History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 66

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 66

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The opening of the Black Hills in 1876 brought a new element into the legal practice of Dakota and there was a rush of young lawyers to that section. But a few of the early men proved stayers. Judge Bennett was assigned to the Black Hills counties in the spring of 1877 and held the first terms there. He was elected to congress the next year and Gideon C. Moody suc- ceeded him on the bench. A fourth district was created by congress in the spring of 1879, and Judge Kidder's second term in congress having expired, he was at once appointed to the new place, which he continued to fill until his death, in the autumn of 1883.

By this time many of the strong men whose

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

names have made the South Dakota bar lustrous were upon the ground. Robert J. Gamble and Ellison G. Smith came to Yankton in 1875 and Levi B. French but little later. E. C. Ericson was at Elk Point, Oscar S. Gifford, Martin E. R11- dolph and J. R. Carter at Canton, W. H. Lyon, Charles O. Bailey, Park Davis and Dana R. Bailey at Sioux Falls, George Rice at Flan- dreau, George A. Matthews at Brookings, the Thomases, Seward, Glass, Mellette and Ben- nett at Watertown, Elrod and Sherwood at Clark, Thomas Sterling and Judge Poindexter in Spink county, A. W. Campbell and M. J. Gordon at Aberdeen, Eugene Huntington at Webster, H. S. Mouser, Americus B. Melville and A. W. Burtt at Huron, Charles E. DeLand and Coe I. Craw- ford at Pierre, H. C. Preston at Mitchell, Dick Haney and Lyman Fellows at Plankinton, John T. Kean at Woonsocket, John H. King and A. G. Kellam at Chamberlain, Robert Dollard at Scot- land and James D. Elliott at Tyndall. In the Black Hills there were Edwin Van Cise, Dighton Corson, William R. Steele, John R. Wilson, Wil- liam Gardner and others. It is impossible to enumerate all of the men who made good posi- tions for themselves at the bar and it is not in- tended to make invidious comparisons by the use of the names selected, but they are some of those who at this late date are recalled.

Upon the death of Judge Kidder, Cornelius C. Palmer, of Vermont, was appointed his suc- cessor, serving until 1887. Judge Moody left the bench to become attorney for the Homestake mine and William E. Church was appointed in 1883 to succeed him. In 1881 Alonzo J. Edgerton, of Minnesota, was sent out as chief justice, holding the position until 1885, when he was followed by Bartlett Tripp. Louis K. Church, of New York, was appointed in 1885 to succeed Seward Smith, who for a single year was judge of the central Dakota circuit. Church resigned in 1887 to be- come governor, and James Spencer, another New Yorker, got his place. John E. Carland suc- ceeded Judge Palmer in 1887 and L. W. Crofoot was appointed in 1888 to a new district. After the election of Harrison, Frank R. Aikens was

appointed to the Sioux Falls circuit. Otherwise the Democratic appointees were not disturbed.

In 1869 George H. Hand was followed as United States attorney by Warren Coles, who was in turn succeeded by William Pond in 1873. Pond died in office and President Hayes at once appointed Hugh J. Campbell, of Louisiana, to the position. Campbell was the most aggressive man who had held the office and he had an abund- ance of business. Among other things he se- cured the indictment of Governor Ordway for corruption in county-seat deals, but could not make the indictment stick. He also had the prose- cution of the Cameron and Spaulding suborna- tion of perjury cases, growing out of fraudulent land entries, as well as the Cameron-Carpenter bogus scrip cases. Campbell was succeeded in 1885 by John E. Carland, who resigned the posi- tion in 1888 to become judge. William E. Pur- cell, of North Dakota, was given the place and he was followed by John Murphy, who served until statehood.

All of the decisions of the territorial supreme court are embraced in six volumes, five of which were produced in the last eleven years previous to statehood. As a whole they are a fair and authori- tative interpretation of the law and, considering the condition under which they were produced, are creditable from a literary standpoint. Some of them are particularly strong and would have been creditable to any court in the land. This is hardly to have been expected, when we realize that dur- ing the period when five-sixths of them were written the judges were worked beyond all reason in the trial of jury cases, and were provided with neither the conveniences nor the leisure for care- ful work.

During the territorial period the requirements for admission to practice law were very lax and the practice in relation to admission more lax still. About all that was required in most cases was to sccure some admitted attorney to move that the applicant be admitted and the certificate issued as a matter of course, upon paying the usual fee to the clerk. Thus it came about that everywhere land agents and insurance men, who had made no

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preparation for practice, were admitted to the bar and for a time the profession was not in good repute. A few of these ready-made lawyers in- dustriously worked themselves into good stand- ing in the profession, but the large majority, after a few years, dropped out of sight.

Statehood came with November 2, 1889, and the new supreme court, consisting of Dighton Corson, of Deadwood, A. G. Kellam, of Cham- berlain, and John E. Bennett, of Clark. They were all lawyers of standing and gave the young state a dignified bench. Judge Corson yet, after almost fourteen years of service, is holding the honored position. Judge Bennett, after re-elec- tion in 1893, died, just as his second term was to commence and Howard G. Fuller was appointed his successor, and he still holds the position, hav- ing been re-elected by the people in 1899. Judge Kellam resigned in 1895 and Dick Haney, of Mitchell, was appointed to the place by Governor Sheldon, and he, too, was re-elected in 1899 and still serves. The judges are of equal rank and they annually choose a presiding judge, so that each holds the position in rotation. The opinions of the supreme court of Dakota rank well with those of the western courts and are quoted au- thoritatively by lawyers everywhere in the states.

William B. Sterling was the first United States district attorney for South Dakota and served with distinction until 1893, when he was succeeded by Ezra Miller, of Elk Point. Charles G. Howard, of Redfield, was assistant to Mr. Sterling and Stephen B. VanBuskirk, of Water- town, to Mr. Miller. James D. Elliott, of Tyn- dall, followed Miller and is now serving his sec- ond term, as is also William G. Porter, of Custer, his assistant.

Robert Dollard was the first state attorney general. Major Dollard had made wide fame by the defeat of the fraudulent Douglas county bonds. As attorney general, at the period when the state machinery was first set in motion, he made an enviable record. He was succeeded by Coe I. Crawford. To Mr. Crawford fell the ar- duous duties incident to the Taylor defalcation. Melvin Grigsby followed Mr. Crawford, coin- cident with the first administration of Andrew E.

Lee. An early break occurred between the gov- ernor and attorney general, rendering the admin- istration somewhat stormy. John L. Pyle was elected in 1898 and served to his death, in Febru- ary, 1902. Mr. Pyle was an able and conscien- tious lawyer and his early death was a distinct loss to the bar. Governor Herreid appointed A. W. Burtt to the vacancy. Philo Hall, of Brook- ings, was elected in 1892 and still serves.

The bar of the state has been honored in sey- eral notable ways. President Cleveland chose Bartlett Tripp his minister to the court of Aus- tria, and President Mckinley made Mr. Tripp one of the high joint commissioners in the Sa- moan settlement. Melvin Grigsby is the present United States attorney for Alaska. William B. Sterling was chosen general counsel for the Elk- horn Railway and was holding that position at the date of his untimely death in 1899.

With statehood a new circuit judgeship came in vogue, and these judges were not required to sit in supreme court, as in territorial days. The state was divided into eight circuits. Ellison G. Smith was chosen judge of the first circuit and has since served continuously. Frank R. Aikins was elected to the second (Sioux Falls) circuit and was succeeded in 1894 by Joseph W. Jones, who continues in office. Judge Aikens is con- ducting a remunerative practice in Sioux Falls. Jeremiah O. Andrews, of Brookings, was chosen judge of the third (Watertown) circuit at state- hood and was re-elected once ; Julien Bennett was chosen his successor in 1897 and still serves. Dick Haney was first judge in the Mitchell circuit and when he became supreme judge in 1895 Frank B. Smith, of Alexandria, was appointed judge by Governor Sheldon, and is still in the service. Howard G. Fuller, first judge of the sixth circuit, went to the supreme bench in 1894 and was succeeded in the circuit by Loring E. Gaffey. Albert W. Campbell served the fifth (Aberdeen) circuit until 1902, when he retired to engage in practice at Aberdeen and James H. McCoy was elected. The Black Hills country is divided into two districts, the seventh, or South- ern Hills district, and the eighth, or Northern Hills. J. W. Nowlin was the first judge of the

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seventh, but his health failing, he resigned in 1901 and Governor Mellette appointed William Gardner, of Rapid City, to the vacancy. Gardner was a member of the legislature and a nice point arose as to his eligibility under the constitutional provision limiting the right of a legislator to hold other office during the term for which he was elected. Levi McGee, at the next election, ran for the position and received all of the votes cast without opposition. He then brought an action in the nature of quo warranto to try Gardner's eligibility. The real point in issue did not come before the court, for McGee could not qualify un- til January 1, 1893, and at the same time Gard- ner's term as a legislator expired and one of the first acts of Governor Sheldon was the reappoint- ment of Gardner, thus saving any point which might have been made against him through Mel- lette's appointment. In the next election McGee was elected by the people to succeed Gardner.

In the eighth circuit Charles M. Thomas was the first judge, continuing in the office until 1893, when he was succeeded by Adroniam J. Plow- man, and he in turn by Joseph B. Moore in 1897, serving until 1901, when Frank J. Washabaugh was elected to the position. The next year Judge Washabaugh died and Governor Herreid ap- pointed William G. Rice to the vacancy. The legislature of 1903 created a ninth circuit, from Spink, Beadle, Kingsbury and Miner counties and Governor Herreid selected Charles E. Whiting, of DeSmet, for judge.

In the winter of 1898 the State Bar Associa- tion was organized at Yankton and the strongest men of the state were among its promoters and still are active in it. Bartlett Tripp was the first president and Robert Dollard, E. C. Ericson, John L. Jolley and Charles O. Bailey were among the promoters. It holds annual sessions and many

exceedingly strong papers have been presented by its members. E. C. Ericson is the president for the current year.

Since statehood a large number of new men have appeared in the Dakota field, some of whom have already won wide prominence and others who give excellent promise of attaining a high position. The list is too extended for full pre- sentation here and to note some of this large class without according equal prominence to all would be a manifest injustice.

Several valuable compilations and treatises have been published by South Dakota lawyers. Among these are a "Justice's Practice," by Amer- icus B. Melville; "Annotated Trial Practice and Appellate Procedure," "Annotated Rules Su- preme Court," and "Annotated Incorporation Laws," by Charles E. DeLand; several editions of a Dakota digest of decisions by Horace G. Tilton; an aid to the code, by Jones & Matthews.

The first revision of the laws of Dakota was made by Bartlett Tripp, Granville G. Bennett and Peter C. Shannon in 1877. They were assisted in the work by W. H. H. Beadle. The laws were compiled in 1887 by Ernest W. Caldwell and Charles H. Price. Mr. E. T. Grantham, of Cus- ter, got out a private compilation of the laws in 1899. The Dakota Reports were edited by Elli- son G. Smith and Robert Tripp. The South Da- kota Reports, now sixteen volumes, by Robert W. Stewart and Henry R. Horner.

The legislature of 1901 provided for the open- ing of a law department at the State University and Thomas Sterling was chosen dean. The school is in a prosperous condition. Bartlett Tripp, John L. Jolley, Jason W. Payne and E. C. Ericson are among the lecturers upon stated topics. .

CHAPTER LXXIX

EDUCATION.

REVISED BY HON. GEORGE W. NASH.

Zeal for learning has characterized the South Dakotan from the earliest period. The French traders of the old days, if they were men of any standing, all undertook to give their half Indian children some education and some of them were educated highly. Manuel Lisa and the Picottes are examples of this class. Their children were taken down the river for this purpose, usually to St. Louis, and upon their return to the wilder- ness they imparted the rudiments of education to other members of the family in the home. Audubon relates that when he was coming up the river in 1842, they met Andrew Dripps, In- dian agent at Fort George, and William Laidlaw, burgeois at Fort Pierre, down between Vermil- lion and Elk Point taking Laidlaw's children to St. Louis to be educated.

In the first territorial legislature in 1862 a bill was under consideration conferring the right to vote upon the half-breeds, but it was violently opposed, because the half-breeds outnumbered the whites. It was proposed then to limit the bill in its operations to those half-breeds who could read and write, but this, too, was deemed inexpedi- cnt, as likely to throw the dominence in terri- torial affairs into the hands of the half Indians.

The first regular school in Dakota was con- ducted at Fort Randall in the winter of 1857-8 by a relative of Captain Todd's who gave regular instruction to several white children about the fort and several half-breed boys and girls.

The reservation was opened July 10, 1859, and the settlement commenced at once. There were no families among the settlers at Yankton

at that time, but there were several in the com- munities planted at Vermillion and at Bon Homme. Dr. Franklin Caulkins settled at Ver- million that fall, coming down the river from Fort Randall. Toward spring he was employed by the settlers to teach a school, which was con- ducted in a room over McHenry's store at Ver- million, under the hill. A factional fight arose and soon the settlers divided in their allegiance to the Doctor's school, and one faction employed Miss Hoyt (now Mrs. Dr. H. S. Livingstone, of Yankton) to teach another school, which was held in the little Presbyterian church just erected through the efforts of Father Charles D. Martin.

That spring of 1860 the settlers at Bon Homme, under the leadership of the energetic John H. Shober, built a little schoolhouse of logs, floorless and dirt roofed, and in it, in the month of May, Miss Emma J. Bradford assem- bled ten children and taught them for three months. This was the first regular schoolhouse in Dakota.

The Indian outbreak of August, 1862, put a stop to all school operations and there is no rec- ord of any attempt of this kind until the return of a company of the Dakota cavalry from the up- river Indian campaigns in the autumn of 1864. When they were encamped at Vermillion Captain Miner proposed that they build a school house and the tireless soldier boys soon had a com- fortable log schoolhouse completed, in the ra- vine at Vermillion, and Amos Shaw, one of the soldiers, conducted a school therein during the winter, and from that date there has been no

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break in the public school system of Vermillion. A year later the ladies of Yankton undertook to raise means for the construction of a school building and their efforts resulted in the erection of the old Brown schoolhouse on Walnut street. which for years was the pride of the people of Yankton.

In 1865 Prof. James S. Foster arrived from New York with his famous colony of sixty famil- ies and almost immediately Governor Edmunds appointed him superintendent of public instruc- tion, and, although the compensation of the st- perintendent was but twenty dollars per annum, he gave himself energetically to the work and in a brief period had a regular system of public schools, supported by taxation, established. They were scattered from Fort Randall to Sioux City, but he visited every one of them and encouraged both teachers and patrons, and induced the or- ganization of districts and schools wherever he deemed it possible to sustain an establishment. He conducted the first teachers' institute held in the territory on November 11, 1867, at Elk Point, which continued in session two weeks. Rev. E. C. Collins, father of the late state superintendent, was one of the instructors in this institute and ad- dresses were. delivered by Judge Wilmot W. Brookings and Hon. S. L. Spink, afterwards dele- gate to congress and at that time secretary of the territory.

The legislature has always given much atten- tion to school matters. In addition to the loca- tion of the university, the first session in 1862 adopted a complete code of laws for the conduct of common schools, and it may be added very few of its successors have failed to follow its example in this respect. By this first code the schools were only open to white children. As late as 1867 a hard fight was made in the legislature, without avail, to strike the word "white" out of the school law, and it was not until the passage of the civil rights bill by congress that colored children were permitted full rights in our com- mon schools.

As a part of the political arrangement by which Yankton procured the location of the terri- torial capital, the University of Dakota was lo- cated at Vermillion in 1862. It may be noted in

passing that it obtained its first grant of public money for building and maintenance as an inci- dent of the deal by which the capital was re- moved from Yankton, in 1883, at that time re- ceiving the sum of thirty thousand dollars for the purpose.

The first effort toward a school for higher learning in Dakota was the founding of Yank- ton Academy in 1871, through the efforts of the renowned Joseph Ward. A good building was Erected for this academy upon the site of the present central school building in Yankton and the academy was successfully conducted by Prof. Nathan Ford and a corps of assistants until February, 1875, when an act of the legislature having organized the independent school dis- trict of Yankton and provided a board of educa- tion therefor, the Yankton high school was es- tablished and purchased the academy property and began the work which has built up the ex- cellent school system of the Mother City.

From the planting of the schoolhouse in the ravine at Vermillion the development of the South Dakota school system has kept pace, if it has not actually led, the demand of the con- stantly increasing population. A general terri- torial or state and county supervision has been the constant policy. The legislatures were ex- ceedingly erratic in the method of the appointment or election of these officers. They were alter- nately appointed by the governor and elected bý the people, the method changing with the adop- tion of each new school code, and this was a matter of annual procedure in the early days, which was only modified in the progress of time by the action of congress in abolishing annual sessions of the Dakota legislature, so that it be- came impossible to change the plan oftener than biennially.

The efficient work of James S. Foster for the establishment of the school system was efficiently supplemented by other territorial superintend- ents, the office being filled by such men as Gen- eral W. H. H. Beadle, J. J. McIntyre, Eugene A. Dye and A. Sheridan Jones. The work of Gen- cral Beadle in this office made a deep impress both for the efficiency of the schools at the period and for the cause of education through all of

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the subsequent years. He was the first to grasp the propositions of the value and possibilities of South Dakota's great inheritance of school lands and to him more than to any other is due the wise safeguards which protect it from waste and speculation as well as the minimum price at which it can be sold.

The earliest attempt to establish an institution giving a collegiate course was undertaken by the general association of Congregational churches which met at Canton in June, 1881, and resolved to establish a college at Yankton. This, as was true of very many of the enter- prises for the good of the community of that day, was due to the initiative and the self-sacrifice of Dr. Joseph Ward, and under his direction the college was established and received its first classes in September of that year.

This same year the people of Vermillion, spurred to it by the foundation of the college at Yankton, and fearing that unless some positive action was taken they would be deprived of the fruit of the foresight of the pioneers in securing the location of the territorial university, set about to place the institution upon its feet and an or- ganization was effected in the voting of ten thousand dollars of bonds by Clay county, the proceeds of which was used to construct a build- ing which was ready for occupancy in the fall of 1882 and in it was instituted the university, which the ensuing legislature was prevailed upon to endow. That same legislature of 1883 located the Agricultural College at Brookings, the Nor- mal at Madison and at Spearfish, and appropri- ated funds to the Agricultural College and the Madison Normal, which were opened the suc- ceeding year. The next legislature endowed the Spearfish Normal and in 1887 the School of Mines at Rapid City was set up.

The legislature of 1883 also located a nor- mal school at Springfield, conditional upon the village providing a quantity of land as a site, and the condition was complied with. It was not until 1900, however, that an endowment of public money was provided for it, but in 1895 the people of Springfield, at their own expense, erected a suitable building and turned it over to the re- gents of education who established a normal school there, as they were required to do under

the law, the means of its support being provided by the people of Springfield.

The legislature of 1899 located the Northern Normal and Industrial School at Aberdeen and the legislature of 1901 gave it an endowment so that the main building was erected and the school opened in the autumn of 1902.

In 1883 the Methodists located Dakota Uni- versity at Mitchell and the same year Pierre Uni- versity was established by the Presbyterians. This establishment has since been removed to Huron where it is continued as Huron College.

In 1884 the Congregationalists established an additional college at Redfield and the Episco- palians undertook All Saints' School at Sioux Falls. In 1892 Sioux Falls College was under- taken by the Baptists and the Scandinavian Luth- erans began the Normal School there in 1889. Augustana College was established by the Scandinavian Lutherans at Canton in 1889. The Catholics have academies at Aberdeen, Elkton, Jefferson, Marion, Millbank, Sturgis, Tabor, Ver- million, Yankton and Zell.

The Congregationalists maintain an academy at Academy, in Charles Mix county, and the Free Methodists have a flourishing institution at Wes- sington Springs. The Mennonites have an acad- emy at Freeman.

All of these institutions of higher learning, both state and sectarian, are thoroughly equipped with buildings and apparatus, are modern' and progressive and are doing magnificent work. having a combined registration of three thou- sand students.

The state constitution adopted in 1889 was particularly solicitous for the school system and safeguarded it in every possible way. The state supervision has been under the direction, suc- cessively, of Profs. Pinkham, Cortez Salmon. Frank Crane, Edward E. Collins, and at present, George W. Nash.

From the latest official returns there are at present 132,000 school children in South Dakota ; teachers, 4,800 ; schools, 4,100, maintained at an annual cost of $1,750,000. The annual appor- tionment of the income from the school moneys amounts to $2.74 per capita. The present invest- ment in schoolhouses and school property amounts to $2,500,000.

CHAPTER LXXX

BANKS AND BANKING.

During the fur-trading era in the Dakota country the fur companies of St. Louis were the bankers for all of this section. Very little cash was brought up the river at any time. Payments for services or property were made in orders upon the company, and wages were left upon deposit there until the employe returned to civilization. All purchases made in the wilder- ness were upon credit charged against the em- ploye's account for wages. So it was that there was scarcely any necessity for money. Oc- casionally some thrifty frontiersman who had permanently established himself upon the upper river demanded and received his returns for labor, furs, or live stock in cash, that he might have the satisfaction of looking upon the coin, but when he had received it into his possession and the first enjoyment of its tangible presence was over he found it a real incumbrance to him. His ordinary resource was to bury it in the earth. Among those who thus cached their gold was Dupree, Narcelle and Rencontre.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 66

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