History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 85

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 85

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organization committee, was present at this con- vention.

Active work was continued throughout 1896 and 1897, when the submission of a suffrage amendment was secured. The year 1898 was given up to efforts for its success. Mrs. C. C. King established and carried on almost entirely at her own expense the South Dakota Messenger, a campaign paper which was of the greatest service. The state convention met in Mitchell, September 28th, 29th and 30th. Miss Elizabeth Uphanı Yates, of Maine, came as a representative of the national association and gave two ad- dresses to large audiences. The following Oc- tober a conference of national and state workers was held at Sioux Falls, the former represented by Mrs. Chapman Catt, the Rev. Henriette G. Moore, of Ohio, and Miss Mary G. Hay, national organizer. Several interesting public sessions were held.

The annual meeting of 1899 took place in Madison, September 5th and 6th. The tenth convention met in Brookings, September 5, 1900. Mrs. Simmons having removed from the state, Mrs. Alice M. A. Pickler was elected president. Mrs. Philena Everet Johnson was made vice- president. Others who have served in the official positions are vice-president, Mrs. Emma A. Cranmer ; corresponding secretaries, Mesdames Kate Uline Folger, F. C. Bidwell, Hannah W. Best ; treasurers, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Wardall, Mrs. Marion L. Bennett, Mrs. Clara M. Wil- liams ; auditor, Mrs. John Davis ; superintendents of literature, Mrs. Jane Rooker Breeden, Mrs. Della Robinson King.

Among the prominent friends of woman suf- frage may be mentioned the Hon. Arthur C. Mellette, first state governor; United States Senators Richard F. Pettigrew, James H. Kyle and Robert J. Gamble ; Lieutenant-Governor D. T. Hindman; Members of Congress J. A. Pickler, W. B. Lucas and E. W. Martin; the Hons. S. A. Ramsey and Coe I. Crawford; At- torney-General Jolın L. Pyle, Judge D. C. Thomas, General W. H. Beadle, Professor Mc- Clennen, of the Madison Normal School, and ministers of many churches. The Hon. J. H. | ferred to females.

Patton and the Hon. W. C. Bowers paid the ex- penses of the legislative committee of the suf- frage association while they were in Pierre dur- ing the winter of 1897 to secure the submission of an amendment. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court A. J. Edgerton was a pronounced advo- cate of woman suffrage and appointed a woman official stenographer of his judicial district, the best salaried office within his gift. Associate Justice Seward Smith appointed a woman clerk of the Faulk county district court. The list of other men and women widely known and who have stood faithfully for woman suffrage would be a long one. Among them are S. H. Cranmer, Rev. Ramsey, Mrs. Ruby Smart, Kara Smart and Floy Cochrane.

LAWS .- Neither dower nor curtesy obtains. If either husband or wife die without a will, leaving a child or children or the lawful issue of one, the survivor is entitled to one-half of the separate estate of the other. If there are no chil- dren nor the issue of any, the survivor is entitled to one-half of the estate and the other half goes to the kindred of the deceased. If there are none the survivor takes all. A homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, or one-quarter of an acre in town, may be reserved for the widow or widower.

Either husband or wife may dispose of separate property, real or personal, by deed or will, without the consent of the other. Joint real estate, including the homestead, can be conveyed only by signature of both, but the husband may dispose of joint personal property without the consent of the wife.

In order to control her separate property the wife must keep it recorded in the office of the county register.

On the death of an unmarried child the father inherits all of its property. If he is dead and there are no other children, the mother in- herits it. If there are brothers and sisters she inherits a child's share.

A married woman cannot act as adminis- trator. Of several persons claiming and equally entitled to act as executors, males must be pre-

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A married woman can control her earnings outside the home only when living separate from her husband.

The father is the legal guardian and has cus- tody of the persons and services of minor chil- dren. If he refuses to take the custody, or has abandoned his family, or has been legally de- clared a drunkard, the mother is entitled to the custody.

The law declares the husband th- muu of the family and he must support the wife by his separate property or labor, but if he has not de- serted her, and has no separate property, and is too infirm to support her by his labor, the wife must support him and their children out of her separate property or in other ways to the ex- tent of her ability. An act of February 21, 1896, makes the wife liable for necessaries for the fam- ily purchased on her own account to the same extent that her husband would be liable under a similar purchase, but with no control over the joint earnings.

The causes for divorce are the same as in most states ; six months' residence is required. The disposition of the children is left entirely with the court.

In 1887, through the efforts of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the "age of pro- tection" for girls was raised from ten to fourteen vears. In 1893 they tried to have it made eighteen, but the legislature compromised on six- teen years. Rape in the first degree is punish- able by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than ten years ; in the second degree not less than five years.

The penalty for seduction and for enticing away for purposes of prostitution is prescribed by the same words, "is punishable," which in re- ality leaves it to the judgment of the court, but the statutes fix the penalty for all other crimes by the words "shall be punished." In addition to this latitude the penalty for seduction or enticing for purposes of prostitution is, if the girl is under fifteen, imprisonment in the penitentiary not more than five years or in the county jail not more than one year, or by fine not exceeding

one thousand dollars, or both; with no minimum penalty.

SUFFRAGE .- The territorial legislature of 1879 gave women a vote on questions pertain- ing to the schools, which were then derstu at school meetings. This was partially repealed by a law of 1883, which rennå ed regular polls and a private ballot "Jut this act did not include fifteen counties which had school districts fully established, and women still continue to vote at these district school meetings. In 1887 a law was enacted giving women the right to vote at all school elections for all officers, and making them eligible for all school offices. The consti- tution which was adopted when South Dakota entered the Union (1889) provided that "any woman having the required qualifications as to age, residence and citizenship may vote at any election held solely for school purposes." As state and county superintendents are elected at general and not special elections, women can vote only for school trustees. They have no vote on bonds or appropriations.

OFFICE HOLDING .- The state constitution provides that all persons, either male or female, being twenty-one years of age and hav- ing the necessary qualifications, shall be eligible to the office of school director, treasurer, judge, or clerk of school elections, county superintend- ent of public schools and state superintendent of public instruction. All other civil offices must be filled by male electors.

There are at present eleven women serving as county superintendents. They sit on the school boards in many places and have been treasurers. A woman was nominated for state superintend- ent of public instruction by the independent party.

Efforts to secure a law requiring women on the boards of state institutions have failed. The governor is required to appoint three women inspectors of penal and charitable institutions, who are paid by the state and make their report directly to him. They inspect the penitentiary, reform school, insane hospitals, deaf and dumb institution and school for the blind. There is

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

one assistant woman physician in the State Hos- pital for the Insane. Women in subordinate of- ficial positions are found in all state institutions. onu " act as clerks in. all city, county and state They want ' the legislature, and have served offices and n.Forusers and clerks of the circuit as court stenograpint care.""" notaries public court. There are eight womferry .. at the present time.

OCCUPATION .- No profession or occupa- tion is legally forbidden to women. Ten hours is made a legal working day for them. Four women are editing county papers.

EDUCATION .-- All institutions of learning are open alike to both sexes and there are women in the faculties. In the public schools there are

1,225 men and 3,581 women teachers. The aver- age monthly salary of the men is $36.45; of the women, $30.82.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first organization of women in the state and through its franchise department has worked earnestly and collected numerous petitions for suffrage. The Woman's Relief Corps is the 1 ~- west hody, having one thousand eight hundred - ldigits

members. The Eastein Star, Daughters of Re- bekah, Ladies of the Maccabees and other lodge societies are well organized. The Federation of Clubs, the youngest association, represents two hundred members. A number of churches have women on their official boards.

Moody

CHAPTER CIII

PERSONAL MENTION OF CITIZENS OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

HON. GIDEON C. MOODY .- The strong, true men of a people are always public benefac- tors. Their usefulness in the immediate and spe- cific labors they perform can be defined by metes and bounds. The good they do through the forces they put in motion, and through the inspi- ration of their presence and example, is immeas- urable by any finite gauge or standard of value. The death of any one of such men is a public ca- lamity, because by it the country loses not only his active energy but the stimulus and fecundat- ing power of his personal influence. There is, however, some compensation for this loss in the memory of his services, the effect of his example and the continuing fruitfulness of the activities he quickened into life. The late Gideon C. Moody, of South Dakota, was such a man. To epitomize his life and character within the limits which this work allows is impossible to mortal utterance. The stalwart proportions of his living presence are vividly realized by the void his death has made. But less than most men intellectually his equal does he need the voice of eulogy. The clearness of his purposes, the soundness of his judgment, his ample sweep of vision, his tireless activity, his indomitable will, his great achieve- ments, his unbending uprightness of character. have impressed "the very age and body of the time," making his life a force that cannot die.

Senator Moody was born at Cortland. New York, on October 16, 1832, and was the son of Stephen and Charlotte M. (Curtis) Moody, of that state. He received an academic education and

then began the study of law at Syracuse. In 1852, at the age of twenty, he removed to Indi- ana, where he was admitted to the bar and en- tered upon the practice of his profession at New Albany. In 1854, after less than two years of practice, such was his force of character and professional promise, that he was elected pros- ecuting attorney of Floyd county. A little later he joined an organization of young Republicans in the state, and became prominent and very ac- tive in the efforts they made to secure the elec- tion of Hon. Oliver P. Morton as governor. It was discovered, however, that Mr. Morton's per- sonal unpopularity made it inexpedient to place him at the head of the ticket, and he was nomi- nated for lieutenant governor, Hon. Henry S. Lane being named as the party candidate for gov- ernor. The popularity of Mr. Lane and the ef- fective campaigning of the young Republicans secured the triumph of the ticket and a Republi- can legislature at the ensuing election, Mr. Moody himself being chosen a member of the lower house in the face of a normal Democratic majority of five hundred in his district. At the legislative session which followed Governor Lane was elected United States senator, and Morton, the idol of the young Republicans of the state, became governor. The doctrine of state rights had many ardent advocates in the legislature, and the feel- ing against the course of the federal administra- tion towards the South, which was then rapidly tending to secession, was so strong that the de- bates became exceedingly acrimonious and pér-

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sonal. A member named Heffron made a bitter attack on Governor Morton, which was replied to in such scathing terms by Mr. Moody that he was challenged by Heffron to fight a duel. It was arranged that the encounter should take place at Covington, Kentucky, and Colonel Mil- roy, who afterward became a major general in the United States army, was chosen as Mr. Moody's second. While crossing the Ohio to the place of meeting they were arrested and each was fined five hundred dollars, Mr. Heffron fail- ing to put in an appearance. In 1861, soon after the beginning of the Civil war, Messrs. Milroy and Moody raised the Ninth Indiana Infantry, of which Mr. Milroy was made colonel, Mr. Moody becoming captain of Company G. On November 15, 1862, he was promoted colonel, and some little time afterward was mustered out of the service in order that he might accept the post of captain in the Nineteenth United States Infantry, a command in which he served until the spring of 1864, the greater portion of the time on the staff of Gen. George H. Thomas. In May. 1864, his term of enlistment having expired. and it being apparent that the war was nearing its end, he resigned his commission in the army and was appointed hy the secretary of war to proceed to Dakota and superintend the construc- tion of a wagon road from Sioux City to Fort Randall. In this work he employed to a very large extent the Scandinavian farmers numer- ously populating the southeastern counties of the territory, and so arranged the work of construc- tion that they were able to give their farm duties proper attention and build the road during the seasons when farm work was slack, making this arrangement at a considerable sacrifice of his own interests. Moreover, having learned by careful calculation that the road could be built for much less than the appropriation, he voluntarily paid the workmen almost double the ruling price for men and teams. This action on his part brought him severe criticism from the war "department, and delayed for many years the approval of his accounts and the payment of his commission on the expenditures. But it endeared him to the people of the southeastern counties, and made the

Scandinavian farmers, who were at that time of very limited means and had a hard struggle to improve their farms and live without outside as- sistance, his firm and faithful friends to the end of his life. They were always with him to a man in politics and in business, and held him ever in the highest regard. When he crossed the Mis- sissippi to make a new home in the farther West, he at first contemplated locating in western Iowa, but instead he settled at Yankton and began there an active practice of his profession. He also took a very earnest interest in political affairs and was elected to the territorial house of representatives, of which he was chosen speaker, and to which four years later he was re-elected. In 1878 he was appointed associate justice of the territorial supreme court by President Hayes on the recom- mendation of the Republican organization of the territory and that of Senator Conklin, of New York. He was assigned to the Black Hills dis- trict and remained on the bench until 1884. when he resigned to become general counsel for the Homestake Mining Company and its associate corporations, in which capacity he served until his death. To the judicial ermine he lent dignity and distinction in his protracted and able service, and he was known afterward as one of the lead- ing corporation lawyers of the whole Northwest. When he retired from the bench he at once took charge of the legal business of the Homestake Mining Company, and soon found himself again in the whirlpool of territorial politics, a stage on which he was one of the star actors until 1891. Samuel McMasters. a very shrewd and practical Irishman, the superintendent of the mining com- pany, who could not read and was unable to write anything but his name. besought the Judge to take charge of his campaign as a candidate for territorial delegate to the United States house of representatives. The canvass that followed made the Judge a large number of very bitter personal enemies and gave him a continual struggle from that time until his final retirement from politics to retain his supremacy in the western half of the state. In the broad field of national politics his capacity, breadth of view and knowledge of men and of affairs secured him a position of

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commanding influence. He was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1868, 1888 and 1892. In the convention of 1888 he was chairman of the delegation from the Dakotas and made a speech which gained the admission of ten delegates instead of the three usually allowed the territory. As the personal friend of Senator Platt, of New York, he got advance inside in- formation of all the important maneuvers in the convention, and it was said by the party leaders that the solid vote of South Dakota at a critical time was largely instrumental in bringing about the nomination of President Harrison, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship and whose candidacy he warmly espoused. He was a prominent and influential member of the South Dakota constitutional conventions of 1883 and 1885, and was also a member of the com- mittee appointed to draft and present to congress a memorial for the division of Dakota and its ad- mission to the Union as two states. Under the constitution of 1885 he was elected United States senator, but congress did not recognize the move- ment as valid, yet the senate allowed him the privilege of admission to the floor. In 1889, after the enabling act was passed by congress, the con- stitution of 1885 was again adopted and he was again elected to the United States senate, but in the classification he drew the short term of two years. Then in 1891 he was defeated by the great Populist upheaval. In 1901 he was appointed by Governor Herreid a member of the commis- sion of three to codify the laws of the state pro- vided for by an act of the legislature. In the work of the commission the code of civil pro- cedure, justice and probate codes were assigned to him, and his service in this connection was the last of a public nature that he rendered.

Judge Moody was married on September 21, 1855, at Spafford, Onondaga county, New York, to Miss Helen Eliot, and they became the parents of one daughter and four sons. The oldest, Mrs. Helen E. Dickinson, now lives at Los Angeles, California : Charles C. is editor of the Sturgis (South Dakota) Record; Burdette, a civil en- gineer, was for many years chief engineer for the Homestake Mining Company, and is now with

the California Kings Gold Mines Company at Picacho, California; and James C. and Warner, who are lawyers, have succeeded to their father's law practice at Deadwood. The Judge never joined any of the fraternal orders so numerous and popular among men except the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he was a member of the local post at Deadwood. He died at Los Angeles, California, on March 17, 1904, aged seventy-one years.

One of the most forcible and impressive ele- ments in the elevated character of this courag- eous pioneer, eminent jurist, prominent politician, conservative civic force and high-minded citizen, was his inflexible integrity. This is well illus- trated in the unwritten history of the great Ophir vs. Gopher mining suit that was tried before him as presiding judge at Deadwood in the first year of his service on the bench. The suit involved property worth several hundred thousand dollars, and a great array of legal talent was engaged on each side, including Harry I. Thornton, of San Francisco, H. J. Bennett, of Salt Lake, Judge D. Corson, now a member of the supreme court of South Dakota, Judge D. McLaughlin and Col. IV. R. Steele, besides a number of lesser lights. The litigants on one side were apprehensive of losing their case, and four or five of their lead- ing men determined to secure a decision at any cost. One after another was selected to approach the Judge, and was fortified for the assault on judicial honor with a convenient package care- fully concealed in an inside pocket. And one after another returned to his confederates with the report that he was afraid to broach the sub- ject to the Judge. They then concluded to em- ploy for the purpose a resident of Montana who had acquired a reputation for success in such work. He essayed the task, but after wandering around Deadwood and carefully feeling his way for about a month, he too declined to make the attempt. A final effort was then made by retain- ing one of Judge Moody's former law partners, who was summoned by letter from his home in North Dakota. When informed of the nature of the service required of him, he threw up his hands in dismay and exclaimed: "My God, men! do

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you expect me to tackle that man on any such proposition? Why, I should be in the peniten- tiary in forty-eight hours. If that is what you got me here for I might as well leave for home on the coach tomorrow." And he did leave next day. The suit proceeded to a conclusion and the conspirators lost the decision. One of them, who was the writer's informant on the subject, says : "Judge Moody went on in the even tenor of his way, and to his death was oblivious of the temp- tation which had been prepared for him." Dur- ing the progress of this case Mr. Thornton, the greatest mining lawyer the West ever produced. in speaking to his associates, said of Judge Moody: "Gentlemen, there is one of the greatest and brainiest judges I ever tried a case before." In politics, a pursuit wherein the ordinary rules of honesty and straightforwardness are supposed to be usually much relaxed, he was the same in- flexibly upright man as on the bench and in pri- vate life. He treated everybody squarely and insisted that his friends do the same when work- ing in his interest, immediately and sharply re- pudiating any attempt on their part to do other- wise. In the memorable contest of 1891, when for several weeks daily ballots were taken in the legislature for a United States senator, and the Judge needed but one vote to secure his re-elec- tion, it is known and his family have the proofs that more than one member of the body offered to desert the opposition and make his election cer- tain for a consideration. And, amazing as it may seem, two different propositions were made in writing and signed by legislators, offering to sell out to him. Some of his zealous friends brought the matter to his attention. Without the slightest hesitation and with all the force he could com- mand he told them that if one dollar were used in buying a vote for him he would refuse to qualify for the office or accept it, and more, that he would assist in prosecuting both the man of- fering the money and the man accepting it. And yet he cared nothing for money, but was unhappy as long as he had any in his pocket. He never manifested any desire to accumulate wealth. At no time in his whole career did he keep a set of books. No ledger or daybook ever adorned his

desk, and since his decease his family have never found a single charge for services during all his fifty years of practice.

As a lawyer and practitioner at the bar Judge Moody was remarkably successful. His success was so great, in fact, that it has been a matter of universal comment, not only among members of the bar, but by people generally. A close study of his professional characteristics will explain this. In the first place he was thoroughly equipped for his profession by natural aptitude, by diligent study and by judicious observation. In the next he gave every case his most careful and searching attention. A client calling on him for advice was as thoroughly cross examined as to the facts in his case as if he were in court and the questions were asked by the opposing counsel. The fee, no matter how large, was no temptation to him if from his knowledge of the case his cli- ent had not the moral and the legal right on his side. On the very few occasions when he was deceived by his client and went into court with an unworthy case, he returned the money paid him for a fee with a severe rebuke for the decep- tion, and thereafter he held the client in the ut- most contempt and no argument could convince him that the man was honest. One of the sources of his remarkable success as general coun- sel for the Homestake Mining Company was this attribute of his nature. On questions in his department of this great corporation his judg- ment was supreme, and it was almost universally recognized in the community that prospective liti- gants who had claims against the company would have no difficulty in securing a settlement if they could convince Judge Moody of the justice of their claims from either a moral or a legal point of view, even his enemies conceding that while he was at the head of the company's legal depart- ment courts were largely unnecessary so far as it was concerned ; as, while his fidelity to its in- terests was one of the strongest kind, the claim- ant could always get fair treatment at his hands without the aid of the courts. This was so gen- erally understood that remarkably little new liti- gation fell to the lot of the company during the Inst fifteen years of his connection with it.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 85

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