History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 76

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 76

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The boat on which Mr. Williamson came up the river had on board thirteen hundred Minne- sota Sioux, in charge of Col. C. W. Thompson, who located them at Crow Creek. They arrived there May 31, 1863. The country was full of hostile Indians, and not a house within fifty miles. Soon after two more steamboats arrived with two thousand Winnebagoes, also expelled from Minnesota, and were located alongside of the Sioux. That summer Colonel Thompson erected for the use of the agency about a dozen commodious frame houses, sawed out of green cottonwood. Around this he made a cedar stock- ade for the protection of the agency from the savages. This was known for a time as Ft. Thompson, but is now known as Crow Creek Agency. The stockade is now gone, but a num- ber of the buildings remain.

A1r. Williamson devoted the most of his time

to the instruction of the Minnesota Sioux, who after this were called Santees. They were mostly women and children and in a sense prisoners. He found the Winnebagoes strongly opposed to the white man's religion. But the Sioux, partly because he talked their language and was more or less acquainted with them, and partly because they had had a terrible whipping in Minnesota and felt very much humbled, were quite ready to lis- ten to what he had to say. With their help he made an arbor of brush, that would hold a thou- sand people. There he instructed them daily in religion, church music, and the reading and writ- ing of their own language. A few were ad- vanced to the study of English. The attendance was good and for Sunday services the booth was crowded. Scores professed to be converted and, with their children, were baptized. They were eager to receive all the Christian rites. On one occasion Mr. Williamson preached on marriage, and at the close called upon all who were pre- pared to come forward and be united in holy marriage. A large number came forward in a bunch and on counting them he found there were sixteen men and only fifteen women. It took some time for him to get them paired off so he could tell which was the odd man. Then the fifteen couple were happily united by one service.

The following winter was one of terrible suffering to the Crow Creek colony, and is still known by them as the winter they lived on cot- tonwood soup. - Steamboats failed to bring ex- pected supplies from St. Louis. Late in the fall

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a contractor started to bring some over from Minnesota with teams, but snow came and only a small part reached Crow Creek. The situation was desperate. Four months till spring and three thousand Indians to feed on one month's ra- tions. Colonel Thompson ordered a tank made alongside of the sawmill boiler, with a capacity of six thousand quarts. Every evening it was filled with water and the reduced ration for the tribe. The steam from the sawmill kept it foam- ing all night, and the next morning the long string of pails received two quarts of the com- pound for every soul. The flavor of the green

cottonwood tank gave name to the soup. About one-fourth of the Santees died that winter, and a smaller proportion of the Winnebagoes. How- ever, starvation was not all that caused their death. Of the three hundred Santees in prison at Davenport, as large a proportion died. Indi- ans have feelings, and "the way of the trans- gressor is hard."

The school and mission work was kept up that winter notwithstanding the woeful sur- roundings. Indeed they were the more needed. As cold weather came on the booth had to be abandoned and Colonel Thompson offered the use of a large frame structure for mission use, if Mr. Williamson would finish it. As it was barn-like, with only one thickness of boards, he lined it inside with adobes, which made it very warm, so that it was an attraction for the thinly- clad children to come there to keep warm. Thus Edward R. Pond and wife, who had come over from Minnesota to assist Mr. Williamson, had all the pupils they could manage.

In 1865 the American Board of Commission- ers for Foreign Missions appointed H. D. Cun- ningham and wife as lay missionaries to the Yankton Indians at Greenwood, South Dakota. They labored there for a part of two years, but on account of ill health abandoned the field be- fore seeing any direct fruit.

In 1866 the Winnebagoes having all run away from Crow Creek, and the Santees being dissatisfied with the location, the government moved them down to Niobrara, Nebraska. Mr. Williamson, having secured a wife in Minnesota,

returned and made that his headquarters for the following three years. He continued, however, to visit the Indians in South Dakota, at Green- wood, Big Sioux Point and other places.

In March, 1869, Mr. Williamson took up his permanent location at Greenwood, where he still resides. That summer he erected a house of hewed cottonwood logs which he still occupies. The agency for the Yankton Indians had then heen located there ten years, and consisted of a long warehouse near the steamboat landing, three double log cabins on the bank of the river in a string, and back of them a blacksmith and a tin- shop, a large barn, a blockhouse, a stone build- ing and the agent's residence. The last three had been built only a short time, and the agent was Maj. P. H. Conger, of Iowa. The agent kindly gave Mr. Williamson the use of the half of one of the log cabins for his family to live in, and the council-room, which was in one end of the ware- house for church and school purposes except when needed for other assemblies.

The Yanktons were all on the reservation at the time, and the missionary's coming was gen- erally announced. A council of the leading men was called to consider the stand the tribe should take as to this new doctrine. No one knew enough about it to give any reason why they should favor it, but the medicine men had heard enough to know that it meant the destruction of their craft, so they cried out against it and car- ried the day. A delegation soon waited upon Mr. Williamson and notified him to leave the res- ervation or suffer consequences. The agent was also waited on and told to see that the missionary did leave. Heralds were also started around the camps to announce that no one would be permit- ted to attend on the teachings of the newly ar- rived holy-man. However, the agent pointed to the waving stars and stripes and said that meant that religion was free and the missionary could do as he pleased. It pleased the missionary to remain. The attendance was very small for a time, because it was unpopular and those who came . were ridiculed and picked at. The old chief, Strike the Ree, though deeming it unwise on the start to oppose the public sentiment in council,

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showed his good sense by sending his grandchil- dren to the school and meetings right along. There were inquisitive young men from the start who would drop in, and take a lesson occasion- ally. Many of these developed interest and be- came regular attendants. They were first taught to read and write their own language, which took three months or more. The younger ones were then started in English. The older ones, who could not be expected to stay but a few months, were given some lessons in arithmetic, geogra- phy and the Bible, in their own language. The school increased in numbers from year to year until it required two teachers. Mr. Williamson also had three other day schools running part of the year at different points on the reservation. The Indians then still depended on the buffalo for the major part of their living, and so were gone from the agency more than half the time, which was a great drawback to the schools. The mission day-schools, however, were continued for nearly twenty years till the agency boarding school was started, and then the mission closed its schools.

True education is a handmaid to Christianity, so when the schools prospered the church grew. The first church organized among the Yankton Indians was the Presbyterian church of Yank- ton agency, which was organized at Greenwood, South Dakota, March 18, 1871, by Rev. John P. Williamson, and consisted of eighteen members, all Indians, of whom fourteen were male and four female, and David Tonwanojanjan and Philip Walter Ikdi were chosen and ordained elders. The church has steadily grown until it now num- bers one hundred fifty-two members.

Mr. Williamson did not confine his labors to the agency, but had several outstations where meetings were held, and when there was more work than he could do he selected the best of the Indian converts and set them to work. These outstations gradually developed into churches. Hill church, thirteen miles southeast of Green- wood, was organized in 1877 and now has seven- ty-six members. Cedar church, fifteen miles northwest of Greenwood, was organized in 1887 and now has sixty-seven members. Heyata

church, fifteen miles northeast of Greenwood, was organized in 1893 and now numbers forty members. Thus there has been developed four Presbyterian churches among the Yankton Indi- ans, with a united membership of three hun- dred thirty-five, besides the children of the members.

The Presbyterian church is not the only one that has done mission work among the Yankton Indians. In 1870 Rev. J. W. Cook, an Episcopal minister, located at Greenwood. He was the second missionary of any denomination to settle among the Indians of South Dakota, and he labored faithfully and successfully for thirty years, till he died. He labored along the same lines as Mr. Williamson in school and church work, and as a result of his efforts there are now three vigorous churches of the Episcopal faith among the Yankton Indians. The Episcopal church also conducted a boarding school for In- dian boys at Greenwood for many years, called St. Paul's School, but it is now closed.

We cannot here enter into details of the early mission work among the Indians at other places in South Dakota. A brief outline must suffice. In the winter of 1863-4 there was a company of General Sibley's Indian scouts wintered at Buffalo Lakes in northeastern South Dakota. The most of them were Christians, and they held meetings every Sabbath. Rev. John P. William- son visited them that winter. . As they had then no settled abode, no mission station was estab- lished; but they were looked after by Rev. Thomas S. Williamson and Dr. S. R. Riggs, of Minnesota. Two years afterwards the govern- ment assigned them, and others, the Sisseton reservation, and Rev. Dr. Riggs took charge of the mission among them. He established the boarding school at Good Will, which still exists. Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Morris were in charge of it for many years, but Rev. D. E. Evans is now superintendent. At the time of Dr. Riggs' death, in 1883, there were five Presbyterian churches among the Indians of Sisseton reservation, and each one was ministered to by an Indian preacher. The most prominent of these Indian preachers was Rev. John B. Renville. He was ordained

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in 1865 and was the first Sioux Indian to become a preacher. Mr. Renville was the son of Joseph Renville, a French half-breed, who was prob- ably the best known trader among the Sioux Indians a century ago. In 1805, when Lieut. Z. M. Pike (afterwards General Pike), under commission of the United States, ascended the Mississippi river from St. Louis to inspect the territory that gives rise to that stream, he met a large body of the Sioux at the mouth of the Min- nesota river, and concluded the first treaty which the United States ever made with the Dakota Indians, in which the Sioux nation ceded to the United States nine miles square for a military post at the mouth of the St. Peters river, which post was afterwards known as Fort Snelling. In the consummation of this treaty Joseph Ren- ville figures as interpreter, and during that gen- eration in all the dealings of the whites with the Sioux his name is conspicuous. He took a spe- cial interest in missions, and when Rev. T. S. Wil-

liamson settled near him he was delighted, and when the missionary would come to him with verses of scripture to translate, John B., the son of his old age, was still hanging to his father's knees, and there learned the truths of eternity that he never forgot. After preaching nearly forty years, he died in December, 1903.

For the last twenty years Rev. John P. Wil- liamson has been general missionary for all the Dakota-speaking Indians. Besides the churches already mentioned at Yankton agency, he has, with the help of only Indian preachers, succeeded in gathering and organizing the following Pres- byterian churches: Two more churches among the Sisseton Indians; one among the Indians at Flandreau, South Dakota; two among the Lower Brule Indians on Rosebud reservation; two on the Crow Creek reservation ; one among the Indi- ans near Granite Falls, Minnesota; and two among the Indians of Devil's Lake, North Da- kota.

CHAPTER XCV

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN SOUTH DAKOTA.

BY G. T. NOTSON, SECRETARY OF DAKOTA CONFERENCE.

Ten years previous to the beginning of the Revolutionary war Methodism was introduced in America by a few humble immigrants at New York city. Here Philip Embury and his associates organized the first Methodist society, and in the year 1768 built the first meeting house owned by our denomination in the new world. From the beginning the movement grew, and in re- sponse to urgent appeals, in 1770, Mr. Wesley sent two missionaries to America to minister to his scattered flock in different parts of the coun- try. The appointment of Francis Asbury and Joseph Pilmoor was an event of far-reaching consequence in shaping the future growth and development of the movement known as Metho- dism in the United States. Of the latter little re- mains to be told of his ministry, but the former, Francis Asbury, was destined to soon become the first assistant to Mr. Wesley in superintending the work throughout the thirteen colonies, and upon the organization of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1784, at Baltimore, Maryland, was elected to the office of bishop, the first to be thus chosen and consecrated in America. Under his leadership Methodism developed from a scattered membership, few in number, into a great re- ligious movement and at the time of his death, in 1816, numbered more than two hundred thou- sand members, with seven hundred itinerant ministers. The itinerant circuit system de- veloped by this great leader made Methodism primarily the home missionary agency in the evangelization of the pioneer regions of this

country, and enabled the church to keep pace with the rapid settlement of the vast territory west of the thirteen original states.

No settlement was overlooked by these heroic Methodist itinerants, and it is not surprising that the first person to perform a public act of worship within the bounds of our state was a young man named Jedadiah Smith, who had come under the influence of their fervent ministry in western New York, and after experiencing religion be- came a steadfast witness to the power of the gospel among the fur traders and trappers of the west. This well-authenticated event occurred 011 the deck of the "Yellowstone," near the mouth of the Grand river, June 2, 1823. John Gardner, a young man, had been mortally wounded by the Ree Indians in the Ashley massacre, and in a dying condition was carried on deck of the "Yellowstone." An associate of Mr. Gardner wrote to his relatives in the east, of his death, and in relating the facts said : "Mr. Smith, a young man of our company, made a most powerful prayer which moved us all greatly, and I am persuaded John died in peace." At the time of this occurrence Jedadiah Smith was only eighteen years of age. In the spring of the above year he came from New York to St. Louis and entered the employ of General Ashley. Before his death he became one of the most notable characters on the frontier, and by his bravery, unwavering Christian character and marked ability made an impression upon the great west that will never be effaced.

MAIN BUILDING, DAKOTA UNIVERSITY.

NEW CENTURY HALL DAKOTA UNIVERSITY.

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When Smith was only twenty-two years of age General Ashley, upon his retirement, trans- ferred his interests in the fur-trading business to him and he became the head of the firm of Smith, Sublette & Jackson. In 1831 he met his death far down on the Santa Fe trail, in his twenty- seventh year, at the hands of the Comanche Indians. Of him Mr. William Waldo, quoted by Captain Chittenden, says: "Smith was a bold, outspoken, professing and consistent Christian, the first and only known among the Rocky Mountain trappers and hunters. No one who knew him well doubted the sincerity of his piety. He had become a communicant of the Methodist church before leaving his home in New York, and in St. Louis he never failed to occupy a place in the church of his choice, while he gave generously to all objects connected with the re- ligion which he professed and loved. Besides being a hero, a trader and a Christian, he was himself inclined to literary pursuits and had pre- pared a geography and atlas of the Rocky Mountain region, extending perhaps to the Pacific, but his death occurred before its pub- lication." His devoted Christian character will ever remain as an example to the youth of our state, and especially of his church, of the value of a consistent profession and life. To this young man we owe our connection with the first public act of worship performed within the borders of South Dakota.

At the session of the Upper Iowa conference held in Dubuque, Iowa, August 29, 1860, Bishop Osmon C. Baker presiding, upon the earnest representations of Rev. George C. Clif- ford, the presiding elder of the Sioux City dis- trict, it was decided to appoint a preacher to that portion of the country lying between the Big Sioux and Missouri rivers in the proposed ter- ritory of Dakota. Accordingly Bishop Baker appointed the Rev. S. W. Ingham to the Dakota mission. Mr. Ingham was a young man, un- married, and a graduate of Cornell College, and had only recently entered the ranks of the Methodist ministry. This was the beginning of work in South Dakota under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church.

On October 12, 1860, the young itinerant en- tered the bounds of his circuit, which in extent included all of North and South Dakota east of the Missouri river, much of which, however, was still in the possession of the Sioux Indians and the buffalo. The first point visited by the pioneer gospel messenger was Elk Point; from thence he pushed on to Vermillion, where, on Sunday, October 14th, he preached the first ser- mon under the authority of his church in South Dakota. The following Sunday he conducted services in Yankton and on Thursday, October 24th, he visited Bon Homme and there performed the first marriage ceremony above the James river. On the Sunday following he preached twice to about twenty-five people and one week later was again in Vermillion, having completed his first itinerary.

On January 13, 1861, at Vermillion, was formed the first religious organization of any kind in the territory. The occasion was the first visit of the presiding elder, the Rev. George C. Clifford, at which time a meeting of two days' duration was held, the first of the kind in the territory. The Sacrament of the Lord's Sup- per was also administered for the first time. Among the new accessions to the ranks of Methodism in South Dakota at this time were two local preachers, Messrs. Bell and Metcalf, who, with a number of settlers, had located on Brule creek near the present village of Rich- land. The latter was present at the first quar- terly meeting and preached on Sunday evening. the first discourse to be delivered by a local preacher in South Dakota. Later an organiza- tion was effected on Brule creek with ten charter members, which number soon increased to twenty-five. Mr. Ingham records a visit to Ft. Randall in the summer of 1861, where, on June 16th, he preached twice, and in the afternoon baptized the infant daughter of Captain J. B. S. Todd. This was the second baptismal service performed in the territory among the new settlers, and the first to be performed by a Methodist minister. During the two years of his labors in Dakota Mr. Ingham visited Rich- land, Fort Randall. Sioux Falls, Canton and

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other points where settlements had been made and held services. So far as the writer is able to learn the only classes organized during his pastorate were at Vermillion and Richland, both of which were badly scattered by the Sioux up- rising a short time after his departure. It was several years before the work was reorganized at Richland, but, excepting a short period of time, caused by the Indian excitement, there has been a visible organization at Vermillion since Janu- ary 13, 1861.

Rev. Jason L. Paine, of the Upper Iowa conference, was appointed the successor of Mr. Ingham, and remained on the field one year. About this time the work in Dakota became a part of the newly organized Des Moines con- ference, and owing to thé unsettled state of affairs throughout the country, and the evident lack of ability to supply the field with pastors the field was only cared for at irregular intervals for several years. In connection with the work during this period we find the names of Daniel Lamont, Alum Gore, C. W. Batchelder, T. Mc- Kendree Stuart, J. T. Walker and John Plum- mer. Doubtless there are others who deserve mention, but the imperfect records fail to reveal their names. Previous to 1870 Vermillion, Yankton, Elk Point and Canton, in the order named, were organized as charges and included in the appointments of the Sioux City district, Des Moines conference. In connection with the organization of the work at Elk Point it is proper to state that the first services held in that place were by E. C. Collins, a consecrated local preacher, residing at a settlement known as New Michigan, a few miles to the northwest of Elk Point. Mr. Collins was a young man possessing a high order of ability, and, notwith- standing his death in 1870, made an impression for good upon that section which remains to the present day.

In 1871, under the leadership of the Rev. Fred Harris, the first church was erected at Elk Point. Here at a later date the first parsonage was also built. In 1873 at the second session of the Northwest Iowa conference the work in South Dakota, comprising thirteen charges, with

six hundred and eighteen members, was or- ganized under the name of the Yankton district, and the Rev. James Williams appointed presiding elder. Three years later, on account of the ravages of the grasshoppers, which caused many of the settlers to leave, and all of the churches being very much weakened thereby, Bishop R. S. Foster discontinued the district and attached the remaining work to the Sioux City district, with the Rev. Thomas M. Williams presiding elder. In 1879 the Yankton district again ap- pears in the appointments of the Northwest Iowa conference with the Rev. Wilmot Whitfield as presiding elder. The same year the Black Hills district was constituted and the Rev. James Wil- liams made presiding elder.

In May, 1880, the general conference at Cin- cinnati, Ohio, through the earnest representations of the Rev. Lewis Hartsough, delegate from the Northwest Iowa conference, authorized the or- ganization of the Dakota Mission conference. In accordance with this action Bishop Henry W. Warren presided at the first session of the mis- sion conference held at Yankton, September 23, 1880, and completed the organization. The Rev. Wilmot Whitfield was appointed superintendent. The mission conference started off with one thousand and fifty members and probationers, with nineteen charges, nine houses of worship and six parsonages, valued at seventeen thou- sand dollars. During the previous year five thousand eight hundred dollars had been raised for ministerial support and one hundred and seventy-one dollars for all benevolences, sixty- five dollars of which was the missionary offering. There were fourteen Sunday schools with an aggregate attendance of nine hundred and sixty- six. The second session of the mission conference niet October 6, 1881, at Sioux Falls, Bishop John F. Hurst presiding. The superintendent reported general prosperity throughout the mission. Ten new churches had been built. There had been a good increase in membership, and all together the outlook was hopeful. At this session the Rev. Thomas M. Williams was appointed su- perintendent, and the Rev. Wilmot Whitfield pastor at Yankton and the Rev. Lewis Hartsough

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to Sioux Falls. Of the twenty-seven pastors assigned to work at this conference only two re- main in active connection with the work at the present time, the Rev. O. A. Phillips and the Rev. G. J. Corwin. We have now reached the period of rapid settlement and growth within the bounds of the conference. The simultaneous settlement of that portion of South Dakota east of the Missouri river, and the springing up of towns along the newly extended lines of railway caused a remarkable increase in our work throughout every part of the conference, and at the third session of the mission conference, held at Parker, the work was divided and the super- intendent, the Rev. Wilmot Whitfield, was ap- pointed presiding elder of the Yankton district and the Rev. Lewis Hartsough of the Huron dis- trict. Forty-two preachers were assigned to as many charges and several appointments were left to be supplied.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 76

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