USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 49
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They were Carl G. Sherwood, David Williams, David Misener, H. B. Meachem, James Holley.
Immediately after the adjournment the friends of Senator Pettigrew announced in great glee that he had secured the election without pledging himself to obey instructions. His op- ponents could not believe that a double con- struction could be placed upon his action at Huron, but it was apparent from the first that he did not deem himself bound and at St. Louis, in the national convention, he refused to accept the gold standard platform adopted or the nomi- nation of Mr. McKinley and walked out of the convention and assisted in the organization of the Silver Republican party and endorsed the nomination of Mr. Bryan, whose active sup- porter he became. Returning to South Dakota, he attempted to organize a Silver Republican party here and succeeded in taking a few Repub- licans with him, but the rank and file stood sturdily by the St. Louis platform and Mr. Mc- Kinley.
The South Dakota Democratic delegates to Chicago were for the nomination of Mr. Bryan and his endorsement by the Populists was popu- lar with the partisans of that faith in South Da- kota.
The Republicans nominated Amund O. Ringsrud for governor, and Robert J. Gamble and Coe I. Crawford for congress and adopted the St. Louis platform and declared for the max- imum rate law. A party of Senator Pettigrew's friends from Minnehaha county withdrew from the convention, which was held at Aberdeen.
The Populists, Democrats and Silver Repub- licans united in the choice of Andrew O. Lee for governor and of John E. Kelly and Freeman Knowles for congress. The campaign following was a most vigorous one and no stone was left unturned by either party to win success. The legislature to be elected at the same time would elect the successor to Senator Kyle, so that every place was hardly contested for. The result gave the presidential electors to Mr. Bryan by one hundred forty-two votes. Messrs. Kelly and Knowles were elected to congress and Mr. Lee chosen governor, his majority over Mr. Ringsrud
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being six hundred eighty-one. At this election the prohibition plank was stricken from the con- stitution by a majority of six thousand nine hun- dred ninety.
An excellent crop was harvested in 1896, but the prices of all sorts of farm produce was low and the proceeds were promptly applied to the payment of existing debts, leaving the farmers hard up and discouraged. There was little gen- eral progress, no building to speak of and a gen- eral state of stagnation continued.
At the middle of October a severe snow storm prevailed, not so severe as the historic storm of the same date in 1880, but of sufficient force to make it a dater. Again on the 26th of
that month a very severe storm came in the northern portion, approximating in severity the the great 1880 performance. From that date the winter was continuous and increasing in sever- ity. At the Thanksgiving season an overwhelm- ing snow fell, blockading the railways and gen- erally contributing to discomfort and inconven- ience. The people were of course comfortably housed and supplied with provisions so that they did not suffer as in the awful season of 1880 when the pioneers had not yet provided comfort- able homes nor accumulated provisions. The snow fell to a very great depth, so that highways were impassable and in the towns the streets were filled to the level of the second stories.
CHAPTER LXIX
KYLE'S SECOND ELECTION.
Amid the howling blizzards and drifting snows of 1897 the fifth biennial session of South Dakota's legislature convened at Pierre. In the election of the previous year the fusion had se- cured the governor, attorney general and a ma- jority in the legislature, while the Republicans secured the remainder of the state officers. The legislature stood nine Democrats, fifty-three Re- publicans and seventy Populists and Silver Re- publicans. John Colvin, of Mitchell, was elected speaker of the house. The great interest cen- tered about the election of a United States sena- tor.
The Democrats in caucus nominated Irving Weeks, of Kimball, the Republicans nominated John A. Pickler, but the Populists and Silver men were unable to agree upon a caucus nomina- tion. As the result of the first joint ballot, Mr. Pickler received fifty-three votes; Mr. Kyle, thirty-three ; H. L. Loucks, fourteen ; A. J. Plow- man, eleven ; F. M. Goodykoontz, six; A. J. Kel- lar, three; Irving Weeks, three; C. S. Palmer, one; John A. Bowler, one. After two or three ballots Mr. Loucks withdrew, his friends divid- ing their votes among the other Populist candi- dates and Senator Hinkley, of Huron, received for a time the Democratic votes. With little va- riation the balloting continued daily until the 18th day of February when Alfred B. Kittredge, national Republican committeeman, and other leading Republicans entered into an arrangement with Mr. Kyle by which the latter agreed to in the main support Republican policies in the sen- ate and particularly to do so upon all of the great
principles of the party, and he thereupon was given the entire Republican vote with one exception and he held to him a sufficient number of his friends so as to secure sixty-five votes and the re-election. A period of great ex- citement prevailed in the joint session when the action of the Republicans was revealed and extraordinary attempts made without avail to concentrate the vote to defeat the Kyle pro- gramme. Probably no other United States sen- ator has had so unique a political history as Sen- ator Kyle. He was a Republican when he re- ceived the Populist nomination for the state sen- ate in 1890, but accepting the election adopted the Populists' views on political questions. In fact, he was already, by a Fourth of July speech, committed to the Populist views before his nom- ination, but up to that date had not renounced Republicanism. During this first legislative ses- sion he was elected to the United States senate by a fusion of the Independent and Democratic votes, having first agreed with Bartlett Tripp and the leading Democrats to support leading Democratic measures during his incumbency of the office, a pledge to which he faithfully ad- hered. Now he was returned to the senate upon a pledge to support Republican policies and to this pledge he was also perfectly true until his death cut him off in 1901.
All parties had declared for a maximum rate law in their platforms and after a good deal of sparring for advantage a drastic law was enacted and a liberal appropriation placed in the hands of the railway commissioners to secure its en-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
forcement, the commissioners being Populists. Great difficulty had been experienced in se- curing a proper listing of personal property for taxation in the range country, much of the open territory being without any organized county. In the hope to reform this abuse, all of the relin- quished range lands were included within Pen- nington, Meade, Butte, Stanley, Lyman and Gregory counties.
At the previous election a constitutional amendment had been adopted reducing the board of regents of education to five members and abolishing the local boards at each institu- tion, conferring upon the regents direct control of all matters relating to the educational institu- tions.
The executive office having passed from the Republicans to the Populists, that party of course asserted a strong desire to secure control of the state institutions, both educational and charitable, and a large part of the session was devoted to schemes on the part of the Republicans to defeat such action. The constitutional amendment providing for the reduction of the board of regents gave Governor Lee full con- trol of the educational institutions and it is much to his credit that he appointed an unus- ually strong, non-partisan board and there has since been no question of competency in the man- agement of those institutions. The matter of se- curing control of the charitable institutions, how- ever, depended upon the passage of a bill reor- ganizing the board of charities and the fight for this purpose was the most desperate that has been waged in Dakota politics and approached the point where bloodshed was imminent. The fus- ion majority was very slight in the senate. The bill had passed the house and came up for final consideration in the senate on the last evening but one of the session. Twenty-three votes were necessary to pass the bill and but twenty-one could be mustered for it and so the bill failed. As there was but one vacancy upon the board of charities, Governor Lee appointed George W. Kingsbury to fill it, but the control for two years more was left with the Republicans.
This legislature submitted to the people an amendment to the constitution providing for the
state sale of liquors known as the dispensary system, the question of granting suffrage to women and the initiative and referendum. The latter provision meaning that upon a petition of five per cent. of the voters the legislature must enact any law desired and submit it to the people for ratification and that any law passed by the legislature, unless it contains an emergency clause and is passed by a two-thirds vote of both houses, must upon a five per cent. petition be sub- mitted to the people for ratification.
The year 1897 yielded a good harvest and bet- ter prices were realized. Live stock had become a leading industry and the creamery and dairy in- dustry made rapid advancement. Debts were rap- idly reduced and paid off and the state entered upon the career of prosperity which continues to this writing. Little building, however, was done this season, but the people began to take a more hopeful view and to assert pride in the state.
The winter, which set in so severely in the early autumn of 1896, continued with unabated fury up till April. The snowfall was very great and naturally produced very high water the fol- lowing spring, but while much inconvenience was suffered there were no great disasters as in 1881.
On February 2d a serious accident occurred on the Northwestern Railway at Arlington by which a train was wrecked and four persons killed : Conductor Addington and Frank L. Hoosac, of Huron, and W. L. Harrison and John Loftus, farmers of Arlington.
On October 6th the girls' dormitory at the Reform School at Plankinton burned and the lives of six inmates were lost.
On the 15th of October, 1897. William B. Sterling died from typhoid fever. He was but thirty-four years of age, but he had made a deep impress upon the people of South Dakota. He was universally esteemed as one of the state's ablest and truest young men, giving promise of a life of extraordinary brilliance and usefulness.
In November Louis K. Church, former terri- torial governor and judge of the district court, died while upon a trip to Alaska. He was a man of ability and honesty. He was born in New York in 1850.
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CHAPTER LXX
THE WAR WITH SPAIN.
For the following account of the war with Spain and South Dakota's part in it the editor is under obligations to Hon. Marion L. Fox, of Vermilion, who went to the Philippines in the summer of 1899 and secured at first hand the story of the important campaigns of the First South Dakota Infantry there. The facts were approved to Mr. Fox by Colonel Frost and Lieu- tenant Colonel Stover and have been supple- mented by the recollections and diaries of Major Howard, Captain Englesby, Chaplain Daley and others. In the main the story is as it came from the pen of Mr. Fox, and has not before been pub- lished :
PREFATORY NOTE.
"In the spring of 1899, while enroute from Chicago with Congressman C. H. Burke, a con- versation arose as to the Philippine situation, lack of information about the islands and the oppor- tunity of a voyage there on a government trans- port. Mr. Burke informed me that permission for such transportation was readily granted to civilians by the war department, provided al- ways that there was no interference with the government service and that such civilian pay the expense of board and service while aboard the ship. I asked Mr. Burke to get such a permit for me. He made application. At the same time I asked Senator R. F. Pettigrew to make a simi- lar request. The permit was given on the ground that I was going to the Philippines commissioned to mark the graves of the South Dakota volun-
teers, who had fallen in battle or who had died from disease. Of such provision I had no knowl- edge until advised by Senator Pettigrew, which was followed by a commission by Governor Lee.
"Both Senator Pettigrew and Governor Lee had been informed that little attention had been paid to marking the graves of the South Dako- tans who had fallen in battle. Such stories were common in the presidio in San Francisco, where I had my first opportunity to make inquiry.
"I found, however, on arriving in the Phil- ippines that the dead had been brought to Ma- nilla and carefully interred, their vaults num- bered and a record of numbers, names and dates kept by the chaplain of the regiment.
"The permit for. transportation would have been given me just as readily as a journalist, as there were three newspaper men aboard and elev- en other civilians.
"We all paid our pro rata of the expenses in- curred on account of our presence aboard the transport 'Sherman.' I returned by the 'Centen- nial' under the same conditions.
"M. L. Fox."
Under the President's first call for volunteers for the war with Spain. South Dakota's quota would have been about eight hundred fifty men. But owing to the outrages perpetrated by Spain on the Cubans, and the blowing up of the bat- tleship "Maine." while on a friendly visit to Ha- vana harbor, the people of South Dakota were
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blazing with anger and filled with patriotic fer- vor. Through the earnest requests of Governor Andrew E. Lee, ably seconded by the South Dakota delegation at Washington, the war de- partment was induced to call upon South Da- kota for a full regiment of volunteer infantry. In communicating the call, Adjutant General Corbin suggested that the state militia organiza- tions be utilized as far as possible.
Recognizing the fact that politics had been the bane of volunteer organizations in the past, Governor Lee determined that party affiliation should have nothing to do with the South Da- kota volunteers, and that the men who were to experience the actual hardships of war should choose their officers, so far as practicable, al- though the act of congress authorizing the call for volunteers had vested in the governors of the states the power to appoint all officers of the line.
The officers of the state militia, without ex- ception, asked that Lieutenant Alfred S. Frost, of the regular army, be made colonel of the reg- iment. No sooner had Governor Lee signified his purpose to comply with this request than Lieutenant Frost, who had been.on detailed duty in South Dakota, was ordered to join his regi- ment at Chattanooga. Enroute he received an order to report to the Governor of South Dakota, which order was revoked before he had an oppor- tunity to board the west-bound train. He was aboard a Chattanooga-bound train in compliance with the original order when he received an- other telegram directing him to report to the Governor of South Dakota. Quitting his south- ward journey he boarded the first train for the west and had traveled only a few hours in that direction when he received another telegram from the war department ordering him to join his regiment at Chattanooga. Boarding the next south-bound train, he was allowed to reach his regiment before the war department had another opportunity to change its mind. But the waiting was not long. Before he had time to settle down to duty, another telegram from the war depart- ment directed him to report to the Governor of South Dakota. This order was final and Frost
was commissioned colonel of the First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry. The contradictory orders were the result of a fight by Senator Kyle to have Colonel Mark W. Sheafe retained as colonel of the regiment.
The state militia were ordered to mobilize at Sioux Falls April 30, 1898, and a recruiting of- ficer from Fort Meade arrived to muster them in. Rigid medical examinations were insisted upon and only the strongest and most healthy officers and men were allowed to enlist. The wisdom of this course was fully justified by time. In the arduous campaign in the Philippines the most perfect manhood was required to endure the long marches, through jungle and bog under the suffocating heat of a tropical sun.
When completed the organization of the regi- ment was as follows : Colonel, A. S. Frost; lieu- tenant colonel, Lee Stover, commanding First Battalion ; major, Chas. A. Howard, command- ing Second Battalion; major, William F. Alli- son, commanding Third Battalion; major and surgeon, R. C. Warne, chief surgeon; first lieu- tenant and adjutant, Jonas H. Lien ; first lieu- tenant and quartermaster, Henry Murry; cap- tain and assistant surgeon, A. H. Bowman; cap- tain and assistant surgeon, Fred W. Cox; chap- lain, Charles M. Daley ; sergeant major, Roy W. Stover ; quartermaster sergeant, M. D. McMa- hon; chief musician, F. M. Halstead ; principal musician, F. A. Schroeder ; second principal mu- sican, C. E. Mulineux ; hospital stewards, H. J. Booker, C. F. Clancey and H. M. Fletcher.
The company organizations were as follows : Company A-A. L. Fuller, captain ; E. A. Hart- ing, first lieutenant ; M. M. Zell, Guthrie, second lieutenant ; Company B-A. B. Sessions, captain ; J. C. Fox, first lieutenant ; E. E. Hawkins, sec- ond lieutenant ; Company C-William S. Gray, captain ; Leo F. Foster, first lieutenant ; Sam T. Larsen, second lieutenant ; Company D-C. P. Van Houten, captain; L. V. Dynna, first lieuten- ant; George G. Jennings, second lieutenant ; Company E-George W. Lattin, captain: J. H. Hubbard, first lieutenant ; Sidney E. Morrison, second lieutenant ; Company F-C. L. Brockway, captain; Palmer D. Sheldon, first lieutenant ;
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Fred G. Huntington, second lieutenant; Com- pany G-R. R. McGregor, captain ; O. M. Fisk, first lieutenant; Wm. A. Hazel, second lieuten- ant; Company H-C. H. Englesby, captain; F. H. Adams, first lieutenant; F. L. Burdick, sec- ond lieutenant; Company I-Charles L. Denny, captain ; P. D. McClellan, first lieutenant ; H. L. Bates, second lieutenant ; Company K-H. A. Hegeman, captain ; Geo. W. Roskie, first lieuten- ant; O. F. Smith, second lieutenant ; Company L-Wm. Mclaughlin, captain ; J. Q. A. Braden, first lieutenant ; George A. Crabtree, second lieu- tenant; Company M-F. W. Medbery, captain ; Chas. S. Hunt, first lieutenant ; E. E. Young, second lieutenant.
The organization of the volunteer regiment from the state militia was not accomplished with- out difficulty. During long years of peace the peo- ple of the state had come to regard the militia as useless, and maintained purely for the sake of pa- rade, therefore, no money had been appropriated for its maintenance by the legislature of 1897 nor for the year before. To bring one thousand men together from the extremes of a state like South Dakota required a large outlay of money for railroad fare and for rations and other sup- plies while enroute and in camp.
Not one dollar was available to meet such expenditure, and many well meaning people be- lieved an extra session of the legislature indis- pensable. To call the legislature in extraordinary session would require time and entail a large ex- penditure of public money beyond whatever might be appropriated for the expense of organ- izing the volunteers. To meet the emergency C. A. Jewett, of the wholesale grocery firm of Jewett Bros. & Jewett, B. H. Lien, the State Bank & Trust Company, the Sioux Falls National Bank, the Sioux Falls Savings Bank and the Minnehaha National Bank, all of Sioux Falls, advanced one thousand dollars each to Governor Lee. The example was followed by the First Na- tional Bank and the American National and the First National Bank of Deadwood, the Pierre Na- tional Bank and the Bank of Commerce of Pierre, aggregating from all sources, eleven thousand dollars. The total expenditure falling immedi-
ately upon the state was a little more than four- teen thousand dollars, the remainder of the sum being advanced for the use of the state by Gov- ernor Lee.
The regiment remained in camp at Sioux Falls for a month, lacking one day, during which time the rains were frequent and heavy and the nights chilly and uncomfortable. The order to leave for San Francisco was therefore hailed with delight, and on the morning of May 29th, in the midst of a pouring rain, the boys of the First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry boarded their trains and bade farewell to home, family and friends.
During the encampment at Sioux Falls only indifferent discipline had been maintained, but when the regiment got outside the circle of home influence, Colonel Frost began to tighten the reins. His first requirement was that the officers should separate themselves from the privates and that communications with them should be official only. This order caused much ill feeling, owing to the fact that a large percentage of the officers and the privates were personal friends at home, and had been in the habit of meeting on a footing of easy familiarity. A little thought will show that such order was not given for the purpose of breeding snobbishness in the officers nor to hu- miliate the privates. Few officers can maintain the respect of their. men and at the same time meet them on a familiar footing. Such a course also invariably causes favoritism, and nothing could be more fatal to discipline. If an officer drink, smoke and play cards with his men, he will draw around him seven or eight who are more congenial than the others, and unless he be made of sterner stuff than most men he will soon have a kitchen cabinet in his company. That may be very pleasant for the cabinet, but it will not find favor with a company. The wisdom of this order by Colonel Frost soon became to be understood by the officers and was recognized in time by the privates.
The regiment arrived in San Francisco on June 2d, and was encamped in one of the most inconvenient and unhealthy places about the city. This was done at the request of a street car mag-
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nate who wanted to help out his business by carry- ing soldiers and visitors over his lines.
The health of the men became bad and the medical department found it difficult to get sup- plies. The regiment was happy in having the services of Dr. Warne as chief surgeon. He was not only a capable officer professionally, but had great executive ability. Major Warne found the medical department so hedged about with red tape that the simplest requisitions would not be filled for days, and had it not been for the Red Cross Society the sick would have suffered for the simplest medicines. Getting tired of send- ing requisitions to the deputy surgeon general, to have them returned with the endorsement "Not made out in proper form," Major Warne addressed a letter to the assistant adjutant gen- eral, setting forth the manner in which the serv- ice was hampered by red tape. The bad conse- quences were outlined and a change of policy re- quested. The letter was productive of immedi- ate results. No more requisitions were returned because they were not in proper form and the government began to supply its sick with medi- cines instead of relying upon the stores of the Red Cross.
The discipline maintained at San Francisco was of the most rigid kind. The men were drilled for five hours a day and leaves to go into the city were seldom given. For this course there were two reasons; the volunteers needed to be discip- lined and toughened into trained soldiers and even more necessary was it to keep them from the temptations of a great city like San Fran- cisco. This again caused friction. The regi- ment was composed of men who had seen little of the world, for the most part, and the sights of San Francisco appealed to them strongly. They were independent men, or, at least, had been so before enlistment, but felt themselves capable of judging as to their personal conduct. The hard drills had shown their effect. Colonel Frost said: "After six weeks' drill in San Francisco I considered the First South Dakota Infantry the peer of any regiment I had ever seen. Its moral tone was certainly higher than that of any regi- ment with which I had ever served."
Whatever the objections may have been to the rigid discipline and hard drill imposed by Colonel Frost, there were compensating advan- tages. Not only was the health of the regiment better than that of other regiments in camp at San Francisco, but its superior moral tone was the occasion of remark.
When the Second and Third Battalions were embarking for Manilla, a San Francisco news- paper man said it was the first embarkation by a military force at that port where there had not been drunken men to carry aboard. In Honolulu the deportment of the regiment provoked like favorable comments. While they were given en- tire liberty during the day, each evening every man was in place when the assembly was sounded. When soldiers will not go astray in the beautiful, free and easy city of Honolulu their discipline must be excellent indeed ! But the same record was made in Cavite when the South Dakota sol- diers made their first camp in the Philippines, August 25, 1898.
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