senator from Pennington county, and Messrs. Horace J. Austin, member from Clay county, and J. C. Hielman, a representative from

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Hand county, and Hon. George A. Hand, the legislative representative of the Northwestern Railway, were the stricken. Each was a man of integrity and high standing, Mr. Hand and Mr. Austin being especially prominent in South Da- kota affairs. The former was a native of Akron, Ohio, where he was born August 9, 1837. He served in the Civil war as a private in the Chi- cago Board of Trade Battery, and located in Yankton in 1865. In 1867 he was appointed by President Johnson, United States attorney for Dakota, and from 1874 to 1882 he was secretary of the territory, having been during the long in- terregnum from the beginning of the fatal ill- ness of Governor Howard until the appointment of Governor Ordway acting governor. He was a high-minded gentleman and a splendid citizen.

Mr. Austin was among the early citizens of the territory and had been active in the surveying of the public lands. He had served as register of the Vermilion land office and had been a member of the territorial legislatures of 1865. 1866, 1867, 1868 and 1875. Like Mr. Hand, he had the high esteem of the people.

On March 11th, only four days after the ad- journment of the legislature, Frank A. Gale, for- merly president of the First National Bank of Canton, and a Democratic politician who had been especially prominent and active during the administration of Governor Church, committed suicide by shooting himself.

On the 14th of August Hon. John R. Gamble. member of congress, died at his home in Yank- ton. He was elected the previous year and had not yet take his seat. Mr. Gamble was a native of New York and settled at Yankton in 1873. He was a lawyer of great power and a citizen of incorruptible integrity. Governor Mellette at once called an election to fill the vacancy. This was the first election under the Australian ballot law. Col. John L. Jolley was nominated by the Republicans, W. H. Smith by the Independents and Col. James M. Wood, of Rapid City, by the Democrats. Jolley won by a plurality of three thousand over Smith. Judge Nowlin, of the Seventh circuit, resigned his position owing to 23

ill health, and in October Governor Mellette ap- pointed William Gardner to the vacancy.

Following the death of President Olson, of the State University, there was a good deal of difficulty in getting the institution running on a satisfactory basis again and President Roach having resigned, Rev. S. G. Updyke, of Aber- deen, was called to become acting president. His selection was very distasteful to the members of the faculty, who felt, as they say in the army, that they had "been ranked by a civilian." The student body was incited to rebellion and after a few weeks of warfare President Updyke, of his own motion, closed the institution, but a few weeks before the graduation would have taken place. Matters were not adjusted for some weeks, when Dr. Joseph W. Mauck was called to the presidency, since which time the institu- tion has constantly done good work and with relatively little friction.

The sugar bounty feature of the Mckinley tariff bill promoted great interest in the beet growing possibilities of South Dakota and the matter was industriously agitated for a couple of years. About the latter part of 1891 it was the chief topic of interest in the state, but no substantial results followed.

The harvest of 1891 was a bumper one and the courage of the people revived by leaps and bounds. It is a fact that in spite of two crop failures the people who had stuck to their lands had steadily reduced their obligations and had made few new ones and the good crop of this year placed many of them in very comfortable circumstances. It was widely published that the wheat crop alone had returned to the counties east of the river an average of a million dollars cach. This was no doubt an exaggeration, but nevertheless a very large return was realized. Irrigation, however, was still a subject of in- vestigation and experiment, and about this time a great sensation was made by the announce- ment that the art of rain making had been dis- covered, and parties claiming to possess the se- cret went about attempting to sell the right to use it to the various counties. Several of the lead-

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ing counties of the state were induced to make experimental tests of the invention, always at a very large expense, and of course no results were secured.

Gen. J. B. Pattee, a native of Vermont, and famous as commander of the celebrated Penn- sylvania "Buck Tail" Regiment in the Civil war,

died at his home in Canton in November. He was fifty-five years of age and had resided at Canton since 1871.

David D. Jewett, father of the well known wholesalers, Jewett Brothers, died at Sioux Falls October 13th. He was a native of Ohio, born in 1815.

CHAPTER LXIV

THE PETTIGREW-MELLETTE FIGHT.

From the begining of statehood a feeling of distrust had been growing up between Senator Pettigrew and Governor Mellette and by the time now under consideration had arrived they were dividing the Republicans into two well defined factions. It will be recalled that at Washington at the very time of the passage of the enabling act Pettigrew, Moody, Mellette, Edgerton and Gifford had entered into a combination which apportioned to each of them a high place in the new state. There has always been some question as to what was expected of Judge Edgerton in the interim before the final admision of the state, but in any event he became an ostensible candi- date for the United States senate and a large following flocked to his standard. So strong was his following, indeed, that when the solons gathered at Pierre on the 15th of October, 1889, to elect the first senators his strength was so great that it required some management to pre- vent his friends from giving him a senatorial nomination at the expense of either Pettigrew or Moody. The situation was really somewhat alarming as to the integrity of the combine. Judge Edgerton himself felt that he owed an obligation to his followers which he could scarcly repay by drawing out of the race after they had won the victory. He also felt some concern lest Senator Pettigrew should fail to land the federal judgeship for him in case he should withdraw from the senatorial race. Of course he was hard pressed to withdraw by the adherents of Messrs. Moody and Pettigrew. In

this state Judge Edgerton placed his fortunes in the hands of Governor Mellette to do with as he thought best. Governor Mellette called Sena- tors Pettigrew and Moody into his room and after consultation with them they gave to him a writing, the text of which was written by the Governor and by the senators signed, in which they agreed in the case of Edgerton's withdrawal and their election to the senate that they would secure the appointment of Edgerton as federal judge for South Dakota and his confirmation to such position, and in the event of their failure so to do that they would promptly resign their seats in the senate. Edgerton then notified his friends that he was no longer to be considered a candidate for the senate and Moody and Petti- grew were unanimously nominated and elected.

The newly elected senators proceeded to Washington, but there was some delay about the appointment of the federal judge and Mellette received intimation from the capital that Edger- ton was likely to be turned down. Whether or not there was any ground for apprehension, Mel- lctte, armed with the written agreement into which the senators had entered, hastened to Washington and threatened to make the whole matter public in case Edgerton was not at once recommended to the President for the position. This was done, but Mellette refused to leave Washington until Edgerton's nomination had been made and confirmed. This last action was offensive to both Pettigrew and Moody, who re- garded it as meddling in their business, but Mel-

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lette was obdurate and stuck it out until the mat- ter was put through. This was the beginning of the breach, which constantly widened. Harrison was an especial friend of the Governor's and was inclined to favor him in every way possible with- out offending the senators, and he threw a con- siderable amount of patronage into Mellette's hands, especially through the interior depart- ment. This situation was no doubt a factor in the creation of the growing antipathy of Sena- tor Pettigrew for the President, which by the time the Republican state convention met at Chamberlain on March 25, 1892, to elect dele- gates to the national convention, then called to meet in Minneapolis in June, he was in open hos- tility to the Harrison administration. On the other hand, it was the determination of Governor Mellette and his friends that the delegates from South Dakota should be instructed for the re- nomination of Harrison. There has been no prettier fight in the political history than was this struggle for supremacy in the Chamberlain convention. It resulted in the adoption of the resolution of instruction by a fair majority, after a prolonged struggle upon the floor of the con- vention. The following delegates were elected : E. C. Ericson, Nye E. Phillips, A. C. Johnson, J. M. Green, C. B. Alford, M. T. Lightner, James Halley, G. C. Moody. The fight for instructions resulted in a clear victory for the Mellette men, while a majority of the delegates elected were friends and adherents of Senator Pettigrew. No fight whatever was made in the matter of the del- egates, Mellette considering that the passage the instructions settled the whole proposition. The resolution of instructions was in the follow- ing words: "Resolved, That the delegates chosen by this convention use all honorable en- cieavor to secure the renomination of Mr. Har- rison, with a view to assuring a continuance of his wise and progressive administration." Sena- tor Pettigrew, however, was not a man to give up in a fight as long as he had a foot to stand upon and he continued to aggressively oppose Harrison's nomination, and at Minneapolis used his influence to induce the delegation to disre- gard the instructions of the convention, with

such success that he induced a majority of the delegates to believe that in the absence of the cxpress word "instruct" in the resolution above quoted that they were not bound and so they cast their votes with two exceptions in the or- ganization of the convention and in all of the preliminary tests of strength against the inter- ests of President Harrison.

The Democrats met in Yankton on the 25th of May and sent a solid Cleveland delegation to St. Louis, without opposition.

The Republican convention for the nomina- tion of state officers met at Madison on July 20th. The friends of Senator Pettigrew were in the majority from the beginning, and named the en- tire ticket, except W. V. Lucas, of congress, who, though not slated for the position, was stampeded into the nomination. At this conven- tion Charles H. Sheldon, of Day county, was nominated for governor and Lucas and Major Pickler for congress. At this convention, too, W. W. Taylor was renominated for state treas- urer.

At the Minneapolis convention A. B. Kitt- redge was made national committeeman and J. M. Green, of Chamberlain, was chosen chairman of the state committee at Madison.

At a great wigwam convention held at Red- field the Independents nominated Abraham L. Van Osdel for governor and William Lardner and John E. Kelly for congress and the Demo- crats at Yankton named Peter Couchman for governor and Chauncey L. Woods and Lewis E. Whicher for congress. At the end of a vigorous campaign Harrison received 34,888 votes, Cleve- land, 9,081, and Weaver, 26,544. The Repub- lican congressmen and state ticket were elected by approximately the same vote.

On the 15th of April, 1902, the Sisseton In- dian reservation was thrown open to settlement. The Indians had agreed to sell their surplus lands after their own people had taken their allot- ments and had received from the government two dollars and twenty-five cents per acre there- for. The opening had been long anticipated and the rush to occupy the lands was tremendous. Filings were required to he made at the Water-

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town land office, and in a few days more than one thousand five hundred claims were filed.

Notwithstanding several severe storms and an excessive amount of rain, the. crops of the year were excellent, prices were good, labor in strong demand and the people were exceedingly prosperous. The city of Pierre, as an incident of the last fight for the location of the permanent capital, had undertaken the construction of a rail- way from Aberdeen to Rapid City and had graded the line for a portion of the way between Pierre and Aberdeen. This year they entered into a contract with the Northern Pacific Rail-

way and pursuant thereto practically completed the grade between the points named, with every prospect of its early completion, but the North- ern Pacific became bankrupt in the panic of 1903 and passed into the hands of receivers, who were not in position to carry out the contract for the extension.

In the latter portion of March Hon. Charles G. Williams, receiver of the Watertown land office, died at his home in that city. Mr. Wil- liams had been a member of congress from the first Wisconsin district for ten years and was an orator of national reputation.

CHAPTER LXV

THE STRUGGLE FOR RESUBMISSION.

Through three campaigns, as we have seen, South Dakota had declared for prohibition of the liquor traffic. Under the direction and unflag- ging zeal of such men as W. F. T. Bushnell, Wil- liam Fielder, Joseph Ward and of the ladies of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union the people were carried into a fine enthusiasm for re- form, which was reflected in the platforms of the Republican and Independent parties and the vic- tory for prohibition was won for the last time in the success of the separate article of the con- stitution in the election of 1889. The legisla- ture, in good faith, passed the law which gave life to the constitutional provision and on March I, 1890, the law went into operation. Governor Mellette, himself a prohibitionist and a teetotaler, strongly advocated the reimbursement by the state of the owners of the breweries whose busi- ness had been ruined by the prohibition, but he received little support in the proposition.

With the constitutional article adopted and the law enacted, the most of the reformers went about their business serene in the consciousness that evil had been put away. Of course, there were many self sacrificing people who at once organized to secure the enforcement of the law, but as a rule those who had voted the law into being did not care to concern themselves with its enforcement. In a considerable portion of the state the law was well observed, but in large sections and impor- tant towns little attempt to observe it was made by the officers. This was especially true of Sioux

Falls, Yankton and the Black Hills section. Everywhere it was the subject of litigation, for naturally its enemies were not content to accept its dictum without testing the legality of every provision and the courts were overwhelmed with test cases. These conditions lead to a reactionary feeling, which by the time the legislature of 1893 was elected was taken advantage of by the liquor men to signify a demand for resubmission of the prohibition article. Accordingly the resubmis- sionists, under the leadership of Moses Kauff- man, of Sioux Falls, established a strong lobby at Pierre, upon the assembling of the legislature and promptly began a propaganda for resubmis- sion. To combat this movement the Woman's Christian Temperance Union sent a lobby to Pierre under the lead of Mesdames Ella A. Cranmer and Annie D. Simmons.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 47

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